A New Model in the Study of Chinese Mythology

2017 ◽  
Vol 3 (1) ◽  
pp. 1-22 ◽  
Author(s):  
Yuqing Liu

Chinese mythology [shenhua 神話] does not exist independently as a cultural medium like mythology does in the West but, rather, comprises ideological and narrative forms that emerge according to historical and cultural trends. Not only have myths withstood humanity’s conquest of nature, but they have drawn and continue to draw on the mysteries of scientific development for new content. It is possible to identify three highpoints of creativity in the history of Chinese mythology, each corresponding to shifts in the function and nuance of myths. The first highpoint occurred very early on in China’s ancient history, in the period of the Three Sovereigns and Five Emperors [wudi sanwang 五帝三王], when myths were a way to articulate history—that is, history as myth. The second highpoint occurred in the period from the Qin through Jin dynasties, when mythology mainly expounded on philosophy and theory—that is, philosophy as myth. The third highpoint occurred during the Yuan and Ming dynasties, when the narrative content of mythology turned toward the religious—that is, religion as myth.

Author(s):  
Sarah A. Qidwai

Abstract This paper addresses three aspects of Majid Daneshgar’s monograph Studying the Qurʾan in the Muslim Academy. The first part looks at the complexities around the lack of coherence between the Muslim Academy and so-called “Western” Institutions. Drawing on some examples from my own life, I will address the hesitance to embrace sources from the West as highlighted by Daneshgar. Then, I will present an example from the “Western Academy” that speaks to a broader audience across this divide. The second part of this paper will address the phenomenon of trying to find scientific proofs in the Qur‘an and the issues around those attempts in the field of the history of science and religion. Drawing on my own research, the third part of this reflection will draw on the example of Islam in India to show the complex nature of the so-called Muslim Academy and its ties to colonial encounters.


2012 ◽  
Vol 46 (1) ◽  
pp. 47-53
Author(s):  
Edmund Burke

There is something seriously flawed about models of social change that posit the dominant role of in-built civilizational motors. While “the rise of the West” makes great ideology, it is poor history. Like Jared Diamond, I believe that we need to situate the fate of nations in a long-term ecohistorical context. Unlike Diamond, I believe that the ways (and the sequences) in which things happened mattered deeply to what came next. The Mediterranean is a particularly useful case in this light. No longer a center of progress after the sixteenth century, the decline of the Mediterranean is usually ascribed to its inherent cultural deficiencies. While the specific cultural infirmity varies with the historian (amoral familism, patron/clientalism, and religion are some of the favorites) its civilizationalist presuppositions are clear. In this respect the search for “what went wrong” typifies national histories across the region and prefigures the fate of the Third World.


2012 ◽  
Vol 38 (4-5) ◽  
pp. 477-483 ◽  
Author(s):  
Akeel Bilgrami

This short essay analyzes the deception and self-deception in talk of ‘the clash of civilizations’ and proceeds to diagnose what is wrong in the standard understanding of Islam in the Western media today by looking to the abiding history of colonial relations with Islam down to this day and also looking to the relation between ideals of democracy and the formation of religious identities. The essay closes with some remarks about the nature of identity and the importance to one's own agency of the distinction between the first and the third person point of view in Muslim self-understanding.


Author(s):  
А. Kaihe ◽  

There is limited research on the relationship between the Manju aristocrats in the Ch’ing Empire and the West. As the only family in the Ch’ing Empire that continued to focus on Western academic research, the emergence and existence of the Hošoi Delengge Family and the continued cognition and understanding of the Manju Group and the absorption of Western civilization in the history of the Ch’ing Empire should have special era significance and historical reference value. At a time when the research on the history of the relationship between officials and merchants in the coastal Han people and Westerners in the Ch’ing has attracted much attention, the author of this article argues that it is necessary to select Yihui, the third-generation owner of his family, as the research object, and investigate his life experience and personal learning. It analyzes the specific thoughts and academic achievements embodied in the process of understanding Western civilization, combining family history documents and official documents to draw a relatively complete image of the Manju aristocracy who actively learns and absorbs Western civilization. Investigate the formation and development of a handful of academic families among the Manju aristocrats who are minority of foreign races.


2018 ◽  
Vol 222 (1) ◽  
pp. 253-268
Author(s):  
Dr. Mohamed Abdullah Kaka Sur

Occupation of Britain has had a significant impact on the history of Iraq. Even after the establishment of the Iraqi state in 1921 and the effects of this occupation existed. On this basis, one of the historians used the term Iraq - British royal rule in the period. So, important to know what are the historical factors which led to Britain occupy Iraq, beyond the historical trend of the state and the fundamental changes which led to the establishment of the Iraqi state. In this study, entitled (the historical reasons for the occupation of Iraq, Britain to study the political development between the years 1917 to 1920). Which ensures the number of vertical axes, the first axis looking for strategic importance of Iraq and the situation in Iraq under the leadership of the Ottoman Empire. The second axis tells Britain's occupation of Iraq, the third axis either looking for agreements made between Iraq and Britain the first, second and third.The fourth axis looking for challenging the Iraqis against the British occupation and private revolted in 1920, including the role of the Kurds in this revolution. In fact, with the reasons for strategic and economic, historical factors have had an important role in the occupation of Iraq with the causes and factors which mentioned were overlapping, Baghdad was the capital of Iraq through the stories of One Thousand and One Nights was written in the West and known Babylon was one of the oldest cities, which have been mentioned in Holy book by the West, so intertwined historical importance Wares in the cause of Britain's occupation of Iraq


1995 ◽  
Vol 12 (1) ◽  
pp. 114-118
Author(s):  
Omar Altalib

This book, which is a collection of 22 articles by 25 authors, is appropriatefor undergraduate courses on religion in the United States, religiousminorities, immigrant communities, the history of religion, and the sociologyof Islam and Muslims. The first part contains five articles on religiouscommunities, the second part has nine articles on the mosaic of Islamiccommunities in major American metropolitan centers, and the third partconsists of eight articles on ethnic communities in metropolitan settings.Each part should have been a separate book, as this would have made thebook less bulky and more accessible to those who are interested in onlyone of the areas covered.Reading this book makes it clear that there is great need for Muslimscholars to study and analyze their own communities, which have a richhistory and have only been studied recently. Books such as this are animportant contribution to the understanding of Muslims in the West andalso serve to clear up many misconceptions about Muslims, a developmentthat makes interfaith and intercommunity dialogue easier.Part 1 begins with an article on the Shi'ah communities in NorthAmerica by Abdulaziz Sachedina (professor of religious studies, University ...


2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Catherine Lachowskyj

Focusing on a collection of albums at the Archive of Modern Conflict related to the Younghusband Mission in Tibet (1903-1904), this thesis explores the the analysis of personal albums and their contribution to the history of the Mission. The first chapter, a literature survey, outlines the existing textual histories of the invasion, highlighting the absence of photographic analysis in the works, while also highlighting Tibet’s absence from contemporary criticisms of colonial photography. The second chapter is an overview of the visual conventions ascribed to Tibetans in British India’s photography prior to the Younghusband Mission, and the third chapter provides provenance information and detailed descriptions of the AMC’s albums. Finally, the fourth chapter discusses the objects, revealing their contribution to the perpetuation of Tibetan tropes, implicit visual documentation of British superiority, and the development of constructed narratives favouring the British colonizers. Each analysis acts as an example of how photographs should be used to articulate the colonial history of not only the Younghusband Mission, but of Tibet’s greater history with the West.


Author(s):  
Lawrence Goldman

This chapter provides an overview of the history of social science in Britain and the ways in which it was institutionalised in the nineteenth century. Nineteenth-century social science was the product of three great changes, intellectual, material and spiritual. The European Enlightenment stimulated the development of and institutionalisation of the natural sciences, creating a new model for the study of human societies. The material changes include the expansion of population, growth of industries and manufacturing and development of mass culture and democracy. Rationalism and industrialisation caused the third change, the decline of conventional Christian belief and worship. The chapter also analyses the ‘statistical movement’, a dominant genre of social science up to 1860, and social evolution, which provided the leading paradigm for sociological thinking from the mid-century onwards.


Author(s):  
Robin Craig

This study explores the history of tramp-shipping in the United Kingdom, between 1750 and 1914. It defines ‘tramp’ as steamships exclusively hulled with iron or steel. The purpose of the journal is to keep the history of tramp-shipping from fading into obscurity, as the author believes the tramp steamer does not invoke sentimentality nor provide enough glamour to sustain the same level of maritime interest enjoyed by sailing ships or ocean liners. The study is split into four major sections, the first concerning tramp-shipping, ownership, and capital formation; the second concerning trade, specifically copper ore and African guano; the third studies tramp seamen - particularly sea masters; and the final and largest section considers individual tramp-shipping regions, further subdivided by region - Wales, the Northwest, the West Country, the Northeast, the Southeast, and Canada. The volume is punctuated with statistics, tables, charts, glossaries, and concludes with a bibliography of author Robin Craig’s further maritime writing.


1929 ◽  
Vol 22 (4) ◽  
pp. 371-389 ◽  
Author(s):  
George Foot Moore

In the thirteenth book of his Ancient History of the Jews, Josephus relates (Ant. xiii. 1–5) the doings and fortunes of Jonathan, the brother of Judas Maccabaeus and after the death of Judas (161 B.C.) the leader of the rebellious Jews in their struggle with the Syrian rulers. In the sequel of Jonathan's embassies to Rome and Sparta, and not long before he fell into the hands of Tryphon and was put to death, we read (Ant. xiii. 5, 9):About this time there were three philosophical schools (αἱρέσɛις) among the Jews, which entertained different opinions about human affairs. One of them was called that of the Pharisees, one of the Sadducees, and the third of the Essenes.


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