Kingship in Early Medieval China

Kingship in Early Medieval China
Title Kingship in Early Medieval China PDF eBook
Author Andrew Eisenberg
Publisher BRILL
Pages 293
Release 2008-01-01
Genre Social Science
ISBN 9004163816

Download Kingship in Early Medieval China Book in PDF, Epub and Kindle

The institution of the Retired Emperor forms the innovative angle from which this study analyzes Classical Chinese political history (4th to 7th centuries A.D.) With the help of the ensuing insights the volume develops into a portal through which to gain understanding of broader patterns of political and social action relevant to the Classical Chinese monarchy. In this truly interdisciplinary approach Weberian historical sociological concepts are engaged as a means of bringing specific historical actions into a wider cross cultural comparative perspective and lays the basis for a new framework to think about kingship and succession in East Asia.

Sacred Kingship in World History

Sacred Kingship in World History
Title Sacred Kingship in World History PDF eBook
Author A. Azfar Moin
Publisher Columbia University Press
Pages 653
Release 2022-05-10
Genre History
ISBN 0231555407

Download Sacred Kingship in World History Book in PDF, Epub and Kindle

Sacred kingship has been the core political form, in small-scale societies and in vast empires, for much of world history. This collaborative and interdisciplinary book recasts the relationship between religion and politics by exploring this institution in long-term and global comparative perspective. Editors A. Azfar Moin and Alan Strathern present a theoretical framework for understanding sacred kingship, which leading scholars reflect on and respond to in a series of essays. They distinguish between two separate but complementary religious tendencies, immanentism and transcendentalism, which mold kings into divinized or righteous rulers, respectively. Whereas immanence demands priestly and cosmic rites from kings to sustain the flourishing of life, transcendence turns the focus to salvation and subordinates rulers to higher ethical objectives. Secular modernity does not end the struggle between immanence and transcendence—flourishing and righteousness—but only displaces it from kings onto nations and individuals. After an essay by Marshall Sahlins that ranges from the Pacific to the Arctic, the book contains chapters on religion and kingship in settings as far-flung as ancient Egypt, classical Greece, medieval Islam, Mughal India, modern European drama, and ISIS. Sacred Kingship in World History sheds new light on how religion has constructed rulership, with implications spanning global history, religious studies, political theory, and anthropology.

Medieval Ethiopian Kingship, Craft, and Diplomacy with Latin Europe

Medieval Ethiopian Kingship, Craft, and Diplomacy with Latin Europe
Title Medieval Ethiopian Kingship, Craft, and Diplomacy with Latin Europe PDF eBook
Author Verena Krebs
Publisher Springer Nature
Pages 319
Release 2021-03-17
Genre History
ISBN 3030649342

Download Medieval Ethiopian Kingship, Craft, and Diplomacy with Latin Europe Book in PDF, Epub and Kindle

This book explores why Ethiopian kings pursued long-distance diplomatic contacts with Latin Europe in the late Middle Ages. It traces the history of more than a dozen embassies dispatched to the Latin West by the kings of Solomonic Ethiopia, a powerful Christian kingdom in the medieval Horn of Africa. Drawing on sources from Europe, Ethiopia, and Egypt, it examines the Ethiopian kings’ motivations for sending out their missions in the fifteenth and early sixteenth centuries – and argues that a desire to acquire religious treasures and foreign artisans drove this early intercontinental diplomacy. Moreover, the Ethiopian initiation of contacts with the distant Christian sphere of Latin Europe appears to have been intimately connected to a local political agenda of building monumental ecclesiastical architecture in the North-East African highlands, and asserted the Ethiopian rulers’ claim of universal kingship and rightful descent from the biblical king Solomon. Shedding new light on the self-identity of a late medieval African dynasty at the height of its power, this book challenges conventional narratives of African-European encounters on the eve of the so-called ‘Age of Exploration'.

Worldly Saviors and Imperial Authority in Medieval Chinese Buddhism

Worldly Saviors and Imperial Authority in Medieval Chinese Buddhism
Title Worldly Saviors and Imperial Authority in Medieval Chinese Buddhism PDF eBook
Author April D. Hughes
Publisher University of Hawaii Press
Pages 199
Release 2021-05-31
Genre History
ISBN 0824888707

Download Worldly Saviors and Imperial Authority in Medieval Chinese Buddhism Book in PDF, Epub and Kindle

Although scholars have long assumed that early Chinese political authority was rooted in Confucianism, rulership in the medieval period was not bound by a single dominant tradition. To acquire power, emperors deployed objects and figures derived from a range of traditions imbued with religious and political significance. Author April D. Hughes demonstrates how dynastic founders like Wu Zhao (Wu Zetian, r. 690–705), the only woman to rule China under her own name, and Yang Jian (Emperor Wen, r. 581–604), the first ruler of the Sui dynasty, closely identified with Buddhist worldly saviors and Wheel-Turning Kings to legitimate their rule. During periods of upheaval caused by the decline of the Dharma, worldly saviors arrived on earth to quell chaos and to rule and liberate their subjects simultaneously. By incorporating these figures into the imperial system, sovereigns were able to depict themselves both as monarchs and as buddhas or bodhisattvas in uncertain times. In this inventive and original work, Hughes traces worldly saviors—in particular Maitreya Buddha and Prince Moonlight—as they appeared in apocalyptic scriptures from Dunhuang, claims to the throne made by various rebel leaders, and textual interpretations and assertions by Yang Jian and Wu Zhao. Yang Jian associated himself with Prince Moonlight and took on the persona of a Wheel-Turning King whose offerings to the Buddha were not flowers and incense but weapons of war to reunite a long-fragmented empire and revitalize the Dharma. Wu Zhao was associated with several different worldly savior figures. In addition, she saw herself as the incarnation of a Wheel-Turning King for whom it was said the Seven Treasures manifested as material representations of his right to rule. Wu Zhao duly had the Seven Treasures created and put on display whenever she held audiences at court. The worldly savior figure allowed rulers to inhabit the highest role in the religious realm along with the supreme role in the political sphere. This incorporation transformed notions of Chinese imperial sovereignty, and associating rulers with a buddha or bodhisattva continued long after the close of the medieval period.

Philosophy and Religion in Early Medieval China

Philosophy and Religion in Early Medieval China
Title Philosophy and Religion in Early Medieval China PDF eBook
Author Alan K. L. Chan
Publisher State University of New York Press
Pages 384
Release 2010-08-04
Genre History
ISBN 1438431899

Download Philosophy and Religion in Early Medieval China Book in PDF, Epub and Kindle

Exploring a time of profound change, this book details the intellectual ferment after the fall of the Han dynasty. Questions about "heaven" and the affairs of the world that had seemed resolved by Han Confucianism resurfaced and demanded reconsideration. New currents in philosophy, religion, and intellectual life emerged to leave an indelible mark on the subsequent development of Chinese thought and culture. This period saw the rise of xuanxue ("dark learning" or "learning of the mysterious Dao"), the establishment of religious Daoism, and the rise of Buddhism. In examining the key ideas of xuanxue and focusing on its main proponents, the contributors to this volume call into question the often-presumed monolithic identity of this broad philosophical front. The volume also highlights the richness and complexity of religion in China during this period, examining the relationship between the Way of the Celestial Master and local, popular religious beliefs and practices, and discussing the relationship between religious Daoism and Buddhism.

Kingship, Lordship and Sanctity in Medieval Britain

Kingship, Lordship and Sanctity in Medieval Britain
Title Kingship, Lordship and Sanctity in Medieval Britain PDF eBook
Author Steven Boardman
Publisher Boydell & Brewer
Pages 338
Release 2022
Genre Great Britain
ISBN 1783277165

Download Kingship, Lordship and Sanctity in Medieval Britain Book in PDF, Epub and Kindle

Essays reconsidering key topics in the history of late medieval Scotland and northern England.

Women in Early Medieval China

Women in Early Medieval China
Title Women in Early Medieval China PDF eBook
Author Bret Hinsch
Publisher Rowman & Littlefield
Pages 235
Release 2018-10-05
Genre History
ISBN 1538117975

Download Women in Early Medieval China Book in PDF, Epub and Kindle

This important study provides the only comprehensive survey of Chinese women during the early medieval period of disunion, which lasted from the fall of the Eastern Han dynasty in 220 AD to the reunification of China by the Sui dynasty in 581 AD, also known as the Six Dynasties. Bret Hinsch offers rich descriptions of the most important aspects of female life in this era, including family and marriage, motherhood, political power, work, inheritance, education, and religious roles. He traces women’s lived experiences as well as the emotional life and the ideals they pursued. Building on the best Western and Japanese scholarship, Hinsch also draws heavily on Chinese primary sources and scholarship, most of which is unknown outside China. As the first study in English about women in the early medieval era, this groundbreaking book will open a new window into Chinese history for Western readers.