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Selfless Offspring
  • Language: en
  • Pages: 320

Selfless Offspring

Both Western and Chinese intellectuals have long derided filial piety tales as an absurd and grotesque variety of children’s literature. Selfless Offspring offers a fresh perspective on the genre, revealing the rich historical worth of these stories by examining them in their original context: the tumultuous and politically fragmented early medieval era (A.D. 100–600). At a time when no Confucian virtue was more prized than filial piety, adults were moved and inspired by tales of filial children. The emotional impact of even the most outlandish actions portrayed in the stories was profound, a measure of the directness with which they spoke to major concerns of the early medieval Chinese ...

Filial Piety in Chinese Thought and History
  • Language: en
  • Pages: 264

Filial Piety in Chinese Thought and History

The phenomenon of filial piety is fundamental to our understanding of Chinese culture. An international team of contributors provides an excellent collection of essays that explore its role in various areas of life throughout history.

The Cambridge History of China: Volume 2, The Six Dynasties, 220-589
  • Language: en

The Cambridge History of China: Volume 2, The Six Dynasties, 220-589

The Six Dynasties Period (220-589 CE) is one of the most complex in Chinese history. Written by leading scholars from across the globe, the essays in this volume cover nearly every aspect of the period, including politics, foreign relations, warfare, agriculture, gender, art, philosophy, material culture, local society, and music. While acknowledging the era's political chaos, these essays indicate that this was a transformative period when Chinese culture was significantly changed and enriched by foreign peoples and ideas. It was also a time when history and literature became recognized as independent subjects and religion was transformed by the domestication of Buddhism and the formation of organized Daoism. Many of the trends that shaped the rest of imperial China's history have their origins in this era, such as the commercial vibrancy of southern China, the separation of history and literature from classical studies, and the growing importance of women in politics and religion.

The Wiley-Blackwell Companion to Chinese Religions
  • Language: en
  • Pages: 513

The Wiley-Blackwell Companion to Chinese Religions

Comprising the most up-to-date, interdisciplinary research on the study of Chinese religious beliefs and cultural practices, this volume explores the rich and complex religious and philosophical traditions that have developed and flourished in one of the world's oldest civilizations. Covers the main Chinese traditions of Confucianism, Taoism, and Buddhism as well as Christianity and Islam Features a unique organizational structure, with groups of readings focused on historical, traditions-based, and topical elements of Chinese religion Explores a number of contemporary religious topics, including gender, nature, asceticism, material culture, and gods and spirits Brings together a team of authors who are experts in their sub-fields, providing readers with the latest research in a rapidly growing discipline

Confucius and Confucianism
  • Language: en
  • Pages: 280

Confucius and Confucianism

This comprehensive introduction explores the life and teachings of Confucius, and development of Confucian thought, from ancient times to the present today. Demonstrates the wisdom and enduring relevance of Confucius’s teachings – drawing parallels between our 21st century society and that of China 2,500 years ago, where government corruption, along with social, economic, and technical changes, led thinkers to examine human nature and society Draws on the latest research and incorporates interpretations of Confucius and his works by Chinese and Western scholars throughout the centuries Explores how Confucius's followers expanded and reinterpreted his ideas after his death, and how this process has continued throughout Chinese history Seamlessly links Confucius with our modern age, revealing how his teachings have become the basis of East Asian culture and influenced the West

Behaving Badly in Early and Medieval China
  • Language: en
  • Pages: 289

Behaving Badly in Early and Medieval China

Behaving Badly in Early and Medieval China presents a rogues’ gallery of treacherous regicides, impious monks, cutthroat underlings, ill-bred offspring, and disloyal officials. It plumbs the dark matter of the human condition, placing front and center transgressive individuals and groups traditionally demonized by Confucian annalists and largely shunned by modern scholars. The work endeavors to apprehend the actions and motivations of these men and women, whose conduct deviated from normative social, cultural, and religious expectations. Early chapters examine how core Confucian bonds such as those between parents and children, and ruler and minister, were compromised, even severed. The li...

How Worlds Collapse
  • Language: en
  • Pages: 443

How Worlds Collapse

As our society confronts the impacts of globalization and global systemic risks—such as financial contagion, climate change, and epidemics—what can studies of the past tell us about our present and future? How Worlds Collapse offers case studies of societies that either collapsed or overcame cataclysmic adversity. The authors in this volume find commonalities between past civilizations and our current society, tracing patterns, strategies, and early warning signs that can inform decision-making today. While today’s world presents unique challenges, many mechanisms, dynamics, and fundamental challenges to the foundations of civilization have been consistent throughout history—highlighting essential lessons for the future.

Teaching Confucianism
  • Language: en
  • Pages: 245

Teaching Confucianism

Even the most casual observer of Chinese society is aware of the tremendous significance of Confucianism as a linchpin of both ancient and modern Chinese identity. Furthermore, the Confucian tradition has exercised enormous influence over the values and institutions of the other cultures of East Asia, an influence that continues to be important in the global Asian diaspora. If forecasters are correct in labeling the 21st century 'the Chinese century,' teachers and scholars of religious studies and theology will be called upon to illuminate the history, character, and role of Confucianism as a religious tradition in Chinese and Chinese-influenced societies. The essays in this volume will addr...

Better Off Without 'Em
  • Language: en
  • Pages: 337

Better Off Without 'Em

The author of Smile When You're Lying describes his controversial road trip investigation into the cultural divide of the United States during which he met with possum-hunting conservatives, trailer park lifers and prayer warriors before concluding that both sides might benefit if former Confederacy states seceded.

Sensual Austerity and Moral Leadership
  • Language: en
  • Pages: 187

Sensual Austerity and Moral Leadership

This book examines the link between sensual austerity and moral leadership—a topic largely neglected in contemporary academic scholarship and public policy—by exploring the comparative cross-cultural perspectives of Plato, Confucius, and Gandhi, on this theme. Despite the diverse cultural contexts that gave rise to their respective philosophical perspectives, they shared similar views on what might constitute a universal and perennial basis for individual moral development in any harmonious political order. They all agreed that sensual austerity is necessary for the realization of a flourishing society and political culture: recognizing that control over sensual desire is both a vehicle for individual moral self-cultivation and social-political progress. Sensual austerity is thus an essential aspect of any morally governed person, institution, state, or society. The book also argues that further examination of this theme may assist scholars and policymakers in developing more peaceful and harmonious national and global communities.