DOCSLIB.ORG

Spirits and the Soul in Confucian Ritual Discourse Thomas A

Total Page：16

File Type：pdf, Size：1020Kb

Download full-text PDF Read full-text
Spirits and the Soul in Confucian Ritual Discourse Thomas A Hamilton College Hamilton Digital Commons Articles Works by Type 11-2014 Spirits and the Soul in Confucian Ritual Discourse Thomas A. Wilson Hamilton College, [email protected] Follow this and additional works at: https://digitalcommons.hamilton.edu/articles Part of the Asian History Commons, Chinese Studies Commons, and the History of Religions of Eastern Origins Commons Citation Information Wilson, Thomas A., "Spirits and the Soul in Confucian Ritual Discourse" (2014). Hamilton Digital Commons. https://digitalcommons.hamilton.edu/articles/1 This work is made available by Hamilton College for educational and research purposes under a Creative Commons BY-NC-ND 4.0 license. For more information, visit http://digitalcommons.hamilton.edu/about.html or contact [email protected]. WILSON • SPIRITS AND THE SOUL 1 Journal of Chinese Religions 42 (November 2014) 2: 185-212 DOI: 10.1179/0737769X14Z.00000000013 © Society for the Study of Chinese Religions 2015 SPIRITS AND THE SOUL IN CONFUCIAN RITUAL DISCOURSE THOMAS WILSON Hamilton College, New York, USA As early as the Tang 唐 (618–907), Confucian scholars drew from classical sources to articulate a conception of spirits and the soul that provided a canonical foundation for imperial sacrifices performed by members of the court and bureaucracy to the end of the Qing 清 (1644–1911). Contrary to modern accounts, imperial-era commentaries on the Analects 論語 disclose the figure of Confucius as committed to pious sacrifices to gods and spirits. In commentaries on the Record of Rites 禮記 in the imperial edition of the Five Classics (Correct Meaning of the Five Classics 五經正義, 653), Kong Yingda 孔穎達 (574–648) propounds a detailed conception of spirits, ghosts, and the soul based on statements attributed to Confucius. Confucians from the Song 宋 (960–1279) through the Qing, including Zhu Xi 朱熹 (1130–1200) among others, built on this and other classical sources to formulate feasting rites 祭祀 devoted to gods and spirits. Confucian ritual discourse conceived of the soul as constituted by anima (hun 魂), which animated the body in life, and corporeal soul (po 魄), which constituted the physical senses. As a yang 陽 entity, anima was released from the body upon death and floated upward, whereas the yin 陰 corporeal soul decomposed into the earth. By realizing a state of ritual purity defined by integrity of will, inner reverence and piety, the filial descendant communed with the spirits by means of a process of his affection and the spirits’ response. SACRIFICE AND THE CONFUCIUS OF THE CANON In spite of their reputation for reticence on matters of spirits, Confucian officials nonetheless performed sacrifices to spirits throughout imperial times until the early twentieth century. The emperor, court ministers, and civil officials followed a strict calendar of rites devoted to scores of gods1 and spirits at altars and temples in the capital and throughout the empire. This essay 1 Chinese liturgical sources do not consistently distinguish between gods and spirits. The deity venerated at Heaven’s Altar 天壇 was formally called 昊天上帝 (Heaven-God) and was often referred to 2 WILSON • SPIRITS AND THE SOUL examines uses of the Classics in Confucian ritual discourse to establish the foundation of the imperial cults and ancestor veneration.2 I begin with statements on spirits in the Analects 論語 and follow the tracks of an imperial-era hermeneutics in which Confucius expounds upon gods, spirits, and the human soul in such works as the Record of Rites 禮記 and Book of Filial Piety 孝 經. Many Confucian liturgists and commentators wrote on what the Master said about spirits; here I focus on two, Kong Yingda 孔穎達 (574-648) of the Tang (618-907) and Zhu Xi 朱熹 (1130-1200) of the Song (960-1279), who greatly influenced the direction of these discussions conducted primarily at the imperial court.3 An examination of classical commentaries and critical essays spanning no less than 1500 years divulges a remarkably consistent conception of spirits and the rites to venerate them. The history of Confucian discourse on ritual practice discloses subtle if important shifts in emphasis on what rites accomplish, yet the reverent sacrificing to the spirits never ceased to play a definitive role in the lives of men and women steeped in Confucian culture. Recent research on the modern fate of rites to venerate gods and spirits under the onslaught of Republican reforms underscores the importance of examining Confucian discourses on these matters before the advent of secular-modern thinking in China.4 Confucians held no monopoly on rites to spirits and ancestors, yet their insistence upon adherence to particular canonical authority as promulgated by the court in their ritual practices distinguishes their ritual procedures from Daoist or popular forms of veneration, even though they arguably shared ideas about the nature of spirits and the soul. The Confucian conception of spirits and the soul revolves around the basic assumptions that spirits linger after the death of the body and that they must be nurtured through pious feasting rites of cult sacrifice. The Master and his later interpreters rarely spoke directly about the nature as 天神 (Heaven-spirit). I use “spirit” to refer to an array of numinous agents and essences and use “gods” to refer to the most exalted deities venerated at imperial altars. 2 For detailed discussions of the liturgy of sacrifice to Confucius, see Wilson, “Sacrifice and the Imperial Cult of Confucius”; “The Cultic Confucius in the Imperial Temple and Ancestral Shrine,” in Nylan and Wilson, Lives of Confucius, 165-191 and Wilson, “The Ritual Formation of Confucian Orthodoxy and the Descendants of the Sage,” 577-578. For the liturgy of the imperial cult of Heaven- God, see “Confucianism: The Imperial Cult,” in Encyclopedia of Religion 2nd Edition, 3: 1914-1916. 3 I also discuss Kong Anguo 孔安國 (d. ca. 100 BCE), Bao Xian 包咸 (6 BCE-65 CE), Zheng Xuan 鄭 玄 (127-200 CE), Fan Zuyu 范祖禹 (1041-98), and Huang Zongxi 黃宗羲 (1610-1695). 4 See especially Nedostup, Superstitious Regimes: Religion and the Politics of Chinese Modernity and Goossaert and Palmer, The Religious Question in Modern China. WILSON • SPIRITS AND THE SOUL 3 of spirits outside of the specific ritual contexts in which spirits and human agents interacted according to strict guidelines prescribed by the court. Imperial-era commentaries on the classics elaborated on the Master’s description of two components of the soul – a yang hun 魂 spirit and a yin po 魄 ghost – and the rites, devised by the sages of remote antiquity, to venerate them properly. Classical commentaries well before the Tang and throughout the longue durée of Confucian ritual discourses on spirits and the soul stressed the moral effects on those who purify themselves and participate in such rites personally. By situating Confucius’s statements on spirits found in the Analects within the larger corpus of canonical works, I depart from the perception of the Master as bounded by the singular confines of the Analects, in which he purportedly expressed a rational attitude toward spirits and so reserved judgment on them.5 I focus instead on what I call the “canonical Confucius,” who speaks as the consummate authority on the ritual feasting of spirits in several canonical works. For the purposes of this analysis, I distinguish the canonical Confucius from what modern interpreters regard as the historical Confucius – the figure who speaks in sources that date roughly to the time when he lived.6 In contrast to the latter, classical commentators and court officials who oversaw rites to venerate the gods at imperial altars accepted the authenticity and authority of the words attributed to Confucius in classical texts to fashion a foundation on what the Master said. The canonical Master’s pronouncements on ritual feasting of gods and spirits are dispersed throughout the Rites, including the Constant Mean 中庸, doubly canonized in the Four Books 四書, and Filial Piety. The canon, as interpreted by such imperial-era commentators as Kong Yingda and Zhu Xi, yields a protean figure that intersects with a range of historical, liturgical, and philosophical concerns. In this essay I discuss the classical filaments of the Master who spoke on matters of spirits and who was repeatedly invoked as a preeminent authority in the formation of cults patronized by imperial courts devoted to Heaven-God 昊天上帝 and other celestial, terrestrial, and ancestral gods and spirits. Confucian officials formulated and performed 5 Fung Yu-lan, for example, maintains that Confucians “displayed a rationalist attitude [toward spirits], making it probable that there were other superstitions of his time in which he did not believe” (A History of Chinese Philosophy 1:58 and Feng Youlan, Zhongguo zhexue shi 1:84). 6 Two classic examples of this approach are Gu Jiegang, “Chunqiu shidai de Kongzi he Handai de Kongzi” and Zhu Weizheng, “Lishi de Kongzi yu Kongzi de lishi.” 4 WILSON • SPIRITS AND THE SOUL the liturgies of the imperial cults based on principles enunciated by the canonical Master that would remain essentially intact for the duration of late imperial China.7 SACRIFICE IN THE ANALECTS An anonymous voice in the Analects declaims, “the Master did not speak of strange powers and chaotic spirits” 子不語怪力亂神 (7.21).8 Although the Confucius of the Analects says little about the nature of spirits themselves, he presupposes an understanding of them in Book Three where he repeatedly stresses the necessity of sacrificing to them properly. He laments, for example, a powerful family’s usurpation of rites appropriately performed only by royalty (3.1-2) and wonders if a mountain spirit will decline to partake in that family’s sacrifice offered in violation of the rites (3.6).9 Confucius insists that animals kept especially for a long-neglected but necessary sacrifice remain penned to serve as a reminder that there was once a time when rites were performed assiduously.
Load more

Recommended publications
  • Bringing the Dead to Life: Identification, Interpretation, and Display of Chinese Burial Objects in the Rewi Alley Collection at Canterbury Museum
    Bringing the Dead to Life: Identification, Interpretation, and Display of Chinese Burial Objects in the Rewi Alley Collection at Canterbury Museum A thesis submitted in partial fulfilment of the requirements for the Degree of Master of Arts in Art History University of Canterbury Siobhan O’Brien 2016 Contents List of Figures 1 Acknowledgements 6 Introduction 7 Chapter One: History and Provenance of Chinese Burial Objects with identification of examples from the Rewi Alley Collection 14 Chapter Two: The Ontological and Theoretical Complexities of Burial Objects in Museums 44 Chapter Three: Modes of Display of Chinese Burial Objects from the Rewi Alley Collection at Canterbury Museum 75 Conclusion 104 Bibliography 106 Figures 119 1 List of Figures Fig.1 Model of Granary, Han Dynasty (206 B.C.- 220 A.D.), baked earthenware with green pigment, 110x89x141mm (l x w x h), Rewi Alley Collection, Canterbury Museum, Accession number C1948.40, Source: ‘China, Art and Cultural Diplomacy’,(http://ucomeka1p.canterbury.ac.nz/items/show/671) Accessed August 4, 2015. Fig.2 Model of Granary, Han Dynasty (206 B.C.- 220 A.D.), baked earthenware with green pigment, 97x98x223mm (l x w x h), excavated at Wu Wei, Gansu Province, Rewi Alley Collection, Canterbury Museum, Accession number C1947.8, Source: ‘China, Art and Cultural Diplomacy’, (http://ucomeka1p.canterbury.ac.nz/items/show/669) Accessed August 4 2015. Fig.3 Model of Well-Head, Han Dynasty (206 B.C.- 220 A.D.), baked earthenware with green pigment, 115x106x224mm (l x w x h), excavated at Wu Wei, Gansu Province, Rewi Alley Collection, Canterbury Museum, Accession number C1947.9, Source: ‘China, Art and Cultural Diplomacy’, (http://ucomeka1p.canterbury.ac.nz/items/show/670) Accessed August 4 2015.
    [Show full text]
  • Modalities of Doing Religion and Ritual Polytropy: Evaluating the Religious
    This article was downloaded by: [University of Cambridge] On: 12 February 2012, At: 13:02 Publisher: Routledge Informa Ltd Registered in England and Wales Registered Number: 1072954 Registered office: Mortimer House, 37-41 Mortimer Street, London W1T 3JH, UK Religion Publication details, including instructions for authors and subscription information: http://www.tandfonline.com/loi/rrel20 Modalities of doing religion and ritual polytropy: evaluating the religious market model from the perspective of Chinese religious history Adam Yuet Chau a a Department of East Asian Studies, Faculty of Asian and Middle Eastern Studies, University of Cambridge, Sidgwick Avenue, Cambridge, CB3 9DA, United Kingdom Available online: 22 Dec 2011 To cite this article: Adam Yuet Chau (2011): Modalities of doing religion and ritual polytropy: evaluating the religious market model from the perspective of Chinese religious history, Religion, 41:4, 547-568 To link to this article: http://dx.doi.org/10.1080/0048721X.2011.624691 PLEASE SCROLL DOWN FOR ARTICLE Full terms and conditions of use: http://www.tandfonline.com/page/terms-and- conditions This article may be used for research, teaching, and private study purposes. Any substantial or systematic reproduction, redistribution, reselling, loan, sub-licensing, systematic supply, or distribution in any form to anyone is expressly forbidden. The publisher does not give any warranty express or implied or make any representation that the contents will be complete or accurate or up to date. The accuracy of any instructions, formulae, and drug doses should be independently verified with primary sources. The publisher shall not be liable for any loss, actions, claims, proceedings, demand, or costs or damages whatsoever or howsoever caused arising directly or indirectly in connection with or arising out of the use of this material.
    [Show full text]
  • The Heritage of Non-Theistic Belief in China
    The Heritage of Non-theistic Belief in China Joseph A. Adler Kenyon College Presented to the international conference, "Toward a Reasonable World: The Heritage of Western Humanism, Skepticism, and Freethought" (San Diego, September 2011) Naturalism and humanism have long histories in China, side-by-side with a long history of theistic belief. In this paper I will first sketch the early naturalistic and humanistic traditions in Chinese thought. I will then focus on the synthesis of these perspectives in Neo-Confucian religious thought. I will argue that these forms of non-theistic belief should be considered aspects of Chinese religion, not a separate realm of philosophy. Confucianism, in other words, is a fully religious humanism, not a "secular humanism." The religion of China has traditionally been characterized as having three major strands, the "three religions" (literally "three teachings" or san jiao) of Confucianism, Daoism, and Buddhism. Buddhism, of course, originated in India in the 5th century BCE and first began to take root in China in the 1st century CE, so in terms of early Chinese thought it is something of a latecomer. Confucianism and Daoism began to take shape between the 5th and 3rd centuries BCE. But these traditions developed in the context of Chinese "popular religion" (also called folk religion or local religion), which may be considered a fourth strand of Chinese religion. And until the early 20th century there was yet a fifth: state religion, or the "state cult," which had close relations very early with both Daoism and Confucianism, but after the 2nd century BCE became associated primarily (but loosely) with Confucianism.
    [Show full text]
  • The Emergence and Development of the Sentient Zombie: Zombie
    The Emergence and Development of the Sentient Zombie: Zombie Monstrosity in Postmodern and Posthuman Gothic Kelly Gardner Submitted in partial fulfilment of the requirements for the award of Doctor of Philosophy Division of Literature and Languages University of Stirling 31st October 2015 1 Abstract “If you’ve never woken up from a car accident to discover that your wife is dead and you’re an animated rotting corpse, then you probably won’t understand.” (S. G. Browne, Breathers: A Zombie’s Lament) The zombie narrative has seen an increasing trend towards the emergence of a zombie sentience. The intention of this thesis is to examine the cultural framework that has informed the contemporary figure of the zombie, with specific attention directed towards the role of the thinking, conscious or sentient zombie. This examination will include an exploration of the zombie’s folkloric origin, prior to the naming of the figure in 1819, as well as the Haitian appropriation and reproduction of the figure as a representation of Haitian identity. The destructive nature of the zombie, this thesis argues, sees itself intrinsically linked to the notion of apocalypse; however, through a consideration of Frank Kermode’s A Sense of an Ending, the second chapter of this thesis will propose that the zombie need not represent an apocalypse that brings devastation upon humanity, but rather one that functions to alter perceptions of ‘humanity’ itself. The third chapter of this thesis explores the use of the term “braaaaiiinnss” as the epitomised zombie voice in the figure’s development as an effective threat within zombie-themed videogames.
    [Show full text]
  • GHOSTS in the MACHINE: Approaching Paranormal Phenomona Within the TCM Framework
    GHOSTS IN THE MACHINE: Approaching Paranormal Phenomona within the TCM Framework by Charles Chace, Dipl. Ac., Dipl. C.H., FNAAOM Abstract: The TCM literature generally focuses on complaints defined in somato-psychic terms. These descriptions do not necessarily match all patients who come for herbal or acupuncture therapy. The present article presents two case histories where patients were troubled by phenomena commonly described as paranormal. Their treatment is described in detail and on the basis of the comments are made about the applicability of TCM to such problems. Although it is often suggested that special therapeutic techniques such as shamanism or exorcism are needed to help individuals with these problems, the Chinese medical literature contains references to, for instance, "ghost points" and herbal treatments. If TCM is to be mixed with other approaches, it is important to integrate these approaches into the framework already at hand.Keywords: Paranormal phenomena, herbal medicine, spirit disturbance. Given an emphasis on internal medicine and the predominance of Chinese herbal medicine in my practice, my patients frequently suffer from serious problems. Like all of us, I also encounter clients whose complaints stretch the bounds of TCM theory. In September of 1989 I saw a client (S.K.) who for the last few years had been suffering from out-of-body experiences within 5 to 10 minutes of going to sleep. She would travel to a variety of different places none of which were pleasant, always accompanied by a sound of wind. These episodes began during a period of intensive zazen practice and had continued to the time of her first consultation.
    [Show full text]
  • Confucian Relics: Practices and Material Forms
    Confucian Relics: Practices and Material Forms Julia K Murray Professor Emerita, University of Wisconsin Associate in Research, Harvard University Fairbank Center for Chinese Studies [email protected] 31 January 2019 Collège de France Set of nested reliquaries, made of various media, with a relic of the Buddha in the smallest one From the underground chamber of the Famensi pagoda, Fufeng, Shaanxi province, China 9th c. gilt-silver repousée gold “Namaste Dagoba” Fufeng, Shaanxi province, China (completed in 2009) Portrait of Confucius (551-479 BC) Titled Ultimate Sage and First Teacher 至聖先師 Inscription by Prince Guo (Yongli) dated 1734 Rubbing of a carved stone tablet in the Beilin (Forest of Steles) Xi’an, China “Stone Classics” Han dynasty, 2nd c. Fragments from Xiping Stone Classics Qing dynasty, 18th c Guozijian Beijing JI http://www.zdic.net/z/25/js/8E5F.htm “Sweet-pear” (Gan tang 甘棠 ) 蔽芾甘棠、勿翦勿伐、召伯所茇。 [This] umbrageous sweet pear-tree; Clip it not, hew it not down. Under it the chief of Shao lodged. 蔽芾甘棠、勿翦勿敗、召伯所憩。 [This] umbrageous sweet pear-tree; Clip it not, break not a twig of it. Under it the chief of Shao rested. 蔽芾甘棠、勿翦勿拜、召伯所說。 [This] umbrageous sweet pear-tree; Clip it not, bend not a twig of it. Under it the chief of Shao halted. Translation from James Legge, The Chinese Classics v. 4: The She King or Book of Poetry (Oxford, 1898), p 26. Commemorative stele in Linzi 臨淄 , Shandong, marking the place where Confucius heard the Shao music The photographer Mei Qingji made a pilgrimage to retrace Confucius’s travels and documented all the sites in exhibitions and a book Kong Cemetery (Konglin) in Qufu, marking the grave of Confucius and many others Queli guangzhi 闕里廣誌 (Expanded gazetteer of Queli), 17th c.
    [Show full text]
  • The Eight Great Taoist Spiritual Chants
    The Eight Great Taoist Spiritual Chants Ba Da Zhen Zhou Te Eight Immortals 51 Taoist Chanting & Recitation First Chant Spiritual Chant for Purifying of the Heart Jing Xin Shen Zhou1 Recite in Chinese:2 !•Tai • • •• "•Shang • • • • • • • • " Tai " " •• Tai Shang 3 of the • • • • " Xing Star Terrace, !"•Ying • • •• "•Bian • • •# • • • • • " Wu " " •• # without cease responds • " Ting! to all transformations, •Qu •Xie •Fu •Mei eradicates all demons by binding them with magic charms. •Bao •Ming •Hu •Shen Protecting a person’s body, he defends life. •Zhi •Hui •Ming •Jing His wisdom is pure and illuminating, •Xing •Shen •An •Ning and brings spiritual peace to the mind. 52 The Eight Great Taoist Spiritual Chants •San •Hun •Yong •Jiu Forever eternalizing the Three Heavenly Spirits, •Po •Wu •Sang •Qing and so defeating and causing all the Earthly Po Spirits to flee. "•Ji •Ji "•Ru •Lu "•Ling These mandates I will expediently follow. 1 Purifying the Heart chant and the next two chants, Purifying the Spirit and Purifying the Body, are essentially meant to attract good spirits to help protect the body, mouth, and mind from malignant influences. This particular chant protects against external negative influences from entering. 2 Wooden fish symbols show the chanting pattern for the first two lines of each chant, as well as the beats for the remaining lines. Listen to the Eight Great Taoist Spiritual Chants at the Sanctuary of Tao’s website: sanctuaryoftao.org. 3 Honorific deity title for Lao Zi. 53 Taoist Chanting & Recitation Second Chant Spiritual Chant for Purifying the Mouth Jing Kou Shen Zhou1 !•Dan • • •• "•Zhu • • • • • • • • " Kou " " •• Dan Zhu (Cinnabar • • • • " Shen Elixir), the spirit of the mouth.
    [Show full text]
  • The Tempest of Inward Focus Cost: -; Mins: Essence 6; Type: Permanent
    The Tempest of Inward Focus Cost: -; Mins: Essence 6; Type: Permanent Keywords: Heretical Duration: Permanent Prerequisites: Triumphant Howl of the Devil-Tiger, Any two Shintai Charms This Charm's prerequisites must come from two different Yozis. This Charm allows the Infernal to redesign their Caste.Source Broken-Winged Crane, p. 46. Source: Broken-Winged Crane Annihilation Left Unrecorded Cost: ; Mins: Essence 4; Type: Permanent Keywords: Heretical Duration: Permanent Prerequisites: Look Upon My Works, The Mighty Despair, Freedom Lets Go The warlock may treat any attachment, sentimental or otherwise, to something he created with the aid of Look On My Works as a full intimacy for the purposes of Freedom Lets Go, allowing him to terminate his attachment, as well as erase all memories of it if he so desires. He becomes unable (or simply refuses) to recognise his mark on the object, no matter how blindingly obvious it might be. A true genius cannot allow himself to be occupied by past accomplishments, such as they are; he must move onward! If the warlock uses Freedom Lets Go in this way, and then uses the marked object in question as materials in a subsequent Craft project enhanced by Destruction Begets Creation, he gains further additional successes, his work unimpeded by reluctant pride or disdainful shame over his previous creations. Mundane objects used in this way grant additional successes equal to their Resources value, while artifacts used as in this way grant additional successes equal to three times their Artifact rating. Only one such bonus may be applied per project. If the warlock uses Freedom Lets Go in this way to remove his memories of a marked object, and then uses the object in question as materials in a subsequent Craft project enhanced by Destruction Begets Creation, he may treat it as fully intact even if it has been destroyed or rendered otherwise useless prior before being used as materials.
    [Show full text]
  • THE DAOIST BODY in the LITURGY of SALVATION THROUGH REFINEMENT by BINGXIA BIAN B.L., South-Central University for Nationalities, 2016
    THE DAOIST BODY IN THE LITURGY OF SALVATION THROUGH REFINEMENT by BINGXIA BIAN B.L., South-Central University for Nationalities, 2016 A thesis submitted to the Faculty of the Graduate School of the University of Colorado in partial fulfillment of the requirement for the degree of Master of Arts Department of Religious Studies 2019 ii This thesis entitled: The Daoist Body in the Liturgy of Salvation through Refinement written by Bingxia Bian has been approved for the Department of Religious Studies Terry F. Kleeman Loriliai Biernacki Holly Gayley Date The final copy of this thesis has been examined by the signatories, and we find that both the content and the form meet acceptable presentation standards of scholarly work in the above mentioned discipline. iii Bian, Bingxia (M.A., Department of Religious Studies) The Daoist Body in the Liturgy of Salvation through Refinement Thesis directed by Professor Terry F. Kleeman Abstract This thesis will address the concept of the body and souls in the context of a Daoist ritual, the Liturgy of Salvation through Refinement (liandu yi 鍊度儀) based on the "Great Refinement of Numinous Treasures" (Lingbao dalian 靈寶⼤鍊) in the Great Rites of Shangqing Lingbao (Shangqing Lingbao dafa 上清灵宝⼤法) written by Wang Qizhen 王契真 (fl. ca 1250). The first chapter is a brief review of traditional Chinese ideas toward the body and souls. People believed that the deceased live in the other world having the same need as they alive. Gradually, they started to sought methods to extend their life in this world and to keep their souls alive in the other world.
    [Show full text]
  • The Religions of Eastern Asia
    THE RELIGIONS OF EASTERN ASIA BY HORACE GRANT UNDERWOOD, D.D. THE MACMILLAN COMPANY 1910 All rights reserved Copyright, 1910, By THE MACMILLAN COMPANY. Set up and electrotyped. Published February, 1910. Hnrtoooti J. 8. dishing Co. — Berwick & Smith Co. Norwood, Mass., U.S.A. THE RELIGIONS OF EASTERN ASIA THE MACMILLAN COMPANY NEW YORK • BOSTON ' CHICAGO ATLANTA • SAN FRANCISCO MACMILLAN & CO., Limited LONDON • BOMBAY - CALCUTTA MELBOURNE THE MACMILLAN CO. OF CANADA, Ltd. TORONTO PREFATORIAL NOTE Because of the necessitated presence of the author on his chosen and fruitful field of labor in Korea, it became necessary for some one nearer the place of issue to see his work through the press, and for that task the undersigned was chosen. This statement is made that the author may not be held responsible for typographical errors or for faults which have occurred in the printing. The author's text has, of course, been preserved intact except in a few passages which, though probably sufficiently clear when they had the emphasis and intonation of the living voice, yet required in the printed form, in the interests of perspicuity and in order to prevent misunderstanding and miscon struction, rearrangement or modification. But in no case has the sense of the text been altered. The index was supplied by the undersigned. GEORGE W. GILMORE. New York, January 17, 1910. v CONTENTS LECTURE PAGE I. Taoism i II. Shintoism 41 III. The Shamanism of Korea .... 93 IV. Confucianism 143 V. Buddhism 183 VI. A Comparison of the Foregoing Theisms WITH THAT OF THE OLD AND NEW TESTA MENTS 23 1 vii AUTHORITIES CITED G.
    [Show full text]
  • Transforming the Void
    iii Transforming the Void Embryological Discourse and Reproductive Imagery in East Asian Religions Edited by AnnaAndreevaandDominicSteavu LEIDEN |BOSTON For use by the Author only | © 2016 Koninklijke Brill NV ContentsContents v Contents Acknowledgements ix List of Figures and Tables xi Conventions and Abbreviations xiv List of Contributors xviii Introduction: Backdrops and Parallels to Embryological Discourse and Reproductive Imagery in East Asian Religions 1 Anna Andreeva and Dominic Steavu Part 1 China 1 Prenatal Infancy Regained: Great Peace (Taiping) Views on Procreation and Life Cycles 53 Grégoire Espesset 2 Conceiving the Embryo of Immortality: “Seed-People” and Sexual Rites in Early Taoism 87 Christine Mollier 3 Cosmos, Body, and Gestation in Taoist Meditation 111 Dominic Steavu 4 Symbolic Pregnancy and the Sexual Identity of Taoist Adepts 147 Catherine Despeux 5 Creation and Its Inversion: Cosmos, Human Being, and Elixir in the Cantong Qi (The Seal of the Unity of the Three) 186 Fabrizio Pregadio 6 On the Effectiveness of Symbols: Women’s Bodies as Mandalas 212 Brigitte Baptandier For use by the Author only | © 2016 Koninklijke Brill NV vi Contents Part 2 Japan 7 The Embryonic Generation of the Perfect Body: Ritual Embryology from Japanese Tantric Sources 253 Lucia Dolce 8 Buddhism Ab Ovo: Aspects of Embryological Discourse in Medieval Japanese Buddhism 311 Bernard Faure 9 “Human Yellow” and Magical Power in Japanese Medieval Tantrism and Culture 344 Nobumi Iyanaga 10 “Lost in the Womb”: Conception, Reproductive Imagery,
    [Show full text]
  • I. GUI AS SPIRIT, GHOST
    GUI IN CHINESE MEDICINE Giovanni Maciocia 鬼 馬 萬 里 魑 魅 魍 魉 CHI MEI WANG LIANG Man-eating mountain spirit Demons and monsters 鬼 NOTE: “chi” is cognate with 吃 “to eat”. Also, “wang” is cognate with 亡, “to lose, to die, to perish”. All characters are based on Gui radical. RU JIA 儒 家 CONFUCIANISM KONG FU ZI CONFUCIUS DAO JIA 道 家 DAOISM LAO ZI FA JIA 法 家 LEGALISM HAN FEI ZI The concept of gui in Chinese philosophy and culture has important implications in Chinese medicine. Gui is an important complement to the Mind (Shen), Hun (Hun), Po (Po), Intellect (Yi) and Will-Power (Zhi) in the Chinese view of the psyche. As there are many different ways of looking at gui in Chinese medicine, the discussion of gui will be broken down into the following topics: 1. Gui as spirit, ghost 2. Gui as movement of Hun and Po 3. Gui as centripetal, separating, fragmenting force 4. Gui in relation to the Po 5. Gui as a symbol of contraction, counterpole of Shen (expansion) 6. Gui as dark force of the psyche and its connection with the Jungian Shadow 7. Acupuncture points with “gui” in their names 1. GUI AS SPIRIT, GHOST The concept of Gui in Chinese philosophy and culture has important implications in Chinese medicine. Gui is an important complement to Shen, Hun, Po, Yi and Zhi in the Chinese view of the psyche. The old pictogram for Gui depicts the bodyless head of a dead person in its swirling movement in the world of spirit.
    [Show full text]