Jeffrey Kotyk
Biographic Data
| ID | 1154879 |
|---|---|
| NAME | Jeffrey Kotyk |
| GIVEN NAMES | Jeffrey |
| FAMILY NAME | Kotyk |
| SIGNATURE | KOTYK J |
| AFFILIATIONS | University of British Columbia |
| ORCID | 0000-0002-6223-7471 |
| VERIFIED | Yes |
| TOTAL WORKS | 17 |
| TOTAL CITATIONS | 7 |
| AUTHOR COUNT | 17 |
| EDITOR COUNT | 0 |
| FIRST PUBLICATION YEAR | 2018 |
| LATEST PUBLICATION YEAR | 2024 |
| H-INDEX | 2 |
Sino-Iranian and Sino-Arabian Relations in Late Antiquity: China and the Parthians, Sasanians, and Arabs in the First Millennium
What type of exchanges occurred between West and East Asia in the first millennium CE? What sort of connections existed between Persia and China? What did the Chinese know of early Islam? \nThis study offers an overview of the cultural, diplomatic, commercial, and religious relationships that flourished between Iran and China, building on the pioneering work of Berthold Laufer’s Sino-Iranica (1919) while utilizing a diverse array of Classical Chi…
A Walk through the Iranian Heavens: Spherical and NonSpherical Cosmographic Models in the Imagination of Ancient Iran and Its Neighbors by Antonio C. D. Panaino
A Walk through the Iranian Heavens is an innovative and focused study by the well-known scholar Antonio Panaino. This monograph looks at cosmography in ancient Iran and adjacent cultures, with attention to the problem of sphericity in antiquity. We might take for granted that the Greeks, after a point, operated with the model of a spherical Earth, but what about Iran, which had its own Mazdean mythology and worldview but was still influenced by H…
Chinese Lunar Stations and Indian Nakṣatras in the Sui and Tang Periods
The twenty-eight "lunar stations" (ershiba xiu 二十八宿) are unique in Chinese intellectual history in that they served as functional equivalents for Indian nakṣatras, which are also a type of lunar station (or mansion), but in practice these were quite different from the comparable Chinese system. The native Chinese lore of lunar stations as it was understood in the Sui period was outlined in the Wuxing dayi 五行大義 by Xiao Ji 蕭吉 (c. 530-610), which is…
Astrology and Astral Magic in Tantric Japan
Japanese Buddhism received and implemented a kind of Sinicized form of astrology from the ninth to tenth centuries. This type of astrology differed from the type of court omenology that had earlier been received from the mainland and was based on ancient Chinese concepts of astroterrestrial correspondences and related chiefly to concerns of the country as a whole, rather than to individuals. The new form of astrology, originating from Indian and …
The Astronomical Innovations of Monk Yixing 一行 (673-727)
The Chinese monk Yixing 一行 (673-727) is unique in being an early architect of the Mantrayāna tradition (Esoteric Buddhism) in East Asia in addition to featuring as a significant individual within the history of astronomy and calendrical science in China. His legacy in the Buddhist world is well known, but the enduring appreciation of his scientific work in later centuries is less understood. The present paper will document the achievements of Yix…
Astronomy and Calendrical Science in Early Mikkyō in Japan: Challenges and Adaptations
This study examines the use, adaptation, modification and omission of astronomical and calendrical elements in early Japanese Mikkyō (ninth century) in large part from the perspective of exact sciences. Shingon and Tendai inherited a Sinicized system of Indian astrology from their respective beginnings, but the significance of this fact in the study of Japanese religions is underrecognized despite the reality that astrology was both studied and t…
Examining Amoghavajra’s flat-earth cosmology: Religious vs. scientific worldviews in Buddhist astrology
This study examines the cosmology of the monk Amoghavajra (Bukong 不空; 705–774), as outlined in his astrological manual, the Xiuyao jing 宿曜經 (Sūtra of Lunar Stations and Planets), as well as its historical background and context, in relation to classical Buddhist models of Mt. Meru and the Four Continents in the Āgamas and Abhidharma. These models all use a flat-earth model, in contrast to the spherical-earth model utilized within classical Indian…
The Study of Sanskrit in Medieval East Asia: China and Japan
This paper explores the historical study of the Sanskrit language and its related systems of writing in ancient and medieval East Asia. It is argued that the varied availability of teachers and manuals in different time periods and environments led to uneven studies of Sanskrit in different generations. In some cases, we can point to significant understanding of Sanskrit in the writings of some monks. Although some monks had direct access to Indi…
The Jewel of Annual Astrology: A Parallel Sanskrit-English Critical Edition of Balabhadra’s Hāyanaratna, by Martin Gansten
Milk, Yogurt and Butter in Medieval East Asia: Dairy Products from China to Japan in Medicine and Buddhism
Dairy products have existed in China from at least the Han Dynasty onward. Later, under the influence of Buddhism, dairy items such as yogurt, butter and ghee were required for ritual purposes. The domestic dairy industry in medieval China is an understudied topic, but even more so is the use of dairy in contemporary Japan, where Chinese traditions of Buddhism were transplanted in full. The kanji describing various dairy products were also known …
The medieval Chinese vision of Japan: Buddhist perspectives in the Tang and Song periods
This article explores the medieval Chinese perception of ‘Japan’ in both secular and Buddhist sources, arguing that in reality two separate lineages of history writing and geography-ethnography existed in China: one based out of the court and another rooted in the Buddhist community. This comparative exercise will further highlight the utility of using state and Buddhist texts when exploring the treatment of foreign polities from the Chinese pers…
The Chinese Buddhist Approach to Science: The Case of Astronomy and Calendars
Chinese State and Buddhist Historical Sources on Xuanzang: Historicity and the Daci’en si sanzang fashi zhuan 大慈恩寺三藏法師傳
This paper explores the historicity of state and Buddhist accounts of the monk Xuanzang 玄奘 (602-664), arguing that in the reconstruction of Xuanzang’s life and career we ought to utilize the former to help adjudicate the latter. It is specifically argued that the Daci’en si sanzang fashi zhuan 大慈恩寺三藏法師傳 (T. no. 2053), a biography of Xuanzang sometimes cited by modern scholars, was produced as Buddhist propaganda to advance the standing of certain…
Esoteric Buddhist Astrology: Japanese Sukuyōdō & Indian Astrology, written by Michio Yano
Chinese and English Horoscopy in the Sixteenth and Seventeenth Centuries: The Astrological Doctrines of the Twelve Houses and the Lot of Fortune in Xingxue dacheng 星學大成 by Wan Minying 萬民英 (1521–1603) …
This study compares the astrological doctrines of the Twelve Houses and Lot of Fortune as they are explained in Xingxue dacheng 星學大成 of Wan Minying 萬民英 (1521–1603) and Christian Astrology by William Lilly (1602–1681). These two astrologers, who were near contemporaries, lived on opposite sides of Eurasia, yet both were heir to traditions of astrology that together reached back to identical origins in the Near East. The use of largely similar doct…
Indo-Iranian and Islamicate Sources of Astrological Medicine in Medieval China
This study documents the introduction and implementation of foreign astrological medicine—specifically, prognosis on the basis of horoscopy—between the eighth and sixteenth centuries in China. It is argued that materials derived from Hellenistic, Indian, Iranian, and Islamicate sources were utilized by Chinese astrologers during the medieval period to predict illness. This study furthermore argues that remedies for negative astral influence were …
Japanese Buddhist Astrology and Astral Magic: Mikkyō and Sukuyōdō
Sino-Iranian and Sino-Arabian Relations in Late Antiquity: China and the Parthians, Sasanians, and Arabs in the First Millennium
What type of exchanges occurred between West and East Asia in the first millennium CE? What sort of connections existed between Persia and China? What did the Chinese know of early Islam? \nThis study offers an overview of the cultural, diplomatic, commercial, and religious relationships that flourished between Iran and China, building on the pioneering work of Berthold Laufer’s Sino-Iranica (1919) while utilizing a diverse array of Classical Chi…
Astronomy and Calendrical Science in Early Mikkyō in Japan: Challenges and Adaptations
This study examines the use, adaptation, modification and omission of astronomical and calendrical elements in early Japanese Mikkyō (ninth century) in large part from the perspective of exact sciences. Shingon and Tendai inherited a Sinicized system of Indian astrology from their respective beginnings, but the significance of this fact in the study of Japanese religions is underrecognized despite the reality that astrology was both studied and t…
The Astronomical Innovations of Monk Yixing 一行 (673-727)
The Chinese monk Yixing 一行 (673-727) is unique in being an early architect of the Mantrayāna tradition (Esoteric Buddhism) in East Asia in addition to featuring as a significant individual within the history of astronomy and calendrical science in China. His legacy in the Buddhist world is well known, but the enduring appreciation of his scientific work in later centuries is less understood. The present paper will document the achievements of Yix…
Milk, Yogurt and Butter in Medieval East Asia: Dairy Products from China to Japan in Medicine and Buddhism
Dairy products have existed in China from at least the Han Dynasty onward. Later, under the influence of Buddhism, dairy items such as yogurt, butter and ghee were required for ritual purposes. The domestic dairy industry in medieval China is an understudied topic, but even more so is the use of dairy in contemporary Japan, where Chinese traditions of Buddhism were transplanted in full. The kanji describing various dairy products were also known …
Japanese Buddhist Astrology and Astral Magic: Mikkyō and Sukuyōdō
Esoteric Buddhist Astrology: Japanese Sukuyōdō & Indian Astrology, written by Michio Yano
Chinese and English Horoscopy in the Sixteenth and Seventeenth Centuries: The Astrological Doctrines of the Twelve Houses and the Lot of Fortune in Xingxue dacheng 星學大成 by Wan Minying 萬民英 (1521–1603) …
This study compares the astrological doctrines of the Twelve Houses and Lot of Fortune as they are explained in Xingxue dacheng 星學大成 of Wan Minying 萬民英 (1521–1603) and Christian Astrology by William Lilly (1602–1681). These two astrologers, who were near contemporaries, lived on opposite sides of Eurasia, yet both were heir to traditions of astrology that together reached back to identical origins in the Near East. The use of largely similar doct…
Indo-Iranian and Islamicate Sources of Astrological Medicine in Medieval China
This study documents the introduction and implementation of foreign astrological medicine—specifically, prognosis on the basis of horoscopy—between the eighth and sixteenth centuries in China. It is argued that materials derived from Hellenistic, Indian, Iranian, and Islamicate sources were utilized by Chinese astrologers during the medieval period to predict illness. This study furthermore argues that remedies for negative astral influence were …
The medieval Chinese vision of Japan: Buddhist perspectives in the Tang and Song periods
This article explores the medieval Chinese perception of ‘Japan’ in both secular and Buddhist sources, arguing that in reality two separate lineages of history writing and geography-ethnography existed in China: one based out of the court and another rooted in the Buddhist community. This comparative exercise will further highlight the utility of using state and Buddhist texts when exploring the treatment of foreign polities from the Chinese pers…
The Chinese Buddhist Approach to Science: The Case of Astronomy and Calendars
Chinese State and Buddhist Historical Sources on Xuanzang: Historicity and the Daci’en si sanzang fashi zhuan 大慈恩寺三藏法師傳
This paper explores the historicity of state and Buddhist accounts of the monk Xuanzang 玄奘 (602-664), arguing that in the reconstruction of Xuanzang’s life and career we ought to utilize the former to help adjudicate the latter. It is specifically argued that the Daci’en si sanzang fashi zhuan 大慈恩寺三藏法師傳 (T. no. 2053), a biography of Xuanzang sometimes cited by modern scholars, was produced as Buddhist propaganda to advance the standing of certain…
Examining Amoghavajra’s flat-earth cosmology: Religious vs. scientific worldviews in Buddhist astrology
This study examines the cosmology of the monk Amoghavajra (Bukong 不空; 705–774), as outlined in his astrological manual, the Xiuyao jing 宿曜經 (Sūtra of Lunar Stations and Planets), as well as its historical background and context, in relation to classical Buddhist models of Mt. Meru and the Four Continents in the Āgamas and Abhidharma. These models all use a flat-earth model, in contrast to the spherical-earth model utilized within classical Indian…
The Study of Sanskrit in Medieval East Asia: China and Japan
This paper explores the historical study of the Sanskrit language and its related systems of writing in ancient and medieval East Asia. It is argued that the varied availability of teachers and manuals in different time periods and environments led to uneven studies of Sanskrit in different generations. In some cases, we can point to significant understanding of Sanskrit in the writings of some monks. Although some monks had direct access to Indi…
The Jewel of Annual Astrology: A Parallel Sanskrit-English Critical Edition of Balabhadra’s Hāyanaratna, by Martin Gansten
Milk, Yogurt and Butter in Medieval East Asia: Dairy Products from China to Japan in Medicine and Buddhism
Dairy products have existed in China from at least the Han Dynasty onward. Later, under the influence of Buddhism, dairy items such as yogurt, butter and ghee were required for ritual purposes. The domestic dairy industry in medieval China is an understudied topic, but even more so is the use of dairy in contemporary Japan, where Chinese traditions of Buddhism were transplanted in full. The kanji describing various dairy products were also known …
Astrology and Astral Magic in Tantric Japan
Japanese Buddhism received and implemented a kind of Sinicized form of astrology from the ninth to tenth centuries. This type of astrology differed from the type of court omenology that had earlier been received from the mainland and was based on ancient Chinese concepts of astroterrestrial correspondences and related chiefly to concerns of the country as a whole, rather than to individuals. The new form of astrology, originating from Indian and …
The Astronomical Innovations of Monk Yixing 一行 (673-727)
The Chinese monk Yixing 一行 (673-727) is unique in being an early architect of the Mantrayāna tradition (Esoteric Buddhism) in East Asia in addition to featuring as a significant individual within the history of astronomy and calendrical science in China. His legacy in the Buddhist world is well known, but the enduring appreciation of his scientific work in later centuries is less understood. The present paper will document the achievements of Yix…
Astronomy and Calendrical Science in Early Mikkyō in Japan: Challenges and Adaptations
This study examines the use, adaptation, modification and omission of astronomical and calendrical elements in early Japanese Mikkyō (ninth century) in large part from the perspective of exact sciences. Shingon and Tendai inherited a Sinicized system of Indian astrology from their respective beginnings, but the significance of this fact in the study of Japanese religions is underrecognized despite the reality that astrology was both studied and t…
A Walk through the Iranian Heavens: Spherical and NonSpherical Cosmographic Models in the Imagination of Ancient Iran and Its Neighbors by Antonio C. D. Panaino
A Walk through the Iranian Heavens is an innovative and focused study by the well-known scholar Antonio Panaino. This monograph looks at cosmography in ancient Iran and adjacent cultures, with attention to the problem of sphericity in antiquity. We might take for granted that the Greeks, after a point, operated with the model of a spherical Earth, but what about Iran, which had its own Mazdean mythology and worldview but was still influenced by H…
Chinese Lunar Stations and Indian Nakṣatras in the Sui and Tang Periods
The twenty-eight "lunar stations" (ershiba xiu 二十八宿) are unique in Chinese intellectual history in that they served as functional equivalents for Indian nakṣatras, which are also a type of lunar station (or mansion), but in practice these were quite different from the comparable Chinese system. The native Chinese lore of lunar stations as it was understood in the Sui period was outlined in the Wuxing dayi 五行大義 by Xiao Ji 蕭吉 (c. 530-610), which is…
Sino-Iranian and Sino-Arabian Relations in Late Antiquity: China and the Parthians, Sasanians, and Arabs in the First Millennium
What type of exchanges occurred between West and East Asia in the first millennium CE? What sort of connections existed between Persia and China? What did the Chinese know of early Islam? \nThis study offers an overview of the cultural, diplomatic, commercial, and religious relationships that flourished between Iran and China, building on the pioneering work of Berthold Laufer’s Sino-Iranica (1919) while utilizing a diverse array of Classical Chi…
History (16 works) · Ancient history (13 works) · Philosophy (11 works) · Buddhism (10 works) · Archaeology (9 works) · Art (8 works) · China (8 works) · Astrology (7 works) · Classics (7 works) · Historical Astronomy and Related Studies (7 works)