Religious Experience and Lay Society in t'Ang China: A Reading of Tai Fu's 'Kuang-I Chi'

ISBN-13: 9780521482233 / Angielski / Twarda / 1995 / 272 str.

Glen Dudbridge

Opis

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.

Recenzje

"...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

Spis treści

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.