scholarly journals Sex in the Cloister: Behind the Image of the “Criminal Monk” in Ming Courtroom Tales

T oung Pao ◽  
2020 ◽  
Vol 105 (5-6) ◽  
pp. 545-586
Author(s):  
Junqing Wu
Keyword(s):  
Sixteenth Century ◽  
Social Reality ◽  
Vernacular Literature ◽  
Literary Convention ◽  
And Behavior

Abstract Buddhist monks were commonly portrayed as seducers and even rapists in late sixteenth-century vernacular literature, including, most commonly, courtroom tales (gong’an 公案). Do these stories reflect a deterioration in clerical morality and behavior, or a decline in Buddhist faith and practice, as is sometimes argued? Neither explanation is credible. I argue that the image of monks in courtroom tales should be understood as a literary convention, growing out the burgeoning market for entertainment literature, rather than a window onto social reality. It also reflects an increasing male anxiety about the control of women.

Merchants and Society in Tokugawa Japan

1983 ◽  
Vol 17 (3) ◽  
pp. 477-488
Author(s):  
Charles D. Sheldon
Keyword(s):  
Sixteenth Century ◽  
Social Mobility ◽  
Social Reality ◽  
Social Hierarchy ◽  
Ruling Class ◽  
Common People ◽  
The Social ◽  
Tokugawa Period ◽  
The Common ◽  
The Military

Merchants in the Tokugawa period were placed at the bottom of the shinōkōshō hierarchy of samurai-peasants-artisans-merchants. This social hierarchy was produced by a combination of social reality at the time Japan was unified in the late sixteenth century and an ancient Chinese physiocratic theory, never taken very seriously, in practical ways, in China. Once the country was unified, the social mobility of the previous years, of a kind which permitted men of ability to climb from the lowest ranks to join the military nobility—Hideyoshi is the prime example of this mobility—was viewed, by Hideyoshi above all others, as a cause of prolonged chaos and internecine warfare. With the argument that war had been abolished and common people therefore no longer needed weapons, Hideyoshi carried out his ‘sword-hunt’. He thus established the most fundamental of the class distinctions, between the samurai, the ruling class, who now enjoyed a monopoly of bearing arms, and the common people, who were henceforth expected simply to produce the food and other necessities of life, and to pay their taxes, which remained high even though warfare was supposedly ended.

The Edinburgh Book Trade and Vernacular Literature, 1500–1660

2020 ◽  
pp. 54-96
Author(s):  
Adam Fox
Keyword(s):  
Sixteenth Century ◽  
Book Trade ◽  
Vernacular Literature ◽  
Extensive Range ◽  
The City ◽  
Shed Light

Chapter 2 surveys the development of the book trade in Edinburgh during the sixteenth and early seventeenth centuries with a particular emphasis on the production and circulation of more popular works in Scots and English. It traces the development of printing in Edinburgh, looks at the expansion of booksellers in the city, and examines the role of travelling chapmen in disseminating literature across Scotland and into England. The remarkable inventories of Thomas Bassandyne and Robert Gourlaw are examined in some detail in order to shed light on the extensive range of vernacular literature from the London market that was being sold in the Scottish capital in the later sixteenth century.

Vernacular Literature and Current Affairs in the Early Sixteenth Century: France, England and Scotland

2002 ◽  
Vol 33 (1) ◽  
pp. 210
Author(s):  
Donald G. Watson ◽  
Jennifer Britnell ◽  
Richard Britnell
Keyword(s):  
Sixteenth Century ◽  
Vernacular Literature ◽  
Current Affairs

Merchants and Society in Tokugawa Japan

1983 ◽  
Vol 17 (3) ◽  
pp. 477-488 ◽  
Author(s):  
Charles D. Sheldon
Keyword(s):  
Sixteenth Century ◽  
Social Mobility ◽  
Social Reality ◽  
Social Hierarchy ◽  
Ruling Class ◽  
Common People ◽  
The Social ◽  
Tokugawa Period ◽  
The Common ◽  
The Military

Merchants in the Tokugawa period were placed at the bottom of the shinōkōshōhierarchy of samurai-peasants-artisans-merchants. This social hierarchy was produced by a combination of social reality at the time Japan was unified in the late sixteenth century and an ancient Chinese physiocratic theory, never taken very seriously, in practical ways, in China. Once the country was unified, the social mobility of the previous years, of a kind which permitted men of ability to climb from the lowest ranks to join the military nobility—Hideyoshi is the prime example of this mobility—was viewed, by Hideyoshi above all others, as a cause of prolonged chaos and internecine warfare. With the argument that war had been abolished and common people therefore no longer needed weapons, Hideyoshi carried out his ‘sword-hunt’. He thus established the most fundamental of the class distinctions, between the samurai, the ruling class, who now enjoyed a monopoly of bearing arms, and the common people, who were henceforth expected simply to produce the food and other necessities of life, and to pay their taxes, which remained high even though warfare was supposedly ended.

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