清宫大白伞盖佛母信仰探析

清代宫廷对白伞盖佛母的崇拜出现了显著的发展,特别在乾隆时期,除在宫中大量制作白伞盖佛母像外,还在北京及其周边地区的各大寺庙制作供奉精美的绘画和雕塑,甚至专门兴建寺院来供奉白伞盖佛母像。其信奉目的和崇拜方式等方面的特点,目前尚很少有专门的论述见诸文献。本文借助清宫档案及现存清代原状佛堂内白伞盖佛母的陈设情况,试图说明清代宫廷是将白伞盖佛母作为重要的福寿保护神来供奉的,并不是简单地继承元代的信仰传统而是另有传承和发展。     

敦煌藏文密宗经典《白伞盖经》初探

<白伞盖经>是藏传佛教中十分重视的密宗经典,最早译自于吐蕃时代.目前,发现敦煌藏文佛教文献中<白伞盖经>有两种译本;后弘期编纂的藏文<大藏经>中有四种译本,本文重点对<甘珠尔>中的各译本之间及与敦煌本之间进行了比对,分析相互之间的关联.同时,通过解读<白伞盖经>的内容,探讨<白伞盖经>之所以受到吐蕃社会重视的原因.     

敦煌伞盖的材料和形制研究

伞又称盖,或称伞盖,在佛教中常用于佛、菩萨等头顶,以示尊崇.结合敦煌文书和出土实物可知,以丝、麻等面料缝制的伞盖是唐代敦煌寺院伞盖中的大宗,多为方形或圆形,大小不一.根据伞盖的使用方式可将其分为悬挂型和支撑型两种类型.伞面为单层或夹层,伞缘的下端有时会垂有织物制作的"裙".除此以外,"者舌"、"柱子"和"带"也是敦煌伞盖常有的构件.     

莫高窟第169窟《佛顶尊胜陀罗尼经变》及其相关问题

《佛顶尊胜陀罗尼经》是一部在唐宋时期非常流行的密教经典。进入21世纪,敦煌壁画《佛顶尊胜陀罗尼经变》逐渐成为国内外敦煌图像学研究的一个热点。敦煌壁画中目前发现《佛顶尊胜陀罗尼经变》共8铺,包括盛唐4铺,晚唐1铺,宋代3铺。其中莫高窟第169窟前室北壁发现的宋代一铺,虽然内容不多且有残损,但仍然为研究敦煌唐宋时期尤其是宋代《佛顶尊胜陀罗尼经变》的宗教功能、题材组合、分布关系和绘制形式等提供了珍贵的新视角。     

《佛说相好经》校录补正

《佛说相好经》系抄撮《佛说观佛三昧海经》中《观相品》及《本行品》中有关佛的种种相好而成,历代大藏经皆未收录.黄霞曾将敦煌文献中所存《相好经》的10个写卷整理为两个系统、五种录文,大大方便了学界的研究.但黄氏校录时未曾参校该经从出的本经,又因敦煌本《相好经》异本众多、俗写纷繁、用字复杂,故而黄文在释录、标点、校勘方面难免存在一些不足,本文即对这些值得商榷的地方进行了补正.同时,借助于敦煌本《相好经》,又校正了《大正藏》所收《佛说观佛三昧海经》中不少文字的错讹衍夺.     

榆林窟第三窟顶髻尊胜佛母曼荼罗研究

甘肃瓜州榆林窟第3窟长久以来被认为是建于西夏中晚期、显密图像并存的窟室。本文主要对该窟顶髻尊胜佛母十四尊曼荼罗展开研究,在分析比对几种汉、藏仪轨文书的基础上,作者倾向于认为该铺曼荼罗与11世纪末法军和巴哩译师所译藏文本《一切如来顶髻尊胜陀罗尼仪轨》最为契合。另外,作者通过对比11至13世纪几种顶髻尊胜佛母形象进而探讨了榆林窟第3窟壁画的绘制年代,佛母持宝瓶手的位置特征或能证明该窟建于西夏乾顺时期(1086-1139)。     

云冈石窟佛衣类型

云冈石窟主要雕凿于北魏中后期,分为三期。第一期及第二期造像为太和改制以前流行的佛衣,多沿袭印度传统,其中勾联纹覆肩袒右佛衣可能是在云冈形成的样式。第二期太和改制以后及第三期盛行的佛衣,偏重汉地传统,大概多与南朝的影响有关。甘肃天水麦积山石窟与敦煌莫高窟早期洞窟中流行勾联纹覆肩袒右佛衣,推测两地早期洞窟中佛像始凿的时间不早于云冈第一期。北魏迁都洛阳后,云冈的佛衣在龙门石窟继续发展。     

从敦煌本《佛说孝顺子修行成佛经》到《金牛宝卷》

《佛说孝顺子修行成佛经》是仅存于敦煌石窟的一种早期佛本生故事经典,唐代以后国内无传本。经过考察发现,明清宝卷中的《金牛宝卷》也讲述着同样的佛本生故事,二者内容性质、情节结构十分相近。此文依据中、韩所存相关文献与壁画材料,考察了《佛说孝顺子修行成佛经》与《金牛宝卷》的关系,认为《金牛宝卷》与韩国存《释迦如来十地修行记·第七地》都是承接唐代《佛说孝顺子修行成佛经》而来,是该典籍在中国民间通俗演变的结果。     

11-15世纪佛教艺术中的神系重构(二)——以白伞盖佛母为中心

白伞盖母具有多种化身,对应不同的文本描述,进而可追溯到不同的宗教修行实践。近年来新材料的陆续发现或公布,不断推动着白伞盖信仰的进一步考察。八思巴在《白伞盖母成就陀罗尼念诵法》(1275)中描述了观想千面千手百千俱胝眼、三面六臂、一面二臂共计三种形象,并归结于观修的[广]、中、略。然而诸化身之间并非简单的省略或增生关系:千面者植根于白伞盖经的简单描述,三面者与一面二臂者则别有渊源,前者部分与无能胜母融通,后者则是伞盖的人格化。11-15世纪跨地区、跨人群的文化交流使得佛教艺术呈现出繁荣景象,神系的重构相当普遍且各具特点。不同源头的神灵被聚合到一个名号之下,便是本文总结出的规律之一。     

敦煌、西藏西部早期恶趣清净曼荼罗图像探析

《恶趣清净怛特罗》多用于丧葬仪礼,自吐蕃时代已被翻译成藏文并收录于当时王室公认的译经典籍《丹噶目录》中。在现存的新旧两个译本中,尤其是属恶趣清净怛特罗新译本中,九佛顶曼荼罗图像在吐蕃占领期的敦煌、西夏时期的榆林3窟及西藏西部的帕尔噶尔布等诸多石窟寺院中均有发现。本文拟据此并结合汉藏佛教史籍中与恶趣清净新译派九佛顶曼荼罗有关的文献,探讨属恶趣清净系九佛顶曼荼罗图像的配置及该曼荼罗在敦煌、西藏西部各时期思想功能的转变。     

Beyond Revolution,Beyond the Law: Christian Anarchism in Conversation with Giorgio Agamben

ABSTRACT

The Christian anarchist tradition and the work of Giorgio Agamben fit within a subversive trajectory of political theology that critiques the state paradigm, while also operating at a distance from it in their creation of a newly imagined political community. This research asks what it could look like to conceive of a political community beyond the state, imagined from the subject position of the marginalized. It also seeks a mutually informed path towards the practical formation of such communities, as elaborated through a case study of the Anabaptist tradition. Agamben’s concepts provide a renovation of the political themes of Christian anarchism, including the ideas of moving beyond revolution, voluntary exile through the abdication of rights, and messianic vocation. As the space for political praxis within Agamben’s work continues to evolve, the Anabaptist tradition provides helpful practices to imagine a withdrawal from the governmental machine as a community of voluntary exiles.     

Russian Peasant Beliefs and Practices Concerning Death and the Supernatural Collected in Novosokol'niki Region,Pskov Province,Russia, 1995. Part II: Death in Natural Circumstances

This article, based on fieldwork but drawing on other contemporary and historical material, examines some aspects of the present state of mortuary ritual and associated beliefs among a mixed population of official Russian Orthodox and the religious group known as Old Believers, about whose funerary practices little has been written. The ritual emerges as a complex balance of Christian and pagan elements, a clinging to archaic tradition combined with modern pragmatism and accommodation to changing socio-economic conditions.     

Octavia Hill Women Housing Managers in South Africa: femininity and urban government

Women trained in a system of housing management developed by Octavia Hill in Victorian England were employed in South Africa's Coloured and European townships from the mid-1930s. They were also involved in training South African women in this tradition which emphasized the mutual responsibilities of landlords and tenants and rested upon the formation of trusting relationships or friendships between women housing managers and the tenants. Octavia Hill's followers worked hard to make a place for women in the field of housing management and claimed that their femininity gave them special expertise in this area, especially in terms of training housewives in domestic skills and in building up the relations of trust required by Octavia Hill's system. This paper describes the implementation of this system of management in South Africa and considers the implications of the role of women in housing management for our thinking about the gendered character of the state. My main argument is that rather than being a precedent for the value of incorporating femininity and women into the state, Octavia Hill's management tradition had already incorporated both historically masculine and historically feminine practices. In so far as she and her followers (and perhaps other female reformers) played a role in shaping the nature of the state, then it could be argued the state reflected a mediation of masculinity and femininity rather than a dominant masculinity and a subordinated or segregated femininity.     

Vessels of progressivism? Tasmanian state girls and eugenics, 1900-1940

In the early twentieth century the notion of state children as a "burden on the state", born of a liberal bourgeois philanthropic tradition, was gradually replaced in Tasmania by a modernising notion of intervention in the name of national efficiency. Eugenic principles can be shown to have influenced child welfare ideas and laws, notably the Tasmanian Mental Deficiency Act (1920). However, despite public debate and legislative changes, the bureaucrats in charge of state children maintained their liberal philanthropic practices. In many cases the Children of the State Department clashed with the Mental Deficiency Board. State direction of children was also frustrated by children's agency. Girls were the target of many eugenicist (and liberal evangelical) reforms, but they resisted attempts to control their sexuality and make them "useful". In Tasmania, the modernising impetus of progressive arguments was offset by bureaucratic stasis, and the agency of the subjects.     

Beyond ‘Culture’ as an explanation for intimate violence: the politics and possibilities of plural resistance

This article interrogates simplified culturalist explanations of gendered violence, which evoke timeless ‘tradition’ and religiosity to locate violence in racialized places and upon ‘othered’ bodies. I examine structural processes that shape women’s experiences of and vulnerability to intimate violence. My analysis complicates culturalist narratives, but engages critically with culture as one context within which violence is embedded. Drawing on field research within Muslim communities in Hyderabad, India, I discuss the complexities of interwoven experiences of structural, state, and intimate gender violence. I draw attention to how anti-violence organizations working in marginalized communities theorize these complexities, and practices of what I am calling ‘plural resistance,’ which these organizations enact through equally complex responses to such violences. Plural resistance describes community-based strategies that simultaneously reject both gender violence and other forms of systemic violence, such as poverty born of uneven development. Embodied resistance to gender violence provides a critical lens for understanding articulations between regional patriarchies, exclusionary state practices, uneven development, and Islamophobia.     

Sichuan’s promotion of education and activities of felling temple trees in the late Qing Dynasty

During Sichuan’s promotion of education in the late Qing Dynasty, trees in the domain of Buddhist or Daoist temples, which were part of temples’ property, had been felled across the province. The profits gained were used to repair or build schools as well as to fund their management. In different regions, the characteristics and intentions of the felling activities differed. Meanwhile, such fever gave rise to corrupt practices of deceitfully seeking profits which in turn caused numerous disputes and lawsuits, reflecting the confrontation provoked between the state and the people as well as different communities over tradition, ritual, and belief. The investigations of felling temple trees could enrich the understanding of provincial promotion for education in the late Qing period, and that of the social and cultural changes taking place in rural communities in modern times.     

HETEROTEMPORALITY,THE ISLAMIC TRADITION,AND THE POLITICAL: LAROUI'S CONCEPT OF THE ANTINOMY OF HISTORY1

If tradition has often figured as modernity's other, the Islamic tradition has long played the role of the modern constitutive other par excellence. Modern secularizing practices of timing and spacing feed this grounding of the political beyond the conceptual grip of tradition. The works by the Moroccan historian and philosopher Abdallah Laroui (b. 1933) put forward a concept of heterotemporality that distances itself from secularizing practices of timing and spacing, and, importantly, also from theological ones. His critique enables us to understand each of these practices as viewing heterotemporality through one master temporality, a view that represents temporality as, in Laroui's words, “absolute” time. First, this privileged temporality is the homogeneous time of secular progress, and second, it is the homogeneous time of theological truth. Laroui unsettles both practices of timing and spacing by discussing heterotemporality as governed by what he calls the antinomy of the concept of history. For Laroui, this antinomy refers to a specific temporal dynamic that results from the tension between the fundamental discontinuity and incoherence of history, on the one hand, and the production of continuity and coherence through human observers, on the other. Laroui thus reveals that the claims about continuity and coherence that sustain groundings of the political within homogeneous time—either secular or theological—must always be understood in relation to their position within the temporal dynamic of the antinomy of the concept of history. In revealing the temporal dynamic of this antinomy within the Islamic tradition, Laroui reworks the architecture of difference that keeps the secular modern and the Islamic theological conceptually separated from each other.     

Cultural Performance and the Reconstruction of Tradition among the Bunun of Taiwan

ABSTRACT This article aims to understand the meanings and impact of the reconstruction of tradition and the objectification of culture among the Bunun, an Austronesian‐speaking indigenous people of Taiwan. It situates the revival of tradition in the contexts of state appropriation and the development of ethnic tourism, and shows how the Bunun attempt to control their relationship with the state and the dominant society by reconstituting tradition in the present. The culturally specific ways in which the Bunun sustain local identity and sociality by reproducing their concept of personhood are highlighted. In doing so, I seek to move the analysis beyond the use of reified tradition as a political and identity symbol to address the broader theoretical concern of understanding tradition as a culturally specific mode of change.     

The Systematisation of Tradition: Maori Culture as a Strategic Resource

In this article I discuss the systematisation of Maori tradition in New Zealand during the 1970s and 1980s. More particularly, my focus is on the politicisation and rationalisation of Maori tradition within the New Zealand state, these processes occurring partly in response to calls by Maori leaders for a dismantling of colonial and monocultural structures in New Zealand and reactive objectifications of Maori tradition which challenged the legitimacy of the post-colonial state administration. I begin with a consideration of the main objectives towards which the systematisation of tradition has been directed over the past two decades, and I examine the way in which priorities have shifted in response to reactive politicisations of ethnic identity. I then draw upon a number of specific examples to illustrate the ethnicisation and rationalisation of Maori tradition as aspects of the systematisation process within the New Zealand state.     

The Unhelpful Notion of ‘Renaissance man’

The current journalistic use of the term ‘Renaissance man’ to describe someone whose work straddles boundaries between today's specialisms is a hindrance to understanding almost any aspect of the culture of the Renaissance — a culture within which both ‘art’ and ‘science’ had meanings different from those they have now, the most significant intellectual division being between the learned and the practical traditions. We look first at the learned tradition of the universities (where teaching was in Latin). The people considered include William Harvey, Johannes Kepler, Galileo Galilei, Nicolaus Copernicus, Regiomontanus and (very briefly) Isaac Newton. Within the practical tradition, centred on workshops, we consider the state shipyards in Venice (where Galileo claimed to have learned much), workshop practices in general and the emergence of the notion of ‘Fine Arts’. The individuals considered include Piero della Francesca, Leonardo da Vinci, Michelangelo Buonarroti and Raphael, as well as the famous clockmaker Jost Bürgi (who taught Kepler about algebra). We conclude by considering the transfer of skills between these two traditions. There are several areas of overlap, but here we concentrate attention on the story of algebra. Algebra was invented by al-Khwarizmi (whose name gives us the term ‘algorithm’) in the ninth century, within learned mathematics, in Baghdad. In the West, elementary algebra, derived from al-Khwarizmi's work but in the simplified form of problems, became part of ‘practical mathematics’. Slowly, from the fifteenth to the eighteenth centuries, developed forms of algebra crossed over into the learned tradition. This is as much a matter of crossing social barriers as of crossing intellectual ones. Eventually, the practical tradition as a whole became absorbed as an elementary part of the learned one.