Guilt And Sin In Traditional China

Monograph comprising comparisons and interdisciplinary research readings on the evolution of modern States and societys - covers the historical rise of Western European nationalism, colonialism and the role of Europe, centralization of government, political ideologies, the political aspects of modernization in developing countries, etc. Annotated bibliography pp. 641 to 648 and references.

Through a study of the readership of the most popular commercial daily newspaper in China during the early twentieth century, Reading Shenbao investigates ideas of nationalism, consumerism and individuality, looking at the relationship between advertising, modern lifestyles and changing social attitudes in China as it underwent modernization.

Outcasts and pariahs are known to exist in several Asian countries but have usually not been associated with traditional Chinese society. "Chinese Outcasts" shows that some Chinese were in fact treated as outcasts or semi-outcasts. They include the boat people of South China and certain less well-known groups in different regions, including the "musicians' households" and the "fallen people." The reasons for their inferior status and perceived impurity is examined, as well as the intent behind a series of imperial emancipation edicts in the 1720s and 30s. The edict provided an escape route from inferior legal status but failed to put a quick end to customary social discrimination.

Sins and Sinners: Asian Perspectives brings together essays by leading scholars of Asian religions to explore the diversity of beliefs about sin and its remedies.

The author draws on autobiographical writings and interviews among the elderly on Taiwan and Hong Kong who were born at the turn of the twentieth century: people who witnessed a society changing from an isolated Confucian society to a nation interacting with and influenced by the West. He interprets this material within its Chinese context but brings in Western sociological, anthropological and psychological insights.

Buddhism in China gathers for the first time Erik Zürcher’s most central papers on Chinese Buddhism, dealing with the translation and language of Buddhist scriptures, interactions with Daoist traditions, activities of Buddhists below elite social levels, and typological comparisons with Christianity.