scholarly journals From China to Japan and Back Again: An Energetic Example of Bidirectional Sino-Japanese Esoteric Buddhist Transmission

Religions ◽  
2021 ◽  
Vol 12 (9) ◽  
pp. 675
Author(s):  
Cody R. Bahir

Sino-Japanese religious discourse, more often than not, is treated as a unidirectional phenomenon. Academic treatments of pre-modern East Asian religion usually portray Japan as the passive recipient of Chinese Buddhist traditions, while explorations of Buddhist modernization efforts focus on how Chinese Buddhists utilized Japanese adoptions of Western understandings of religion. This paper explores a case where Japan was simultaneously the receptor and agent by exploring the Chinese revival of Tang-dynasty Zhenyan. This revival—which I refer to as Neo-Zhenyan—was actualized by Chinese Buddhist who received empowerment (Skt. abhiṣeka) under Shingon priests in Japan in order to claim the authority to found “Zhenyan” centers in China, Hong Kong, Taiwan, Malaysia, and even the USA. Moreover, in addition to utilizing Japanese Buddhist sectarianism to root their lineage in the past, the first known architect of Neo-Zhenyan, Wuguang (1918–2000), used energeticism, the thermodynamic theory propagated by the German chemist Freidrich Wilhelm Ostwald (1853–1932; 1919 Nobel Prize for Chemistry) that was popular among early Japanese Buddhist modernists, such as Inoue Enryō (1858–1919), to portray his resurrected form of Zhenyan as the most suitable form of Buddhism for the future. Based upon the circular nature of esoteric transmission from China to Japan and back to the greater Sinosphere and the use of energeticism within Neo-Zhenyan doctrine, this paper reveals the sometimes cyclical nature of Sino-Japanese religious influence. Data were gathered by closely analyzing the writings of prominent Zhenyan leaders alongside onsite fieldwork conducted in Taiwan from 2011–2019.

2017 ◽  
Vol 26 (50) ◽  
pp. 115
Author(s):  
Marcelo Da Silva Leite ◽  
Celeste Gaia

Over the past decade due the expansion of globalization there has been an increasing emphasis on internationalization among faculty, administration and accrediting agencies in the Higher Education.  Although to promote internationalization in the Higher Education, costs are a big challenge, one way to have the international actions with low cost, it is seeking for grants from different governmental agencies and foundations.The Fulbright Scholar program provides a long-standing and externally-funded means for internationalizing college and university curriculum. This article is going to share the perspective   of a Brazilian Fulbright Scholar at an American college and the institution perspective of the Fulbright scholar participation at the College.


Author(s):  
Patricia Pelley

This chapter demonstrates how the process of decolonization and the ensuing separation of Vietnam into a northern and southern state as part of the Cold War in Asia led to different types of history-writing. In both Vietnamese regimes, the writing of history had to serve the state, and in both countries historians emphasized its political function. Whereas North Vietnam located itself in an East Asian and Marxist context, historians of South Vietnam positioned it within a Southeast Asian setting and took a determinedly anti-communist position. After 1986—over a decade after reunification—with past tensions now relaxed, the past could be revaluated more openly under a reformist Vietnamese government that now also permitted much greater interaction with foreign historians.


BMJ Open ◽  
2018 ◽  
Vol 8 (10) ◽  
pp. e023850
Author(s):  
Catherine S Wall ◽  
Rose S Bono ◽  
Rebecca C Lester ◽  
Cosima Hoetger ◽  
Thokozeni Lipato ◽  
...  

IntroductionIn the USA, Food and Drug Administration regulations prohibit the sale of flavoured cigarettes, with menthol being the exception. However, the manufacture, advertisement and sale of flavoured cigar products are permitted. Such flavourings influence positive perceptions of tobacco products and are linked to increased use. Flavourings may mask the taste of tobacco and enhance smoke inhalation, influencing toxicant exposure and abuse liability among novice tobacco users. Using clinical laboratory methods, this study investigates how flavour availability affects measures of abuse liability in young adult cigarette smokers. The specific aims are to evaluate the effect of cigar flavours on nicotine exposure, and behavioural and subjective measures of abuse liability.Methods and analysesParticipants (projected n=25) are healthy smokers of five or more cigarettes per day over the past 3 months, 18–25 years old, naive to cigar use (lifetime use of 50 or fewer cigar products and no more than 10 cigars smoked in the past 30 days) and without a desire to quit cigarette smoking in the next 30 days. Participants complete five laboratory sessions in a Latin square design with either their own brand cigarette or a session-specific Black & Mild cigar differing in flavour (apple, cream, original and wine). Participants are single-blinded to cigar flavours. Each session consists of two 10-puff smoking bouts (30 s interpuff interval) separated by 1 hour. Primary outcomes include saliva nicotine concentration, behavioural economic task performance and response to various questionnaire items assessing subjective effects predictive of abuse liability. Differences in outcomes across own brand cigarette and flavoured cigar conditions will be tested using linear mixed models.Ethics and disseminationThe Virginia Commonwealth University Institutional Review Board approved the study (VCU IRB: HM20007848). Dissemination channels for study findings include scientific journals, scientific meetings, and policy briefs.Trial registration numberNCT02937051.


2013 ◽  
Vol 6 (2) ◽  
pp. 172-188
Author(s):  
Ahmad Kamal Abou Al-Majd

This article attempts to attenuate the exaggerated polarization in contemporary religious discourse in Egyptian society emanating from two flawed positions: a wrong conception of ‘applying Shari'a‘; and a wrong intention whereby deliberate cultural exclusion is practised to eradicate any religious orientation. The main subject of this article are manifestations of deviation of this discourse from the orientation of the original frame of reference of religion: (1) The call for Islam through scaring and intimidation; (2) the tendency to be tough on people, thus increasing obligatory duties and decreasing what is permissible; (3) inattention to the objectives of Shari'a and focusing on its literal aspect; (4) inattention to priorities; (5) belittling the role of the mind in Islamic conceptualization; (6) immersion in the past; and (7) Muslims' relationship with others. Nevertheless, rationalizing ‘religious discourse’ and working out a kind of consensus seems to be of utmost importance.


The Holocene ◽  
2021 ◽  
pp. 095968362110190
Author(s):  
Tsai-Wen Lin ◽  
Stefanie Kaboth-Bahr ◽  
Kweku Afrifa Yamoah ◽  
André Bahr ◽  
George Burr ◽  
...  

The East Asian Winter Monsoon (EAWM) is a fundamental part of the global monsoon system that affects nearly one-quarter of the world’s population. Robust paleoclimate reconstructions in East Asia are complicated by multiple sources of precipitation. These sources, such as the EAWM and typhoons, need to be disentangled in order to understand the dominant source of precipitation influencing the past and current climate. Taiwan, situated within the subtropical East Asian monsoon system, provides a unique opportunity to study monsoon and typhoon variability through time. Here we combine sediment trap data with down-core records from Cueifong Lake in northeastern Taiwan to reconstruct monsoonal rainfall fluctuations over the past 3000 years. The monthly collected grain-size data indicate that a decrease in sediment grain size reflects the strength of the EAWM. End member modelling analysis (EMMA) on sediment core and trap data reveals two dominant grain-size end-members (EMs), with the coarse EM 2 representing a robust indicator of EAWM strength. The downcore variations of EM 2 show a gradual decrease over the past 3000 years indicating a gradual strengthening of the EAWM, in agreement with other published EAWM records. This enhanced late-Holocene EAWM can be linked to the expansion of sea-ice cover in the western Arctic Ocean caused by decreased summer insolation.


2020 ◽  
Vol 75 (7-8) ◽  
pp. 179-182
Author(s):  
Murray B. Isman

AbstractInterest in the discovery and development of plant essential oils for use as bioinsecticides has grown enormously in the past 20 years. However, successful commercialization and utilization of crop protection products based on essential oils has thus far lagged far behind their promise based on this large body of research, most notably because with the exceptions of the USA and Australia, such products receive no special status from regulatory agencies that approve new pesticides for use. Essential oil-based insecticides have now been used in the USA for well over a decade, and more recently have seen use in the European Union (EU), Korea, and about a dozen other countries, with demonstrated efficacy against a wide range of pests and in numerous crop systems. For the most part these products are based on commodity essential oils developed as flavor and fragrance agents for the food and cosmetic industries, as there are formidable logistic, economic, and regulatory challenges to the use of many other essential oils that otherwise possess potentially useful bioactivity against pests. In spite of these limitations, the overall prospects for biopesticides, including those based on essential oils, are encouraging as the demand for sustainably-produced and/or organic food continues to increase worldwide.


2021 ◽  
Vol 104 (1) ◽  
pp. 003685042110005
Author(s):  
Mingnan Cao ◽  
Li Wang ◽  
Lin Zhang ◽  
Jingli Duan

Drug-induced liver injury (DILI) is one of the common adverse drug reactions and the leading cause of drug development attritions, black box warnings, and post-marketing withdrawals. Current biomarkers are suboptimal in detecting DILI and predicting its outcome. This study aimed to quantitatively and qualitatively investigate the research trends on DILI biomarkers using bibliometric analysis. All relevant publications were extracted from the Web of Science database. An online analysis platform of literature metrology, bibliographic item co-occurrence matrix builder, and CiteSpace software were used to analyze the publication trends. CitNetExplorer was used to construct direct citation networks and VOSviewer was used to analyze the keywords and research hotspots. We found a total of 485 publications related to DILI biomarkers published from 1991 to 2020. Toxicological Sciences had been the most popular journal in this field over the past 30 years. The USA maintained a top position worldwide and provided a pivotal influence, followed by China. Among all the institutions, the University of Liverpool was regarded as a leader for research collaboration. Moreover, Professors Paul B. Watkins and Tsuyoshi Yokoi made great achievements in topic area. We analyzed the citation networks and keywords, therefore identified five and six research hotspot clusters, respectively. We considered the publication information regarding different countries/regions, organizations, authors, journals, et al. by summarizing the literature on DILI biomarkers over the past 30 years. Notably, the subject of DILI biomarkers is an active area of research. In addition, the investigation and discovery of novel promising biomarkers such as microRNAs, keratin18, and bile acids will be future developing hotspots.


2020 ◽  
pp. sextrans-2020-054642
Author(s):  
Casey E Copen ◽  
Patricia J Dittus ◽  
Jami S Leichliter ◽  
Sagar Kumar ◽  
Sevgi O Aral

ObjectiveCondom use behaviours are proximal to recent STI increases in the USA, yet it remains unclear whether the use of condoms has changed over time among unmarried, non-cohabiting young men who have sex with women (MSW) and how this variability is influenced by STI risk factors.MethodsTo examine condom use over time among MSW aged 15–29, we used three cross-sectional surveys from the 2002, 2006–2010 and 2011–2017 National Survey of Family Growth. We estimated weighted percentages, adjusted prevalence ratios (APRs) and 95% confidence intervals (CI) to assess changes in condom use, stratified by whether MSW reported any STI risk factors in the past 12 months (ie, perceived partner non-monogamy, male-to-male sex, sex in exchange for money or drugs, sex partner who injects illicit drugs, or an HIV-positive sex partner).ResultsWe observed a divergence in trends in condom use at last sex between men aged 15 –29 with STI risk factors in the past 12 months and those without such history. We saw significant declines in condom use from 2002 to 2011–2017 among men with STI risk factors (APR=0.80, 95% CI 0.68 to 0.95), specifically among those aged 15–19 (APR=0.73, 95% CI 0.57 to 0.94) or non-Hispanic white (APR=0.71, 95% CI 0.54 to 0.93). In contrast, trends in condom use among men with no STI factors remained stable or increased. Across all time periods, the most prevalent STI risk factor reported was perception of a non-monogamous female partner (23.0%–26.9%). Post-hoc analyses examined whether condom use trends changed once this variable was removed from analyses, but no different patterns were observed.ConclusionsWhile STIs have been increasing, men aged 15–29 with STI risk factors reported a decline in condom use. Rising STI rates may be sensitive to behavioural shifts in condom use among young MSW with STI risk factors.


2020 ◽  
pp. 1-16
Author(s):  
LEIGH K. JENCO ◽  
JONATHAN CHAPPELL

Abstract This article argues for a ‘history from between’ as the best lens through which to understand the construction of historical knowledge between East Asia and Europe. ‘Between’ refers to the space framed by East Asia and Europe, but also to the global circulations of ideas in that space, and to the subjective feeling of embeddedness in larger-than-local contexts that being in such a space makes possible. Our contention is that the outcomes of such entanglements are not merely reactive forms of knowledge, of the kind implied by older studies of translation and reception in global intellectual history. Instead they are themselves ‘co-productions’: they are the shared and mutually interactive inputs to enduring modes of uses of the past, across both East Asian and European traditions. Taking seriously the possibility that interpretations of the past were not transferred, but rather were co-produced between East Asia and Europe, we reconstruct the braided histories of historical narratives that continue to shape constructions of identity throughout Eurasia.


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