Gender, Power, and Talent

Jinhua Jia

Published by Columbia University Press 2018

Gender, Power, and Talent

The Journey of Daoist Priestesses in Tang China

Jinhua Jia

https://doi.org/10.7312/jia-18444

Overview
Contents

About this book

Jinhua Jia draws on a wealth of previously untapped sources to explain how Daoist priestesses marked themselves as a distinct gendered religious and social group. The first comprehensive study of the lives and roles of Daoist priestesses in Tang China, Gender, Power, and Talent restores women to the landscape of Chinese religion and literature.

Author information

Jia Jinhua :

Jinhua Jia (PhD, Comparative Literature, Colorado) is Professor of Chinese Culture at Hong Kong Polytechnic University. She is the author of Studies of Classical Chan Buddhism (Oxford, 2010) and The Hongzhou School of Chan Buddhism in Eighth- Through Tenth-Century China (SUNY, 2006), and the coeditor (with Xiaofei Kang and Ping Yao) of Gendering Chinese Religion: Subject, Identity, and Body (SUNY, 2014), as well as a number of titles in Chinese, and has published articles in English-language journals such as Dao: A Journal of Comparative Philosophy; Philosophy East and West;Journal of Oriental Studies; Men, Women, and Gender in Early and Imperial China; Taiwan Journal of Religious Studies; Journal of the Royal Asiatic Society; Journal of Chinese Religions; International Journal of Chinese Studies; Journal of the International Association of Buddhist Studies; and Tang Studies.Jinhua Jia is a professor in the Department of Chinese Culture at the Hong Kong Polytechnic University. She is the author of The Hongzhou School of Chan Buddhism in Eighth- Through Tenth-Century China (2006) and coeditor of Gendering Chinese Religion: Subject, Identity, and Body (2014).

Reviews

Beata Grant, Washington University in St. Louis:
By making meticulous use of important new sources and re-viewing older ones with an informed and insightful gender-critical eye, Jinhua Jia has admirably succeeded in finally releasing Tang dynasty Daoist women from the traditional stereotypes, whether romantically idealistic or moralistically censorious, that have so long obscured their significant accomplishments in such diverse areas as scriptural exegesis, ritual practice, medicine, literature, and the arts.

Paul W. Kroll, University of Colorado, Boulder:
Using previously unknown mortuary inscriptions, rare Dunhuang manuscripts, and a broad range of received texts, Jia offers a revealing panorama of women's religious practices from medieval China. This study of Tang Daoist priestesses from various backgrounds brings the lives of these many remarkable women out of the shadows. Cultural and social history at its best.

Vincent Goossaert, Université PSL, École Pratique des Hautes Études:
Elite Daoist nuns of the Tang dynasty used to have a scandalous reputation. Jinhua Jia does them justice; the gossip is accounted for, but more important elements are added to the picture: the uneasy invention of Daoist monasticism, the debates around female religiosity and poetic expression, and the rise of early modern self-cultivation practices. This gendered history of medieval Daoism is a major addition to our understanding of Chinese religious cultures.

Livia Kohn, Boston University:
Gender, Power, and Talent argues that Daoist women of medieval China played an important role in the religion and in the society of the time; that their emergence as a major social force is unprecedented in Chinese history; and that they developed a new form of identity both as women and as Daoists. The gender-critical perspective of the book together with its meticulous historical research makes it a unique contribution to the field.

Nanxiu Qian, Rice University:
Written by a rising leader in Chinese religious studies applying an interdisciplinary approach that combines religious, literary, and gender studies, and searching through all available sources and recovering many new texts, Gender, Power, and Talent examines both the conventional and ‘unconventional’ roles played by Tang Daoist priestesses in the historical context of the Tang dynasty.

Topics

Frontmatter Publicly Available Download PDF	i
Contents Publicly Available Download PDF	vii
List of Figures and Tables Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	xi
Acknowledgments Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	xiii
List of Abbreviations Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	xv
Introduction Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	xvii
I. The Rise of Daoist Priestesses as a Gendered Religio-Social Group Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	1
II. Destiny and Power of the Ordained Royal Women Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	18
III. Religious Leadership, Practice, and Ritual Function Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	50
IV. Liu Moran and the Daoist Theory of Inner Cultivation Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	79
V. Longevity Techniques and Medical Theory: The Legacy of Hu Yin Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	100
VI. The Yaochi ji and Three Daoist Priestess-Poets Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	133
VII. Unsold Peony: The Life and Poetry of the Priestess-Poet Yu Xuanji Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	164
Conclusion Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	188
Appendix: Du Guangting and the Hagiographies of Tang Daoist Women Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	195
Notes Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	209
Bibliography Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	273
Index Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	315

Language: English
Publisher: Columbia University Press
Audience: Professional and scholarly;
Illustrations
- Other: 8 b&w illustrations

eBook

Published: September 24, 2018
ISBN: 9780231545495