Ninth Volume of “Hualin Series on Buddhist Studies”

Religions and Local Society in Historical, Comparative, and Theoretical Perspectives: A Festschrift in Honour of Timothy Brook

 

Edited by Jinhua CHEN 陳金華 and Dewei ZHANG 張德偉
Series: Hualin Series on Buddhist Studies IX
Hardcover ISBN: 978-981-17282-5-9
Publishing Date: 2023
Publisher: World Scholastic Publishers
Pages: 656

 

To commemorate Professor Timothy J. Brook’s retirement from the University of British Columbia (UBC), we organized an international Buddhist conference in August 2022, using the same title as the current proceedings. The conference theme, ‘Religion and Local Society’, was chosen to mirror Professor Brook’s essential contributions to the examination of Buddhism in the later period of imperial China, a domain that has experienced substantial growth and advancement since Professor Brook began his career.

Our research highlights the necessity of taking a multidimensional perspective to underscore the importance of studying religion in specific local contexts. However, we also recognize that this approach may have. The historical perspective highlights the crucial importance of time, urging us to place historical events in their proper context and understand their relevance over extended periods.

The expectations that we set have been successfully accomplished thanks to the strong support that the invited scholars provided. The sixteen remarkable essays included in these proceedings were written by renowned academics from a variety of countries. The intellectual energy of these authors is reflected in the diversity, distinctiveness, and richness of their themes, all of which are in line with Professor Brook’s academic goals throughout his career. This collection may hopefully act as a valuable reminder to prioritize specific areas of concentration in future research.

 

Table of Contents

1. The Local vs the Cosmopolitan, The Central vs the Marginal

    • 1.1.  What is Local Buddhism?
      Timothy BROOK
    • 1.2.  From the Local to the Diasporic: The Publication of the ‘Sacred Scripture’ of the Taigu School in the Philippines, 1927
      Xiangjun FENG
    • 1.3.  Buddhist Text Prefaces Attributed to Wu Zetian 武則天 (624– 705) and Some Features of Female Emperor Image Construction in Medieval Chinese Society
      Ekaterina S. SKRYPNIK
    • 1.4.  Strangers in Paradise: Foreigners on Mount Putuo in the Late Qing
      Marcus BINGENHEIMER

2. ‘Conspiracies’ between the Elite & Grassroots

    • 2.1.  The Social Backgrounds, Dharma Lineages, and Achievements of Women Chan Monastics, 1572–1722
      Yuh-neu CHEN 陳玉女, translated by Joseph C. WILLIAMS
    • 2.2.  Religion as a Binding Force in Urban Society: The 1313–1314 Restoration of the Travelling Palace of the Eastern Marchmount in Changxing Prefecture (Zhejiang)
      Barend J. TER HAAR
    • 2.3.  Popular Reverence and Commercial Publishing in Late Ming Hagiographic Literature
      Noga GANANY
    • 2.4.  The Pedagogical Philosophy of a Village Schoolteacher in Nineteenth-Century Sichuan
      Johanna LIDÉN

3. Temples as Fields of Power

    • 3.1.  Monastic and Political Culture in the Late Period of the Northern Dynasties: ‘National’ Monasteries, Political Districts, and Battle Sites
      Bin WEI 魏斌, translated by Matthew A. HALE
    • 3.2.  The Establishment of the Dharmaguptakavinaya Tradition at Kuaiji 會稽 in the Early Eighth Century China
      Anna SOKOLOVA
    • 3.3.  Facing the Decline of Buddhist Believers in Japan: Some Examples of Community-Building in the Nichirenshū Sect
      Mónika KISS

4. Religious Battling and Blending (1): Interactions between the Indigenous & Imported

    • 4.1.  Forging the Chineseness of Kaifeng Jewry: The Ming State and Neo-Confucian Elite behind 1489/1512 Inscriptions
      Lianbin DAI 戴聯斌
    • 4.2.  Buddhist-Christian Encounter in Late Ming Dynasty: New Insights from the Chengdu Conflict of 1643–1644
      Thierry MEYNARD 梅謙立
    • 4.3.  The Mystery of the Miaoshan Legend Origins in the Perspective of World Folklore Motifs
      Rostislav BEREZKIN
    • 4.4.  ‘Buddhification’ and ‘Daoification’ of Local Religions in Contemporary Suzhou
      Keping WU 吳科萍
    • Contributor Biographies

 

Read More