This authoritative volume examines the two main faiths, Confucianism and Daoism, that developed before China had meaningful contact with the rest of the world. Aspects of Buddhism later joined features of these faiths to form elements of Chinese ideology and, with the beliefs in immortals and the worship of ancestors, they led to a popular religion. The narrative describes the gods and goddesses that dominated China's mythology and folk culture, roughly from the 3rd millennium to 221 BCE, including the Baxian (Eight Immortals), Chang'e (moon goddess), Guandi (god of war), the Men Shen (door spirits), and Pan Gu (first man).
Finding God in Ancient China is a sweeping historical, cultural, and linguistic tour through the history of China that seeks to connect the God of the Bible with ancient Chinese language, traditions, and rituals.
This is an introduction to the most frequently encountered Chinese deities in the enormous Chinese pantheon, focusing on those gods which express the most common concerns of the Chinese people. Some of these include the gods of creation myths, the mythical founders of China's early societies, and the deities of the celestial world, nature, and destiny. There have been few written records of these popular myths and gods in English or Chinese, as they have traditionally been transmitted orally. Highlighting regional variations, this is the ideal companion to deciphering the divine maze of statues in most Chinese temples.
Evidence from Shang oracle bones to memorials submitted to Western Han emperors attests to a long-lasting debate in early China over the proper relationship between humans and gods. One pole of the debate saw the human and divine realms as separate and agonistic and encouraged divination to determine the will of the gods and sacrifices to appease and influence them. The opposite pole saw the two realms as related and claimed that humans could achieve divinity and thus control the cosmos. This wide-ranging book reconstructs this debate and places within their contemporary contexts the rival claims concerning the nature of the cosmos and the spirits, the proper demarcation between the human and the divine realms, and the types of power that humans and spirits can exercise. It is often claimed that the worldview of early China was unproblematically monistic and that hence China had avoided the tensions between gods and humans found in the West. By treating the issues of cosmology, sacrifice, and self-divinization in a historical and comparative framework that attends to the contemporary significance of specific arguments, Michael J. Puett shows that the basic cosmological assumptions of ancient China were the subject of far more debate than is generally thought.
In her study of medieval Chinese lay practices and beliefs, Valerie Hansen argues that social and economic developments underlay religious changes in the Southern Song. Unfamiliar with the contents of Buddhist and Daoist texts, the common people hired the practitioner or prayed to the god they thought could cure the ill or bring rain. As the economy rapidly developed, the gods, like the people who worshiped them, diversified: their realm of influence expanded as some gods began to deal on the national grain market and others advised their followers on business transactions. In order to trace this evolution, the author draws information from temple inscriptions, literary notes, the administrative law code, and local histories. By contrasting differing rates of religious change in the lowland and highland regions of the lower Yangzi valley, Hansen suggests that the commercial and social developments were far less uniform than previously thought. In 1100, nearly all people in South China worshiped gods who had been local residents prior to their deaths. The increasing mobility of cultivators in the lowland, rice-growing regions resulted in the adoption of gods from other places. Cults in the isolated mountain areas showed considerably less change. Originally published in 1990. The Princeton Legacy Library uses the latest print-on-demand technology to again make available previously out-of-print books from the distinguished backlist of Princeton University Press. These editions preserve the original texts of these important books while presenting them in durable paperback and hardcover editions. The goal of the Princeton Legacy Library is to vastly increase access to the rich scholarly heritage found in the thousands of books published by Princeton University Press since its founding in 1905.
This authoritative volume examines the two main faiths, Confucianism and Daoism, that developed before China had meaningful contact with the rest of the world. Aspects of Buddhism later joined features of these faiths to form elements of Chinese ideology and, with the beliefs in immortals and the worship of ancestors, they led to a popular religion. The narrative describes the gods and goddesses that dominated China's mythology and folk culture, roughly from the 3rd millennium to 221 BCE, including the Baxian (Eight Immortals), Chang'e (moon goddess), Guandi (god of war), the Men Shen (door spirits), and Pan Gu (first man).
Pangu, a god asleep inside a giant black egg for 18,000 years, wakes up to create the world. Liu Bang, the founder of a Chinese dynasty, begins his life as a peasant. Sun Tzu, a fearless war strategist, writes one of the most popular books of all time. These are just a few of the captivating figures you'll meet in The Ancient Chinese World. Terry Kleeman and Tracy Barrett use a rich variety of intriguing primary sources-turtle shells, clay pots, an ancient wall, folk songs, poetry, and more-to construct a lively history of the politicians, farmers, warriors, and philosophers who created and shaped the ancient Chinese world. They also show us the fascinating process of constructing the historical jigsaw puzzle. Archaeologists discover a 400,000-year-old skull near modern-day Beijing and determine that it is one of our earliest human ancestors. A scholar who is prescribed "dragon bones" to cure an illness realizes that the bones-which are actually turtle shells-contain ancient Chinese writing used to send messages to the gods. The fantastic discovery of Lady Hao's tomb reveals that in ancient China a powerful woman led soldiers into battle. The letters exchanged by two military leaders show not only how the Chinese invented the sword, but also how they used the kite as a military weapon. Using these ancient artifacts and writings, Kleeman and Barrett weave the dramatic story of rulers, writers, soldiers, and citizens who made up the fascinating and unique world of ancient China.
This updated edition by one of the world's leading apologists presents a systematic, positive case for Christianity that reflects the latest work in the contemporary hard sciences and humanities. Brilliant and accessible.
