Living Karma: The Religious Practices of Ouyi Zhixu Contributor(s): McGuire, Beverley (Author) |
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ISBN: 0231537778 ISBN-13: 9780231537773 Publisher: Columbia University Press
Binding Type: Open Ebook - See All Available Formats & Editions Published: August 2014 Click for more in this series: Sheng Yen Series in Chinese Buddhist Studies |
Additional Information |
BISAC Categories: - Religion | Buddhism - History - History | Asia - China - Religion | Buddhism - Rituals & Practice |
Dewey: 294.392 |
Series: Sheng Yen Series in Chinese Buddhist Studies |
Physical Information: 240 pages |
Themes: - Cultural Region - Chinese - Religious Orientation - Buddhist |
Features: Bibliography, Glossary, Illustrated |
Descriptions, Reviews, Etc. |
Publisher Description: Ouyi Zhixu (1599-1655) was an eminent Chinese Buddhist monk who, contrary to his contemporaries, believed karma could be changed. Through vows, divination, repentance rituals, and ascetic acts such as burning and blood writing, he sought to alter what others understood as inevitable and inescapable. Drawing attention to Ouyi's unique reshaping of religious practice, Living Karma reasserts the significance of an overlooked individual in the modern development of Chinese Buddhism. While Buddhist studies scholarship tends to privilege textual analysis, Living Karma promotes a balanced study of ritual practice and writing, treating Ouyi's texts as ritual objects and his reading and writing as religious acts. Each chapter addresses a specific religious practice--writing, divination, repentance, vows, and bodily rituals--offering first a diachronic overview of each practice within the history of Chinese Buddhism and then a synchronic analysis of each phenomenon through close readings of Ouyi's work. This book sheds much-needed light on a little-known figure and his representation of karma, which proved to be a seminal innovation in the religious thought of late imperial China. |
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