Kingship in Early Medieval China

Kingship in Early Medieval China PDF Author: Andrew Eisenberg
Publisher: BRILL
ISBN: 9047432304
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 292

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Book Description
The institution of the Retired Emperor forms the innovative angle from which this study analyzes Classical Chinese political history (4th to 7th centuries A.D.) and lays bare broader patterns of political and social action of Classical Chinese monarchy. The author lays a basis for a new framework to think about kingship and succession in East Asia.

Kingship in Early Medieval China

Kingship in Early Medieval China PDF Author: Andrew Eisenberg
Publisher: BRILL
ISBN: 9047432304
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 292

Get Book

Book Description
The institution of the Retired Emperor forms the innovative angle from which this study analyzes Classical Chinese political history (4th to 7th centuries A.D.) and lays bare broader patterns of political and social action of Classical Chinese monarchy. The author lays a basis for a new framework to think about kingship and succession in East Asia.

Kingship in Early Medieval China

Kingship in Early Medieval China PDF Author: Andrew Eisenberg
Publisher: BRILL
ISBN: 9004163816
Category : Social Science
Languages : en
Pages : 293

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Book Description
The institution of the Retired Emperor forms the innovative angle from which this study analyzes Classical Chinese political history (4th to 7th centuries A.D.) With the help of the ensuing insights the volume develops into a portal through which to gain understanding of broader patterns of political and social action relevant to the Classical Chinese monarchy. In this truly interdisciplinary approach Weberian historical sociological concepts are engaged as a means of bringing specific historical actions into a wider cross cultural comparative perspective and lays the basis for a new framework to think about kingship and succession in East Asia.

The Hall of Light

The Hall of Light PDF Author: William Edward Soothill
Publisher: James Clarke & Co.
ISBN: 9780227171233
Category : China
Languages : en
Pages : 316

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Book Description
A close examination of early Chinese culture, explaining the traditional ideas about monarchy, religion and worship, rituals and sacrifices, customs and other aspects that have influences the thought and behaviour of the Chinese for well over two millennia.

Itinerant Kingship and Royal Monasteries in Early Medieval Germany, C.936-1075

Itinerant Kingship and Royal Monasteries in Early Medieval Germany, C.936-1075 PDF Author: John W. Bernhardt
Publisher: Cambridge University Press
ISBN: 9780521521833
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 412

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Book Description
Shows how monasteries provided crucial economic and political support to itinerant monarchs in medieval Germany.

Early Medieval China

Early Medieval China PDF Author: Wendy Swartz
Publisher: Columbia University Press
ISBN: 0231531001
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 745

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Book Description
This innovative sourcebook builds a dynamic understanding of China's early medieval period (220–589) through an original selection and arrangement of literary, historical, religious, and critical texts. A tumultuous and formative era, these centuries saw the longest stretch of political fragmentation in China's imperial history, resulting in new ethnic configurations, the rise of powerful clans, and a pervasive divide between north and south. Deploying thematic categories, the editors sketch the period in a novel way for students and, by featuring many texts translated into English for the first time, recast the era for specialists. Thematic topics include regional definitions and tensions, governing mechanisms and social reality, ideas of self and other, relations with the unseen world, everyday life, and cultural concepts. Within each section, the editors and translators introduce the selected texts and provide critical commentary on their historical significance, along with suggestions for further reading and research.

The Hall of light

The Hall of light PDF Author: William Edward Soothill
Publisher:
ISBN:
Category :
Languages : en
Pages : 289

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Book Description


The Concept of Kingship in Anglo-Saxon and Medieval Chinese Literature

The Concept of Kingship in Anglo-Saxon and Medieval Chinese Literature PDF Author: Ji-hui Wang
Publisher: Peking University Press
ISBN:
Category : Beowulf
Languages : en
Pages : 228

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Book Description


Sacred Kingship in World History

Sacred Kingship in World History PDF Author: A. Azfar Moin
Publisher: Columbia University Press
ISBN: 0231555407
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 653

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Book Description
Sacred kingship has been the core political form, in small-scale societies and in vast empires, for much of world history. This collaborative and interdisciplinary book recasts the relationship between religion and politics by exploring this institution in long-term and global comparative perspective. Editors A. Azfar Moin and Alan Strathern present a theoretical framework for understanding sacred kingship, which leading scholars reflect on and respond to in a series of essays. They distinguish between two separate but complementary religious tendencies, immanentism and transcendentalism, which mold kings into divinized or righteous rulers, respectively. Whereas immanence demands priestly and cosmic rites from kings to sustain the flourishing of life, transcendence turns the focus to salvation and subordinates rulers to higher ethical objectives. Secular modernity does not end the struggle between immanence and transcendence—flourishing and righteousness—but only displaces it from kings onto nations and individuals. After an essay by Marshall Sahlins that ranges from the Pacific to the Arctic, the book contains chapters on religion and kingship in settings as far-flung as ancient Egypt, classical Greece, medieval Islam, Mughal India, modern European drama, and ISIS. Sacred Kingship in World History sheds new light on how religion has constructed rulership, with implications spanning global history, religious studies, political theory, and anthropology.

Worldly Saviors and Imperial Authority in Medieval Chinese Buddhism

Worldly Saviors and Imperial Authority in Medieval Chinese Buddhism PDF Author: April D. Hughes
Publisher: University of Hawaii Press
ISBN: 0824888707
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 199

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Book Description
Although scholars have long assumed that early Chinese political authority was rooted in Confucianism, rulership in the medieval period was not bound by a single dominant tradition. To acquire power, emperors deployed objects and figures derived from a range of traditions imbued with religious and political significance. Author April D. Hughes demonstrates how dynastic founders like Wu Zhao (Wu Zetian, r. 690–705), the only woman to rule China under her own name, and Yang Jian (Emperor Wen, r. 581–604), the first ruler of the Sui dynasty, closely identified with Buddhist worldly saviors and Wheel-Turning Kings to legitimate their rule. During periods of upheaval caused by the decline of the Dharma, worldly saviors arrived on earth to quell chaos and to rule and liberate their subjects simultaneously. By incorporating these figures into the imperial system, sovereigns were able to depict themselves both as monarchs and as buddhas or bodhisattvas in uncertain times. In this inventive and original work, Hughes traces worldly saviors—in particular Maitreya Buddha and Prince Moonlight—as they appeared in apocalyptic scriptures from Dunhuang, claims to the throne made by various rebel leaders, and textual interpretations and assertions by Yang Jian and Wu Zhao. Yang Jian associated himself with Prince Moonlight and took on the persona of a Wheel-Turning King whose offerings to the Buddha were not flowers and incense but weapons of war to reunite a long-fragmented empire and revitalize the Dharma. Wu Zhao was associated with several different worldly savior figures. In addition, she saw herself as the incarnation of a Wheel-Turning King for whom it was said the Seven Treasures manifested as material representations of his right to rule. Wu Zhao duly had the Seven Treasures created and put on display whenever she held audiences at court. The worldly savior figure allowed rulers to inhabit the highest role in the religious realm along with the supreme role in the political sphere. This incorporation transformed notions of Chinese imperial sovereignty, and associating rulers with a buddha or bodhisattva continued long after the close of the medieval period.

Paths to Kingship in Medieval Latin Europe, c. 950–1200

Paths to Kingship in Medieval Latin Europe, c. 950–1200 PDF Author: Björn Weiler
Publisher: Cambridge University Press
ISBN: 1009006223
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 493

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Book Description
Medieval Europe was a world of kings, but what did this mean to those who did not themselves wear a crown? How could they prevent corrupt and evil men from seizing the throne? How could they ensure that rulers would not turn into tyrants? Drawing on a rich array of remarkable sources, this engaging study explores how the fears and hopes of a ruler's subjects shaped both the idea and the practice of power. It traces the inherent uncertainty of royal rule from the creation of kingship and the recurring crises of royal successions, through the education of heirs and the intrigue of medieval elections, to the splendour of a king's coronation, and the pivotal early years of his reign. Monks, crusaders, knights, kings (and those who wanted to be kings) are among a rich cast of characters who sought to make sense of and benefit from an institution that was an object of both desire and fear.