Ancestors and anxiety : Daoism and the birth of rebirth in China / Stephen R. Bokenkamp.

Format:

Book

Author/Creator:

Bokenkamp, Stephen R., 1949-

Series:

A Philip E. Lilienthal book in Asian studies

Language:

English

Subjects (All):

Taoism.

Reincarnation--Buddhism.

Reincarnation.

Physical Description:

1 online resource (233 p.)

Edition:

1st ed.

Other Title:

Daoism and the birth of rebirth in China

Place of Publication:

Berkeley ; London : University of California Press, c2007.

Language Note:

English

Summary:

This innovative work on Chinese concepts of the afterlife is the result of Stephen Bokenkamp's groundbreaking study of Chinese scripture and the incorporation of Indic concepts into the Chinese worldview. Here, he explores how Chinese authors, including Daoists and non-Buddhists, received and deployed ideas about rebirth from the third to the sixth centuries C.E. In tracing the antecedents of these scriptures, Bokenkamp uncovers a stunning array of non-Buddhist accounts that provide detail on the realms of the dead, their denizens, and human interactions with them. Bokenkamp demonstrates that the motive for the Daoist acceptance of Buddhist notions of rebirth lay not so much in the power of these ideas as in the work they could be made to do.

Contents:

Front matter

Contents

Acknowledgments

Note on Translation

Introduction: The Problem of Rebirth

1. Envisioning the Dead

2. The Unquiet Dead and Their Families, Political and Agnate

3. Questionable Shapes: How the Living Interrogated Their Dead

4. Doomed for a Certain Term: The Intimate Dead

5. Rebirth Reborn

Postscript

Abbreviations

Bibliography

Index

Notes:

"A Philip E. Lilienthal book"--P. [ii].

Includes bibliographical references (p. 203-213) and index.

Description based on print version record and CIP data provided by publisher; resource not viewed.

ISBN:

9786612445736

9781282445734

1282445731

9780520933347

0520933346

9781435601970

1435601971

OCLC:

173816790