Wailing for Identity: Topical and Poetic Expressions of Cultural Belonging in Chinese Buddhist Literature
This paper draws on Antonino Forte’s notion of a borderland complex and on the concept of the ‘double belonging’ of Chinese Buddhists in the medieval period. This was caused by the fact that Middle Kingdom China was not the centre of Buddhist cosmology. Indeed, it was not part of the Buddhist sacred...
| Published in: | Dynamics in the history of religions |
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| Main Author: | |
| Format: | Electronic Article |
| Language: | English |
| Check availability: | HBZ Gateway |
| Fernleihe: | Fernleihe für die Fachinformationsdienste |
| Published: |
Brill
2018
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| In: |
Dynamics in the history of religions
Year: 2018, Volume: 10, Pages: 225-252 |
| Further subjects: | B
Religion in Asien
B Asia B Religion B Asien-Studien B Religionswissenschaften B History |
| Online Access: |
Volltext (lizenzpflichtig) Volltext (lizenzpflichtig) |
| Summary: | This paper draws on Antonino Forte’s notion of a borderland complex and on the concept of the ‘double belonging’ of Chinese Buddhists in the medieval period. This was caused by the fact that Middle Kingdom China was not the centre of Buddhist cosmology. Indeed, it was not part of the Buddhist sacred realm at all. Nowhere can one observe this struggle better than in the so-called pilgrims’ records, in which the protagonists are, quite often, negotiating a dual cultural identity; they are both part of greater Chinese culture and express a sense of religious belonging to—and presence in—a Sacred Land that lays claim to cosmological and soteriological superiority over all the other regions in the world. The conflict that arose from this conflict of identities is expressed in the texts in the form of poems and narratives reflecting either homesickness or determination to stay in India (or both). The paper will present and address the different forms of expression of these identities and analyse them in the wider context of Chinese and Indian Buddhism. |
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| Contains: | Enthalten in: Dynamics in the history of religions
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| Persistent identifiers: | DOI: 10.1163/9789004366152_009 |