Sunday, December 31, 2017

Eurasian Empires in Late Antiquity: Rome, China, Iran, and the Steppe

Editors:
Nicola Di Cosmo & Michael Maas

Publisher:
Cambridge University Press

Publication Date:
January 2018




Abstract:

Empires and Exchanges in Eurasian Late Antiquity offers an integrated picture of Rome, China, Iran, and the Steppes during a formative period of world history. In the half millennium between 250 and 750 CE, settled empires underwent deep structural changes, while various nomadic peoples of the steppes (Huns, Avars, Turks, and others) experienced significant interactions and movements that changed their societies, cultures, and economies. This was a transformational era, a time when Roman, Persian, and Chinese monarchs were mutually aware of court practices, and when Christians and Buddhists criss-crossed the Eurasian lands together with merchants and armies. It was a time of greater circulation of ideas as well as material goods. This volume provides a conceptual frame for locating these developments in the same space and time. Without arguing for uniformity, it illuminates the interconnections and networks that tied countless local cultural expressions to far-reaching inter-regional ones.

Table of Contents:

Part I. Historical Thresholds:

1. How the steppes became Byzantine: Rome and the Eurasian Nomads in historical perspective 
Michael Maas

2. The relations between China and the steppe from the Xiongnu to the Türk Empire 
Nicola Di Cosmo

3. Sasanian Iran and the projection of power in Late Antique Eurasia: competing cosmologies and topographies of power 
Matthew P. Canepa

4. Trade and exchanges along the silk and steppe routes in Late Antique Eurasia 
Richard Lim

5. Sogdian merchants and Sogdian culture on the silk road 
Rong Xinjiang 榮新江

6. 'Charismatic' goods: commerce, diplomacy, and cultural contacts along the silk road in Late Antiquity 
Peter Brown

7. The synthesis of the Tang Dynasty: the culmination of China's contacts and communication with Eurasia 
Valerie Hansen

8. Central Asia in the Late Roman mental map, second to sixth centuries 
Giusto Traina

Part II. Movements, Contacts, and Exchanges:

9. Genetic history and migrations in Western Eurasia 
Patrick Geary

10. Northern invaders: migration and conquest as scholarly topos in Eurasian history 
Michael Kulikowski

11. Chinese and inner Asian perspectives on the history of the Northern dynasties (386–589 CE) in Chinese historiography 
Luo Xin 羅新

12. Xiongnu and Huns: archaeological perspectives on a centuries-old debate about identity and migration 
Ursula Brosseder

13. Ethnicity and empire in the Western Eurasian Steppes 
Walter Pohl

14. The languages of Christianity on the silk roads and the transmission of Mediterranean culture into central Asia 
Scott Fitzgerald Johnson

15. The spread of Buddhist culture to China between the third and seventh century 
Max Deeg

16. The circulation of astrological lore and its political use between the Roman East, Sasanian Iran, Central Asia, and the Türks 
Frantz Grenet

17. Luminous markers: pearls and royal authority in Late Antique Iran and Eurasia 
Joel Walker

Part III. Empires, Diplomacy, and Frontiers:

18. Byzantium's Eurasian policy in the age of the Türk Empire 
Mark Whittow

19. Sasanian Iran and its northeastern frontier: offense, defense, and diplomatic 
Daniel T. Potts

20. Infrastructures of legitimacy in inner Asia: the Early Türk Empires 
Michael R. Drompp

21. The stateless Nomads of Central Eurasia 
Peter B. Golden

22. Aspects of elite representation among the sixth- to seventh-century Türks 
Sören Stark

23. Patterns of Roman diplomacy with Iran and the steppe peoples 
Ekaterina Nechaeva

24. Collapse of a Eurasian hybrid: the case of the Northern Wei
Andrew Eisenberg

25. Ideological interweaving in Eastern Eurasia: simultaneous kingship and dynastic competition 
Jonathan Karam Skaff

26. Followers and leaders in northeastern Eurasia, ca. seventh to tenth centuries
Naomi Standen

Epilogue 
Averil Cameron.

Friday, December 29, 2017

[Dissertation] Fringes and Seams: Boundaries of Erudition in Early Medieval China

Author:
Nicoll-Johnson, Evan Vincent

Defended:

2017

School:

UCLA

Abstract:


In China’s early medieval period, scholastic erudition and refined self-expression were requisite talents of the literate elite, and achievement in both areas depended on the production, circulation, and consumption of texts. This dissertation examines several methods of textual organization and compilation that arose and flourished in this period. Although such works served as testaments to the broad erudition of their compilers, they were also criticized for their unrestrained ambition, disorderly structure, and problematically “miscellaneous” contents. The first two chapters address bibliographic treatises compiled during the Han and early Tang dynasties, showing how these ambitious scholarly projects relegated complexly organized works to categories reserved for “miscellaneous” texts. I find that the earlier treatise, contained

in Han shu, is inconsistent in the qualities it assigns to texts it describes as za 雜, or “miscellaneous,” while the later treatise, found in Sui shu, displays the influence of the centuries of intervening textual production and circulation through a new interest in scribal practices and compilation techniques, which is also apparent in its critiques of all its “miscellaneous” texts. Each of the remaining three chapters addresses a different method of textual reuse that arose in the centuries between these two bibliographies. In chapter three, I discuss the extensive historiographic annotations to Sanguo zhi and Shishuo xinyu, which have themselves been criticized for their disorderliness, and also make frequent use of texts bibliographies describe as “miscellaneous.” Chapter four is focused on Jinlouzi 金樓子, a uniquely structured compilation of private writings and gathered anecdotes, showing how its distinctive approach to textual reuse and organization has influenced its complex transmission and reception. Chapter five discusses collections of liezhuan 列傳 biographies compiled for several dynastic histories, using analysis of phrases that describe reading and erudition to examine the development of a standard biographical style. By combining digital analyses of patterns within these texts with investigation of their structure and contents, I show how these texts, though maligned for their disorderliness and “miscellaneousness,” are all attempts to bring a quickly expanding corpus to order, and to find new ways to make use of the many texts to which their compilers had access.

Table of Contents:

Introduction
1. Disorderly Texts and the Textual Order: Za in the Han shu Bibliographic 
    Treatise
2. Redefining Disorder: Za in the Sui shu bibliographic treatise
3. Supplementing the Records and Anecdotes: Annotation and Bibliography
4. Brick by Brick: Jinlouzi and the Construction of a Textual Identity
5. Patterns of Erudition: Identifying and Defining “Broad Reading”
Conclusion

Wednesday, December 27, 2017

古代の日本列島と東アジア

Author:
石井正敏 (Masatoshi Ishii)

Publication Date:
September 2017

Publisher:
勉誠出版




Table of Contents:

序 言 鈴木靖民

Ⅰ 倭国と東アジア外交
 1 五世紀の日韓関係―倭の五王と高句麗・百済―
 2 『日本書紀』隋使裴世清の朝見記事について

Ⅱ 古代の日本と新羅・渤海
 3 日本・渤海間の名分関係―舅甥問題を中心に―
 4 八・九世紀の日羅関係
 5 九世紀の日本・唐・新羅三国間貿易について

Ⅲ 内憂と外患―貞観期の災害・海賊―
 6 円仁と張宝高―入唐日本人と新羅人―
 7 大宰府鴻臚館と張宝高時代を中心とする日本・新羅関係
 8 貞観十一年の震災と外寇
 9 貞観十一年の天災と外寇
 10 東アジア史からみた鞠智城

Ⅳ 古代国家の変転と残像
 11 『金液還丹百問訣』にみえる渤海商人李光玄について―日本渡航問題を中心に―
 12 『日本書紀』金春秋来日記事について
 13 藤原定家書写『長秋記』紙背文書「高麗渤海関係某書状」について
 14 東アジアの変動と日本外交

略年譜・著作目録
第一巻初出一覧
索 引

魏晋南北朝官人身分制研究

Author:
岡部毅史 (Tsuyoshi Okabe)

Publisher:
汲古書院

Publication Date:
November 2017




Table of Contents:

前言
序章 官人身分制と魏晋南北朝史研究――本書の課題――

上編 魏晋南北朝期における官人身分の成立と展開
第一章 官人身分の成立と展開――晋南朝期の免官を手がかりに――
第二章 北朝における位階制度の形成――北魏の「階」の再検討から――
第三章 魏晋南北朝期の官制における「階」と「資」――「品」との関係を中心に――
第四章 北魏北齊「職人」考――位階制度研究の視点から――

下編 魏晋南北朝期における官人身分制の諸相
第五章 南朝時代における将軍号の性格に関する一考察――唐代散官との関連から――
第六章 北魏前期の位階秩序について――爵と品の分析を中心に――
第七章 北魏における官の清濁について

付論 書評 閻歩克著『品位与職位 秦漢魏晋南北朝官階制度研究』
終章 魏晋南北朝期における官人身分制の確立とその意義

Sunday, December 24, 2017

Confucianism in China: An Introduction

Author:
Tony Swain

Publisher:
Bloomsbury Publishing

Publication Date:
September 2017



Abstract:

This accessible history of Confucianism, or the 'Way of the Ru', emphasizes the religious dimensions of the tradition. It clearly explains the tradition's unique and subtle philosophical ideals as well as the 'arts of the Ru' whereby seemingly simple acts such as reading, sitting quietly, good manners, and attending to family and state responsibilities, became ways of ultimate transformation.

This book explains the origins of the Ru and documents their impact in imperial China, before providing extensive coverage of the modern era. Confucianism in China: An Introduction shows how the long history of the Ru is vital to comprehending China today. As the empire drew to an end, there were impassioned movements both to reinvent and to eradicate Ru tradition. Less than forty years ago, it seemed close to extinction, but today it is undergoing spectacular revival.

This introduction is suitable for anyone wishing to understand a tradition that shaped imperial China and which is now increasingly swaying Chinese religious, philosophical, political, and economic developments. The book contains a glossary of key terms and 22 images, and further resources can be found on the book's webpage


Saturday, December 23, 2017

MEOU-TSEU: Dialogues pour dissiper la confusion 牟子・理惑論

Author:
Beatrice L'Haridon

Publication Date:
24/10/2017



Abstract:

Les Dialogues de Meou-tseu pour dissiper la confusion se présentent comme la première « défense et illustration » du bouddhisme en Chine. Ils auraient été composés par un lettré obscur, maître Meou, vivant dans les marches méridionales de l’empire des Han finissant. Versé à l’origine dans les Classiques confucéens et le Laozi, ce maître confronté à une situation politique dangereuse et chaotique, se tourne vers la « Voie du Bouddha ».
Un tel changement suscite des critiques telles qu’il doit descendre dans l’arène et tenter, à l’aide d’une rhétorique puisée dans la tradition classique chinoise, de préparer ses contemporains à l’enseignement, étrange et étranger, du Bouddha. Ses dialogues formeront plus tard un modèle pour les nombreuses controverses qui contribuèrent à définir les « trois enseignements », confucianisme, bouddhisme et taoïsme. Au lecteur contemporain, ils permettent de ressentir et de comprendre l’étonnement, l’intérêt, la confusion ou encore l’hostilité qui pouvaient exister au moment de cette rencontre, incomparable par son ampleur et des conséquences, entre Chine des Han et bouddhisme indien.

Table of Contents:

Remerciements
Introduction
Histoire du texte
Bibliographie
Carte de la Chine du sud à la fin des Han orientaux
Sommaire
Note sur la présentation du texte

Dialogues pour dissiper la confusion

Index des noms propres
Index des notions

Friday, December 22, 2017

Understanding the Analects of Confucius: A New Translation of the Lunyu with Annotations

Author:
Peimin Ni

Publisher:
SUNY Press

Publication Year:
2017




Abstract:

A new translation and commentary of the Analects for contemporary audiences. The Analects of Confucius is arguably the single most influential work of China’s cultural heritage. In this new English translation, Peimin Ni accomplishes the rare feat of simultaneously providing a faithful translation of the text, offering his own reading based on gongfu (practice) perspective, and presenting major alternative readings to help the reader understand how diverse interpretations and controversies arise. In addition to the inclusion of the original Chinese text, Ni adds a comprehensive introduction, a discussion of key terms, annotations, and extensive cross-references. In doing so, Ni makes the text accessible and engaging for today’s audience.


Thursday, December 21, 2017

The Bloomsbury Research Handbook of Chinese Philosophy Methodologies

Editor: 
Sor-hoon Tan

Publisher: 
Bloomsbury Academic

Publication Date:
August 2016



Abstract:

The Bloomsbury Research Handbook of Chinese Philosophy Methodologies presents a new understanding of the changing methods used to study Chinese philosophy. By identifying the various different approaches and discussing the role, and significance of philosophical methods in the Chinese tradition, this collection identifies difficulties and exciting developments for scholars of Asian philosophy.

Divided into four parts, the nature of Chinese philosophical thought is illuminated by discussing historical developments, current concerns and methodological challenges. Surveying recent methodological trends, this research companion explores and evaluates the methodologies that have been applied to Chinese philosophy. From these diverse angles, an international team of experts reflect on the considerations that enter their methodological choices and indicate new research directions. The Bloomsbury Research Handbook of Chinese Philosophy Methodologies is an important contribution to the education of the next generation of Chinese philosophers.


The Bloomsbury Research Handbook of Chinese Philosophy and Gender

Editor:
Ann A. Pang-White

Publication Date:
April, 2016

Publisher: 
Bloomsbury Academic



Abstract:

Covering the historical, social, political, and cultural contexts, The Bloomsbury Research Handbook of Chinese Philosophy and Gender presents a comprehensive overview of the complexity of gender disparity in Chinese thought and culture.

Divided into four main sections, an international group of experts in Chinese Studies write on Confucian, Daoist and Buddhist approaches to gender relations. Each section includes a general introduction, a set of authoritative articles written by leading scholars and comprehensive bibliographies, designed to provide the non-specialist with a practical and broad overview. Beginning with the Ancient and Medieval period before moving on to Modern and Contemporary approaches, specially commissioned chapters include Pre-Qin canonical texts, women in early Chinese ethics, the yin-yang gender dynamic and the Buddhist understanding of the conception of gender. Considering why the philosophy of women and gender dynamics in Chinese thought is rarely confronted, The Bloomsbury Research Handbook of Chinese Philosophy and Gender is a pioneering cross-disciplinary introduction to Chinese philosophy's intersection with gender studies.

By bridging the fields of Chinese philosophy, religion, intellectual history, feminism, and gender studies, this cutting-edge volume fills a great need in the current literature on Chinese philosophy and provides student and scholars with an invaluable research resource to a growing field.


Monday, December 18, 2017

Persian Christians at the Chinese Court: The Xi'an Stele and the Early Medieval Church of the East

Author:
Todd Godwin

Publisher:
I.B.Tauris & Co Ltd.

Publication Date: 
18 Dec 2017





Abstract:

The Xi'an Stele, erected in Tang China's capital in 781, describes in both Syriac and Chinese the existence of Christian communities in northern China. While scholars have considered the Stele exclusively in relation to the Chinese cultural and historical context, Todd Godwin demonstrates that it can only be fully understood by reconstructing the complex connections that existed between the Church of the East, Sasanian aristocratic culture, and the Tang Empire (617–907) between the fall of the Sasanian Persian Empire (225–651) and the birth of the Abbasid Caliphate (762–1258).

Through close textual re-analysis of the Stele and by drawing on ancient sources in Syriac, Greek, Arabic, and Chinese, Godwin demonstrates that Tang China (617–907) was a cosmopolitan milieu where multiple religious traditions, namely Buddhism, Zoroastrianism, Manichaeism, and Christianity, formed zones of elite culture. Syriac Christianity in fact remained powerful in Persia throughout the period, and Christianity―not Zoroastrianism―was officially regarded by the Tang government as "The Persian Religion."

Persian Christians at the Chinese Court uncovers the role played by Syriac Christianity in the economic and cultural integration of late Sasanian Iran and China, and is important reading for all scholars of the Church of the East, China, and the Middle East in the medieval period.

Table of Contents:

Chapter One: The Late Sasanian Court and Divine Economy
Chapter Two: 'Repairing the Imperial Net' before the An Lushan Rebellion
Chapter Three: The Habitus of Patriarch Timothy I
Chapter Four: The Court of Emperor Tang Dezong as 'Imperial Net,' andthe 
                     Church of the East's Persian Longue Duree

Saturday, December 16, 2017

Coping with the Future: Theories and Practices of Divination in East Asia

Editor:
Michael Lackner

Publication Date:
December 2017

Publisher:
Brill

Abstract:

Coping with the Future: Theories and Practices of Divination in East Asia offers insights into various techniques of divination, their evolution, and their assessment. The contributions cover the period from the earliest documents on East Asian mantic arts to their appearance in the present time. The volume reflects the pervasive manifestations of divination in literature, religious and political life, and their relevance for society and individuals. Special emphasis is placed on cross-cultural influences and attempts to find theoretical foundations for divinatory practices. This edited volume is an initiative to study the phenomena of divination across East Asian cultures and beyond. It is also one of the first attempts to theorize divinatory practices through East Asian traditions.




Table of Contents:


Introduction
Michael Lackner

Part 1: Divination and Literature: Excavated and Extant

1 A Recently Published Shanghai Museum Bamboo Manuscript on Divination
Marco Caboara

2 Hexagrams and Prognostication in the Weishu 緯書 Literature: The Thirty-Two-Year Cycle of the Qian zuo du 乾鑿度
Bent Nielsen

3 The Representation of Mantic Arts in the High Culture of Medieval China
Paul W. Kroll

4 Divination, Fate Manipulation, and Protective Knowledge in and around The Wedding of the Duke of Zhou and Peach Blossom Girl, a Popular Myth of Late Imperial China
Vincent Durand-Dastès

Part 2: Divination and Religions

5 A List of Magic and Mantic Practices in the Buddhist Canon
Esther-Maria Guggenmos

6 The Allegorical Cosmos: The Shi 式 Board in Medieval Taoist and Buddhist Sources
Dominic Steavu

7 Divining Hail: Deities, Energies, and Tantra on the Tibetan Plateau
Anne C. Klein

Part 3: Divination and Politics

8 Early Chinese Divination and Its Rhetoric
Martin Kern

9 Choosing Auspicious Dates and Sites for Royal Ceremonies in Eighteenth-century Korea
Park Kwon Soo

Part 4: Divination and Individual

10 Exploring the Mandates of Heaven: Wen Tianxiang’s Concepts of Fate and Mantic Knowledge
Liao Hsien-huei

11 Chŏng Yak-yong on Yijing Divination
Kim Yung Sik

12 From Jianghu to Liumang: Working Conditions and Cultural Identity of Wandering Fortune-Tellers in Contemporary China
Stéphanie Homola

13 Women and Divination in Contemporary Korea
Jennifer Jung-Kim

Part 5: Mantic Arts: When East Meets West

14 Translation and Adaption: The Continuous Interplay between Chinese Astrology and Foreign Culture
Che-chia Chang 張哲嘉

15 Against Prognostication: Ferdinand Verbiest’s Criticisms of Chinese Mantic Arts
Chu Pingyi 祝平一

16 Contradictory Forms of Knowledge? Divination and Western Knowledge in Late Qing and Early Republican China
Li Fan and Michael Lackner

17 Western Horoscopic Astrology in Korea
Jun Yong Hoon

Part 6: Reflections on Mantic Arts

18 How to quantify the Value of Domino Combinations? Divination and Shifting Rationalities in Late Imperial China
Andrea Bréard

19 Correlating Time Within One’s Hand: The Use of Temporal Variables in Early Modern Japanese “Chronomancy” Techniques
Matthias Hayek

20 The Physical Shape Theory of Fengshui in China and Korea
Oh Sanghak

Thursday, December 14, 2017

[Dissertation] Negotiating Boundaries: Cross-Border Migrants in Early Medieval China

Author:
Wen-Yi Huang

School:
McGill University

Defended:
2017

Abstract:

      This dissertation is the first full-length study of cross-border migrants in early medieval China. Its focus is on the nearly four hundred southern migrants, who moved, as war captives or as asylum seekers, to the Northern Wei (386-534 CE) from the three successive southern states of Song (420-479 CE), Qi (479-502 CE), and Liang (502-557 CE). It provides a bottom-up approach to early medieval interstate politics, and adds a human dimension to it.  It also offers an historical perspective on contemporary issues on migration and integration.
      Scholars have long recognized the four hundred years between the Han (206 BCE-220 CE) and Tang dynasties (618-916 CE) as an era of great migrations, migrations that transformed the political and cultural landscapes of southern and northern China. In this multi-power period, large-scale migrations, internal or external, occurred most frequently under the watch of the Northern Wei regime, and the Northern Wei government played an active role in facilitating and controlling migration. Accordingly, primary sources on displaced persons, especially southern migrants, who went to Northern Wei, are relatively abundant, which give an up-close picture of a group of people long neglected in Chinese history.
      My thesis employs a wide variety of primary sources. It includes, besides received textual records (official and unofficial histories, geographical texts, Buddhist hagiographies, anecdotes, and legal texts), also excavated funerary inscriptions, and archaeological materials. Theoretically grounded, it draws inspiration from literature on boundary work theory in other parts of the world to examine the dynamics of inclusion and exclusion at play between southern migrants and the Northern Wei government, between southern migrants and Northern Wei elites, and within the communities of southern migrants. 
      This project consists of four chapters. The first chapter, “People on the Move,” presents an overview of the cross-border migrants under study. It examines different patterns of side-changing and stresses the diversity among cross-border migrants. The remainder of the dissertation is a social history of cross-border migrants. 
      Chapter 2, “State and Cross-Border Migrants,” centers on the physical side of boundary work by looking into Northern Wei policies to control migration, including the bureaucratic terminology on border crossers, the identity verification process of migrants, and the rewards and punishments foreseen and doled out.
      Chapter 3, “Integration of Cross-Border Migrants,” investigates the extent to which cross-border migrants were integrated into the host society. It first analyzes how the Northern Wei elites erected boundaries between themselves and newcomers, particularly by means of food and language. It then discusses southern migrants’ varying survival strategies, ranging from the quotidian act of eating northern foods to long-term tactics of marriage alliances with northern leading families, recreating their local bases in the north, and utilizing migrant networks.
      The fourth chapter, “Those Who Were Left Behind,” explores the negative consequences of cross-border migration on the migrants’ families left behind in the south, including the difficulties of ransoming migrants, the problems of repatriating migrants’ remains for burial, and the inheritance issues caused by the double marriage of their husband or father at both sides of the border.

Thursday, December 7, 2017

Heavenly Numbers : Astronomy and Authority in Early Imperial China

Author:
Christopher Cullen

Publication Date:
16 November 2017

Publisher:
Oxford University Press




Abstract:

This book is a history of the development of mathematical astronomy in China, from the late third century BCE, to the early 3rd century CE - a period often referred to as 'early imperial China'. It narrates the changes in ways of understanding the movements of the heavens and the heavenly bodies that took place during those four and a half centuries, and tells the stories of the institutions and individuals involved in those changes. It gives clear explanations of technical practice in observation, instrumentation, and calculation, and the steady accumulation of data over many years - but it centres on the activity of the individual human beings who observed the heavens, recorded what they saw, and made calculations to analyse and eventually make predictions about the motions of the celestial bodies. It is these individuals, their observations, their calculations, and the words they left to us that provide the narrative thread that runs through this work. Throughout the book, the author gives clear translations of original material that allow the reader direct access to what the people in this book said about themselves and what they tried to do.

Table of Contents:

1: The astronomical empire
2: Li in everyday life: dates and calendars
3: The Emperor's Grand Inception, and the defeat of the Grand Clerk
4: The Triple Concordance system & Liu Xin's 劉歆 'Grand Unified Theory'
5: The measures and forms of heaven
6: Restoration and re-creation in the Eastern Han
7: The age of debates
8: Liu Hong 劉洪 and the conquest of the moon
9: Epilogue

Darstellung Des Bogenschiessens in Bronzeinschriften Der West-Zhou-Zeit (1045-771 V.Chr.), Die: Eine Philologische Quellenanalyse

Author:
Adamski, Susanne

Publisher:
Harrassowitz

Publication date:
1 June 2017


Abstract:

Das laut überlieferter konfuzianischer Texte überwiegend als „Ritual“ klassifizierte und mit bestimmter Funktion und Symbolik versehene Bogenschießen, das vom Westlichen Zhōu-Adel (1045-771 v.Chr.) praktiziert wurde, tritt auch in originären Bronzeinschriften jener Zeit zutage. Die bisherige Forschung hat sich zwar vereinzelt mit diesem Phänomen auseinandergesetzt, zeigt sich jedoch teilweise von späteren Quellen beeinflusst oder berücksichtigt unterschiedliche grafische, syntaktische und semantische Deutungsmöglichkeiten der Inschriften nur unzureichend. Die vorliegende Studie untersucht daher, welche Merkmale des Bogenschießens in den Primärquellen tatsächlich feststellbar sind, und liefert erstmals eine vollständig nachvollziehbare, umfassend annotierte Transkription und Übersetzung von fünf Bronzeinschriften der West-Zhōu-Zeit, die das Bogenschießen thematisieren. Ausführliche Glossen erörtern epigrafische Probleme und Aspekte des historisch-gesellschaftlichen Kontextes. 

Im Rahmen der Einzelanalysen, die mehrere Übersetzungsmöglichkeiten einbeziehen, untersucht Susanne Adamski, welche möglichen Funktionen aus Wortlaut und Aufbau der jeweiligen Inschrift abzuleiten sind und ob das dort dargestellte Bogenschießen wirklich als „Ritual“ im Sinne sowohl heutiger Ritualdefinitionen als auch der tradierten Ritenliteratur auszumachen ist. Bisherige sinologische Annahmen werden dabei widerlegt. Die Studie bietet in dieser Form eine neue Herangehensweise an die Analyse von Bronzeinschriften als historisch-gesellschaftliche Dokumente und richtet sich an Sinologen und Historiker mit Interesse an der frühchinesischen Gesellschaft und Epigrafik.

Table of Contents:

Danksagung
Regierungsdaten der West-Zhōu-zeitlichen Herrscher
Vorbemerkungen

1. Einleitung
1.1 Gegenstand der Untersuchung
1.2 Forschungsstand
1.3 Methode und Inschriftenkorpus

2. Analysen West-Zhōu-zeitlicher Bronzeinschriften zum Bogenschießen 
2.1 Analyse der „Mài fāngzūn 麦方尊“-Inschrift
2.1.1 Transkription und Übersetzung der „Mài fāngzūn“-Inschrift
2.1.2 Glossen
2.1.3 Inhaltsangabe der „Mài fāngzūn“-Inschrift
2.1.4 Inhaltsanalyse der „Mài fāngzūn“-Inschrift
2.2 Analyse der „Zuò Bóguǐ 柞伯簋“-Inschrift
2.2.1 Transkription und Übersetzung der „Zuò Bó guǐ“-Inschrift
2.2.2 Glossen
2.2.3 Inhaltsangabe der „Zuò Bó guǐ“-Inschrift
2.2.4 Inhaltsanalyse der „Zuò Bó guǐ“-Inschrift
2.3 Analyse der „Lìng dǐng 令鼎“-Inschrift
2.3.1 Transkription und Übersetzung der „Lìng dǐng“-Inschrift
2.3.2 Glossen
2.3.3 Inhaltsangabe der „Lìng dǐng“-Inschrift
2.3.4 Inhaltsanalyse der „Lìng dǐng“-Inschrift
2.4 Analyse der „Jìng guǐ 靜簋“-Inschrift
2.4.1 Transkription und Übersetzung der „Jìng guǐ“-Inschrift
2.4.2 Glossen
2.4.3 Inhaltsangabe der „Jìng guǐ“-Inschrift
2.4.4 Inhaltsanalyse der „Jìng guǐ“-Inschrift
2.5 Analyse der „Yì hégài 義盉盖“-Inschrift
2.5.1 Transkription und Übersetzung der „Yì hégài“-Inschrift
2.5.2 Glossen
2.5.3 Inhaltsangabe der „Yì hégài“-Inschrift
2.5.4 Inhaltsanalyse der „Yì hégài“-Inschrift

3. Auswertung: Zur Darstellung des Bogenschießens in
Bronzeinschriften der West-Zhōu-Zeit

4. Fazit: Zur kulturellen Bedeutung
des West-Zhōu-zeitlichen Bogenschießens

Literaturverzeichnis
Verzeichnisse
Indices 

Tuesday, November 28, 2017

Über den Alltag hinaus: Festschrift für Thomas O. Höllmann zum 65. Geburtstag

Editors:
Shing Müller and Armin Selbitschka

Publishing Date:
25.10.2017

Publisher:
Harrassowitz Verlag




Abstract:

In 21 Beiträgen ehren Schüler und Weggefährten aus München, Münster, Göttingen, Heidelberg, Cambridge und Oxford (GB), Los Angeles (CA), Tempe (AZ), Beijing und Shanghai den international renommierten Sinologen und nunmehr Präsidenten der Bayerischen Akademie der Wissenschaften Thomas O. Höllmann anlässlich seines 65. Geburtstags. 


Höllmanns vielseitigen Forschungsinteressen Rechnung tragend vereint die Festschrift Untersuchungen aus den Bereichen Archäologie, Geschichte, Kunst, Philosophie und Ethnologie. Sie beleuchten verschiedenste Aspekte des täglichen Lebens vor allem in China vom Altertum bis in die Gegenwart. Dazu zählen ebenso die Aufnahme fremder Technologien in der Bronzeverarbeitung wie die Untersuchung von Ritualen und Wohnformen in der chinesischen Frühgeschichte, die Neubewertung zweier grundlegender Inschriftentexte aus der frühen Kaiserzeit wie die moderne Reinterpretation klassisch konfuzianischer Hochzeitsfeierlichkeiten. Ergänzt werden die Studien zur chinesischen Geschichte durch Beiträge zum Stadtleben der gebildeten Oberschicht im alten Indien und zum Leben mit Ruinen im antiken Rom. Auf diese Weise bietet dieser vielseitige Band nicht nur Sinologen, sondern auch archäologisch, geschichtswissenschaftlich, kunsthistorisch, philosophisch und ethnologisch interessierten Lesern zahlreiche Möglichkeiten, Neues zu entdecken.


Table of Contents:


Vorwort
Tabula gratulatoria
Schriftenverzeichnis

Hans van Ess, München
Mit Thomas Höllmann Tür an Tür

ALLTAG UND MEHR IM ALTEN CHINA

Jessica Rawson, Oxford
Bronze Vessels in Early China

Lothar von Falkenhausen, Los Angeles
Communication with the Divine Sphere in Ancient China

Maria Khayutina, München
Western Zhou Living Ambience: Earth-Sheltered Dwellings
in the Feng River Valley

Reinhard Emmerich, Münster
Chinas Zweiter Kaiser in neuem Lichte?

Armin Selbitschka, Shanghai
Quotidian Afterlife: Grain, Granary Models, and the Notion of Continuing
Nourishment in Late Pre-imperial and Early Imperial Tombs

Michael Loewe, Cambridge
Displaced Persons in Han China and the So-called “Mausoleum Towns”

Bai Yunxiang 白雲翔, Beijing

論漢代人生活中的魚和觀念中的魚
(Fish in Han China: Aesthetic, Symbolic, and Culinary Aspects)

Catrin Kost, München
Von Schmutzfinken, Saubermännern und Barbaren: Überlegungen
zur Stellung der Körperpflege im China der Han-Dynastie

Annette Kieser, Münster
Von Duftsäckchen und Schweinekoben: Toilettenmodelle
aus Gräbern der Sechs Dynastien in Südchina

Shing Müller, München
Zelte der Tuoba-Xianbei im 5. Jh.: Eine vorläufige Untersuchung

Lin Meicun 林梅村, Beijing
唐代文人的追求與夢想—唐代文人庭院建築遺跡調查
(Pursuit and Dreams of Chinese Scholars in the Tang Dynasty:
A Survey on Scholars’ Courtyards of Tang Times based on
Archaeological Finds and Written Sources)

JENSEITS DER CHINESISCHEN KULTUR

Roderich Ptak, München
Vom „Hundestaat“ nach Liuqiu und zu den „Ziegen-Inseln“:
Anmerkungen zu einer Meerfahrt im Lingbiao lu yi

Erhard Rosner, Göttingen
Marginalien zur Geschichte des Betelkauens in China

Hans van Ess, München
Der Name der Uiguren

Bruno J. Richtsfeld, München
Ursprungsmythen der Lhopa (Bangni-Bokar) in Südost-Tibet

Jens-Uwe Hartmann, München
Das Leben des kultivierten Städters im frühen Indien: Alltag oder Ideal?

Martin Zimmermann, München
Lost cities, urban explorers und antike Landschaften: Vom Leben mit Ruinen

PHILOSOPHISCHE ASPEKTE

Guje Kroh, München
Überlegungen zu Begriffen des Erkennens bzw. Wissens bei Xi Kang

Marc Nürnberger, München
Meister des Alltags

Hoyt Cleveland Tillman, Tempe
Reflections on Chinese Student Opinions on
the Modernized Zhu Confucian Wedding

KOLOPHON

Lothar Ledderose, Heidelberg
Kolophone in China und Europa

Monday, November 27, 2017

Sinology in Post-Communist States: Views from the Czech Republic, Mongolia, Poland, and Russia

Editor:
Chih-yu Shih

Publication Date:
March, 2016

Publisher:
The Chinese University Press




Abstract:

Drawing on extensive historical studies of the lives and works of distinctive yet understudied sinologists in the Czech Republic, Mongolia, Poland, and Russia, this volume takes readers on a journey of exploration and rediscovery of post-communist sinology—an important topic that we know surprisingly little about. After the end of the Cold War, the China Studies research agenda in these four countries has evolved divergently without any apparent shared orientation, despite the previously shared socialist and Communist legacies. Contributors draw on case studies to illustrate how sinologists in these countries actively use diverse approaches to map China’s modern evolution and deconstruct stereotypical notions of China’s rise in the twenty-first century. These hallmark studies also reveal sinologists’ deep engagement with the Chinese humanities. The conclusions in this volume have major implications for the evolution of intellectual history and its analysis, by emphasizing the importance of individualized agency to the practice of post-Communist sinology as both a statement of identity and a strategy for survival during tumultuous political times.

Table of Contents:

List of Contributors vii

Introduction:
An Anthropology of Knowledge in Post-Communist Sinology xi
Chih-yu Shih

Part I Doing Sinology from Post-Communist Perspectives

1 Beyond Academia and Politics: Understanding China and
Doing Sinology in Czechoslovakia after World War II 1
Olga Lomová and Anna Zádrapová

2 Linguistic Choices for the Identity of “China” in the
Discourse of Czech Sinologists 27
Melissa Shih-hui Lin

3 Surging between China and Russia: Legacies, Politics,
and Turns of Sinology in Contemporary Mongolia 41
Enkhchimeg Baatarkhuyag and Chih-yu Shih

4 Sinology in Poland: Epistemological Debates and
Academic Practice 61
Anna Rudakowska

5 The Lifting of the “Iron Veil” by Russian Sinologists
During the Soviet Period (1917–1991) 93
Valentin C. Golovachev

6 Soviet Sinology: Two Conflicting Paradigms of
Chinese History 115
Alexander Pisarev

7 Chinese Studies in Post-Soviet Russia: From Uneven
Development to the Search for Integrity 133
Alexei D. Voskressenski

Part II Being Sinologists in Post-Communist Societies

8 Polish Sinology: Reflections on Individualized
Trajectories 159
Bogdan J. Góralczyk

9 “The Songs of Ancient China”: The Myth of “The Other”
Appropriated by an Emerging Sinology 189
Olga Lomová and Anna Zádrapová

10 Between Sinology and Socialism: The Collective Memory
of Czech Sinologists in the 1950s 213
Ter-Hsing Cheng

11 Tangut (Xi Xia 西夏) Studies in the Soviet Union: The Quinta
Essentia of Russian Oriental Studies 233
Sergey Dmitriev

12 Different Ways to Become a Soviet Sinologist:
A Note on Personal Choices 253
Marina Kuznetsova-Fetisova

Conclusion:
The Evolution of Sinology after the Communist Party-State 267
Chih-yu Shih

Sunday, November 26, 2017

[Dissertation] Buddhist Astrology and Astral Magic in the Tang Dynasty

Author:
Jeffrey Kotyk

School:
Leiden University

Defended:
2017

Abstract:

This study demonstrates that various systems of foreign astrology, originating in India, Iran and the Hellenistic world, played a significant, albeit hitherto largely unrecognized role, in the development of Buddhism during the Tang dynasty, which subsequently deeply influenced religious traditions across East Asia for several centuries. Although Indian astrology was made available in China from the fourth to seventh centuries, it was never widely implemented in China in these centuries, for it was only in the eighth century with the introduction of Mantrayāna that Chinese Buddhists came to have a pressing need to observe astrology. This subsequently sparked popular interest in foreign astrology among Buddhist and non-Buddhist communities in China, a development that
fostered the simultaneous development of astral magic comprised of elements from multiple sources, including some traced back to Greco-Egyptian and Near Eastern traditions. Around the turn of the ninth century, translation of astrological materials shifted from Indian to Iranian sources as a result of Persian astronomers operating at the court. The popularity of astrology additionally facilitated the proliferation of uniquely Chinese astral deities in Chinese Buddhism, most notably Tejaprabhā Buddha and the seven stars of the Big Dipper. This understudied interaction that resulted from deep interest in astrology marks a significant transmission of cultural and religious knowledge
through multiple civilizations.

Table of Contents:

Abstract
Acknowledgments
Table of Contents
List of Tables and Figures
Abbreviations and Conventions

Preface

Chapter 1: Introduction
1.1. Preliminary Considerations
1.2. State of the Field
1.3. Aims of this Study
1.4. Primary Sources
1.5. Methodology
1.6. Chapter Outlines

Chapter 2: Astrology and Eurasian Civilizations
2.1. Definitions: What is Astrology?
2.2. The Ecliptic in Three Civilizations
2.3. Occidental Astrology
2.4. Chinese Astrology
2.5. Astrology in Early Buddhism and Brahmanism
2.6. Astrology in Sūtra and Vinaya Literature
2.7. Astrology in Mahāyāna and Tantra
2.8. Astrology in the Chinese Buddhist Context
2.9. Conclusion

Chapter 3: Early Buddhist Buddhist Astrology in China: the Fourth to Seventh Centuries
3.1. Translations of the Śārdūlakarṇāvadāna
3.2. Astrological Elements in the Mahāsaṃnipāta
3.3. Early Buddhist Hemerology in China
3.4. Brahmanical Astrological Literature in Chinese Translation
3.5. Conclusion

Chapter 4: Buddhist Astrology in the Mid-Tang: the Eighth Century
4.1. The Historical Yixing 一行: Buddhist Monk and Astronomer
4.2. Tantric Hemerology
4.3. Early Astral Iconography
4.4. Amoghavajra and Astrology
4.5. Xiuyao jing 宿曜經 (T 1299)
4.6. Indian and Persian Astronomers at the Tang Court
4.7. The Duli yusi jing 都利聿斯經: Dorotheus in China
4.8. Cao Shiwei’s Futian li 符天曆
4.9. Conclusion

Chapter 5: The Sinicization of Occidental Astrology: the Ninth Century
5.1. Popular Astrology in the Late-Tang
5.2. The Tejaprabhā and Sudṛṣṭi Cults
5.3. Qiyao rangzai jue 七曜攘災決 (T 1308): Mature Buddhist Astrology
5.4. Buddhist and Daoist Astral Magic in the Late-Tang
5.5. The Legendary Yixing
5.6. Xiuyao yigui 宿曜儀軌 (T 1304)
5.7. Qiyao xingchen bie xingfa 七曜星辰別行法 (T 1309)
5.8. Beidou qixing humo fa 北斗七星護摩法 (T 1310)
5.9. Fantian huoluo jiuyao 梵天火羅九曜 (T 1311)
5.10. Worship of the Big Dipper
5.11. Conclusion

Chapter 6: Astrology in Post-Tang East Asia
6.1. Dunhuang and Bezeklik
6.2. Astrology and Astral Deities: Song to Ming Dynasties
6.3. Astrology in Korea, the Liao and Tangut Xixia
6.4. Astrology and Astral Magic in Japan
6.5. Sukuyōdō Horoscopy
6.6. Conclusion

Conclusion

Bibliography
Appendix 1: Timeline of Buddhist Astrology and Astral Magic in China
Appendix 2: Tejaprabhā Maṇḍala
Appendix 3: Tejaprabhā and the planets. Khara-Khoto
Appendix 4: Planetary deities from Kuyō hiryaku 九曜秘曆