Southeast China is a traditional stronghold of Buddhism, but little scholarly attention has been paid to this fact. Brian Nichols’s pioneering book, Lotus Blossoms and Purple Clouds, centers on a large Buddhist monastery in Quanzhou and combines ethnographic detail with stimulating analysis to examine religion in post-Mao China. Nichols conducted more than twenty-six months of field research over a fourteen-year period (2005–2019) to develop a re-description of Chinese monastic Buddhism that reaches beyond canonical sources and master narratives to local texts, material culture, oral history, and living traditions. His work decenters normative accounts and sheds light on how Buddhism is lived and practiced. It introduces readers to Quanzhou Kaiyuan Monastery and its community of clergy striving to revive traditions after the turmoil of the Maoist era; the lay Buddhists worshiping in the monastery’s courtyards and halls; the busloads of tourists marveling at the site’s buildings and artifacts, some dating as far back as the Tang Dynasty (ninth century); and the local officials dedicated to supporting—and restricting—the return of religion. Using gazetteers, epigraphy, and other archival sources, Nichols begins by tracing the history of Quanzhou Kaiyuan Monastery from the Tang Dynasty to the present, noting the continued relevance of preternatural events like the lotus-blooming mulberry trees and auspicious purple clouds associated with the founding of the monastery. The contemporary monastery is then explored through ethnographic participation/observation and interviews. Nichols uncovers a number of unexpected features of Buddhist religious life, making a case for the fundamentally liturgical nature of Buddhist monastic practice—one marked by a program of daily dharaṇi (sacred text) recitation, esoteric traditions, and ancestor veneration. Finally, he presents an innovative spatial analysis of the Quanzhou Kaiyuan Monastery temple that reveals how different groups engage with the site to create a place of religious practice, a tourist attraction, and a community park.

Servant Wu was born with a family name of Wu Jun, his real brother was called Wu Jun, his niece was called Wu Qian'er, his son-in-law was Zhu Zhizhan, he was the famous constitutional emperor of the Ming Dynasty, he had a famous concubine with the family name Wan Zhen'er. Wan Tong, every word loyal, direct descendant, commander of the Imperial Secret Service, blood brother called Wan Fu, Wan Gui, brother-in-law called Zhu Shizhen, blood sister called Wan Zhen'er .... These two people, who were originally parallel to each other, intersected ... The battle in the house ... The official battle ... Gong Dou ...

A modern man traversing space and time had arrived at the prehistoric period. Who would have thought that he would actually become a great villain of the demon master, Kun Peng. In order to become a saint, many schemes were carried out, and finally, the story of becoming a saint was told ...

As a girl growing up in Hong Kong, Eva Wong heard and memorized many tales told to her by Hong Kong's finest professional storytellers, by actors on the radio, and by her grandmother. These popular tales of the Taoist immortals were also often dramatized in Chinese operas. The stories are of famous characters in Chinese history and myth: a hero's battle with the lords of evil, the founder of the Ming dynasty's treacherous betrayal of his friends, a young girl who saves her town by imitating rooster calls. Entertaining and often provocative, these tales usually include a moral. The immortals are role models in Chinese culture, as well as examples of enlightenment. Some of the immortals were healers, some were social activists, some were aristocrats, and some were entrepreneurs. The tales chosen by Eva Wong here are of the best-known immortals among the Chinese. Their names are household words and their stories are told and retold by one generation to the next.

The first three levels have obvious color characteristics (of course, this was revised by me later and has been finalized. ) The first three levels correspond, white, gold, black and tricolor

A young Binbin, about eighteen years old, wearing a white robe and holding a thick book in his hands, frowned and faintly flashed a trace of helplessness. This young man is called Hongxuan, but he is the son of the current patriarch of Hongjia, but his mother is just a humble servant girl,