Panel 14: Gender and Religion in Premodern East Asia

Chair: Alexander Hsu, University of Notre Dame

Panelists

Hin Ming Frankie Chik, University of Pittsburgh, “The ‘Confucianization’ of the Classics in the ‘Yiwen zhi’ of the Hanshu”

This paper examines the concept of the heavenly mandate (tianming 天命) as presented in the Lienu zhuan 列女傳 (Biographies of Exemplary Women), traditionally attributed to Liu Xiang 劉向. While previous scholarship has agreed that the accumulation of virtuous power (de 德) was a prerequisite for a royal house to possess the mandate of Heaven, significant attention has been paid to how rulers must be vigilant and behave properly to maintain their ownership. However, the role of female members of the royal family has often been overlooked. This paper aims to address this gap by focusing on the narratives about Jian Di 簡狄 and Jiang Yuan 姜嫄 within the Biographies. These women were believed to facilitate miraculous births (gansheng 感生) for the founding ancestors of both the Shang and Zhou royal houses. The paper argues that both unmarried female ancestors were credited with creating favorable conditions that enabled their male descendants to expedite the development of the moral power essential for their eventual acquisition of the heavenly mandate. Furthermore, the Shi 詩 citations within the narratives of the Biographies suggest that this work represented one of the commentarial traditions of the Shi during the Han dynasty. In parallel with the dominant influence of certain Han empresses, the Biographies and its associated commentarial tradition offered unique maternal interpretations of various ancient Chinese concepts found in texts.

Andrew Tschirki, University of Southern California, “Dialogical Preaching—Shōkū and His Responses Towards Women’s Concerns”

The Pure Land monk Shōkū (1177-1247), disciple of Hōnen, created the Seizan branch of the Pure Land school in medieval Japan. He held cordial relations with the aristocracy and advanced a form of preaching in which he engaged with Imperial Women and appears to have actively focus his preaching towards women. The focus of my paper is a letter between himself and the Emperor’s mother, Kitashirakawa-in, in which his doctrine is conveyed dialogically. The letter, taking the form of a question and answer format, is his personal responses to her personal queries and doubts. She does not seem concerned with disparaging Buddhist doctrines regarding women’s bodies but only with her own ability to practice without falling into doubt for her and the women around her’s salvation. Shōkū, in his responses, is similarly mum on the idea of women’s bodies and presents an accessible doctrine that even she can practice. The letter participates both in specific Pure Land discourse as Pure Land leaders aside from Hōnen and Shinran have been oft overlooked, and also participates in the larger discourse of how women’s salvation was viewed and preached during this medieval period.