Sacred Economics - Buddhist Monasticism and Territoriality in Medieval China

Erscheinungsjahr 2010
ISBN: 978-0-231-14832-0
Verlag: Columbia University Press

Buch, Englisch, 256 Seiten, Format (B × H): 161 mm x 233 mm, Gewicht: 494 g

Reihe: The Sheng Yen Series in Chinese Buddhist Studies

Buddhist monasteries in medieval China employed a variety of practices to ensure their ascendancy and survival. Most successful was the exchange of material goods for salvation, as in the donation of land, which allowed monks to spread their teachings throughout China. By investigating a variety of socioeconomic spaces produced and perpetuated by Chinese monasteries, Michael J. Walsh reveals the "sacred economies" that shaped early Buddhism and its relationship with consumption and salvation.

Centering his study on Tiantong, a Buddhist monastery that has thrived for close to seventeen centuries in southeast China, Walsh follows three main topics: the spaces monks produced, within and around which a community could pursue a meaningful existence; the social and economic avenues through which monasteries provided diverse sacred resources and secured the primacy of Buddhist teachings within an agrarian culture; and the nature of "transactive" participation within monastic spaces, which later became a fundamental component of a broader Chinese religiosity.

Unpacking these sacred economies and repositioning them within the history of religion in China, Walsh encourages a different approach to the study of Chinese religion, emphasizing the critical link between religious exchange and the production of material culture.

Autoren/Hrsg.

Walsh, Michael

Fachgebiete

• Geisteswissenschaften Geschichtswissenschaft Weltgeschichte & Geschichte einzelner Länder und Gebietsräume Geschichte einzelner Länder Asiatische Geschichte
• Geisteswissenschaften Religionswissenschaft Religionswissenschaft Allgemein

Inhaltsverzeichnis

IllustrationsPrefaceDynastic Chronology1. Monastic Identity, Buddhist Religiosity, and Land2. A Square at the Center of the World3. Corporate Bodies4. A Culture of Estates5. Grains of Sand6. Cultivating Salvation7. Salvation and SurvivalAppendix A. Yin County Buddhist Monastic Land, c. 1226 C.E.Appendix B. Population Figures for Yin County, Ming PrefectureAppendix C. Land Totals in Ming PrefectureAppendix D. Major Structures in Tiantong Monastery's CompoundNotesGlossaryBibliographyIndex

Leseproben

Read chapter 1: >Monastic Identity, Buddhist Religiosity, and Land. (pdf)

Über Autor(innen)

Michael J. Walsh is associate professor of religion and Asian studies at Vassar College, where he teaches courses on the history of Chinese religion and theory and method in the study of religion.