Arrangement Plan of Inner Mongolia Buddhist Temple

Since BC, the construction of cities has been started in the Mongolian Plateau with the establishment of dynasties, but many were turned into ruins. However, the Tibetan Buddhist temples built after the 16th century, which are an indispensable element in the process of settling the Mongolians from nomadic life, have been relatively well preserved in Inner Mongolia. These temples have been thought to be the epitome of the Mongolian economy, culture, art, and construction technology. Therefore, it has a great significance to research them systematically. Interestingly, these temples in Mongolia were originated from Inner Mongolia, which is located on the south side of Mongolia. The architectural design of these temples has been primarily influenced by Chinese and Tibetan temple architecture, suggesting that the temples appear to be considered a vital sample for studying temple architecture in Mongolia or East Asia. So far, there is still no study systematically on temple architecture in Inner Mongolia. Therefore, this research aims to study the arrangement plan of Inner Mongolian Tibetan Buddhist temples, which is the most important factor to consider in the first stage of temple construction.

Johann Wier

This book deals with a fascinating and original claim in 16th-century Europe. Witches should be cured, not executed. It was the physician and scholar Johann Wier (1515-1588) who challenged the dominant idea. For his defense of witches, more than three centuries later, Sigmund Freud chose to put Wier’s work among the ten books to be read. According to Wier, Satan seduced witches, thus they did not deserve to be executed, but they must be cured for their melancholy. When the witch hunt was rising, Wier was the first to use some of the arguments adopted in the emerging debate on religious tolerance in defence of witches. This is the first overall study of Wier which offers an innovative view of his thought by highlighting Wier’s sources and his attempts to involve theologians, physicians, and philosophers in his fight against cruel witch hunts. Johann Wier: Debating the Devil and Witches situates and explains his claim as a result of a moral and religious path as well as the outcome of his medical experience. The book aims to provide an insightful examination of Wier’s works to read his pleas emphasizing the duty of every good Christian to not abandon anyone who strays from the flock of Christ. For these reasons, Wier was overwhelmed by bitter confutations, such as those of Jean Bodin, but he was also celebrated for his outstanding and prolific heritage for debating religious tolerance.

МАГИЯТА И НЕЙНИТЕ ЛИЦА (61. КАНОН НА ТРУЛСКИЯ СЪБОР В СЛАВЯНСКИ ПРЕВОДИ) / MAGIC AND ITS FACES (THE 61ST CANON OF TRULLO IN SLAVIC TRANSLATIONS)

The article aims to analyze some representatives of the lexical-semantic group performers of magical practices according to the 61st canon of the Sixth Ecumenical Council in Trullo, 691–692, based on three translations: the 12th century Efrem kramchaya, Ilovichka kramchaya from 1262, and the 14th century Slavic translation of Matthew Blastares’Syntagma. It is established that: nomina agentis predominate, together with nomina actoris and rarely names of bearers of properties (nomina attributiva); untranslated Greek words are rare; structural calques and descriptive collocations occur. Of particular interest are the ways of presenting Greek realia, which translators liken to familiar phenomena in their semantic adaptation. The text of the 61st canon of Trullo according to an unpublished Moldavian copy of the Syntagma in the 16th century MS № 4104 from the University Library of Cluj-Napoka is published as an appendix. Keywords: medieval magic, Council in Trullo, historical lexicology

‘More like a tavern than a school house’: Family strife, religious change, and the founding of Oundle Grammar School, 1556–1578

The convoluted and contested foundation of the Grammar School at Oundle, Northamptonshire, in 1573 illustrated the complexities involved in giving concrete shape to pious wishes in 16th-century post-mortem bequests. Although the founder was Sir William Laxton (d. 1556), the key figure was his widow, the assertive matriarch Dame Joan Kirkeby-Luddington-Laxton, the richest woman of early Elizabethan London. This paper analyses the politics, religious context, and family strife of this dispute, and in so doing illuminates the contours of early Elizabethan London.

Death and Resurrection on the If Island

The castle of If is one of the most popular tourist attractions in Marseille. This 16th-century fortress was a prison from 1540 until the First World War. Tourists from all over the world are drawn by the presence of a prisoner who has never been there because he never existed: Edmond Dantès, the Count of Monte-Cristo. This chapter analyses how this castle became a confluence space between fiction and reality and a venue for various film adaptations of Dumas' novel. It also shows how this romantic pamphleteer managed to overcome the paradox of giving authenticity to a tourist spot without paying any attention to historical facts or verisimilitude. The chapter draws on the concepts of literary and dark tourism, the concept of aura linked to authenticity in the work of art, and the concept of literary tourist.

The Douro Demarcated Region

This chapter seeks to understand the motivations that lead companies to internationalize and how they do it since this has been a constant challenge for business research. For this purpose, a descriptive research was conducted with a qualitative strategy applied on different companies in the wine sector. International trade is a Portuguese tradition that started and reached its peak in the 16th century with the Portuguese and Spanish discoveries, which justifies this study. The wine industry, particularly in the Douro Region, has also always been closely linked to foreign trade and has even benefited from a historic trade agreement with the United Kingdom. The empirical results show that companies are practically born international. The size of the domestic market was the main justification for the demand for external markets. The constant evolution of markets and industries generates opportunities and potential threats to which companies must be able to respond.

Production and Consumption of Coromandel Lacquer Screens in the 17th and 18th Centuries

Coromandel lacquer screen is a Chinese folding screen made from the 17th century to 19th century in China. The screen is usually about 250cm high, 600cm width and consisting of twelve panels. Although these screens were made in China during the Qing dynasty, they received their name from India’s Coromandel coast, where they were transshipped to Europe in the late 17th and early 18th centuries by merchants of the English and Dutch East India companies. The Dutch traders carried these screens from Bantam in Java, and in early accounts they were frequently called Bantam screens as well as Coromandel screens. This paper examines Coromandel lacquer screen's art historical significance in the incising global interaction and consumer culture in the 17th and 18th centuries. It first discusses historical and cultural background of production in China which have been little known about. The primary sources focus on the record of Xiu Shi lu, the 16th century book about lacquer, and the inscriptions left on the screens. They will give information about when the screens were produced, what was the purpose of them, and the technique of decoratively incising lacquer and adding polychrome to the voids, called kuan cai in Chinese. The lacquer screen features a continuous scene run through all twelve panels, just like a hand-scroll painting with variety of colours. The prominent subjects for decoration are human figures, landscape and bird-and-flower. The narrative theme with human figures, such as Birthday Reception for General Guo Ziyi and the World of Immortals were shaped by literature or play. Also, the parallels between the lacquer screens and the paintings on the same theme are found. The scenes with Europeans are rare but bring various interpretations within the historical context of the time. The landscape themes, such as the Scenes of Lake Xihu and the Nine Bend in Mountain Wuyi, were depicted famous scenic spots in China. The composition and expression of the screens were probably inspired by landscape woodblock prints, it’s because the technique of lacquer screen and woodblock cutting are similar. Lastly, bird-and-flower theme has a long tradition of wishing longevity, happiness and peace in one’s life and produced in various medium. Thanks to the enormous progress in navigation and discovered sea roots in the 16th century, Dutch and England East India Companies imported quantities of Chinese lacquerworks in the 17th century. As Chinoiserie gain popularity all over Europe, Chinese objects were consumed in various ways. Imported Coromandel lacquer screens were incorporated into European interiors. They were cut into a number of panels, which mounted within wood paneling on walls and inserted into contemporary furniture. The lacquer screen also inspired European’s imitation of Asian lacquer known by a variety of names. This paper surveys Coromandel lacquer screen’s domestic production, exploding consumption and global conquest from the 17th century to 18th centuries, when the screen was explosively made. The lacquer screen is an active participant in cross-cultural interaction, not merely a passive commodity of china. Investigating the material culture of the lacquer screen, it was originally created in chinese domestic background concerned with social prestige, in Europe, consumed to show off exotic luxury and triggered a new stylistic changes in chinoiserie.

The Study on the Style and Value of Stone Buddha Statue of Hoeamsa Temple in Yangju

This study focus on the characteristics and of the Fragment of Stone Buddha of Hoeamsa Temple(檜巖寺). As is well known, this temple had been developed rebuilding by supporting of the royal family from the late of Korea Dynasty to the early of Joseon Dynasty(朝鮮). The Hoeamsa Temple Site in Yangju(陽州) is believed to have been destroyed in a fire in the late 16th century, and various artifacts have been excavated after several excavations since 1999. This Temple has been excavated a variety of Fragment of Stone Buddha statues. The Buddha statue of Hoeamsa Temple in Yangju has a hole on top of high usnisa(肉髻), and special folds in the left arm and a thick clothing style. It was reflects the sculptural Joseon style modified by the Tibet-Chinese style. This style is very similar to that of Buddha statues produced in the 15th century, supported by the royal family of Joseon. In particular, these statues were believed to have been produced around the first half of the 15th century when the temple was heavily fortified with the support of Prince Hyo-ryeong(孝寧大君). It is also interesting to note that these statues show the sculptural features of the early Joseon Dynasty, reflecting the Tibetan-Chinese sculptures style, compared to those of the Buddhist sculptures in the first half of the 15th century during the year of Yeongrak (1403~1424) and Seondeok (1426~1435), the kings of the Ming Dynasty. This reflects the development of Buddhist sculptures in the early Joseon Dynasty in line with the trend of Buddhist art in East Asia.