The feminine spiritual figures of compassion, the Catholic Christian Virgin Mother Mary, and the Chinese Buddhist, Kuan Yin, share a number of traits and attributes in spite of their cultural differences. They also sh...The feminine spiritual figures of compassion, the Catholic Christian Virgin Mother Mary, and the Chinese Buddhist, Kuan Yin, share a number of traits and attributes in spite of their cultural differences. They also share a common history in the development of their devotional worship through two empresses who identified themselves with their respective cultural icon thereby enhancing their political roles while endearing themselves to the common people through their promotion of the spiritual figures of compassion. This paper seeks to show the parallels between the rise in devotion to the Virgin Mary under the Byzantine Empress Pulcheria （399-453） and the corresponding rise in the interest in, and feminization of, Avalokiteshvara/Kuan Yin under the Tang Dynasty Empress Wu Zetian （625-705）. While there has been a substantial amount written about how ancient political leaders used selected deities as vehicles for asserting their power, there are only a few that have looked at these two unique Empresses and none that compares their influence in the popularization of devotional worship to Mary and Kuan Yin. This study attempts to begin to fill that gap.展开更多
“Yin”was the capital of Shang Dynasty.On the basis of archaeological findings,theauthor explored the planning and layout,distributions of city functions,structural patternsand so on of this capital of the China’s s...“Yin”was the capital of Shang Dynasty.On the basis of archaeological findings,theauthor explored the planning and layout,distributions of city functions,structural patternsand so on of this capital of the China’s slave society 3,000 years ago from the viewpoint ofcity planning.Through analysing the detailed layout of the imperial palaces,residentialareas,handicraft workshops and imperial tombs of the ancient capital city from the thensocial and economic background,the author believes that the city planning concept of theancient“Yin”township has far-reaching influence on the city planning of different dynas-ties in Chinese history.展开更多
文摘The feminine spiritual figures of compassion, the Catholic Christian Virgin Mother Mary, and the Chinese Buddhist, Kuan Yin, share a number of traits and attributes in spite of their cultural differences. They also share a common history in the development of their devotional worship through two empresses who identified themselves with their respective cultural icon thereby enhancing their political roles while endearing themselves to the common people through their promotion of the spiritual figures of compassion. This paper seeks to show the parallels between the rise in devotion to the Virgin Mary under the Byzantine Empress Pulcheria （399-453） and the corresponding rise in the interest in, and feminization of, Avalokiteshvara/Kuan Yin under the Tang Dynasty Empress Wu Zetian （625-705）. While there has been a substantial amount written about how ancient political leaders used selected deities as vehicles for asserting their power, there are only a few that have looked at these two unique Empresses and none that compares their influence in the popularization of devotional worship to Mary and Kuan Yin. This study attempts to begin to fill that gap.
文摘“Yin”was the capital of Shang Dynasty.On the basis of archaeological findings,theauthor explored the planning and layout,distributions of city functions,structural patternsand so on of this capital of the China’s slave society 3,000 years ago from the viewpoint ofcity planning.Through analysing the detailed layout of the imperial palaces,residentialareas,handicraft workshops and imperial tombs of the ancient capital city from the thensocial and economic background,the author believes that the city planning concept of theancient“Yin”township has far-reaching influence on the city planning of different dynas-ties in Chinese history.
