scholarly journals Silent Accord: Qi 契 as a Metaphor for Enlightenment and Transmission in Chan Buddhist Discourse

Religions ◽  
2021 ◽  
Vol 12 (4) ◽  
pp. 279
Author(s):  
Aleksi Järvelä ◽  
Tero Tähtinen
Keyword(s):  
Song Dynasty ◽  
Tang Dynasty ◽  
Historical Background ◽  
The Song Dynasty ◽  
History Of

In this paper, we explore the historical background and the semantic underpinnings of a central, if marginally treated, metaphor of enlightenment and transmission in Chan discourse, “silent accord” 默契. It features centrally in Essentials of the Transmission of Mind 傳心法要, a text that gathers the teachings of Chan master Huangbo Xiyun (d. ca. 850), a major Tang dynasty figure. “Silent accord” is related to the concept of mind-to-mind transmission, which lies at the very core of Chan Buddhist self-understanding. However, Chan historiography has shown that this self-understanding was partially a product of the Song dynasty lineage records, historically retroactive syncretic constructs produced by monks and literati as efforts towards doctrinal and political recognition and orthodoxy. There are thus lacunae in the history of Chan thought opened up by the retrospective fictions of Song dynasty, and a lack of reliable, dateable documents from the preceding Tang dynasty era, possibly fraught with later additions. We situate the metaphor “silent accord” in the history of Chan thought by searching for its origins, mapping its functions in Chan literature, arguing for its influence and thereby its role in helping to bridge the 9th century gap.

Women Rulers in Imperial China

NAN Nü ◽  
2013 ◽  
Vol 15 (2) ◽  
pp. 179-218 ◽  
Author(s):  
Keith McMahon
Keyword(s):  
Song Dynasty ◽  
Tang Dynasty ◽  
Extreme Case ◽  
Han Dynasty ◽  
The Song Dynasty ◽  
Women Rulers ◽  
History Of ◽  
The Tang Dynasty ◽  
Imperial China

“Women Rulers in Imperial China”is about the history and characteristics of rule by women in China from the Han dynasty to the Qing, especially focusing on the Tang dynasty ruler Wu Zetian (625-705) and the Song dynasty Empress Liu. The usual reason that allowed a woman to rule was the illness, incapacity, or death of her emperor-husband and the extreme youth of his son the successor. In such situations, the precedent was for a woman to govern temporarily as regent and, when the heir apparent became old enough, hand power to him. But many women ruled without being recognized as regent, and many did not hand power to the son once he was old enough, or even if they did, still continued to exert power. In the most extreme case, Wu Zetian declared herself emperor of her own dynasty. She was the climax of the long history of women rulers. Women after her avoided being compared to her but retained many of her methods of legitimization, such as the patronage of art and religion, the use of cosmic titles and vocabulary, and occasional gestures of impersonating a male emperor. When women ruled, it was an in-between time when notions and language about something that was not supposed to be nevertheless took shape and tested the limits of what could be made acceptable.

History of Luminescence from Ancient to Modern Times

2015 ◽  
Vol 361 ◽  
pp. 1-13 ◽  
Author(s):  
Hardev Singh Virk
Keyword(s):  
Solid State ◽  
Chinese Text ◽  
Song Dynasty ◽  
Sixth Century ◽  
Luminescent Material ◽  
Modern Times ◽  
Aurora Borealis ◽  
The Song Dynasty ◽  
Naturally Occurring ◽  
History Of

Luminescent phenomena have fascinated mankind since the earliest times. The light from the aurora borealis, glow worms, luminescent wood, rotting fish and meat are all examples of naturally occurring luminescence. E. Newton Harvey’s 770 page volume “A History of Luminescence: From the Earliest Times until 1900” is a classic which narrates interesting stories from ancient cultures to modern times. The earliest written account of a solid state luminescent material comes from a Chinese text published in the Song dynasty (960–1279 A.D.). The Buddhist sacred jewel, called "hashi-no-tama" in Japan, is alleged to be self-luminous and to shed a brilliant light on its surroundings. In the Svetasvatara Upanishad, probably recorded at some time before the sixth century BC, we find a mention of fire-flies as one of the manifestations of Brahma.

scholarly journals The Position of the Futian Calendar on the History of East-West Intercourse of Astronomy

1987 ◽  
Vol 91 ◽  
pp. 135-138 ◽  
Author(s):  
Shigeru Nakayama
Keyword(s):  
Song Dynasty ◽  
Chinese Scholar ◽  
Buddhist Monk ◽  
The Song Dynasty ◽  
Fundamental Understanding ◽  
History Of ◽  
East West

It is proved that the Futian calendar, a non-official one compiled in the Jianzhong reign period (780-783) in China, was brought to Japan in 957 by a Buddhist monk and was employed as the basis of horoscopes by the Buddhist school of astrology (Memo 1964). It was also used in competition with the official Chinese xuanming calendar for the usual functions demanded of a Chinese type lunisolar ephemerides, such as eclipse predictions. According to the view of the Song Dynasty Chinese scholar Wang Yinglin that the Futian calendar was “originally an Indian method of astronomical calculation” but Kiyosi Yabuuti has commented that Wang Yinglin’s appraisal of the Futian calendar is solely based on a resemblance in form as it copied the trivial point of taking its epoch as the Jiuzhi calendar according to Indian astronomical methods and does not display a fundamental understanding of the Indian calendar (Yabuuti 1944).

Late Imperial Economy, 960–1895

2013 ◽  
Author(s):  
Tim Wright
Keyword(s):  
Economic History ◽  
Song Dynasty ◽  
Tang Dynasty ◽  
Western Europe ◽  
18Th Century ◽  
Chinese Economy ◽  
Early 19Th Century ◽  
Late Imperial ◽  
The Song Dynasty ◽  
European Experience

Although for most purposes “late imperial China” refers to the Ming and Qing dynasties (1368–1911), many scholars believe that key aspects of China’s late imperial economy came into existence as a result of a series of changes that began in the late Tang dynasty and culminated during the Song dynasty, known as the “Tang-Song transformation.” While these changes included, for example, the growth of markets, they were by no means limited to—or even mainly related to—economic history but included political changes, such as those in the nature of the elite. Without prejudging the issue, this article covers the whole period from the establishment of the Song dynasty to the first Sino-Japanese War, after which railways and economic modernization began to change the Chinese economy. The old stereotype of premodern China as unchanging and economically stagnant has long been discarded, and scholars recognize that China had a dynamic and successful economy that managed to feed a growing population and developed a range of sophisticated institutions. The stereotype is now being turned on its head, and many are asking whether as late as the 18th century at least parts of China were as prosperous and as advanced as western Europe, whether Chinese commercial and legal institutions were as accommodating of economic growth as those in Europe, and, as a result, how one can explain the “great divergence” that took place between Europe and the rest of the world from (in this view) the early 19th century. A further underlying issue is to what extent models based on the European experience can be used to understand or explain development patterns in China. The most notable example of trying to force Chinese development into a European framework was of course Marxist stage theory. But more recently “Eurocentric” theories and models of development that are based on the European experience have been more widely rejected coupled with attempts to develop more distinctively Chinese—or Asian—models.

Commercializing Medicine or Benefiting the People – The First Public Pharmacy in China

2008 ◽  
Vol 21 (3) ◽  
pp. 311-350 ◽  
Author(s):  
Asaf Goldschmidt
Keyword(s):  
Public Health ◽  
Chinese Medicine ◽  
Song Dynasty ◽  
Social Economic ◽  
Drug Markets ◽  
Relative Ease ◽  
The Song Dynasty ◽  
The People ◽  
History Of ◽  
Medicinal Drug

ArgumentIn this article I describe the establishment and early development of an institution that is unique to the history of Chinese medicine – the Imperial Pharmacy (惠 民 藥 局). Established in 1076 during the great reforms of the Song dynasty, the Imperial Pharmacy was a remarkable institution that played different political, social, economic, and medical roles over the years of its existence. Initially it was an economic institution designed to curb the power of plutocrats who were manipulating medicinal drug markets in their favor. A few decades later, I claim, the Imperial Pharmacy became a public-health-oriented institution focusing on selling readymade prescriptions in addition to simples. Various records, including local gazetteers and local maps, indicate that the Imperial Pharmacy expanded about a century after it was established to include dozens of branches throughout the empire. The Pharmacy's impact on the practices of physicians during these years is somewhat vague. It seems, however, to have posed an unwelcome addition to the medical scene, since it enabled uninitiated practitioners who relied on the Pharmacy's formulary to fit patients' symptoms to their own prescriptions and dispense medications with relative ease.

Of the Water Gate on the Ancient City Wall of China

2014 ◽  
Vol 1030-1032 ◽  
pp. 823-826
Author(s):  
He Qun Li ◽  
Yan Li Wu
Keyword(s):  
Song Dynasty ◽  
Tang Dynasty ◽  
Sluice Gate ◽  
City Wall ◽  
The Song Dynasty ◽  
Water Gate ◽  
Ancient City ◽  
The Tang Dynasty

On the ancient city wall of China, the water gate used to been built. Probably before the Tang Dynasty, it always took the shape of hole in order to drain and prevent others from entering city. From the Song Dynasty on, for the sake of navigation, the majority of water gates became the sluice gate that could go up and down.

scholarly journals 張仲景醫學倫理學思想述評

2015 ◽  
Vol 13 (1) ◽  
pp. 69-81
Author(s):  
Jinhai YAN ◽  
Yanjie PENG ◽  
Yue YANG
Keyword(s):  
Chinese Medicine ◽  
Traditional Chinese Medicine ◽  
Medical Practice ◽  
Song Dynasty ◽  
Critical Role ◽  
Confucian Ethics ◽  
The Song Dynasty ◽  
Medical Academy ◽  
History Of ◽  
The Government

LANGUAGE NOTE | Document text in Chinese; abstract also in English.東漢時代的張仲景是中醫歷史最重要的醫家之一，被稱之為中國的希波克拉底。其名著《傷寒雜病論》成為中華醫學最重要的經典。在該書的序言中，張仲景系統闡述了其醫學倫理思想和行醫原則。認為醫師行醫的前提是實踐對自我與族群生命的熱愛；行醫的橋樑是用人類理性去發現健康與疾病的規律及控制的手段；行醫的準則是對醫術的認真與創新的態度。就其醫學倫理思想而言，張仲景醫學倫理的基本框架與中國傳統的儒家思想相吻合，反映了醫儒同道的精神。其思想對宋代以後“醫學儒化”的風尚具有一定的影響。作者認為，張仲景醫學倫理學亦對構建當代中國生命倫理學的構建具有啟發意義。Zhang Zongjing (150-219), known as the Chinese Hippocrates, was one of the most eminent physicians in China during the Han Dynasty. In the Shanghailun, a famous treatise on cold pathogenic diseases, Zhang not only described past medicinal discoveries but provided regulations for contemporary medical practice. The Shanghailun is thus an important text for scholars of the history of traditional Chinese medicine. The treatise was privately transmitted with no public acknowledgment until the Jin Dynasty (265-420), when it was re-edited and rearranged. The treatise received more attention and became increasingly popular during the Song Dynasty, when a Confucian basis for medical practice was endorsed by the government. Zhang has since been regarded as a sage of Chinese medicine. The Shanghailun also became part of the compulsory curriculum at China’s Imperial Medical Academy. Zhang has a special status in the history of Chinese medicine due to his efforts to create an orthodox system of medical practice in line with the Confucian (Ru) tradition.In this paper, Zhang Zongjing’s major ideas on medical ethics and practice are explored. The author illustrates the critical role played by Zhang’s approach to medicine in the later Confucianization of medicine during the Song Dynasty, which in turn created the ideal of the traditional Confucian physician. The author also compares the ethical views of Zhang Zongjing with those of Sun Simiao (541-682), another key figure in the history of traditional Chinese medicine, who combined Confucian ethics with the moral teachings of Daoism and Buddhism.DOWNLOAD HISTORY | This article has been downloaded 237 times in Digital Commons before migrating into this platform.

Guo Xi on Painting the Invisible Gaze of the Dao

2021 ◽  
Vol 8 (2) ◽  
pp. 287-306
Author(s):  
David Chai
Keyword(s):  
Song Dynasty ◽  
First Person ◽  
Landscape Painting ◽  
The Song Dynasty ◽  
Chinese Aesthetics ◽  
History Of ◽  
The Invisible

Abstract For the Song dynasty painter and theorist Guo Xi, Daoism runs like veins through his Lofty Appeal of Forests and Streams, helping it become one of the greatest works of landscape painting theory in China. This essay explores the influence Laozi and Zhuangzi had on Guo Xi's thought, paying particular attention to the latter's implementation of spirit, nature, and incompleteness. Guo Xi succeeded in giving these Daoist themes an aesthetic significance that had yet to be fully realized by his predecessors, while expounding them in a manner that remained faithful to the texts from which they were drawn. While Guo Xi was not the first person in China to employ the principles of Daoist philosophy in their discourse on landscape painting, his ability to synthesize them into a cohesive representation of the invisible gaze of the Dao led to his becoming one of the most eminent painters and aesthetic theorists in the history of Chinese aesthetics.

Transitions

2017 ◽  
Author(s):  
Steven Heine
Keyword(s):  
Song Dynasty ◽  
Tang Dynasty ◽  
Social Influences ◽  
Historical Background ◽  
Religious Leaders ◽  
Political Factors ◽  
The Tang Dynasty ◽  
China And Japan ◽  
Commercial Network

Chapter 2 examines political factors and social influences that contributed to the construction of the Legend of Living Buddhas, a benchmark for the institutional and artistic shift from Chinese Chan to Japanese Zen. It aims to answer the question of how the Zen monastic institution managed to gain a wide following of religious leaders and their disciples as well as lay followers, especially Song-dynasty literati, after struggling for centuries to grow in China beginning with the historical background of the Tang dynasty. Stressing the commercial network of maritime routes linking China and Japan, along with cultural as well as commercial connections that inspired monks to make the daring trip across the waters, the chapter shows how transnational relationships formed between creative priests from both countries, particularly in regard to the mythology of Living Buddhas.

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