Bøger i Studies in East Asian Buddhism serien

Offers the first book-length study of the theory and practice of "abandoning the body"(self-immolation) in Chinese Buddhism. This book examines the hagiographical accounts of all those who made offerings of their own bodies and places them in historical, social, cultural, and doctrinal context.

In modern Chinese Buddhism, Dizang is especially popular as the sovereign of the underworld. This book examines this important Buddhist deity during his formative period - before he settled into his modern role as beneficent ruler of the underworld, when his iconography and hagiography were still rife with possibilities.

An examination of medieval Chinese Buddhist thanatonic practices. Bridging area studies and the history of religions, Teiser explores the concerns, practices and beliefs of 9th- and 10th-century Chinese Buddhists.

An exploration of Buddhism during the Sung Dynasty (960-1279). It asserts, that, far from signalling a decline, the Sung was a period of great efflorescence in Buddhism. The studies presented focus largely on elite figures, elite traditions, and interactions among Buddhists and literati.

Buddhists across Asia have often aspired to die with a clear and focused mind, as the historical Buddha himself is said to have done. This book explores how the ideal of dying with right mindfulness was appropriated, disseminated, and transformed in premodern Japan, focusing on the late tenth to early fourteenth centuries.

This study of Tsung-mi is part of the Studies in East Asian Buddhism series. Author Peter Gregory makes extensive use of Japanese secondary sources, which complements his work on the complex Chinese materials that form the basis of the study.

This study moves beyond the treatment of the original enlightenment doctrine as abstract philosophy to explore its historical dimension. Drawing on a wealth of medieval primary sources and modern Japanese scholarship, it places this discourse in its ritual, institutional and social contexts.

Breaks new ground in the study of clergy-court relations during the tumultuous period that spanned the collapse of the Tang dynasty (618-907) and the consolidation of the Northern Song (960-1127). The book describes how the formation of new states in southeastern China elevated local Buddhist traditions and moved Chan (Zen) monks from the margins to the centre of Chinese society.

This study is the first attempt to situate the medieval Chinese hagiographies of Asvaghoa, Nagarjuna, and Aryadeva in the context of Chinese religion, culture, and society of the time. It examines these sources not as windows into ancient Indian history but as valuable records of medieval Chinese efforts to define models of Buddhist sanctity.