ENGLISH

The Eminent Monk: Buddhist Ideals in Medieval Chinese Hagiography

By John Kieschnick

Book information

Publisher
University of Hawaii Press
Year
1997
ISBN
0824818415, 9780824818418
Language
english
Format
PDF
Filesize
20 MB (20458578 bytes)
Series
Kuroda Institute Studies in East Asian Buddhism
Pages
232\225
Scanned
yes
Time added
2020-12-11 13:49:27

Description

In an attempt to reconstruct an elusive aspect of the medieval Chinese imagination, The Eminent Monk examines biographies of Chinese Buddhist monks, from the uncompromising ascetic to the unfathomable wonder-worker. While analyzing images of the monk in medieval China, the author addresses some questions encountered along the way: What are we to make of accounts in "eminent monk" collections of deviant monks who violate monastic precepts? Who wrote biographies of monks and who read them? How did different segments of Chinese society contend for the image of the monk and which image prevailed? By placing biographies of monks in the context of Chinese political and religious rhetoric, The Eminent Monk explores both the role of Buddhist literature in Chinese history and the monastic imagination that inspired this literature.

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