The ghost festival in medieval China / by Stephen F. Teiser.

Format:

Book

Author/Creator:

Teiser, Stephen F., author.

Language:

English

Subjects (All):

Ullambana.

Physical Description:

1 online resource (xvii, 275 pages)

Place of Publication:

Princeton, New Jersey : Princeton University Press, [1988]

Summary:

Largely unstudied until now, the religious festivals that attracted Chinese people from all walks of life provide the most instructive examples of the interaction between Chinese forms of social life and the Indian tradition of Buddhism. Stephen Teiser examines one of the most important of such annual celebrations. He provides a comprehensive interpretation of the festivities of the seventh lunar month, in which laypeople presented offerings to Buddhist monks to gain salvation for their ancestors. Teiser uncovers a wide range of sources, many translated or analyzed for the first time in any language, to demonstrate how the symbolism, rituals, and mythology of the ghost festival pervaded the social landscape of medieval China.

Contents:

The prehistory of the ghost festival

An episodic history of the ghost festival in Medieval China

The mythological background

Mu-lien as shaman

The cosmology of the ghost festival

Buddhism and the family

Concluding perspectives.

Notes:

"Second printing, and first paperback printing, 1996"--Title page verso.

Description based on print version record.

Includes bibliographical references and index.

ISBN:

9780691026770

0691026777

OCLC:

1223025691