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The Fluid Pantheon: Gods of Medieval Japan, Volume 1

Bernard Faure

The book constitutes an attempt to rethink medieval Japanese religion in light of the recently discovered documents and of the innovative contributions by Japanese scholars. Drawing on the ... More

The book constitutes an attempt to rethink medieval Japanese religion in light of the recently discovered documents and of the innovative contributions by Japanese scholars. Drawing on the theoretical insights of structuralism, post-structuralism, and Actor-Network Theory, it retrieves what could be called the “implicit pantheon” (by opposition to the “explicit,” orthodox pantheon) of medieval esoteric Buddhism (mikkyō). Through a number of case studies, the book introduces readers to the labyrinthine world of medieval Japanese religiosity, and shows the centrality of the gods in religious discourse and practice. It describes and analyzes the impressive mythological and ritual efflorescence that marked the medieval period, not only in the religious domain, but also in the political, artistic, and literary spheres. While the individual chapters of the book give seem to follow the general taxonomic structure of the esoteric Buddhist pantheon, the proliferation of oblique relationships within and between chapters undermines that hierarchical structure and reveals the existence of a complex network, linking, not only deities, but also rituals, symbols, people, institutions, sacred objects and places.Less

Protectors and Predators: Gods of Medieval Japan, Volume 2

Bernard Faure

This book suggests that the gekokujō (“the world turned upside down”) model that informed and transformed medieval Japanese society also applied, mutatis mutandis, to the religious sphere. It ... More

This book suggests that the gekokujō (“the world turned upside down”) model that informed and transformed medieval Japanese society also applied, mutatis mutandis, to the religious sphere. It therefore emphasizes the role played by certain deities that have been until now treated as marginal, while remaining relatively silent about the traditional protagonists of Japanese religion (the great buddhas like Dainichi and Amida, and kami like the Sun-goddess Amaterasu). It also de-centers traditional Japanese religious history by shifting the focus from purely Japanese Buddhist figures to their Indian and Chinese prototypes and to their non-Buddhist (and also non-“Shinto”) elements, showing how, even as Japanese religion became increasingly “national” (not to say nativist), it remained heavily indebted to foreign influences. Indeed, more often than not, native gods were heterochthonous. Their foreign origin, quite visible in cases like that of Shinra Myōjin, the “bright deity of Silla,” did not prevent them from becoming local protectors, on the contrary.Less

A Korean Confucian Way of Life and Thought: The Chasongnok (Record of Self-Reflection) by Yi Hwang (Toegye)

YI Hwang (T’oegye, 1501-1570) is an eminent thinker in the history of Asian philosophy and religion. His Chasŏngnok (Record of self-reflection) is a superb Korean Neo-Confucian text: a special ... More

YI Hwang (T’oegye, 1501-1570) is an eminent thinker in the history of Asian philosophy and religion. His Chasŏngnok (Record of self-reflection) is a superb Korean Neo-Confucian text: a special collection of twenty-two letters to his close disciples and colleagues, as selected by T’oegye himself. It continuously guided his self-reflection and became an inspiring text for others including some leading Japanese Neo-Confucians. Its philosophical merit is as outstanding as his Sŏnghak sipto (Ten diagrams on sage learning) and “Four-Seven Debate Letters”; however, the Chasŏngnok is more interesting and engaging with T’oegye’s holistic knowledge and experience of self-cultivation, thereby revealing the dignity and depth of his character, ethics, and spirituality. This book is an original scholarly work that offers a fully annotated translation of his Chasŏngnok with notes, cross-referencing citations, and interpretive comments. Chung’s Introduction presents a groundbreaking discussion of T’oegye’s life and thought. As the first comprehensive study of the Chasŏngnok, this book is a welcome addition to the current literature on East Asian classics, philosophy, and religion. It discusses T’oegye’s thought-provoking contribution and will shed new light on Confucian wisdom, providing scholars, students, and others with an excellent primary source. It also reminds us about the converging horizon between Confucianism and other spiritual traditions regarding the moral and transcendent truth of human existence.Less

Shimaji Mokurai and the Reconception of Religion and the Secular in Modern Japan

Hans Martin Krämer

Religion is at the heart of ongoing political debates in Japan such as the constitutionality of official government visits to Yasukuni Shrine, yet the categories that frame these debates, religion ... More

Religion is at the heart of ongoing political debates in Japan such as the constitutionality of official government visits to Yasukuni Shrine, yet the categories that frame these debates, religion and the secular, entered the Japanese language less than 150 years ago. This book shows that religion and the secular were critically reconceived in Japan by Japanese who had their own interests and traditions as well as those received in their encounters with the West. It argues that by the mid-nineteenth century developments outside of Europe and North America were already part of a global process of rethinking religion. The Buddhist priest Shimaji Mokurai (1838–1911) was the first Japanese to discuss the modern concept of religion in some depth in the early 1870s. Indigenous tradition, politics, and Western influence came together to set the course the reconception of religion would take in Japan. The book traces the history of the modern Japanese term for religion, shūkyō, and its components and explores the significance of Shimaji's sectarian background as a True Pure Land Buddhist. Shimaji went on to shape the early Meiji government's religious policy and was essential in redefining the locus of Buddhism in modernity and indirectly that of Shinto. The book offers an account of Shimaji's intellectual dealings with the West as well as clarifies the ramifications of these encounters for Shimaji's own thinking. It historicizes Japanese appropriations of secularization from medieval times to the twentieth century and discusses the meaning of the reconception of religion in modern Japan.Less

The Divine Eye and the Diaspora: Vietnamese Syncretism Becomes Transpacific Caodaism

Janet Alison Hoskins

Caodaism, Vietnam’s third largest religion with four million followers, is now a major world religion. Colorful and strikingly eclectic, it incorporates Chinese, Buddhist and Western traditions along ... More

Caodaism, Vietnam’s third largest religion with four million followers, is now a major world religion. Colorful and strikingly eclectic, it incorporates Chinese, Buddhist and Western traditions along with more recent world figures like Victor Hugo, Jeanne d’Arc, Lenin and (in the USA) the Mormon founder Joseph Smith. Sometimes described as “outrageously syncretistic”, its combination of different elements has been seen as an excessive, even trangressive combination of the traditions of Asia and the West. Caodaism emerged in the 1920s during the struggle against colonialism in French Indochina. Millions converted in the first few decades, and Caodaists played important roles in the nationalist movement and the American war in Vietnam. Communist victory in 1975 led to severe restrictions inside Vietnam, but Caodaism flourished in the diaspora in the US, France, Australia and Canada. The lives of religious founders from the Caodai “the age of revelations” (1925-1934) are contrasted with experiences of their disciples and descendants in the “age of diaspora” (1975-present) when many Caodaists went into exile. Paired biographies of founders and followers show the tension between initial religious inspiration and diasporic re-interpretations in a new context, as the religion has achieved a global outreach on both sides of the Pacific.Less

Encountering Modernity: Christianity in East Asia and Asian America

Albert L. Park and David K. Yoo (eds)

The story of Catholicism and Protestantism in China, Japan, and Korea has been told in great detail. Less evident, however, are studies that contextualize Christianity within the larger economic, ... More

The story of Catholicism and Protestantism in China, Japan, and Korea has been told in great detail. Less evident, however, are studies that contextualize Christianity within the larger economic, political, social, and cultural developments in each of the three countries and its diasporas. This book provides insights into Christianity’s role in the development of East Asia and as it took shape among East Asians in the United States. It brings together studies of Christianity in China, Taiwan, Korea, and Japan and its diasporas to expand the field through new angles of vision and interpretation. It critically investigates how Protestant Christianity was negotiated and interpreted by individuals in Korea, China (with a brief look at Taiwan), and Japan starting in the nineteenth century as all three countries became incorporated into the global economy and the international nation-state system anchored by the West. People in East Asia from various walks of life studied and, in some cases, embraced principles of Christianity as a way to frame and make meaningful the economic, political, and social changes they experienced because of modernity. The book makes a significant contribution by moving beyond issues of missiology and church history to ask how Christianity represented an encounter with modernity that set into motion tremendous changes throughout East Asia and in transnational diasporic communities in the United States.Less

Nothingness and Desire: A Philosophical Antiphony

James W. Heisig

The six lectures that make up this book were delivered in March 2011 at London University's School of Oriental and Asian Studies as the Jordan Lectures on Comparative Religion. They revolve around ... More

The six lectures that make up this book were delivered in March 2011 at London University's School of Oriental and Asian Studies as the Jordan Lectures on Comparative Religion. They revolve around the intersection of two ideas, nothingness and desire, as they apply to a re-examination of the questions of self, God, morality, property, and the East–West philosophical divide. Rather than attempt to harmonize East and West philosophies into a single chorus, the book undertakes a “philosophical antiphony.” Through the simple call-and-response of a few representative voices, the book tries to join the choir on both sides of the antiphony to relate the questions at hand to larger problems that press on the human community. It argues that as problems like the technological devastation of the natural world, the shrinking of elected governance through the expanding powers of financial institutions, and the expropriation of alternate cultures of health and education spread freely through traditional civilizations across the world, religious and philosophical responses can no longer afford to remain territorial in outlook. Although the lectures often stress the importance of practice, their principal preoccupation is with seeing the things of life more clearly.Less

Bones of Contention: Animals and Religion in Contemporary Japan

Barbara R. Ambros

Since the 1990s the Japanese pet industry has grown to a trillion-yen business and estimates place the number of pets above the number of children under the age of fifteen. There are between 6,000 to ... More

Since the 1990s the Japanese pet industry has grown to a trillion-yen business and estimates place the number of pets above the number of children under the age of fifteen. There are between 6,000 to 8,000 businesses in the Japanese pet funeral industry, including more than 900 pet cemeteries. Of these about 120 are operated by Buddhist temples, and Buddhist mortuary rites for pets have become an institutionalized practice. This book investigates what religious and intellectual traditions constructed animals as subjects of religious rituals and how pets have been included or excluded in the necral landscapes of contemporary Japan. Pet mortuary rites are emblems of the ongoing changes in contemporary Japanese religions. The book sheds light on important questions such as: Who (or what) counts as a family member? What kinds of practices should the state recognize as religious and thus protect financially and legally? Is it frivolous or selfish to keep, pamper, or love an animal? Should humans and pets be buried together? How do people reconcile the deeply personal grief that follows the loss of a pet and how do they imagine the afterlife of pets? And ultimately, what is the status of animals in Japan?Less

One and Many: A Comparative Study of Plato's Philosophy and Daoism Represented by Ge Hong

Ji Zhang

Is the world one or many? This book revisits this ancient philosophical question from the modern perspective of comparative studies. The investigation stages an intellectual exchange between Plato, ... More

Is the world one or many? This book revisits this ancient philosophical question from the modern perspective of comparative studies. The investigation stages an intellectual exchange between Plato, founder of the Academy, and Ge Hong, who systematized Daoist belief and praxis. The book not only captures the tension between rational Platonism and abstruse Daoism, but also creates a bridge between the two. The book is a unique study of Daoism and Platonism, avoiding the common assumptions of either interpreting Daoism through the western perspective or favoring rational cognitive thought over empirical instrument studies.Less

Rectifying God's Name: Liu Zhi's Confucian Translation of Monotheism and Islamic Law

James D. Frankel

Islam first arrived in China more than 1,200 years ago, but for more than a millennium it was perceived as a foreign presence. The restoration of native Chinese rule by the Ming dynasty (1368–1644), ... More

Islam first arrived in China more than 1,200 years ago, but for more than a millennium it was perceived as a foreign presence. The restoration of native Chinese rule by the Ming dynasty (1368–1644), after nearly a century of Mongol domination, helped transform Chinese intellectual discourse on ideological, social, political, religious, and ethnic identity. This led to the creation of a burgeoning network of Sinicized Muslim scholars who wrote about Islam in classical Chinese and developed a body of literature known as the Han Kitāb. This book examines the life and work of one of the most important of the Qing Chinese Muslim literati, Liu Zhi (ca. 1660–ca. 1730), and places his writings in their historical, cultural, social, and religio-philosophical context. His Tianfang danli (Ritual law of Islam) represents the most systematic and sophisticated attempt within the Han Kitāb corpus to harmonize Islam with Chinese thought. The book begins by situating Liu Zhi in the historical development of the Chinese Muslim intellectual tradition. Delving into the contents of Liu Zhi's work, it focuses on his use of specific Chinese terms and concepts, their origins and meanings in Chinese thought, and their correspondence to Islamic principles. A close examination of the Tianfang dianli reveals Liu Zhi's specific usage of the concept of Ritual as a common foundation of both Confucian morality and social order and Islamic piety. The challenge of expressing such concepts tested the limits of his scholarship and linguistic finesse.Less