Xun LIU | Rutgers, The State University of New Jersey (original) (raw)
Papers by Xun LIU
Extrême-Orient Extrême-Occident, 2011
Dans la continuité de travaux récents sur la vie religieuse des élites chinoises, cet article déc... more Dans la continuité de travaux récents sur la vie religieuse des élites chinoises, cet article décrit le monde taoïste du célèbre poète et fonctionnaire Chen Wenshu 陳文述 (1774-1845), fait de pratiques dévotionnelles et rituelles. Il replace ces pratiques dans le contexte de sa carrière littéraire et de sa vie familiale dans la région du Jiangnan à la fin de l'époque des Qing. Se fondant sur une lecture serrée des poèmes, essais et inscriptions de Chen Wenshu, de matériaux hagiographiques taoïstes et de peintures, il montre comment la santé déclinante de Chen, ses expériences religieuses de jeunesse, ses interactions sociales fréquentes avec des taoïstes dans les temples, la piété et les pratiques régulières parmi ses proches, et celles de son réseau littéraire sont autant de facteurs qui ont façonné son intérêt pour l'alchimie intérieure, le culte des dieux taoïstes, l'écriture inspirée et la récitation des textes canoniques. Ces diverses pratiques n'ont pas seulement eu un effet bénéfique sur sa santé tant physique que psychologique, dans un contexte de carrière mandarinale frustrante, mais ont aussi contribué à sa créativité littéraire et à sa vie familiale : il a en effet reconstruit son mariage et ses concubinages comme des alliances spirituelles.
This preliminary study (in Chinese) examines the history of Quanzhen Daoist monastic patronage an... more This preliminary study (in Chinese) examines the history of Quanzhen Daoist monastic patronage and clerical practice of elite arts such as poetry, calligraphy, zither collection and performance, and retreat garden building at Xuanmiao Monastery in Nanyang of the late Qing period. It shows that Daoist patronage and practice of elite arts were not only part of the clerical training and monastic culture, but they also generated both social capital, cultural prestige, and moral authority which in turn would empower Daoist monastic activism in social philanthropy, public works, and modern reforms in Nanyang from late 19th to early 20th centuries.
Introduction Susan Mann concludes her carefully documented study of elite women writers and their... more Introduction Susan Mann concludes her carefully documented study of elite women writers and their religious piety and practices as follows:
Co-authored with Xun Liu, in David A. Palmer and Xun Liu, eds. Daoism in the Twentieth Century: Between Eternity and Modernity. Berkeley: University of California Press, pp. 1-22., 2012
For the mainstream of Chinese reformers, modernizers and revolutionaries, as well as for many Wes... more For the mainstream of Chinese reformers, modernizers and revolutionaries, as well as for many Western scholars of China, the twentieth century was long seen as the twilight of Chinese religion in general and of its chief institutionalized indigenous form, Daoism, in particular. Dismissed as a crude assortment of superstitions, whatever remained of Daoism after the effects of modernization could only be the exotic remnants of an archaic Chinese past. And yet, as we begin a new century, and secularist ideologies are reevaluated and their utopian promises put into doubt, Daoism appears to be playing an increasingly significant role in a variety of social and cultural developments: as structuring much of the revival of popular religion in contemporary rural China; as providing a trove of symbols, concepts, and practices for the elaboration of new intellectual discourses and cultural movements aiming to revitalize Chinese tradition or to synthesize it with modernity; and as supplying many ingredients to the palette of spiritual and therapeutic resources popular in the West under the rubrics of “alternative medicine” and “Oriental spirituality”.
Extrême-Orient Extrême-Occident, 2011
Dans la continuité de travaux récents sur la vie religieuse des élites chinoises, cet article déc... more Dans la continuité de travaux récents sur la vie religieuse des élites chinoises, cet article décrit le monde taoïste du célèbre poète et fonctionnaire Chen Wenshu 陳文述 (1774-1845), fait de pratiques dévotionnelles et rituelles. Il replace ces pratiques dans le contexte de sa carrière littéraire et de sa vie familiale dans la région du Jiangnan à la fin de l'époque des Qing. Se fondant sur une lecture serrée des poèmes, essais et inscriptions de Chen Wenshu, de matériaux hagiographiques taoïstes et de peintures, il montre comment la santé déclinante de Chen, ses expériences religieuses de jeunesse, ses interactions sociales fréquentes avec des taoïstes dans les temples, la piété et les pratiques régulières parmi ses proches, et celles de son réseau littéraire sont autant de facteurs qui ont façonné son intérêt pour l'alchimie intérieure, le culte des dieux taoïstes, l'écriture inspirée et la récitation des textes canoniques. Ces diverses pratiques n'ont pas seulement eu un effet bénéfique sur sa santé tant physique que psychologique, dans un contexte de carrière mandarinale frustrante, mais ont aussi contribué à sa créativité littéraire et à sa vie familiale : il a en effet reconstruit son mariage et ses concubinages comme des alliances spirituelles.
This preliminary study (in Chinese) examines the history of Quanzhen Daoist monastic patronage an... more This preliminary study (in Chinese) examines the history of Quanzhen Daoist monastic patronage and clerical practice of elite arts such as poetry, calligraphy, zither collection and performance, and retreat garden building at Xuanmiao Monastery in Nanyang of the late Qing period. It shows that Daoist patronage and practice of elite arts were not only part of the clerical training and monastic culture, but they also generated both social capital, cultural prestige, and moral authority which in turn would empower Daoist monastic activism in social philanthropy, public works, and modern reforms in Nanyang from late 19th to early 20th centuries.
Introduction Susan Mann concludes her carefully documented study of elite women writers and their... more Introduction Susan Mann concludes her carefully documented study of elite women writers and their religious piety and practices as follows:
Co-authored with Xun Liu, in David A. Palmer and Xun Liu, eds. Daoism in the Twentieth Century: Between Eternity and Modernity. Berkeley: University of California Press, pp. 1-22., 2012
For the mainstream of Chinese reformers, modernizers and revolutionaries, as well as for many Wes... more For the mainstream of Chinese reformers, modernizers and revolutionaries, as well as for many Western scholars of China, the twentieth century was long seen as the twilight of Chinese religion in general and of its chief institutionalized indigenous form, Daoism, in particular. Dismissed as a crude assortment of superstitions, whatever remained of Daoism after the effects of modernization could only be the exotic remnants of an archaic Chinese past. And yet, as we begin a new century, and secularist ideologies are reevaluated and their utopian promises put into doubt, Daoism appears to be playing an increasingly significant role in a variety of social and cultural developments: as structuring much of the revival of popular religion in contemporary rural China; as providing a trove of symbols, concepts, and practices for the elaboration of new intellectual discourses and cultural movements aiming to revitalize Chinese tradition or to synthesize it with modernity; and as supplying many ingredients to the palette of spiritual and therapeutic resources popular in the West under the rubrics of “alternative medicine” and “Oriental spirituality”.