Religious Experience and Lay Society in T'ang China
Religious Experience and Lay Society in T'ang China
The remains of Tai Fu's lost collection Kuang-i chi ("The Great Book of Marvels") preserve three hundred short tales of encounters with the other world. Through the eyes of an official, the picture emerges of a complex lay society, served by a mixed priesthood of ritual practitioners. This study develops a style of close reading through which the tales give access to the lives of individuals in eighth-century China, a society embarking on fundamental change.
- Vivid stories of otherworldly encounters make good reading
- Learned, historically informed analysis - author uses literature to shed light on social history and beliefs of the period
Reviews & endorsements
"The hallmark of this intriguing and provocative study is the immediacy of the voices from T'ang China that Dudbridge is able to enliven and present....Of particular value after the presentation of several texts is the appendix summary of all the extant entries. All interested scholars and students should find this book an exemplar of research." Linada L. Lam-Easton, Religious Studies Review
"...we must also acknowledge the merits of Dudbridge's effort. Chief among these is the value of his book in sharpening our awareness of the inherently blurry line between the fictional and the documentary in medieval accounts of the strange." Don J. Wyatt, American Historical Review
Product details
June 2002Paperback
9780521893220
272 pages
228 × 152 × 17 mm
0.418kg
2 maps
Available
Table of Contents
- Acknowledgements
- Note to the reader
- Maps
- 1. A sequence of voices
- 2. A contemporary view
- 3. The dynamics of Tai Fu's world
- 4. The worshippers of Mount Hua
- 5. Yü-ch'ih Chiung at An-yang
- 6. Victims of the Yüan Ch'ao rebellion
- 7. Mating with spirits
- Appendix: the stories of Kuang-i chi
- List of works cited
- Index.
