scholarly journals Early Tang Dynasty Disputes on the Origin of the Controversy between the One Vehicle and the Three Vehicles

2015 ◽  
Vol 63 (2) ◽  
pp. 752-756
Author(s):  
Sachio ONOSHIMA
Keyword(s):  
Tang Dynasty ◽  
The One ◽  
Early Tang

A “Villain-Monk” Brought Down by a Villein-General

2017 ◽  
Author(s):  
Jinhua Chen
Keyword(s):  
Tang Dynasty ◽  
Active Role ◽  
The Other ◽  
Apparent Contradiction ◽  
The One ◽  
Early Tang

Through a case study of a little-known monk, Faya 法雅‎ (?-629), a favourite of Gaozu who played an active role in the defense of the newly-founded Tang against Turk encroachments, this essay attempts to analyze some new features and patterns of early Tang state–saṃgha relations. Additionally, this essay aims to shed new light on the apparent contradiction between Buddhism’s general prohibitions against violence on the one hand and the saṃgha’s frequent and profound involvement in warfare on the other, whether to protect its own property or to court and enhance secular patronage. Finally, Faya, along with the fortune and misfortune he encountered during the final decadent years of the Sui and the first decade of the fledging Tang dynasty, presents an excellent case of how medieval Chinese Buddhist monks (and occasionally nuns) were placed under the general rubric “yaoseng/yaoni” 妖僧‎/妖尼‎ (“evil monks/nuns”), or eseng/eni惡僧‎/惡尼‎ (“villainous monks/nuns”).

scholarly journals What about Rats? Buddhist Disciplinary Guidelines on Rats: Daoxuan’s Vinaya Commentaries

Religions ◽  
2021 ◽  
Vol 12 (7) ◽  
pp. 508
Author(s):  
Ann Heirman
Keyword(s):  
Tang Dynasty ◽  
Seventh Century ◽  
Daily Lives ◽  
Strict Adherence ◽  
Early Tang

Buddhist texts generally prohibit the killing or harming of any sentient being. However, while such a ban may seem straightforward, it becomes much more complex when annoying or dangerous animals are involved. This paper focuses on one such animal—the rat. These rodents feature prominently in monastics’ daily lives, so it should come as no surprise that both Indian and Chinese Buddhist masters pay attention to them. In the first part of the paper, we investigate the problems that rats can cause, how monastics deal with them, and what the authors-compilers of Buddhist vinaya (disciplinary) texts have to say about them. In the second part, we focus on how Daoxuan 道宣 (596–667)—one of the most prominent vinaya masters of the early Tang Dynasty—interprets the vinaya guidelines and their implementation in Chinese monasteries. As we will see, he raises a number of potential issues with regard to strict adherence to the Buddhist principles of no killing and no harming, and so reveals some of the problematic realities that he felt monastics faced in seventh century China.

scholarly journals Li Shangyin and the Art of Poetic Ambiguity

2016 ◽  
Vol 10 (2) ◽  
pp. 163-177
Author(s):  
Maja Lavrač
Keyword(s):  
Personal Experience ◽  
Tang Dynasty ◽  
Essential Role ◽  
The Other ◽  
High Price ◽  
Secret Message ◽  
Love Poetry ◽  
Li Shangyin ◽  
The One ◽  
Unique Style

Li Shangyin (813–858), one of the most respected, mysterious, ambiguous and provocative of Chinese poets, lived during the late Tang period, when the glorious Tang dynasty was beginning to decline. It was a time of social riots, political division and painful general insecurity. Li Shangyin is famous as a highly original and committed poet who developed a unique style full of vague allusions and unusual images derived from the literary past (the traditional canon, myths and legends) as well as from nature and personal experience. The second important feature of his poetry is a mysteriousness which finally leads to ambiguity. Ambiguity plays an essential role in most of his renowned poems, and he uses it to superbly connect present and past, reality and fantasy, and history and mythology. Thus, ambiguity and obscurity, respectively, often engender different interpretations among Chinese critics. These interpretations reflect the poems’ imaginative qualities, hypotheses and contradictions. Since each interpretive direction emphasizes but a single aspect of the poet’s character, it is more fitting to understand his ambiguous poems in symbolic terms. Such understanding entails that the meaning of the poem is not limited to one interpretation; rather, the poem’s poetic landscape opens itself up to various interpretations.Li Shangyin is actually most popular for his melancholic love poetry that reveals his ambiguous attitude to love. In this poetry, love is shrouded in a secret message. On the one hand, we can sense his moral disapproval of a secret but hopeless love; on the other, we can sense his passion. This leads to a paradox: the pleasing temptations of an illicit romance also exact a high price. In these love poems Li investigates various aspects of the worlds of passion which stoke in him feelings of rapture, satisfaction, joy and hope as well as feelings of doubt, frustration, despair and even thoughts of death.

Introducing the Chinese Name-taboo Method Gaijian An expansion of recent work by Dou Huaiyong

2020 ◽  
Vol 73 (3) ◽  
pp. 375-383
Author(s):  
Sun Jianqiang
Keyword(s):  
Recent Work ◽  
Tang Dynasty ◽  
First Time ◽  
Early Tang

ABSTRACTThe present paper represents the first attempt to expand Dou Huaiyong’s recent contributions to the field of the Chinese name-taboo practice or bihui 避諱. Exclusively dealing with gaixing 改形 (modify the shape), a taboo method recognized only by Dou Huaiyong, the paper delves into his use of the term gaixing and a group of orthographies that might overthrow the recognition. Although it abandons the term gaixing and promotes a new phrase gaijian 改件 (modify the components), the paper finds Dou Houiyong’s core conclusion agreeable, taking gaijian as a taboo method that appeared in the year 658 by analyzing 500 stones carved between 618 and 663. While doing so, this paper introduces for the first time gaijian to the English scholarship, proposing to re-examine how the Chinese name-taboo practice developed in the early Tang dynasty.

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