4. Scholarship and Literary Composition at the Early Tang Court

2020 ◽  
pp. 108-147
Keyword(s):  
Literary Composition ◽  
Early Tang

scholarly journals What about Rats? Buddhist Disciplinary Guidelines on Rats: Daoxuan’s Vinaya Commentaries

Religions ◽  
2021 ◽  
Vol 12 (7) ◽  
pp. 508
Author(s):  
Ann Heirman
Keyword(s):  
Tang Dynasty ◽  
Seventh Century ◽  
Daily Lives ◽  
Strict Adherence ◽  
Early Tang

Buddhist texts generally prohibit the killing or harming of any sentient being. However, while such a ban may seem straightforward, it becomes much more complex when annoying or dangerous animals are involved. This paper focuses on one such animal—the rat. These rodents feature prominently in monastics’ daily lives, so it should come as no surprise that both Indian and Chinese Buddhist masters pay attention to them. In the first part of the paper, we investigate the problems that rats can cause, how monastics deal with them, and what the authors-compilers of Buddhist vinaya (disciplinary) texts have to say about them. In the second part, we focus on how Daoxuan 道宣 (596–667)—one of the most prominent vinaya masters of the early Tang Dynasty—interprets the vinaya guidelines and their implementation in Chinese monasteries. As we will see, he raises a number of potential issues with regard to strict adherence to the Buddhist principles of no killing and no harming, and so reveals some of the problematic realities that he felt monastics faced in seventh century China.

The festival of Saint Demetrios, the Timarion, and the Aithiopika

2016 ◽  
Vol 40 (1) ◽  
pp. 136-150 ◽  
Author(s):  
Byron MacDougall
Keyword(s):  
Ancient Literature ◽  
Literary Composition

The description of the festival for Saint Demetrios in Thessaloniki in the Timarion has long been used as a source for regional and liturgical history. It is in fact a literary rewriting of a festival at Delphi in Heliodoros’ Aithiopika. This paper demonstrates how the description of the Demetria represents a moment in Byzantine humanism as well as a reflection on the process of literary composition itself. An explanation is also proposed here for why Heliodoros’ festival at Delphi in particular, out of all descriptions of festivals in ancient literature, appealed to the author of the Timarion.

Scientific Narratives in Contemporary Egyptian Pocket Novel Series

2021 ◽  
Vol 36 (1) ◽  
pp. 125-136
Author(s):  
Sebastian Gadomski
Keyword(s):  
Genetic Engineering ◽  
Popular Literature ◽  
Significant Part ◽  
Special Position ◽  
Large Group ◽  
Advanced Technologies ◽  
Scientific Narratives ◽  
Literary Composition

Popular literature occupies a significant part of the publishing market in Egypt and has had quite a large group of admirers for many decades. It is noteworthy that, in this sector, the series of Egyptian pocket stories published by the Modern Arab Association occupy a special position. It should be noted that the authors of the stories are heavily inspired by the latest scientific discoveries in many fields. In their works, medical facts, advanced technologies and genetic engineering not only set the background for the adventures of the characters, but are often the key elements of the plot and literary composition, as shown in this article.

scholarly journals Messages, Texts, and Rhetorical Detachment in Contemporary Mahri Poetry

2021 ◽  
pp. 1403-14
Author(s):  
Samuel Liebhaber
Keyword(s):  
Arabic Language ◽  
Written Language ◽  
Structural Motif ◽  
Language Poetry ◽  
Sudden Appearance ◽  
Literary Composition ◽  
Hallmark Feature ◽  
Poetic Work

Despite its geographical and linguistic proximity to the Arabic language, the Mahri (or Mehri) language (ISO 639-3: gdq) of Eastern Yemen and Western Oman has remained a non-written language into the present era. While older generations of Mahri speakers never considered the prospect of a written idiom for their language, recent years have witnessed efforts to compose and circulate texts in the Mahri language. These circumstances have yielded a poetic praxis that traverses the domains of orality and literacy; they also enable us to identify lexical and syntactic characteristics that betoken where in the shifting terrain of oral and literary composition a poetic work occurs. I will examine the appearance of one such lexical and structural motif – the dispatched messenger – in a recently composed collection of Mahri language poetry, The Dīwān of Ḥājj Dākōn (2011). Embarking from the notion of textual autonomy developed by Chafe, Olson, and Tannen, I argue that the sudden appearance of the messenger motif in Ḥājj Dākōn’s poetic collection is a by-product of his adoption of a written practice. In this way, we can establish that a stance of rhetorical detachment is a hallmark feature of an emergent written practice, even at its earliest stages.

scholarly journals Wpływ perykopy Mk 16,9-20 na znaczenie rzeczownika ἀρχή w Mk 1,1

2019 ◽  
pp. 47-62
Author(s):  
Daniel Dzikiewicz
Keyword(s):  
Jesus Christ ◽  
Gospel Of Mark ◽  
Semantic Meaning ◽  
Biblical Texts ◽  
Literary Composition

This study is devoted to the issue of the influence of the pericope Mk 16,9-20 on the semantic meaning of the noun ἀρχή in Mk 1,1. The starting thesis is: after the joining of the so-called canoni- cal ending Mk 16,9-20 to the Gospel of Mark, the first word of this work ἀρχὴ, lost the meaning of the beginning and assumed the value of the summary in the sense of a collection of basic kerygma- tic information about the Event of Jesus Christ. In order to demonstrate the validity of the put forward hypothesis, the current study has been divided into two parts. The first part discusses the issue of the phenomenon of combining biblical texts and its influence on the semantic meaning of particular words or pericope. The second part, however, gives arguments for the proposed solution. The semantic argument shows that the word ἀρχή may have the meaning of summary. The translational argument cites some examples of bi- blical translations of the word ἀρχή as a certain summary. The scriptural argument shows that canonical gospels are a literary summary of the words and works of Jesus Christ. And the exegetical argument justifies the summary character of the entire first verse Mk 1,1. In the light of the quoted evidence, the following conclusion is to be drawn: the addition of the pericope Mk 16,9-20 to the Gospel of Mark made the latter a closed literary composition, and this in turn also influenced the meaning of the word ἀρχή in Mk 1,1, which lost the sense of the beginningand took the character of a summary.

scholarly journals Nandhi Kalambagam’s Agam Songs and its Rhetoric

2021 ◽  
Vol 3 (1) ◽  
pp. 247-254
Author(s):  
Suja S
Keyword(s):  
Ninth Century ◽  
Number System ◽  
Literary Genre ◽  
Literary Works ◽  
Literary Style ◽  
College Curriculum ◽  
The Third ◽  
Literary Composition ◽  
System Operating

As a result of the proliferation of Short literary composition genres (Prabandas), various catalog texts (Paattiyal) arose as a continuation of the tradition of finding literature and giving grammar explanations therefor. Panniru Paatiyal, Venpaa Paatiyal, Chidambara Paatiyal, Navaneetha Paatiyal, Prabandha Deepika, Ilakkana vilakkam, Thonnuul vilakkam etc. and even some grammar books that deal with five grammar forms (Ainthilakkanam) are involved in this grammatical endeavor and have given grammar to different numbers of Short Literary Compositions. These numerical differences record the development of the literature as a result of the passage of time. This number extends from 54 to 360. This genre of 96 Short Literary Works can be attributed to the fact that the number system operating in the set tradition is also applied to Short Literary Works and to be a permanent one. The name of the literary genre, Kalambakam, is given in various ways by dividing its name. There are various reasons for the mix of 18 types of elements (15-21), the proliferation of many types of compositions, and the mixing of Agappaadalkal (Agam songs). This can be explained by the fact that the name is derived from a variety of hybrids rather than one character. Nandikkalambakam, the first and foremost of the Kalambaka literatures, was sung with the third Nandi Varman of the Pallava dynasty as the Leader of the song. 25 years Nandi ruled from (847-872) with Kanchi as his capital, the Pallava dynasty and the wars fought to expand the territory of many Nandikalambaka songs.  Although there are some differences in the view of Nandivarman's reign, it is accepted by scholars that he belonged to the ninth century and that Nandi Kalambakam, who led him to the song, and the ninth century. Even though this literature is in our school and college curriculum, its literary style beauty and glossary competency are unknown to the so called scholars too. So this article tries to explain the above said features of the Nandhi Kalambakam.

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