The Ghost Festival in Medieval China

The Ghost Festival in Medieval China
ISBN-10
0691026777
ISBN-13
9780691026770
Category
History
Pages
275
Language
English
Published
1988
Publisher
Princeton University Press
Author
Stephen F. Teiser

Description

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.

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