The problem with orthodoxy in Zen Buddhism: Yongming Yanshou's notion of zong in the Zongjin lu (Records of the Source Mirror)

2002 ◽  
Vol 31 (1) ◽  
pp. 3-18 ◽  
Author(s):  
Albert Welter

The practice of Zen Buddhism in Japan, Chan Buddhism in China, and its counterparts in Korea and Vietnam bear little resemblance to the way this form of Buddhism is often characterized ideologically. The present study explores some of the premises of "moderate" Chan, which forms the basis for Chan/Zen as an institutional religion operating within the larger Buddhist world of East Asian societies. In particular, the study addresses the notion of zong in the Zongjing lu (Record of the Source Mirror), compiled by Yongming Yanshou (904-975), one of the leading representatives of "scholastic" (wenzi) Chan and a key figure in articulating the "moderate" Chan position. The study suggests how the definition of contemporary Zen orthodoxy has been dominated by representatives from the "rhetorical" Zen tradition, creating a disjuncture between our intellectual understanding of Zen and the principles guiding its actual practice.

Author(s):  
Chonglong Gu

The sociopolitical and cultural evolution as a result of the Reform and Opening up in 1978, facilitated not least by the inexorable juggernaut of globalization and technological advancement, has revolutionized the way China engages domestically and interacts with the outside world. The need for more proactive diplomacy and open engagement witnessed the institutionalization of the interpreter-mediated premier's press conferences. Such a discursive event provides a vital platform for China to articulate its discourse and rebrand its image in tandem with the profound changes signaled by the Dengist reform. This chapter investigates critically how political press conference interpreting and interpreters' agency in China are impacted in relation to such dramatic transformations. It is revealed that, while interpreters are confronted with seemingly conflicting expectations, in actual practice they are often able to negotiate a way as highly competent interpreting professionals with the additional missions of advancing China's global engagement and safeguarding China's national interests.


Author(s):  
Alex J. Bellamy

This chapter demonstrates that the downwards pressure that state consolidation placed on mass violence was amplified by the type of state that emerged. Across East Asia, governments came to define themselves as “developmental” or “trading” states whose principal purpose was to grow the national economy and thereby improve the economic wellbeing of their citizens. Governments with different ideologies came to embrace economic growth and growing the prosperity of their populations as the principal function of the state and its core source of legitimacy. Despite some significant glitches along the way the adoption of the developmental trading state model has proven successful. Not only have East Asian governments succeeded in lifting hundreds of millions of people out of poverty, the practices and policy orientations dictated by this model helped shift governments and societies away from belligerent practices towards postures that prioritized peace and stability. This reinforced the trend towards greater peacefulness.


Author(s):  
Simon Deakin ◽  
David Gindis ◽  
Geoffrey M. Hodgson

Abstract In his recent book on Property, Power and Politics, Jean-Philippe Robé makes a strong case for the need to understand the legal foundations of modern capitalism. He also insists that it is important to distinguish between firms and corporations. We agree. But Robé criticizes our definition of firms in terms of legally recognized capacities on the grounds that it does not take the distinction seriously enough. He argues that firms are not legally recognized as such, as the law only knows corporations. This argument, which is capable of different interpretations, leads to the bizarre result that corporations are not firms. Using etymological and other evidence, we show that firms are treated as legally constituted business entities in both common parlance and legal discourse. The way the law defines firms and corporations, while the product of a discourse which is in many ways distinct from everyday language, has such profound implications for the way firms operate in practice that no institutional theory of the firm worthy of the name can afford to ignore it.


2016 ◽  
Vol 29 (2) ◽  
pp. 105-128
Author(s):  
Elliott Karstadt

Many scholars argue that Hobbes’s political ideas do not significantly develop between The Elements of Law (1640) and Leviathan (1651). This article seeks to challenge that assumption by studying the way in which Hobbes’s deployment of the vocabulary of ‘interest’ develops over the course of the 1640s. The article begins by showing that the vocabulary is newly important in Leviathan, before attempting a ‘Hobbesian definition’ of what is meant by the term. We end by looking at the impact that the vocabulary has on two key areas of Hobbes’s philosophy: his theory of counsel and his arguments in favour of monarchy as the best form of government. In both areas, Hobbes’s conception of ‘interests’ is shown to be of crucial importance in lending a new understanding of the political issue under consideration.


2015 ◽  
Vol 14 (3) ◽  
pp. 717-745 ◽  
Author(s):  
DAVID DWAN

Intellectual historians often invoke “romanticism” to account for the origins and conceptual shape of nationalism. In an Irish context, however, this approach has yielded false genealogies of influence and an impaired political understanding. Cast through a “romantic” prism, nationalism is divorced from its conditions of intelligibility, becoming unhelpfully isolated from questions about sovereignty, democratic legitimacy and the nature of modern citizenship. Thus all too often the irrationality that is made part of the definition of “romantic nationalism” is a function of the way that it is interpreted.


1992 ◽  
Vol 16 (4) ◽  
pp. 415-428 ◽  
Author(s):  
Cynthia L. Miller ◽  
A. Gaye Cummins

Historically, theoretical and popular conceptions about power have not included or addressed women's experiences. This study adds to the growing body of knowledge about women by examining women's perceptions of and relationship to power. One hundred twenty-five women, ranging in age from 21 to 63, were asked to define and explore power through a variety of structured and open-ended questions. The results showed that women's definition of power differed significantly from their perception of society's definition of power, as well as from the way power has traditionally been conceptualized. More theoretical and empirical attention should be given to understanding the role of personal authority in both women's and men's experience of power.


Religions ◽  
2021 ◽  
Vol 12 (2) ◽  
pp. 104
Author(s):  
Eliana Alemán ◽  
José Pérez-Agote

This work aims to show that the sacrificial status of the victims of acts of terrorism, such as the 2004 Madrid train bombings (“11-M”) and ETA (Basque Homeland and Liberty) attacks in Spain, is determined by how it is interpreted by the communities affected and the manner in which it is ritually elaborated a posteriori by society and institutionalised by the state. We also explore the way in which the sacralisation of the victim is used in socially and politically divided societies to establish the limits of the pure and the impure in defining the “Us”, which is a subject of dispute. To demonstrate this, we first describe two traumatic events of particular social and political significance (the case of Miguel Ángel Blanco and the 2004 Madrid train bombings). Secondly, we analyse different manifestations of the institutional discourse regarding victims in Spain, examining their representation in legislation, in public demonstrations by associations of victims of terrorism and in commemorative “performances” staged in Spain. We conclude that in societies such as Spain’s, where there exists a polarisation of the definition of the “Us”, the success of cultural and institutional performances oriented towards reparation of the terrorist trauma is precarious. Consequently, the validity of the post-sacrificial narrative centring on the sacred value of human life is ephemeral and thus fails to displace sacrificial narratives in which particularist definitions of the sacred Us predominate.


Res Publica ◽  
1994 ◽  
Vol 36 (3-4) ◽  
pp. 381-398
Author(s):  
Jan Beyers

In spite of its importance in European Union decision making, research on the functioning of the Council is scarce (Wessels, 1991). Based on empirical findings this article gives some new insights in the way Council decision making is institutionalized. The first part focusses on the characteristics of Council working groups and the different positions of actors in the decision making network. Our findings confirm the definition of the Council as a highly bureaucratized institution. Interesting is that the diversity of tasks of the different actors(working groups, Coreper, CSA etc.) strengthens the impact of national administrations in Council decision making. The second part explores the reasons for this impact. This article adds to the functional approach, which over-emphasizes the adaptive character of the Council, the perception of the Council as an intergovernmental component in a supranational system.


2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Petro Ivanyshyn ◽  

The purpose of the research is to outline the structure of the main methodological ideas within the frames of interpretive thinking in the essay of the famous Vistnyk’s writer, critic and essayist Yevhen Malaniuk. Considering the purpose and tasks of the studio, an interdisciplinary methodological base, related to the author’s “national approach”, has been worked out. The epistemological potential of national philosophy as a philosophy of national existence, national science as a theory of nation, hermeneutics as a theory and practice of interpretation and post-colonialism as interpretation of cultural phenomena from the standpoint of anti- and post-imperial consciousness are used in the work. The scientific novelty is that on the basis of the previous hermeneutic generalization and definition of national-existential methodology, a propaedeutic outlining of the structure of national-philosophical concepts within the frames of the essayistic interpretation of reality in Ye. Malaniuk is proposed. In the methodological sense, the writer’s essayism is structured by such concepts as nation-centrism, idealism, voluntarism, heroism, and can be considered as one of the variants (close by the experiences of D. Dontsov, Yu. Lypa, M. Mukhyn, etc.) of the Vistnyk’s national-philosophical (national-existential, nationalistic or nation-centric) hermeneutics, that is, the way of understanding, which the author by himself outlined as a “national approach”. The support of Ye. Malaniuk as a culture-philosopher and exegete on the eternal nation-centric values and criteria in his essayistic studies makes his reflections not only historically interesting, but also theoretically productive, classically important for the development of modern Ukrainian hermeneutics and humanities in general.


IFLA Journal ◽  
2018 ◽  
Vol 44 (3) ◽  
pp. 223-228 ◽  
Author(s):  
Yasuyo Inoue

This essay introduces the concept of privacy from the perspective of the East Asian nation of Japan. Firstly, it provides background context to how privacy is viewed in the country; then it discusses relevant legislative approaches to the protection of privacy in Japan. It goes on to discuss privacy in relation to its relevance to libraries, illustrated with two case studies, before concluding with some suggestions as to the way forward in Japan.


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