Shari Horner
- Published in print:
- 2002
- Published Online:
- October 2013
- ISBN:
- 9780300091397
- eISBN:
- 9780300129113
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Yale University Press
- DOI:
- 10.12987/yale/9780300091397.003.0017
- Subject:
- Literature, Anglo-Saxon / Old English Literature
This chapter examines the culture of early medieval female monasticism based on the Old English poem The Wife's Lament. It suggests that this poem should be read from within the development of ...
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This chapter examines the culture of early medieval female monasticism based on the Old English poem The Wife's Lament. It suggests that this poem should be read from within the development of monastic culture and that its female speaker is produced by a “discourse of enclosure” that recalls and reflects the conditions of female monasticism. It also considers the poem's diction, register, connotation, and context.Less
This chapter examines the culture of early medieval female monasticism based on the Old English poem The Wife's Lament. It suggests that this poem should be read from within the development of monastic culture and that its female speaker is produced by a “discourse of enclosure” that recalls and reflects the conditions of female monasticism. It also considers the poem's diction, register, connotation, and context.
Lori R. Meeks
- Published in print:
- 2010
- Published Online:
- November 2016
- ISBN:
- 9780824833947
- eISBN:
- 9780824870737
- Item type:
- book
- Publisher:
- University of Hawai'i Press
- DOI:
- 10.21313/hawaii/9780824833947.001.0001
- Subject:
- Religion, Buddhism
Hokkeji, an ancient Nara temple that once stood at the apex of a state convent network established by Queen-Consort Komyo (701–760), possesses a history that in some ways is bigger than itself. Its ...
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Hokkeji, an ancient Nara temple that once stood at the apex of a state convent network established by Queen-Consort Komyo (701–760), possesses a history that in some ways is bigger than itself. Its development is emblematic of larger patterns in the history of female monasticism in Japan. This book explores the revival of Japan's most famous convent. With the help of the Ritsu (Vinaya)-revivalist priest Eison (1201–1290), privately professed women who had taken up residence at Hokkeji succeeded in reestablishing a nuns' ordination lineage in Japan. The book considers a broad range of issues surrounding women's engagement with Buddhism during a time when their status within the tradition was undergoing significant change. Texts associated with Hokkeji, the book argues, suggest that nuns there pursued a spiritual life untroubled by the so-called soteriological obstacles of womanhood. With little concern for the alleged karmic defilements of their gender, the female community at Hokkeji practiced Buddhism in ways resembling male priests. What distinguished Hokkeji nuns from their male counterparts was that many of their daily practices focused on the veneration of a female deity, their founder Queen-Consort Komyo, whom they regarded as a manifestation of the bodhisattva Kannon. The book rejects the commonly accepted notion that women simply internalized orthodox Buddhist discourses meant to discourage female practice and offers new perspectives on the religious lives of women in premodern Japan.Less
Hokkeji, an ancient Nara temple that once stood at the apex of a state convent network established by Queen-Consort Komyo (701–760), possesses a history that in some ways is bigger than itself. Its development is emblematic of larger patterns in the history of female monasticism in Japan. This book explores the revival of Japan's most famous convent. With the help of the Ritsu (Vinaya)-revivalist priest Eison (1201–1290), privately professed women who had taken up residence at Hokkeji succeeded in reestablishing a nuns' ordination lineage in Japan. The book considers a broad range of issues surrounding women's engagement with Buddhism during a time when their status within the tradition was undergoing significant change. Texts associated with Hokkeji, the book argues, suggest that nuns there pursued a spiritual life untroubled by the so-called soteriological obstacles of womanhood. With little concern for the alleged karmic defilements of their gender, the female community at Hokkeji practiced Buddhism in ways resembling male priests. What distinguished Hokkeji nuns from their male counterparts was that many of their daily practices focused on the veneration of a female deity, their founder Queen-Consort Komyo, whom they regarded as a manifestation of the bodhisattva Kannon. The book rejects the commonly accepted notion that women simply internalized orthodox Buddhist discourses meant to discourage female practice and offers new perspectives on the religious lives of women in premodern Japan.
Lori Meeks
- Published in print:
- 2010
- Published Online:
- November 2016
- ISBN:
- 9780824833947
- eISBN:
- 9780824870737
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- University of Hawai'i Press
- DOI:
- 10.21313/hawaii/9780824833947.003.0001
- Subject:
- Religion, Buddhism
This introductory chapter provides a background of the revival of women's monasticism in Japan. During the second month of the first year of the Kenchō era (1249), twelve women received the complete ...
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This introductory chapter provides a background of the revival of women's monasticism in Japan. During the second month of the first year of the Kenchō era (1249), twelve women received the complete nuns' monastic precepts (bikuni gusokukai) of the Four-Part Vinaya from the priest Eison. For several years, these women had been living as lay monastics in the ancient temple Hokkeji (the Lotus Temple) in Japan's southern capital of Nara. Taking 348 vows from Eison, they received conferral as full-pledged members of the Buddhist monastic community, or sangha. This ordination of twelve bikuni marked the first time in at least four hundred years that a group of women took the entire set of nuns' precepts in a manner recognized as legitimate by the male authorities of Buddhist monastic institution in Japan.Less
This introductory chapter provides a background of the revival of women's monasticism in Japan. During the second month of the first year of the Kenchō era (1249), twelve women received the complete nuns' monastic precepts (bikuni gusokukai) of the Four-Part Vinaya from the priest Eison. For several years, these women had been living as lay monastics in the ancient temple Hokkeji (the Lotus Temple) in Japan's southern capital of Nara. Taking 348 vows from Eison, they received conferral as full-pledged members of the Buddhist monastic community, or sangha. This ordination of twelve bikuni marked the first time in at least four hundred years that a group of women took the entire set of nuns' precepts in a manner recognized as legitimate by the male authorities of Buddhist monastic institution in Japan.
Beata Grant
- Published in print:
- 2008
- Published Online:
- November 2016
- ISBN:
- 9780824832025
- eISBN:
- 9780824871758
- Item type:
- book
- Publisher:
- University of Hawai'i Press
- DOI:
- 10.21313/hawaii/9780824832025.001.0001
- Subject:
- Religion, Buddhism
The seventeenth century is generally acknowledged as one of the most politically tumultuous but culturally creative periods of late imperial Chinese history. Only recently beginning to be explored ...
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The seventeenth century is generally acknowledged as one of the most politically tumultuous but culturally creative periods of late imperial Chinese history. Only recently beginning to be explored are such seventeenth-century religious phenomena as “the reinvention” of Chan Buddhism—a concerted effort to revive what were believed to be the traditional teachings, texts, and practices of “classical” Chan. And, until now, the role played by women in these religious developments has hardly been noted at all. This book brings together several of these important seventeenth-century trends. Although Buddhist nuns have been a continuous presence in Chinese culture since early medieval times and the subject of numerous scholarly studies, this book is one of the first to provide a detailed view of their activities, and to be based largely on the writings and self-representations of Buddhist nuns themselves. This perspective is made possible by the preservation of collections of “discourse records” (yulu) of seven officially designated female Chan masters in a seventeenth-century printing of the Chinese Buddhist Canon rarely used in English-language scholarship. The book is able to place the seven women, all of whom were active in Jiangnan, in their historical, religious, and cultural contexts, while allowing them, through her skillful translations, to speak in their own voices. Together these women offer an important, but until now virtually unexplored, perspective on seventeenth-century China, the history of female monasticism in China, and the contribution of Buddhist nuns to the history of Chinese women’s writing.Less
The seventeenth century is generally acknowledged as one of the most politically tumultuous but culturally creative periods of late imperial Chinese history. Only recently beginning to be explored are such seventeenth-century religious phenomena as “the reinvention” of Chan Buddhism—a concerted effort to revive what were believed to be the traditional teachings, texts, and practices of “classical” Chan. And, until now, the role played by women in these religious developments has hardly been noted at all. This book brings together several of these important seventeenth-century trends. Although Buddhist nuns have been a continuous presence in Chinese culture since early medieval times and the subject of numerous scholarly studies, this book is one of the first to provide a detailed view of their activities, and to be based largely on the writings and self-representations of Buddhist nuns themselves. This perspective is made possible by the preservation of collections of “discourse records” (yulu) of seven officially designated female Chan masters in a seventeenth-century printing of the Chinese Buddhist Canon rarely used in English-language scholarship. The book is able to place the seven women, all of whom were active in Jiangnan, in their historical, religious, and cultural contexts, while allowing them, through her skillful translations, to speak in their own voices. Together these women offer an important, but until now virtually unexplored, perspective on seventeenth-century China, the history of female monasticism in China, and the contribution of Buddhist nuns to the history of Chinese women’s writing.
