Buddhism, Diplomacy, and Trade: The Realignment of India-China Relations, 600-1400

Authors:
Sen, Tansen
Duara, Prasenjit

Publisher:
Rowman and Littlefield

Publication Year:
2015

Abstract:
Relations between China and India underwent a dramatic transformation from Buddhist-dominated to commerce-centered exchanges in the seventh to fifteenth centuries. The unfolding of this transformation, its causes, and wider ramifications are examined in this masterful analysis of the changing patterns of the interaction between the two most important cultural spheres in Asia. 

Tansen Sen offers a new perspective on Sino-Indian relations during the Tang dynasty (618-907), arguing that the period is notable not only for religious and diplomatic exchanges but also for the process through which China emerged as a center of Buddhist learning, practice, and pilgrimage. 

Before the seventh century, the Chinese clergy-given the spatial gap between the sacred Buddhist world of India and the peripheral China-suffered from a borderland complex. A close look at the evolving practice of relic veneration in China (at Famen Monastery in particular), the exposition of Mount Wutai as an abode of the bodhisattva Manjusri, and the propagation of the idea of Maitreya's descent in China, however, reveals that by the eighth century China had overcome its complex and successfully established a Buddhist realm within its borders. The emergence of China as a center of Buddhism had profound implications on religious interactions between the two countries and is cited by Sen as one of the main causes for the weakening of China's spiritual attraction toward India.

At the same time, the growth of indigenous Chinese Buddhist schools and teachings retrenched the need for doctrinal input from India. A detailed examination of the failure of Buddhist translations produced during the Song dynasty (960-1279), demonstrates that these developments were responsible for the unraveling of religious bonds between the two countries and the termination of the Buddhist phase of Sino-Indian relations. 

Sen proposes that changes in religious interactions were paralleled by changes in commercial exchanges. For most of the first millennium, trading activities between India and China were closely connected with and sustained through the transmission of Buddhist doctrines. 

The eleventh and twelfth centuries, however, witnessed dramatic changes in the patterns and structure of mercantile activity between the two countries. Secular bulk and luxury goods replaced Buddhist ritual items, maritime channels replaced the overland Silk Road as the most profitable conduits of commercial exchange, and many of the merchants involved were followers of Islam rather than Buddhism. 

Moreover, policies to encourage foreign trade instituted by the Chinese government and the Indian kingdoms contributed to the intensification of commercial activity between the two countries and transformed the China-India trading circuit into a key segment of cross-continental commerce.

Table of contents: 

Introduction: China's Encounter and Predicament with the Indic World 

Chapter One: Military Concerns and Spiritual Underpinnings of Tang-India Diplomacy 

Chapter Two: The Emergence of China as a Central Buddhist Realm 

Chapter Three: The Termination of the Buddhist Phase of India-China Interactions 

Chapter Four: The Reconfiguration of India-China Trade and its Underlying Causes 

Chapter Five: The Phases and the Wider Implications of the Reconfiguration of India-China Trade 

Conclusion: From Buddhism to Commerce: The Realignment and Its Implications 

中国考古学のてびき

Author:
飯島武次

Publisher:
同成社

Publication Year:
2015

Abstract:
旧石器時代から唐代までの中国の歴史を追いながら、それぞれの時代の考古学的意義を簡潔に語り主要な遺跡や代表的遺物について概説。

Table of Contents:
まえがき

序章　中国の考古学を学ぶために頭に入れておきたいこと
第１節　中国の人文地理
第２節　歴史のあらすじ
第３節　考古学から見た中華文明史の流れ

第１章　中国の石器時代
第１節　旧石器時代
第２節　新石器時代

第２章　夏殷時代――青銅器時代１
第１節　夏王朝の考古学
第２節　殷王朝の考古学

第３章　西周時代――青銅器時代２
第１節　西周時代の都城
第２節　西周時代の墓
第３節　西周時代の土器
第４節　西周時代の青銅器
第５節　西周時代の窖蔵

第４章　春秋戦国時代――青銅器時代３・鉄器時代１
第１節　春秋戦国時代（東周時代）の考古学と年代
第２節　春秋戦国時代の都城
第３節　春秋戦国時代の墓
第４節　春秋戦国時代の土器・陶器
第５節　春秋戦国時代の瓦当
第６節　春秋戦国時代の青銅遺物
第７節　春秋戦国時代の鉄器
第８節　戦国時代の漆器
第９節　考古学からみた春秋戦国時代の歴史的意味

第５章　秦漢時代――鉄器時代２
第１節　秦漢帝国の出現とその文化
第２節　秦咸陽城と前漢長安城・後漢洛陽城
第３節　秦の始皇帝と兵馬俑坑
第４節　漢の皇帝陵と大型墓
第５節　秦漢時代の遺物と文化
第６節　秦漢帝国とその文化拡大

第６章　魏晋南北朝時代――鉄器時代３
第１節　魏晋南北朝時代の都城
第２節　魏晋南北朝時代の墓
第３節　魏晋南北朝時代の仏教遺跡と石窟
第４節　魏晋南北朝時代の経済・文化
第５節　魏晋南北朝時代における中華文明

第７章　隋唐時代――鉄器時代４
第１節　唐の長安城
第２節　隋唐の洛陽城
第３節　隋唐時代の墓
第４節　隋唐時代の窯業遺構と遺物
第５節　隋唐時代の金銀器
第６節　隋唐時代の考古学

付録１　用語解説
１．青銅器について
２．玉器について
３．土器について

付録２　参考文献

あとがき

Early Daoist Dietary Practices: Examining Ways to Health and Longevity

Author: 
Shawn Arthur

Publisher:
Lexington Books

Publication Year:
2015 (paperback)

Abstract:

Much as the modern Western world is concerned with diets, health, and anti-aging remedies, many early medieval Chinese Daoists also actively sought to improve their health and increase their longevity through specialized ascetic dietary practices. Focusing on a fifth-century manual of herbal-based, immortality-oriented recipes—the Lingbao Wufuxu 靈寶五符序 (The Preface to the Five Lingbao Talismans of Numinous Treasure)—Shawn Arthur investigates the diets, their ingredients, and their expected range of natural and supernatural benefits. Analyzing the ways that early Daoists systematically synthesized religion, Chinese medicine, and cosmological correlative logic, this study offers new understandings of important Daoist ideas regarding the body’s composition and mutability, health and disease, grain avoidance (bigu 避穀) diets, the parasitic Three Worms, interacting with the spirit realm, and immortality. This work also employs a range of cross-disciplinary scientific and medical research to analyze the healing properties of Daoist self-cultivation diets and to consider some natural explanations for better understanding Daoist asceticism and its underlying world view.

Table of Contents:

Chapter 1: Introduction
Chapter 2: The Wufuxu’s Recipe Structure and Content
Chapter 3: Dietary Regimens: From Herbs to Qi
Chapter 4: Healing and Improving the Physical Body
Chapter 5: Beyond Physical Health: The Wufuxu’s Extraordinary Claims
Chapter 6: Daoist Grain Avoidance Today
Chapter 7: The Wufuxu’s Ingredients and Fasting
Chapter 8: Analyzing Dietary Ideals and Practices
Chapter 9: Conclusion

Literary Forms of Argument in Early China

Editors:
Joachim Gentz & Dirk Meyer

Publisher:
Brill

Publication Year:
2015

Abstract:
Literary Forms of Argument in Early China explores formal approaches to the study of philosophical texts to present new methods for the analysis of pre-modern thought in China. Attempts made by Chinese thinkers to generate literary forms of philosophical reasoning have gone unrecognised within scholarship in China and the West. Drawing together the expertise of leading scholars of early Chinese textuality, this volume addresses this omission by examining the formal characteristics of an argument, the interrelationship between form and content, as well as patterned compositions and non-linear semantic utterances. With these comprehensive new readings, the volume makes a landmark contribution to the study of written thinking in early China.

Table of Contents:

Preliminary Material   pp i –ix

Introduction: Literary Forms of Argument in Early China   pp 1 –36

A Building Block of Chinese Argumentation: Initial Fu 夫 as a Phrase Status Marker   pp 37 –66

2 Beyond Parallelism: A Rethinking of Patterns of Coordination and Subordination in Chinese Expository Prose
pp 67 –86

3 On the Range and Performance of Laozi-Style Tetrasyllables
pp 87 –111

4 Defining Boundaries and Relations of Textual Units: Examples from the Literary Tool-Kit of Early Chinese Argumentation
pp 112 –157

5 The Philosophy of the Analytic Aperçu
pp 158 –174

6 Speaking of Poetry: Pattern and Argument in the “Kongzi Shilun 孔子詩論”
pp 175 –200

7 Structure and Anti-Structure, Convention and Counter-Convention: Clues to the Exemplary Figure’s (Fayan 法言) Construction of Yang Xiong as Classical Master
pp 201 –242

8 A Ragbag of Odds and Ends? Argument Structure and Philosophical Coherence in Zhuangzi 26        
pp 243 –296

9 Truth Claim with no Claim to Truth: Text and Performance of the “Qiushui 秋水” Chapter of the Zhuangzi        
pp 297 –340

Index

Source: pp 341 –353

[Dissertation] Food Redistribution during China's Qin and Han Periods: Accordance and Discordance among Ideologies, Policies, and Their Implementation

Author:
Kim, Moonsil Lee

School:
University of California, Santa Barbara

Publication Year:
2014

Advisor:
Barbieri-Low, Anthony J.

Degree:
Ph.D.

Abstract:

This dissertation analyzes the food redistribution systems of the Qin and Han periods, finding accordance and discordance among ideologies, policies, and their implementation. During the Qin and Han periods, food was given by the emperor to his subjects through various redistribution systems: salaries, rations, relief, gifts, and feasts. In chapters one to four, I introduce each form of food redistribution that directly or indirectly influenced food consumption and the dietary conditions of people of various statuses: officials, soldiers, elders, widows, victims of natural disaster, and convicts. Using recently excavated documents, received texts, and archaeological remains, I analyze what ancient Chinese people of various statuses experienced under the governmental food system, which pursued moral justification and political, social, and economic benefits both for the rulers and the ruled.

The first chapter investigates the regulations on grain storage in the central and local governments, using the Shuihudi Qin legal texts. The "Statutes on Granaries" and the "Statutes on Food rations at Conveyance Stations" are compared to administrative documents from Liye and Xuanquan to prove that there were significant discrepancies between these statutes and the actual distribution of food.

Chapter two examines the reconstructed salary list and the "Statutes on Bestowals" from Zhangjiashan to see how the idea of discriminatory distribution was reflected in the salary system of the Han and how the system was maintained in spite of the problem of too little salary for the lower officials. The military salary system, which was combined with the ration system, and imperial gift food are examined in the context of a solution to secure the food supply to military families on the frontier and to the lower salary-grade officials.

Chapter three concerns the food distributed to commoners, especially those in distress or danger. This chapter analyzes the welfare food distributions for the aged, female heads-of-household, and victims of natural disaster. I suggest that comfort-food and relief-food policies were actually geared toward pursuing social stability by saving able-bodied peasants and preventing social mobility, rather than having been designed simply to demonstrate filial piety in an emergency situation.

Chapter four deals with ancient Chinese feasting as a method of food redistribution. This chapter examines the two different styles of feasting, the yan 宴 feast and the pu 酺 feast, by applying current anthropological theories of feasts to the roles of ancient Chinese feasts. After theoretical examination, the economy of leftover food after ritualistic feasting is analyzed based on recently discovered documents from Liye. I argue that by using the leftovers and byproducts, the rulers fed people of inferior status who suffered from poor dietary conditions.

The food redistribution system in early imperial China was ideally designed to benefit all people under heaven "equally" within the framework of the social hierarchy, meanwhile providing extra resources to those of lower status and to people in distress. However, the ideology of the regulations and their actual implementation were frequently out of sync, as laws were applied flexibly and human greed worked every possible step of food redistribution.

春秋時代の軍事と外交

Author:
小林伸二

Publisher:
汲古書屋

Publication Year:
2015

Table of Contents:

序　論　問題の所在　　　春秋時代史研究の動向／本書の視座と構成

第一部　春秋時代の軍事と支配構造
第一章　軍事と支配構造　　
『春秋』の軍事行動／軍事行動の特徴／軍事行動と国邑・鄙邑

第二章　滅国・遷徙政策　　
『春秋』『左伝』の滅国／滅国後の国君・支配層／滅国後の居民／『春秋』『左
伝』の遷徙／遷徙の実態／遷徙後の国邑・鄙邑

第三章　占領政策　　
『春秋』『左伝』の国邑占領／国邑占領の実態／国邑占領と附庸小国／『春秋』『左伝』
の鄙邑占領／鄙邑占領の実態／鄙邑占領と鄙邑

第四章　攻囲政策　　
『春秋』『左伝』の攻囲／攻囲の実態／攻囲と国邑・鄙邑

第五章　対峙政策　　
対峙戦の実態／『春秋』の対峙戦／『左伝』の対峙戦

第六章　黄国の滅国　　
黄君孟夫婦墓／黄国青銅器／『春秋』『左伝』の黄国／滅国後の黄国

第七章　紀国の遷徙　　
紀国と魯国／紀国と周王室／紀国と斉国／遷徙政策と紀国

第二部　春秋時代の外交と国際社会
　
第一章　会盟と外交　　
『春秋』の会盟傾向／会盟の特徴／会盟と覇者政治
　
第二章　斉覇・晋覇の会盟地　　
会盟地としての鄙邑／斉覇期の会盟地／斉覇期の地主国／晋覇期の会盟地／
晋覇期の地主国／斉覇・晋覇の会盟／斉覇・晋覇の国際社会
附論　楚覇の会盟地　　　楚覇期の会盟地／楚覇と国際社会

第三章　朝聘外交　　
『春秋』の朝聘／朝聘と外交／「如」と外交／「来」と外交／斉覇・晋覇と魯国

第四章　弔問外交　　
『春秋』の卒葬／卒葬と外交／卒葬の意義

第五章　婚姻と国際社会　　
『春秋』の婚姻／婚姻と外交／「媵」の意義

第六章　国君即位と国際社会　　
『春秋』の魯国君即位／『春秋』の他国君即位／『左伝』の国君即位

第七章　衛国の外交と政治　　
衛国と斉国／衛国と晋国・楚国

第八章　杞国の外交と政治　　
杞国と莒国／杞国と魯国・斉国／杞国と晋国・斉国／杞国と晋国／杞国と国際社会

結　論　　課題と展望　　　あとがき・索　引

Heavenly Khan: A Biography of Emperor Tang Taizong (Li Shimin 李世民)

Author: 
Victor Cunrui Xiong

Publisher: 
Airiti Press

Publication Year:
2014

Abstract:
This historical fiction is based on the true story of Li Shimin (also known as Tang Taizong), the greatest sovereign in Chinese history. About 30 years younger than Muhammad, he grew up in a world of devastating upheaval that tore China asunder and was thrust into the role of a military commander in his father's rebel army while still a teenager. In the process of vanquishing his enemies on the battlefield, he proved himself to be a great military genius on a par with Alexander the Great, Genghis Khan, and Napoleon. As emperor, he reigned over a period of Pax Sinica, which was to a large extent as a consequence of his willingness to listen to and adopt the critical suggestions of his court officials. To the religions of his day--Buddhism, Daoism, and Christianity--he showed a high degree of tolerance.  The prestige he had won for Tang China was so high that the states of Central and North Asia honored him with the title of "Heavenly Khan." Although his father founded the dynasty, it was his reign that laid the groundwork for a brilliant empire that was to endure for centuries.

Table of Contents:
Author’s Note i 
Part I. Quest for the Throne (613–626) 1 
Part II. The Good Government of Zhenguan (627–643) 93 
Part III. Last War (643–650) 191 
Bibliography 237 
Chronology 238 
Glossary 241

[Dissertation] Waiting for Darkness: Judgment, Salvation, and Apocalyptic Eschatology in Medieval China

Author:
April D. Hughes

School:
Princeton University

Publication Year:
2014

Advisor:
Teiser, Stephen F.

Degree:
Ph.D.

Abstract:
This dissertation examines Chinese apocalypticism from the end of the third century to the middle of the eighth century. It centers on apocalyptic understandings of the future descent of two savior figures, the Buddha Maitreya and Prince Moonlight. Some scriptures predict that Maitreya will be the next Buddha in this world. Canonical scriptures place his arrival during an era of peace and prosperity, however, some non-canonical apocalyptic texts assert that his descent will occur during a time of chaos and destruction. In some texts, Prince Moonlight is depicted as an intermediary savior who comes prior to Maitreya's arrival, while other texts portray Prince Moonlight as a full-fledged apocalyptic savior whose arrival is associated with calamities.

This dissertation demonstrates that apocalyptic eschatology was central to medieval Chinese thought and was thus available for different social groups to appropriate for diverse and even contradictory purposes, such as to support political rebellion or to reinforce the dominance of the imperial state. This project examines a wide range of material including non-canonical apocalyptic scriptures, pre-modern Buddhist historiographical records, canonical prophecy scriptures, imperial historical records, and medieval mural paintings. Hence the project goes beyond prior studies by making use of canonical and non-canonical scriptures, together with visual evidence.

This study examines conceptions of kingship, salvation, ideal societies, cosmology and notions of time, as well as the relationship between religious and political perfection. Although this study focuses on ideas related to the end of the world that derive largely from Buddhist and to some extent Daoist traditions, this dissertation also raises questions regarding the study of apocalypticism that will be of interest to scholars of other Buddhist traditions as well as those focusing on utopian thought.

Ideology of Power and Power of Ideology in Early China

Editors:
Yuri Pines, Paul R. Goldin, and Martin Kern

Publisher:
Brill

Publication Year:
2015

Abstract:

Ideology of Power and Power of Ideology in Early China explores ancient Chinese political thought during the centuries surrounding the formation of the empire in 221 BCE. The individual chapters examine the ideology and practices of legitimation, views of rulership, conceptualizations of ruler-minister relations, economic thought, and the bureaucratic administration of commoners.

The contributors analyze the formation of power relations from various angles, ranging from artistic expression to religious ideas, political rhetoric, and administrative action. They demonstrate the interrelatedness of historiography and political ideology and show how the same text served both to strengthen the ruler’s authority and moderate his excesses. Together, the chapters highlight the immense complexity of ancient Chinese political thought, and the deep tensions running within it.

Table of Contents:

Preliminary Material
pp i –viii

Introduction
pp 1 –29

1 Representations of Regional Diversity during the Eastern Zhou Dynasty
pp 31 –48

2 Omens and Politics: The Zhou Concept of the Mandate of Heaven as Seen in the Chengwu 程寤 Manuscript
pp 49 –68

3 Long Live The King! The Ideology of Power between Ritual and Morality in the Gongyang zhuan 公羊傳
pp 69 –117

4 Language and the Ideology of Kingship in the “Canon of Yao” 堯典
pp 118 –152

5 Monarch and Minister: The Problematic Partnership in the Building of Absolute Monarchy in the Han Feizi 韓非子
pp 155 –180

6 The Changing Role of the Minister in the Warring States: Evidence from the Yanzi chunqiu 晏子春秋
pp 181 –210

7 Ideologies of the Peasant and Merchant in Warring States China
pp 211 –248

8 Population Records from Liye: Ideology in Practice
pp 249 –270

9 Political and Intellectual Authority: The Concept of the “Sage-Monarch” and Its Modern Fate
pp 273 –300

Bibliography
pp 301 –336

Index
pp 337 –348

Cosmopolitanism in the Tang Dynasty: A Chinese Ceramic Figure of a Sogdian Wine-Merchant

Author:
Suzanne G. Valenstein

Publisher:
Bridge21 Publications

Publication Year:
2014

Abstract:

This research monograph investigates the aspects of a large Tang dynasty (618–907) porcelaneous mortuary figure of an ethnic Sogdian that belongs to a small, cohesive group of Chinese ceramic figures depicting foreign wine merchants. As key merchants on the famous “Silk Road,” the Sogdians, an Eastern Iranian people, played a significant role in China’s exposure to Western cultures. The interaction among the Chinese, the Sogdians, and the Turkic Eurasian nomads left an indelible mark on Tang China as well. The book also considers the history of alcoholic beverages in China; ceramic technology; and the background of Chinese mortuary furnishings, known as mingqi. Various decorative motifs on the present figure and its analogous examples are traced both chronologically and geographically to their origins. Most of these motifs can be found in the West and most can also be associated with Buddhism, which came to China by way of Central Asia.

Buried Ideas: Legends of Abdication and Ideal Government in Early Chinese Bamboo-Slip Manuscripts

Author:
Sarah Allan

Publication Year:
2015

Publisher:
SUNY Press

Abstract:

Four Warring States texts discovered during recent decades challenge longstanding understandings of Chinese intellectual history. The discovery of previously unknown philosophical texts from the Axial Age is revolutionizing our understanding of Chinese intellectual history. Buried Ideas presents and discusses four texts found on brush-written slips of bamboo and their seemingly unprecedented political philosophy. Written in the regional script of Chu during the Warring States period (475–221 BCE), all of the works discuss Yao’s abdication to Shun and are related to but differ significantly from the core texts of the classical period, such as the Mencius and Zhuangzi. Notably, these works evince an unusually meritocratic stance, and two even advocate abdication over hereditary succession as a political ideal. Sarah Allan includes full English translations and her own modern-character editions of the four works examined: Tang Yú zhi dao 唐虞之道, Zi Gao 子羔, Rongchengshi 容成氏, and Bao xun 保訓. In addition, she provides an introduction to Chu-script bamboo-slip manuscripts and the complex issues inherent in deciphering them.

Table of Contents:

History and historical legend

The Chu-script bamboo-slip manuscripts

Advocating abdication : Tang Yú Zhi Dao, "The way of Tang Yao and Yú Shun"

Tang Yú Zhi Dao : translation and Chinese edition

The Zigao and the nature of early Confucianism

Zigao : translation and Chinese edition

Rongchengshi : abdication and utopian vision

Rongchengshi : translation and Chinese edition

The Bao Xun : obtaining the center to become king

Bao Xun : translation and Chinese edition

Afterthoughts