Sacred Landscapes Of Imperial China

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Sacred Landscapes of Imperial China

Giulio Magli
Sacred Landscapes of Imperial China Book PDF

Author : Giulio Magli
Publisher : Springer Nature
Page : 179 pages
File Size : 46,7 Mb
Release : 2020-06-15
Category : Science
ISBN : 9783030493240

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Sacred Landscapes of Imperial China by Giulio Magli Pdf

This book analyses the magnificent imperial necropolises of ancient China from the perspective of Archaeoastronomy, a science which takes into account the landscape in which ancient monuments are placed, focusing especially but not exclusively on the celestial aspects. The power of the Chinese emperors was based on the so-called Mandate of Heaven: the rulers were believed to act as intermediaries between the sky gods and the Earth, and consequently, the architecture of their tombs, starting from the world-famous mausoleum of the first emperor, was closely linked to the celestial cycles and to the cosmos. This relationship, however, also had to take into account various other factors and doctrines, first the Zhao-Mu doctrine in the Han period and later the various forms of Feng Shui. As a result, over the centuries, diverse sacred landscapes were constructed. Among the sites analysed in the book are the “pyramids” of Xi’an from the Han dynasty, the mountain tombs of the Tang dynasty, and the Ming and Qing imperial tombs. The book explains how considerations such as astronomical orientation and topographical orientation according to the principles of Feng Shui played a fundamental role at these sites.

Feng-shui

Ernest J. Eitel
Feng shui Book PDF

Author : Ernest J. Eitel
Publisher : Unknown
Page : 104 pages
File Size : 51,6 Mb
Release : 1993
Category : Architecture
ISBN : PSU:000051658205

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Feng-shui by Ernest J. Eitel Pdf

Call out "Feng-shui" at any lively cocktail party and you will immediately rustle up the attention of all the professional (and wannabe) decorators in the room. They will tell you about beautiful coffee table books featuring color prints of pricey organic furnishings and explain how a mirror placed here and a bamboo plant there can reroute the bad vibes in even a hovel and pave the way for the good ones to flow in. But if you really want to understand the fascinating subject of Feng-shui, you may want to read FENG-SHUI: THE SCIENCE OF SACRED LANDSCAPE IN OLD CHINA, a small gem which, though written well over one-hundred years ago (by a rather unlikely observer) remains the best classical treatise on the subject available. In fact, most of what we know about the history of feng-shui comes from Ernest J. Eitel, a nineteenth-century German Protestant missionary to China who studied and wrote about "Buddhism in China" as well. FENG-SHUI: THE SCIENCE OF SACRED LANDSCAPE IN OLD CHINA was first published in 1873. Because it offers a unique perspective on a subject that has since been seriously commercialized (and bastardized) in the west, we at Synergetic Press kicked off our publishing program with a reissue of this much-cherished title in 1984.

Inscribed Landscapes

Richard E. Strassberg
Inscribed Landscapes Book PDF

Author : Richard E. Strassberg
Publisher : Univ of California Press
Page : 610 pages
File Size : 51,9 Mb
Release : 1994-09-20
Category : Literary Criticism
ISBN : 9780520085800

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Inscribed Landscapes by Richard E. Strassberg Pdf

Alongside the scores of travel books about China written by foreign visitors, Chinese travelers' impressions of their own country rarely appear in translation. This anthology is the only comprehensive collection in English of Chinese travel writing from the first century A.D. through the nineteenth. Early examples of the genre describe sites important for their geography, history, and role in cultural mythology, but by the T'ang dynasty in the mid-eighth century certain historiographical and poetic discourses converged to form the "travel account" (yu-chi) and later the "travel diary" (jih-chi) as vehicles of personal expression and autobiography. These first-person narratives provide rich material for understanding the attitudes of Chinese literati toward place, nature, politics, and the self. The anthology is abundantly illustrated with paintings, portraits, maps, and drawings. Each selection is meticulously translated, carefully annotated, and prefaced by a brief description of the writer's life and work. The entire collection is introduced by an in-depth survey of the rise of Chinese travel writing as a cultural phenomenon. Inscribed Landscapes provides a unique resource for travelers as well as for scholars of Chinese literature, art, and history.

Confucianism and Sacred Space

Chin-shing Huang
Confucianism and Sacred Space Book PDF

Author : Chin-shing Huang
Publisher : Columbia University Press
Page : 213 pages
File Size : 47,5 Mb
Release : 2020-12-01
Category : Religion
ISBN : 9780231552899

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Confucianism and Sacred Space by Chin-shing Huang Pdf

Temples dedicated to Confucius are found throughout China and across East Asia, dating back over two thousand years. These sacred and magnificent sanctuaries hold deep cultural and political significance. This book brings together studies from Chin-shing Huang’s decades-long research into Confucius temples that individually and collectively consider Confucianism as religion. Huang uses the Confucius temple to explore Confucianism both as one of China’s “three religions” (with Buddhism and Daoism) and as a cultural phenomenon, from the early imperial era through the present day. He argues for viewing Confucius temples as the holy ground of Confucianism, symbolic sites of sacred space that represent a point of convergence between political and cultural power. Their complex histories shed light on the religious nature and character of Confucianism and its status as official religion in imperial China. Huang examines topics such as the political and intellectual elements of Confucian enshrinement, how Confucius temples were brought into the imperial ritual system from the Tang dynasty onward, and why modern Chinese largely do not think of Confucianism as a religion. A nuanced analysis of the question of Confucianism as religion, Confucianism and Sacred Space offers keen insights into Confucius temples and their significance in the intertwined intellectual, political, social, and religious histories of imperial China.

On Sacred Grounds

Thomas A. Wilson
On Sacred Grounds Book PDF

Author : Thomas A. Wilson
Publisher : BRILL
Page : 466 pages
File Size : 48,5 Mb
Release : 2020-03-23
Category : Religion
ISBN : 9781684173778

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On Sacred Grounds by Thomas A. Wilson Pdf

"The sacred landscape of imperial China was dotted with Buddhist monasteries, Daoist temples, shrines to local deities, and the altars of the mandarinate. Prominent among the official shrines were the temples in every capital throughout the empire devoted to the veneration of Confucius. Twice a year members of the educated elite and officials in each area gathered to offer sacrifices to Confucius, his disciples, and the major scholars of the Confucian tradition. The worship of Confucius is one of the least understood aspects of Confucianism, even though the temple and the cult were highly visible signs of Confucianism’s existence in imperial China. To many modern observers of traditional China, the temple cult is difficult to reconcile with the image of Confucianism as an ethical, humanistic, rational philosophy. The nine essays in this book are an attempt to recover the meaning and significance of the religious side of Confucianism. Among other subjects, the authors analyze the social, cultural, and political meaning attached to the cult; its history; the legends, images, and rituals associated with the worship of Confucius; the power of the descendants of Confucius, the main temple in the birthplace of Confucius; and the contemporary fate of temples to Confucius."

Pilgrims and Sacred Sites in China

Susan Naquin,Chün-fang Yü
Pilgrims and Sacred Sites in China Book PDF

Author : Susan Naquin,Chün-fang Yü
Publisher : Univ of California Press
Page : 470 pages
File Size : 55,5 Mb
Release : 1992
Category : Buddhist pilgrims and pilgrimages
ISBN : 0520075676

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Pilgrims and Sacred Sites in China by Susan Naquin,Chün-fang Yü Pdf

Until now, China has been scarcely represented in the burgeoning comparative literature on pilgrimage. This volume remedies that omission, discussing the interaction between pilgrims and sacred sites from the tenth century to the present. From the perspectives of literature, art, history, religion, politics, and anthropology, the essays focus on China's most famous pilgrimage mountains as well as lesser known sites.

Placemaking and Cultural Landscapes

Rana P. B. Singh,Olimpia Niglio,Pravin S. Rana
Placemaking and Cultural Landscapes Book PDF

Author : Rana P. B. Singh,Olimpia Niglio,Pravin S. Rana
Publisher : Springer Nature
Page : 381 pages
File Size : 47,7 Mb
Release : 2023-02-07
Category : Social Science
ISBN : 9789811962745

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Placemaking and Cultural Landscapes by Rana P. B. Singh,Olimpia Niglio,Pravin S. Rana Pdf

Placemaking and cultural landscapes are worldwide multidisciplinary global concerns that cover many points of view of the common impacts of socio-economic cultural and rights jurisprudence planning, wellbeing and related advancements. Concerned with the complex interactions between the development and environment of those factors, it is important to seek ways, paths and implications for framing sustainability in all social activities. This book is mostly based on the 10th ACLA – Asian Cultural Landscape Association International Webinar Symposium that took place during September 26–27, 2020, in the Banaras Hindu University, Varanasi, India. It examines contemporary social–cultural issues in the context of the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals (UN-SDGs) and associated cultural and sacred landscapes. There, the emphasis is on awakening deeper cultural sensitivity in harmonizing the world and the role of society and spiritual systems, drawing upon multi-disciplinary and cross-cultural interfaces—all within the scope of the future of the earth. The book’s chapters add a new dimension of cultural understanding in the broad domain of emerging human geoscience, considered as key policy science for contributing towards sustainability and survivability science together with future earth initiatives.

Power of Place

James Robson
Power of Place Book PDF

Author : James Robson
Publisher : BRILL
Page : 540 pages
File Size : 48,9 Mb
Release : 2020-03-17
Category : Religion
ISBN : 9781684174898

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Power of Place by James Robson Pdf

"Throughout Chinese history mountains have been integral components of the religious landscape. They have been considered divine or numinous sites, the abodes of deities, the preferred locations for temples and monasteries, and destinations for pilgrims. Early in Chinese history a set of five mountains were co-opted into the imperial cult and declared sacred peaks, yue, demarcating and protecting the boundaries of the Chinese imperium. The Southern Sacred Peak, or Nanyue, is of interest to scholars not the least because the title has been awarded to several different mountains over the years. The dynamic nature of Nanyue raises a significant theoretical issue of the mobility of sacred space and the nature of the struggles involved in such moves. Another facet of Nanyue is the multiple meanings assigned to this place: political, religious, and cultural. Of particular interest is the negotiation of this space by Daoists and Buddhists. The history of their interaction leads to questions about the nature of the divisions between these two religious traditions. James Robson’s analysis of these topics demonstrates the value of local studies and the emerging field of Buddho–Daoist studies in research on Chinese religion."

Sacred Landscapes in Antiquity

Ralph Haussler,Gian Franco Chiai
Sacred Landscapes in Antiquity Book PDF

Author : Ralph Haussler,Gian Franco Chiai
Publisher : Oxbow Books
Page : 360 pages
File Size : 45,7 Mb
Release : 2020-07-31
Category : Social Science
ISBN : 9781789253344

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Sacred Landscapes in Antiquity by Ralph Haussler,Gian Franco Chiai Pdf

From generation to generation, people experience their landscapes differently. Humans depend on their natural environment: it shapes their behavior while it is often felt that deities responsible for both natural benefits and natural calamities (such as droughts, famines, floods and landslides) need to be appeased. We presume that, in many societies, lakes, rivers, rocks, mountains, caves and groves were considered sacred. Individual sites and entire landscapes are often associated with divine actions, mythical heroes and etiological myths. Throughout human history, people have also felt the need to monumentalize their sacred landscape. But this is where the similarities end as different societies had very different understandings, believes and practices. The aim of this new thematic appraisal is to scrutinize carefully our evidence and rethink our methodologies in a multi-disciplinary approach. More than 30 papers investigate diverse sacred landscapes from the Iberian peninsula and Britain in the west to China in the east. They discuss how to interpret the intricate web of ciphers and symbols in the landscape and how people might have experienced it. We see the role of performance, ritual, orality, textuality and memory in people’s sacred landscapes. A diachronic view allows us to study how landscapes were ‘rewritten’, adapted and redefined in the course of time to suit new cultural, political and religious understandings, not to mention the impact of urbanism on people’s understandings. A key question is how was the landscape manipulated, transformed and monumentalized – especially the colossal investments in monumental architecture we see in certain socio-historic contexts or the creation of an alternative humanmade, seemingly ‘non-natural’ landscape, with perfectly astronomically aligned buildings that define a cosmological order? Sacred Landscapes therefore aims to analyze the complex links between landscape, ‘religiosity’ and society, developing a dialectic framework that explores sacred landscapes across the ancient world in a dynamic, holistic, contextual and historical perspective.

Power of Place

James Robson
Power of Place Book PDF

Author : James Robson
Publisher : Harvard University Press
Page : 560 pages
File Size : 45,9 Mb
Release : 2009
Category : History
ISBN : UCSD:31822037450269

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Power of Place by James Robson Pdf

Mountains have always been integral components of China's religious landscape. Early in Chinese history five mountains were co-opted into the imperial cult and declared sacred peaks--yue--demarcating and protecting the imperium's boundaries. Here, Robson demonstrates the value of local and Buddho-Daoist studies in research on Chinese religion.

Gardens of a Chinese Emperor

Victoria M. Siu
Gardens of a Chinese Emperor Book PDF

Author : Victoria M. Siu
Publisher : Lehigh University Press
Page : 301 pages
File Size : 43,9 Mb
Release : 2013-06-12
Category : History
ISBN : 9781611461299

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Gardens of a Chinese Emperor by Victoria M. Siu Pdf

The Garden of Perfect Brightness (Yuanming Yuan) in the western suburbs of the Quing capital, Beijing, was begun by the great Kangxi (r. 1661-1722) and expanded by his son, Yongzheng (r. 1722-1736) and brought to its greatest glory by his grandson, Qianlong (r. 1736-1796). A lover of literature and art, Qinglong sought an earthly reflection of his greatness in his Yuanming Yuan. For many years he designed and directed an elaborate program of garden arrangements. Representing two generations of painstaking research, this book follows the emperor as he ruled his empire from within his garden. In a landscape of lush plants, artificial mountains and lakes, and colorful buildings, he sought to represent his wealth and power to his diverse subjects and to the world at large. Having been looted and burned in the mid-nineteenth century by western forces, it now lies mostly in ruins, but it was the world’s most elaborate garden in the eighteenth century. The garden suggested a whole set of concepts—religious, philosophical, political, artistic, and popular—represented in landscape and architecture. Just as bonsai portrays a garden in miniature, the imperial Yuanming Yuan at the height of its splendor represented the Qing Empire in microcosm. Includes 62 color plates and 35 black & white photographs.

The Divine Nature of Power

Tracy Miller
The Divine Nature of Power Book PDF

Author : Tracy Miller
Publisher : BRILL
Page : 292 pages
File Size : 45,5 Mb
Release : 2020-10-26
Category : Architecture
ISBN : 9781684170463

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The Divine Nature of Power by Tracy Miller Pdf

Built around three sacred springs, the Jin Shrines complex (Jinci), near Taiyuan in Shanxi province, contains a wealth of ancient art and architecture dating back to the Northern Song dynasty (960–1127). The complex’s 1,500-year-long textual record allows us to compare physical and written evidence to understand how the built environment was manipulated to communicate ideas about divinity, identity, and status. Jinci’s significance varied over time according to both its patrons’ needs and changes in the political and physical landscape. The impact of these changes can be read in the physical development of the site. Using an interdisciplinary approach drawing on the research of archaeologists, anthropologists, and religious, social, and art historians, this book seeks to recover the motivations behind the creation of religious art, including temple buildings, sculpture, and wall paintings. Through an examination of building style and site organization, the author illuminates the multiplicity of meanings projected by buildings within a sacred landscape and the ability of competing patronage groups to modify those meanings with text and context, thereby affecting the identity of the deities housed within them. This study of the art and architecture of Jinci is thus about divine creations and their power to create divinity.

The Oxford Handbook of Light in Archaeology

Costas Papadopoulos,Holley Moyes
The Oxford Handbook of Light in Archaeology Book PDF

Author : Costas Papadopoulos,Holley Moyes
Publisher : Oxford University Press
Page : 817 pages
File Size : 52,5 Mb
Release : 2021-12-09
Category : Social Science
ISBN : 9780198788218

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The Oxford Handbook of Light in Archaeology by Costas Papadopoulos,Holley Moyes Pdf

Light plays a crucial role in mediating relationships between people, things, and spaces, yet lightscapes have been largely neglected in archaeology study. This volume offers a full consideration of light in archaeology and beyond, exploring diverse aspects of illumination in different spatial and temporal contexts from prehistory to the present.

Celestial Empire

Nathan Woolley
Celestial Empire Book PDF

Author : Nathan Woolley
Publisher : National Library of Australia
Page : 200 pages
File Size : 40,6 Mb
Release : 2016-01-01
Category : History
ISBN : 9780642278760

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Celestial Empire by Nathan Woolley Pdf

Celestial Empire shows the wealth and cultural richness of the Qing dynasty, which ruled China for nearly three centuries, as seen through rare materials from the National Library of China and the National Library of Australia. The book is illustrated with stunning images, from woodblock printed books to colourful maps, making accessible a wealth of culture from China’s last imperial dynasty. Many works that appear in the book have never been seen outside China before, or presented in English. Examples include painted scrolls of scenic and sacred sites, maps detailing a variety of landscapes, woodblock illustrations demonstrating extraordinary skill and artistic vision and delightful folk art used on festive occasions. The book also includes architectural drawings produced for the Imperial court of iconic locations such as the Forbidden City and the Summer Palace. A visually beautiful book that gives insight into the dynasty that laid the foundations of modern China.

A Chinese Bestiary

Richard E. Strassberg
A Chinese Bestiary Book PDF

Author : Richard E. Strassberg
Publisher : Univ of California Press
Page : 338 pages
File Size : 54,5 Mb
Release : 2023-11-03
Category : Art
ISBN : 9780520922785

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A Chinese Bestiary by Richard E. Strassberg Pdf

A Chinese Bestiary presents a fascinating pageant of mythical creatures from a unique and enduring cosmography written in ancient China. The Guideways through Mountains and Seas, compiled between the fourth and first centuries b.c.e., contains descriptions of hundreds of fantastic denizens of mountains, rivers, islands, and seas, along with minerals, flora, and medicine. The text also represents a wide range of beliefs held by the ancient Chinese. Richard Strassberg brings the Guideways to life for modern readers by weaving together translations from the work itself with information from other texts and recent archaeological finds to create a lavishly illustrated guide to the imaginative world of early China. Unlike the bestiaries of the late medieval period in Europe, the Guideways was not interpreted allegorically; the strange creatures described in it were regarded as actual entities found throughout the landscape. The work was originally used as a sacred geography, as a guidebook for travelers, and as a book of omens. Today, it is regarded as the richest repository of ancient Chinese mythology and shamanistic wisdom. The Guideways may have been illustrated from the start, but the earliest surviving illustrations are woodblock engravings from a rare 1597 edition. Seventy-six of those plates are reproduced here for the first time, and they provide a fine example of the Chinese engraver's art during the late Ming dynasty. This beautiful volume, compiled by a well-known specialist in the field, provides a fascinating window on the thoughts and beliefs of an ancient people, and will delight specialists and general readers alike.