The Divine Nature of Power: Chinese Ritual Architecture at the Sacred Site of JinciHarvard University Asia Center for the Harvard-Yenching Institute, 2007 - Architecture and religion - 265 pages Built around three sacred springs, the Jin Shrines complex (Jinci), near Taiyuan in Shanxi province, contains a wealth of ancient art and architecture dating back to the Northern Song dynasty (960-1127). The complex's 1,500-year-long textual record allows us to compare physical and written evidence to understand how the built environment was manipulated to communicate ideas about divinity, identity, and status. Jinci's significance varied over time according to both its patrons' needs and changes in the political and physical landscape. The impact of these changes can be read in the physical development of the site. Using an interdisciplinary approach drawing on the research of archaeologists, anthropologists, and religious, social, and art historians, this book seeks to recover the motivations behind the creation of religious art, including temple buildings, sculpture, and wall paintings. Through an examination of building style and site organization, the author illuminates the multiplicity of meanings projected by buildings within a sacred landscape and the ability of competing patronage groups to modify those meanings with text and context, thereby affecting the identity of the deities housed within them. This study of the art and architecture of Jinci is thus about divine creations and their power to create divinity. |
Contents
Introduction | 1 |
Shu Yu and the Cult of a State Founder | 8 |
Place and Name | 19 |
Copyright | |
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| Title | The Divine Nature of Power: Chinese Ritual Architecture at the Sacred Site of Jinci Volume 62 of Harvard-Yenching Institute monograph series, ISSN 0073-084X Volume 62 of Monograph series, Harvard-Yenching Institute, ISSN 0073-084X |
| Author | Tracy Miller |
| Contributors | Harvard University. Asia Center, Harvard-Yenching Institute |
| Edition | illustrated |
| Publisher | Harvard University Asia Center for the Harvard-Yenching Institute, 2007 |
| Original from | the University of Michigan |
| Digitized | May 21, 2009 |
| ISBN | 067402513X, 9780674025134 |
| Length | 265 pages |
| Export Citation | BiBTeX EndNote RefMan |