Signs from the unseen realm : Buddhist miracle tales from early medieval China / a translation and study by Robert Ford Campany.

Author
Campany, Robert Ford, 1959- [Browse]
Format
Book
Language
English
Published/​Created
  • Honolulu : University of Hawaiʻi Press, 2012.
  • ©2012
Description
1 online resource (1 volume)

Availability

Available Online

Details

Subject(s)
Series
Classics in East Asian Buddhism [More in this series]
Contains
Summary note
In early medieval China hundreds of Buddhist miracle texts were circulated, inaugurating a trend that would continue for centuries. Each tale recounted extraordinary events involving Chinese persons and places--events seen as verifying claims made in Buddhist scriptures, demonstrating the reality of karmic retribution, or confirming the efficacy of Buddhist devotional practices. Robert Ford Campany, one of North America's preeminent scholars of Chinese religion, presents in this volume the first complete, annotated translation, with in-depth commentary, of the largest extant collection of miracle tales from the early medieval period, Wang Yan's Records of Signs from the Unseen Realm, compiled around 490 C.E. In addition to the translation, Campany provides a substantial study of the text and its author in their historical and religious settings. He shows how these lively tales helped integrate Buddhism into Chinese society at the same time that they served as platforms for religious contestation and persuasion. Campany offers a nuanced, clear methodological discussion of how such narratives, being products of social memory, may be read as valuable evidence for the history of religion and culture. Readers interested in Buddhism; historians of Chinese religions, culture, society, and literature; scholars of comparative religion: All will find Signs from the Unseen Realm a stimulating and rich contribution to scholarship.
Bibliographic references
Includes bibliographical references and index.
Source of description
Description based on print version record.
Contents
  • Part I. Signs from the unseen realm and Buddhist miracle tales in early medieval China
  • part II. Translation : signs from the unseen realm.
ISBN
  • 9780824865719 ((electronic bk.))
  • 0824865715 ((electronic bk.))
  • 9780824869601
  • 0824869605
OCLC
794925907
Other standard number
  • 40020742031
Statement on language in description
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