Building and Rebuilding Buddhist Monasteries in Tang China: The Reconstruction of the Kaiyuan Monastery in Sizhou

This article explores regional Buddhist monasteries in Tang Dynasty (618–907 CE) China, including their arrangement, functions, and sources for their study. Specifically, as a case study, it considers the reconstruction of the Kaiyuan monastery 開元寺 in Sizhou 泗州 (present-day Jiangsu Province) with reference to the works of three prominent state officials and scholars: Bai Juyi 白居易 (772–846), Li Ao 李翱 (772–841), and Han Yu 韓愈 (768–824). The writings of these literati allow us to trace the various phases of the monastery’s reconstruction, fundraising activities, and the network of individuals who participated in the project. We learn that the rebuilt multi-compound complex not only provided living areas for masses of pilgrims, traders, and workers but also functioned as a barrier that protected the populations of Sizhou and neighboring prefectures from flooding. Moreover, when viewed from a broader perspective, the renovation of the Kaiyuan monastery demonstrates that Buddhist construction projects played a pivotal role in the social and economic development of Tang China’s major metropolises as well as its regions.

On Translation of Cultural Images in Chang Hen Ge from the Perspective of Reception Theory

Based on concepts of horizon of expectation and indeterminacy in reception theory, this paper reports a comparative analysis of Chang Hen Ge, a narrative poem written by Chinese poet Bai Juyi in the Tang Dynasty, and its English translations by William John Bainbrigge Fletcher, Herbert Allen Giles, Xu Yuanchong as well as Yang Hsien-yi and Gladys Yang. Results are as follows: 1) Xu’s translation is the best in that he adds annotations and combines literal and free translations so as to explicate cultural connotations and underlying implications of images while meeting and broadening target readers’ horizon of expectation. In addition, he tries to replicate figurative characteristics and transform rhetorical techniques of original cultural images to retain the source text’s indeterminacy and aesthetic value and to provide target readers with intense aesthetic experience. 2) There are inappropriate and inaccurate translations of cultural images in all the four English translations, and they are caused by differences in ethnic history, religious belief, mode of thinking, features of English and Chinese as well as the subjectivity of translators.

Master Shanghong (738?-815 CE) and the Formation of Regional Vinaya Traditions in Tang Buddhism

After the An Lushan Rebellion in 755, southern China witnessed the rise of the Vinaya movement. Essential sources on the local southern Vinaya communities include writings by scholar–officials who held posts in the southern prefectures. This paper focuses on two stele inscriptions for the Vinaya Master Shanghong 上宏 (738?-815) composed by the literatus Bai Juyi 白居易 (772-846) and Liu Ke 劉軻 (?-?) during their journeys to Jiangxi. These inscriptions enable us to identify Shanghong as one of the foremost Vinaya authorities in Jiangxi, to trace the dynamics and course of the development of ordination centers there, and to witness the shaping of a local Vinaya community there as part of a larger development of the Vinaya tradition in southern China during the mid-Tang period.

Classicisms in Chinese Literary Culture

The tradition of classical studies in China after the fall of the Han continued to flourish, though in changing forms from the period of division through the end of the Tang dynasty. The ongoing relevance of the Classics and the Masters Texts to both the educational and institutional systems of successive dynasties guaranteed that elites would sustain a heritage of scholarship and transmit commentaries over generations. And yet the classicist tradition was not merely a static corpus of commentary on “dead” texts but rather a dynamic and stimulating body of knowledge that inspired new literary compositions, philosophical reflection, and ultimately new styles of writing, both poetry and prose. This chapter traces the most important classicist revivals and the most prolific and influential writers in the classicist tradition, including authors such as Yuan Jie, Li Hua, Han Yu, Bai Juyi, and others.