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Weinstein's book Buddhism in the Tang is a nice historical look at the interactions between Buddhism and the Chinese state during the Tang dynasty. He looks a little at the developments of Buddhism at this time, but mostly it's about the regulations handed down by each Emperor and their affects. While an excellent reference source it also provides some rather interesting points.
On p.17 Weinstein mentions a Buddhist memorial to the throne which cricises the Taoists as not being followers of Lao Zi, but rather the teachings of the Yellow Turbans. I found this most interesting as it would seem to indicate to me that the belief that the Yellow Turbans and the Taoists were the same. When I discussed this with my professor his view was that it as more to do with an insult than with any consistency of beliefs and that the celestial masters were highly critical of the Yellow Turbans. When you are defeated it is very easy to be cast as the bad guys. Still I couldn't help but wonder if the majority of people at the time linked the two. I've been reading a lot of article's by Anna Seidel lately and she seems to link the Taiping rebelion (meaning Yellow Turbans not the 19th century) with messianic movements through to the Tang. So it could be interesting to look into more.
He also raises some interesting facts about the lives of nuns, how many nunnaries were established, how many nuns were allowed to be ordained. There is also quite a few laws regulating slavery and the Buddhists which seems rather interesting to me. Apparetnly an edict was passed that limited a Buddhist nun to only two slaves, indicating that more was common? The idea that a nun had several slaves would seem to indicate that she was fairly well off and from a good family. All interesting hints at things to look at for my study of the religious life of women during this period.
It was interesting to see how Empress Wu came across as much more Buddhist in this book, in the Taoist book on the Tang she also seemed sympathetic. So the book was also a good reference for further research on her.
It was enjoyable, though a little short. It seemed, as nearly all writing on this time period does, to draw heavily from the Ennin's diary for the time he was in China. But made very little use of the Tunhuang manuscripts. Which considering there were tens of thousands of them about Buddhism during this time seemed a little strange. Still the book was a nice mixture of politics and religion and how the two go together.
On p.17 Weinstein mentions a Buddhist memorial to the throne which cricises the Taoists as not being followers of Lao Zi, but rather the teachings of the Yellow Turbans. I found this most interesting as it would seem to indicate to me that the belief that the Yellow Turbans and the Taoists were the same. When I discussed this with my professor his view was that it as more to do with an insult than with any consistency of beliefs and that the celestial masters were highly critical of the Yellow Turbans. When you are defeated it is very easy to be cast as the bad guys. Still I couldn't help but wonder if the majority of people at the time linked the two. I've been reading a lot of article's by Anna Seidel lately and she seems to link the Taiping rebelion (meaning Yellow Turbans not the 19th century) with messianic movements through to the Tang. So it could be interesting to look into more.
He also raises some interesting facts about the lives of nuns, how many nunnaries were established, how many nuns were allowed to be ordained. There is also quite a few laws regulating slavery and the Buddhists which seems rather interesting to me. Apparetnly an edict was passed that limited a Buddhist nun to only two slaves, indicating that more was common? The idea that a nun had several slaves would seem to indicate that she was fairly well off and from a good family. All interesting hints at things to look at for my study of the religious life of women during this period.
It was interesting to see how Empress Wu came across as much more Buddhist in this book, in the Taoist book on the Tang she also seemed sympathetic. So the book was also a good reference for further research on her.
It was enjoyable, though a little short. It seemed, as nearly all writing on this time period does, to draw heavily from the Ennin's diary for the time he was in China. But made very little use of the Tunhuang manuscripts. Which considering there were tens of thousands of them about Buddhism during this time seemed a little strange. Still the book was a nice mixture of politics and religion and how the two go together.