Overlapping Cosmologies in Asia: Transcultural and Interdisciplinary Approaches (Crossroads - History of Interactions Across the Silk Routes, 4)

A new, transnational, and interdisciplinary understanding of cosmology in Asian history. Cosmologies were not coherent systems belonging to separate cultures but rather complex bodies of knowledge and practice that regularly coexisted and co-mingled in extraordinarily diverse ways. ‎Contents 6 ‎Acknowledgments 8 ‎Figures and Tables 9 ‎Abbreviations 14 ‎Notes on Contributors 16 ‎Introduction (Mak and Huntington) 20 ‎Chapter 1. The Influence of Assyriology on the Study of Chinese Astronomy in the Late Nineteenth and Early Twentieth Centuries (Steele) 36 ‎Chapter 2. Greek Astral Sciences in China (Mak) 1 ‎Chapter 3. Eclipse Dragons, Seasonal Change, and the Salvation of Light: A Case of Overlapping Cosmologies in Manichaeism (Pirtea) 1 ‎Chapter 4. Deciphering Aristotle with Chinese Medical Cosmology: Nanban Unkiron and the Reception of Jesuit Cosmology in Early Modern Japan (Hiraoka) 117 ‎Chapter 5. Chinese-Muslims as Agents of Astral Knowledge in Late Imperial China (Weil) 135 ‎Chapter 6. Geometrizing Chinese Astronomy? The View from a Diagram in the Kashf al-ḥaqāʾiq by al-Nīsābūrī (d. ca. 1330) (Isahaya) 158 ‎Chapter 7. From Heaven to Earth: Circles and the Construction of the Imperial Order in Late Ming and Early Qing China (Jami) 189 ‎Chapter 8. The Buddhist Universe in Early Modern Japan: Cosmological Dispute and the Epistemology of Vision (Moerman) 214 ‎Chapter 9. Buddhist Cosmology in Bhutanese Murals: A Visual Negotiation Between Abhidharma and Kālacakra Systems (Huntington) 249 ‎Chapter 10. Overlapping Heavens in the Wall Paintings of Mogao Cave 285 at Dunhuang: An Art-Historical Study of the Syncretistic Images on Its West Wall and Ceiling (Hiyama) 276 ‎Index 300 The history of cosmology is often understood in terms of the development of modern science, but Asian cosmological thought and practice touched on many aspects of life, including mathematics, astronomy, politics, philosophy, religion, and art. Because of the deep pervasion of cosmology in culture, many opportunities arose for transmissions of cosmological ideas across borders and innovations of knowledge and application in new contexts. Taking a wider view, one finds that cosmological ideas traveled widely and intermingled freely, being frequently reinterpreted by scholars, ritualists, and artists and transforming as they overlapped with ideas and practices from other traditions. This book brings together ten diverse scholars to present their views on these overlapping cosmologies in Asia. They are Ryuji Hiraoka, Satomi Hiyama, Eric Huntington, Yoichi Isahaya, Catherine Jami, Bill M. Mak, D. Max Moerman, Adrian C. Pirtea, John Steele, and Dror Weil. The history of cosmology is often understood in terms of the development of modern science, but Asian cosmological thought and practice touched on many aspects of life, including mathematics, astronomy, politics, philosophy, religion, and art.0Because of the deep pervasion of cosmology in culture, many opportunities arose for transmissions of cosmological ideas across borders and innovations of knowledge and application in new contexts. Taking a wider view, one finds that cosmological ideas traveled widely and intermingled freely, being frequently reinterpreted by scholars, ritualists, and artists and transforming as they overlapped with ideas and practices from other traditions.0This book brings together ten diverse scholars to present their views on these overlapping cosmologies in Asia. They are Ryuji Hiraoka, Satomi Hiyama, Eric Huntington, Yoichi Isahaya, Catherine Jami, Bill M. Mak, D. Max Moerman, Adrian C. Pirtea, John Steele, and Dror Weil "The history of cosmology is often understood in terms of the development of modern science, but Asian cosmological thought and practice touched on many aspects of life, including mathematics, astronomy, politics, philosophy, religion, and art. Because of the deep pervasion of cosmology in culture, many opportunities arose for transmissions of cosmological ideas across borders and innovations of knowledge and application in new contexts. Taking a wider view, one finds that cosmological ideas traveled widely and intermingled freely, being frequently reinterpreted by scholars, ritualists, and artists and transforming as they overlapped with ideas and practices from other traditions. This book brings together ten diverse scholars to present their views on these overlapping cosmologies in Asia"-- Provided by publisher