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Ritualizing Materials and Materializing Rituals in Medieval Chinese Buddhism
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Ritualizing Materials and Materializing Rituals in Medieval Chinese Buddhism

A special issue of Religions (ISSN 2077-1444).

Deadline for manuscript submissions: closed (31 October 2022) | Viewed by 7396

Special Issue Editor

Dr. Huaiyu Chen

E-Mail Website
Guest Editor
School of Historical, Philosophical and Religious Studies, Arizona State University, Tempe, AZ 85287-3902, USA
Interests: Buddhism and Nestorian Christianity; medieval Chinese social and cultural history; modern intellectual history; the cultural construction of religious studies as an academic discipline in modern China
Special Issues, Collections and Topics in MDPI journals

Special Issue Information

Dear Colleagues,

In the past decade, contemporary scholarship has greatly expanded the study of medieval Chinese Buddhism. Beyond traditional canonical textual sources, Buddhist manuscripts and inscriptions have attracted particular attention, enriching our understanding of medieval Chinese Buddhist history. In medieval China, manuscripts and materials with inscriptions were often produced from the ritual performance or served in the ritual performance. Therefore, scholars now increasingly approach these materials from diverse perspectives and contextualize them in medieval Chinese Buddhist history. For example, many liturgical manuscripts from Dunhuang were produced for performing various Buddhist rituals, and it is important to analyze their textuality, materiality, and locality.

This Special Issue aims to bring together a group of scholars who work on the frontiers of medieval Chinese Buddhist history by focusing on manuscripts and material culture to explore the intermingled relations between rituals and materials in the broad context of medieval China. How did rituals contribute to the rise of some specific genres of texts? How was the new material culture invented for performing the ritual? Were the rituals renewed or reformed due to the new material culture? How did local elements contribute to modifying the rituals, such as introducing new deities, combating new demons, or healing new wounds of the local community? How did these new material cultures and rituals in medieval China preserve the Buddhist tradition of South Asia, and how did they refresh this old tradition? What local issues impacted the modification of the ritual performance in medieval China? What religious resources did the local community introduce to the new material culture and rituals? Did the clergies and laypeople play different roles in inventing new material culture and rituals?    

In this Special Issue, original research articles and review articles are welcome. Research areas may include (but are not limited to) the following: Buddhist rituals, Buddhist material culture, Buddhist sculptures, Buddhist inscriptions, Buddhist literature, manuscripts from Dunhuang and Central Asia, and Buddhist history. I look forward to receiving your contributions.

Dr. Huaiyu Chen
Guest Editor

Manuscript Submission Information

Manuscripts should be submitted online at www.mdpi.com by registering and logging in to this website. Once you are registered, click here to go to the submission form. Manuscripts can be submitted until the deadline. All submissions that pass pre-check are peer-reviewed. Accepted papers will be published continuously in the journal (as soon as accepted) and will be listed together on the special issue website. Research articles, review articles as well as short communications are invited. For planned papers, a title and short abstract (about 100 words) can be sent to the Editorial Office for announcement on this website.

Submitted manuscripts should not have been published previously, nor be under consideration for publication elsewhere (except conference proceedings papers). All manuscripts are thoroughly refereed through a double-blind peer-review process. A guide for authors and other relevant information for submission of manuscripts is available on the Instructions for Authors page. Religions is an international peer-reviewed open access monthly journal published by MDPI.

Please visit the Instructions for Authors page before submitting a manuscript. The Article Processing Charge (APC) for publication in this open access journal is 1800 CHF (Swiss Francs). Submitted papers should be well formatted and use good English. Authors may use MDPI's English editing service prior to publication or during author revisions.

Keywords

  • ritual
  • material culture
  • manuscripts
  • inscriptions
  • Dunhuang
  • murals
  • scriptures
  • worship
  • cult

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Published Papers (3 papers)

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Research

21 pages, 1019 KiB  
Article
Calling Back the Soul: From Apocryphal Buddhist Sutras to Onmyōdō Rituals
by Chenxue Liang
Religions 2023, 14(4), 476; https://doi.org/10.3390/rel14040476 - 2 Apr 2023
Viewed by 2604
Abstract
Three Japanese Buddhist scriptural manuscripts related to the practice of calling back the soul are kept in Nanatsudera, Hōbodaiin in Toji, and Kōshōji, respectively. They show complex lineage connections that have been discussed little. This paper discusses the relations between the two sutras [...] Read more.
Three Japanese Buddhist scriptural manuscripts related to the practice of calling back the soul are kept in Nanatsudera, Hōbodaiin in Toji, and Kōshōji, respectively. They show complex lineage connections that have been discussed little. This paper discusses the relations between the two sutras contained in the three manuscripts, traces their respective origins, and analyzes how Japanese authors transformed the apocryphal sutras into a liturgical text. Both the Nanatsudera and the Hōbodaiin manuscripts consist of the Sutra on Calling Back the Soul, while the Kōshōji manuscript comprises the Duxing Sutra. All of them were classified as Buddhist apocrypha written by Chinese authors. While the two sutras share similar text structures and the use of words, their contents reveal remarkable differences. The Sutra on Calling Back the Soul focuses mainly on how to release the souls of the dead and how to prevent fulian (reconnection with the dead), while the Duxing Sutra focuses on the healing of diseases and the alleviation of disasters through the restitution of the souls of the living. The Sutra on Calling Back the Soul has exerted a long-lasting effect in Japan where it was paraphrased into a liturgical text for the removal of disasters and the prolongation of life. Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue Ritualizing Materials and Materializing Rituals in Medieval Chinese Buddhism)
15 pages, 937 KiB  
Article
“Interpreting Buddhist Precepts with Confucian Rites” Based on Their Similarity and Dissimilarity: A Perspective of the History of Ideas in Wei, Jin, and Northern and Southern Dynasties
by Kai Sheng and Bangwei Zhou
Religions 2022, 13(11), 1081; https://doi.org/10.3390/rel13111081 - 9 Nov 2022
Viewed by 1789
Abstract
The “similarity” (gongtong 共通) and “dissimilarity” (chayi 差異) between the Buddhist precepts and Confucian rites in the Wei, Jin, and Southern and Northern Dynasties reflected a “dialogue of civilizations” (wenming duihua 文明對話) at the levels of concept, system, and life. During [...] Read more.
The “similarity” (gongtong 共通) and “dissimilarity” (chayi 差異) between the Buddhist precepts and Confucian rites in the Wei, Jin, and Southern and Northern Dynasties reflected a “dialogue of civilizations” (wenming duihua 文明對話) at the levels of concept, system, and life. During these periods, the Chinese system of rites were compared and interpreted with the Buddhist monastic codes by Buddhist monks and Confucian scholars, so a history of the ideas interpretation process of “interpreting precepts with rites” (yi li shi jie 以禮釋戒) was achieved. The result of such a process was two-fold: from the perspective of lay Buddhist ethics, they were in common with each other; from the perspective of monastic precepts, they were irreconcilable contradictions. Thus, on the one hand, the eminent Chinese monks “were emulating the Confucian rites to justify Buddhist precepts” (ni li yi zheng jie 擬禮義證戒) to stress their commonalities. On the other hand, the differences between the precepts and rites continued to be discovered, and the Buddhist subjective consciousness (zhuti yishi 主體意識) of “the distinction between precepts and rites” (jie li you bie 戒禮有別) was gradually established. Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue Ritualizing Materials and Materializing Rituals in Medieval Chinese Buddhism)
14 pages, 934 KiB  
Article
The Buddhist Impact on the Last Testaments of Women in Medieval China
by Aihua Jiang and Lang Lang
Religions 2022, 13(11), 1076; https://doi.org/10.3390/rel13111076 - 9 Nov 2022
Viewed by 1781
Abstract
Through a comparative study of last testaments documented in epitaphs of the Tang period, this article offers a glimpse into people’s outlooks on life and their concerns in the face of death. The thoughts expressed in last testaments have been neglected in the [...] Read more.
Through a comparative study of last testaments documented in epitaphs of the Tang period, this article offers a glimpse into people’s outlooks on life and their concerns in the face of death. The thoughts expressed in last testaments have been neglected in the studies of Buddhism in the Tang Dynasty, with research restricted to compilations of materials. In-depth analyses of such materials are rare. Through a study of the last testaments in the epitaphs, several trends in attitudes towards death and burial can be discerned: a turn from burial to cremation; the simplification of ritual and its procedures; a greater prevalence of separate, rather than joint spousal interment. The last testaments from the Tang period exhibit these different features under the influence of Buddhist ideas prevalent during those times. Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue Ritualizing Materials and Materializing Rituals in Medieval Chinese Buddhism)
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