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 The Literati and Chan Buddhism

Jiang Wu

in Enlightenment in Dispute: The Reinvention of Chan Buddhism in Seventeenth-Century China

This chapter explores how Confucian literati, especially Wang Yangming's followers, helped to reshape Chan communities through their reinterpretation of Chan teaching. The focus of this chapter is ... More

This chapter explores how Confucian literati, especially Wang Yangming's followers, helped to reshape Chan communities through their reinterpretation of Chan teaching. The focus of this chapter is literati's textual spirituality and textual practice such as reading and writing Chan literature. It shows that Chan Buddhism first grew from the pro‐Chan literati culture and was promoted by the literati. Later, this intellectual movement influenced the monastic world and introduced Chan masters to Eastern Zhejiang.Less

The Nature of Drugs

He Bian

in Know Your Remedies: Pharmacy and Culture in Early Modern China

This chapter zooms in on the early decades of the seventeenth century to examine the amateurization of bencao in certain literati circles. However, it is not only about subtle debates within the ... More

This chapter zooms in on the early decades of the seventeenth century to examine the amateurization of bencao in certain literati circles. However, it is not only about subtle debates within the neo-Confucian doctrine about the nature of drugs. The chapter also concerns the numerous and diverse attempts to live up to those ideals in late Ming China. At the time, many Confucian literati who took an interest in the subject of bencao belonged to the younger generations who came of age during or after the late decades of the Wanli reign (1572–1620). Not surprisingly, most of them lived and were primarily active in Jiangnan, the most prosperous and populous region of Ming China; but the enthusiasm for bencao did travel outside Jiangnan.Less

Putting Young Heroines in the Spotlight: The Seventeenth Century

in True to Her Word: The Faithful Maiden Cult in Late Imperial China

This chapter is concerned with the dynastic crisis of the seventeenth century. It deals with how the fall of the Ming in 1644 and the subsequent Manchu conquest transformed the ways in which the ... More

This chapter is concerned with the dynastic crisis of the seventeenth century. It deals with how the fall of the Ming in 1644 and the subsequent Manchu conquest transformed the ways in which the elite interpreted the faithful maiden act and constructed a special relationship between Confucian literati and the faithful maiden cult. Dramatic details were common in writings about faithful maidens. The faithful maidens who committed (or attempted to commit) suicide took center stage. The Snow-White Chinese flowering apple incident, the Song Dian incident, and the Wang Xiuwen saga are examples of this. The immense interest of the early Qing literati in promoting faithful maidens was deeply embedded in intense emotions over the political crisis of the Ming–Qing transition.Less