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Full-Text Articles in Arts and Humanities
Conceptualizations Of Earth And Land In Classical Chinese Texts, Deborah Sommer
Conceptualizations Of Earth And Land In Classical Chinese Texts, Deborah Sommer
Deborah A. Sommer
Many studies have explored conceptualizations of heaven (tian 天) in early Chinese thought, but few if any have explored understandings of heaven's later cosmological counterpart, earth (di 地). This article examines Chinese understandings of earth and land (tu 土) in pre-Qin 先秦sources. In ancient texts such as the Book of Odes (Shi jing詩經) and Book of Documents (Shang shu尚書), the earth is not yet the paired counterpart to heaven that it will become in later Warring States (fifth-third centuries BCE) texts. Older works often depict earth and land as passive recipients of heaven's …
Warrants For Women's Religious Authority In Chinese Religious Traditions, Deborah Sommer
Warrants For Women's Religious Authority In Chinese Religious Traditions, Deborah Sommer
Deborah A. Sommer
No abstract provided.
Chinese Religions In World Religions Textbooks, Deborah Sommer
Chinese Religions In World Religions Textbooks, Deborah Sommer
Deborah A. Sommer
Religions of China are routinely given short shrift in world religions textbooks. It would be foolish to expect equity in these matters, but when traditions important to a large percentage of the world's populations are accorded only a fraction of the pages devoted to that upstart Mediterranean cult—I am speaking, of course, of Christianity—one naturally begins to ask questions. Such books are thicker in their treatment of “the center of the world,” that fertile spiritual navel from which emerged the so-called Abrahamic traditions, and become thinner and thinner as they move toward the “barren” Pacific Rim, where civilization gradually fades …