Early Buddhist Art of China and Central Asia, Volume 1 Later Han, Three Kingdoms and Western Chin in China and Bactria to Shan-shan in Central Asia

Early Buddhist Art of China and Central Asia, Volume 1 Later Han, Three Kingdoms and Western Chin in China and Bactria to Shan-shan in Central Asia
Author: Marylin Martin Rhie
Publisher: BRILL
Total Pages: 924
Release: 2019-01-28
Genre: History
ISBN: 9047430751

A comprehensive analysis of the earliest Buddhist art of China, Bactria, and the Southern Silk Road in Central Asia from ca. 1st - 4th century A.D., elucidating the inter-relationships, history, religious elements, sources, dating and chronology.

Early Buddhist Art of China and Central Asia, Volume 3

Early Buddhist Art of China and Central Asia, Volume 3
Author: Marylin M. Rhie
Publisher: BRILL
Total Pages: 1018
Release: 2010-06-14
Genre: Art
ISBN: 9004184007

Presenting new studies on the chronology and iconography of Buddhist art during the Western Ch'in (385-431 A.D.) in northwest China, including Ping-ling ssu and Mai-chi shan, this book addresses issues of dating, textual sources, the five-Buddhas, and relation with Gandhara.

Early Buddhist Art of China and Central Asia, Volume 3

Early Buddhist Art of China and Central Asia, Volume 3
Author: Marylin Martin Rhie
Publisher: BRILL
Total Pages: 1017
Release: 2010-06-14
Genre: Art
ISBN: 9004190198

This book, third in a series on the early Buddhist art of China and Central Asia, centers on Buddhist art from the Western Ch'in (385-431 A.D.) in eastern Kansu (northwest China), primarily from the cave temples of Ping-ling ssu and Mai-chi shan. A detailed chronological and iconographic study of sculptures and wall paintings in Cave 169 at Ping-ling ssu particularly yields a chronological framework for unlocking the difficult issues of dating early fifth century Chinese Buddhist art, and offers some new insights into textual sources in the Lotus, Hua-yen and Amitabha sutras. Further, this study introduces the iconographpy of the five Buddhas and its relation to the art of Gandhara and the famous five colossal T'an-yao caves at Yün-kang.

Buddhism in Central Asia II

Buddhism in Central Asia II
Author:
Publisher: BRILL
Total Pages: 586
Release: 2022-07-11
Genre: Religion
ISBN: 9004508449

The ERC-funded research project BuddhistRoad aims to create a new framework to enable understanding of the complexities in the dynamics of cultural encounter and religious transfer in pre-modern Eastern Central Asia. Buddhism was one major factor in this exchange: for the first time the multi-layered relationships between the trans-regional Buddhist traditions (Chinese, Indian, Tibetan) and those based on local Buddhist cultures (Khotanese, Uyghur, Tangut) will be explored in a systematic way. The second volume Buddhism in Central Asia II—Practice and Rituals, Visual and Materials Transfer based on the mid-project conference held on September 16th–18th, 2019, at CERES, Ruhr-Universität Bochum (Germany) focuses on two of the six thematic topics addressed by the project, namely on "practices and rituals", exploring material culture in religious context such as mandalas and talismans, as well as “visual and material transfer”, including shared iconographies and the spread of ‘Khotanese’ themes.

Early Buddhist Art of China and Central Asia, Volume 2 The Eastern Chin and Sixteen Kingdoms Period in China and Tumshuk, Kucha and Karashahr in Central Asia (2 vols)

Early Buddhist Art of China and Central Asia, Volume 2 The Eastern Chin and Sixteen Kingdoms Period in China and Tumshuk, Kucha and Karashahr in Central Asia (2 vols)
Author: Marylin Martin Rhie
Publisher: BRILL
Total Pages: 1635
Release: 2019-07-15
Genre: Art
ISBN: 900439186X

Volume two of Marylin Rhie’s widely acclaimed and formative multi-volume work presents a comprehensive, scholarly and detailed study of the Buddhist art of China and Central Asia from 316-439 A.D. during the formative early periods of Buddhism in the Eastern Chin and Sixteen Kingdoms Period. Using texts translated from the Chinese together with stylistic and technical analyses, the chronology and sources of the art are more clearly defined than in previous studies for the regions of South and North China (other than Kansu) and the important sites of Tumshuk, Kucha and Karashahr on the Northern Silk Route in eastern Central Asia. Furthermore, by incorporating extensive religious and historical materials, this work not only contributes to clarifying the regional characteristics of the art, but also offers new insights into the broader, interregional relationships of this politically fragmented period.

The Cultures of Ancient Xinjiang, Western China: Crossroads of the Silk Roads

The Cultures of Ancient Xinjiang, Western China: Crossroads of the Silk Roads
Author: Alison Betts
Publisher: Archaeopress Publishing Ltd
Total Pages: 218
Release: 2019-12-19
Genre: History
ISBN: 1789694078

One of the least known but culturally rich and complex regions located at the heart of Asia, Xinjiang was a hub for the Silk Roads, serving international links between cultures to the west, east, north and south. Trade, artefacts, foods, technologies, ideas, beliefs, animals and people traversed the glacier covered mountain and desert boundaries.

Signs from the Unseen Realm

Signs from the Unseen Realm
Author: Robert Ford Campany
Publisher: University of Hawaii Press
Total Pages: 330
Release: 2012-05-17
Genre: History
ISBN: 0824865715

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.

China

China
Author: James C. Y. Watt
Publisher: Metropolitan Museum of Art
Total Pages: 422
Release: 2004
Genre: Art, Chinese
ISBN: 1588391264

In the great tradition of publications on Chinese art from the Metropolitan Museum, China: Dawn of a Golden Age will become an essential text for years to come. This book is the catalogue for a major exhibition at The Metropolitan Museum of Art (October 5, 2004 to January 23, 2005).

Empires and Exchanges in Eurasian Late Antiquity

Empires and Exchanges in Eurasian Late Antiquity
Author: Nicola Di Cosmo
Publisher: Cambridge University Press
Total Pages: 544
Release: 2018-04-26
Genre: History
ISBN: 1108548105

Empires and Exchanges in Eurasian Late Antiquity offers an integrated picture of Rome, China, Iran, and the Steppes during a formative period of world history. In the half millennium between 250 and 750 CE, settled empires underwent deep structural changes, while various nomadic peoples of the steppes (Huns, Avars, Turks, and others) experienced significant interactions and movements that changed their societies, cultures, and economies. This was a transformational era, a time when Roman, Persian, and Chinese monarchs were mutually aware of court practices, and when Christians and Buddhists criss-crossed the Eurasian lands together with merchants and armies. It was a time of greater circulation of ideas as well as material goods. This volume provides a conceptual frame for locating these developments in the same space and time. Without arguing for uniformity, it illuminates the interconnections and networks that tied countless local cultural expressions to far-reaching inter-regional ones.