Guan Yu

The Religious Afterlife of a Failed Hero

Dados Bibliográficos

ID20009539
AutoresBarend J Ter Haar (autor correspondente)
Ano2017
Páginas288
Data de publicação2017-10-19
Open AccessNão
TipoBOOK
PeriódicoGuan Yu (SOURCE_BOOK)
EditoraOxford University Press (PUBLISHER • GB)
DOI10.1093/oso/9780198803645.001.0001
OpenAlexW4241003242
Open LibraryOL28640848M
ISBN9780198803645
IdiomaEN
Citações recebidas19

Guan Yu was a minor general in his own day, who supported one of numerous claimants to the throne in the early third century CE. He was captured and executed by enemy forces in 219. He eventually became one the most popular and influential deities of imperial China under the name Lord Guan or Emperor Guan, of the same importance as the Buddhist bodhisattva Guanyin. This is a study of his cult, but also of the tremendous power of oral culture in a world where writing became increasingly important. The book follows the rise of the deity through his earliest stage as a hungry ghost, his subsequent adoption by a prominent Buddhist monastery during the Tang (617–907) as its miraculous supporter, and his recruitment by Daoist ritual specialists during the Song dynasty (960–1276) as an exorcist general. It continues on with his subsequent roles as a rain god, protector against demons and barbarians, and, eventually, moral paragon and almost messianic saviour. Throughout his divine life, the physical prowess of the deity, more specifically Lord Guan’s ability to use violent action for doing good, remained an essential dimension of his image. Most research ascribes a decisive role in the rise of his cult to the literary traditions of the Three Kingdoms, best known from the famous novel by this name. This book argues that the cult arose from oral culture and spread first and foremost as an oral practice

Ancient history · Art · Bodhisattva · Buddhism · China · Cult · Emperor · Guan · Humanities · Literature · Political science · Politics · Power (physics) · Theology · Throne · Chinese history and philosophy · History · Japanese History and Culture · Law · Medieval Literature and History · Philosophy · asia · Chinese Gods · Oral tradition · Religion