Religious Experience and Lay Society in T'ang China : A Reading of Tai Fu's 'Kuang-i chi' / Glen Dudbridge.

Format:

Book

Author/Creator:

Dudbridge, Glen.

Series:

Cambridge books online.

Cambridge Studies in Chinese History, Literature and Institutions

Language:

English

Subjects (All):

Occultism--China.

Occultism.

China.

Physical Description:

1 online resource (272 pages) : digital, PDF file(s).

Place of Publication:

Cambridge : Cambridge University Press, 1995.

System Details:

Mode of access: World Wide Web.

text file

PDF

Summary:

The remains of Tai Fu's lost collection Kuang-i chi (The great book of marvels) preserve three hundred short tales of encounters with the other world. This study, the first of its kind, develops a style of close reading through which those tales give access to the lives of individuals in eighth-century China. Through the eyes of a mid-century county official emerges the picture of a complex lay society, served by a mixed priesthood of ritual practitioners, whose members' lives at all levels were profoundly shaped by their perceived experience of contact with the other world. It was a society embarking on fundamental change, and this book uses the sharp historical focus of Tai Fu's collection to study the dynamics of that change. Mixed in with reflections of ephemeral events and clear evidence of long-term continuity, it discovers signs of a transition from the beliefs and institutions of early mediaeval China towards those we now recognize as modern.

Notes:

Title from publishers bibliographic system (viewed on 02 Mar 2012).

Other Format:

Print version:

ISBN:

9780511523823

9780521482233

Access Restriction:

Restricted for use by site license.