Living Karma - The Religious Practices of Ouyi Zhixu

Ouyi Zhixu (1599--1655) was an eminent Chinese Buddhist monk who, contrary to his contemporaries, believed karma could be changed. Through vows, divination, repentance rituals, and ascetic acts such as burning and blood writing, he sought to alter what others understood as inevitable and inescapable. Drawing attention to Ouyi's unique reshaping of religious practice, Living Karma reasserts the significance of an overlooked individual in the modern development of Chinese Buddhism. While Buddhist studies scholarship tends to privilege textual analysis, Living Karma promotes a balanced study of ritual practice and writing, treating Ouyi's texts as ritual objects and his reading and writing as religious acts. Each chapter addresses a specific religious practice -- writing, divination, repentance, vows, and bodily rituals -- offering first a diachronic overview of each practice within the history of Chinese Buddhism and then a synchronic analysis of each phenomenon through close readings of Ouyi's work. The book sheds much-needed light on this little-known figure and his representation of karma, which proved to be a seminal innovation in the religious thought of late imperial China.

List of contents

IllustrationsAcknowledgmentsIntroduction1. Karma as a Narrative Device in Ouyi's Autobiography2. Divination as a Karmic Diagnostic3. Repentance Rituals for Eliminating Karma4. Vowing to Assume the Karma of Others5. Slicing, Burning, and Blood Writing: Karmic Transformations of BodiesConclusionAppendix 1. A Translation of Ouyi's AutobiographyAppendix 2. A Map of Ouyi's LifeNotesGlossary of Terms, People, Places, and Titles of TextsBibliographyIndex

About the author

Beverley Foulks McGuire is an assistant professor of East Asian religions at the University of North Carolina, Wilmington. She received her Ph.D. from Harvard University and her M.Div. from Harvard Divinity School. Her academic research focuses on Chinese religions, Buddhism, and comparative religious ethics.

Product details

• Authors: Beverley McGuire, Beverley (Assistant Professor of East Asi Mcguire, Beverley (Assistant Professor of East Asian Religions McGuire, Beverley Foulks McGuire, McGuire Beverley Foulks
• Publisher: Columbia University Press
• Languages: English
• Product format: Hardback
• Released: 26.08.2014
• EAN: 9780231168021
• ISBN: 978-0-231-16802-1
• No. of pages: 240
• Series: The Sheng Yen Series in Chinese Buddhist Studies; Sheng Yen Series in Chinese Buddhism; Sheng Yen Series in Chinese Buddhism; The Sheng Yen Series in Chinese Buddhist Studies
• Subjects: Humanities, art, music > Religion/theology > Other religions; Non-fiction book > History > Miscellaneous; History, RELIGION / Buddhism / Rituals & Practice, RELIGION / Buddhism / General, PHILOSOPHY / Buddhist, RELIGION / Buddhism / History, HISTORY / Asia / China, RELIGION / Monasticism, RELIGION / Buddhism / Sacred Writings, Buddhism, Asian History