The short article, Occult Universe, presents the basic patterns of belief current in China from the third millenium BC. It introduces the Book of Changes, which was as influential in the development of Confucianism as it was in much Daoist doctrine. Yet whereas Confucius expanded this book’s social implications, Daoism elaborated on its metaphysical claim […]
This lecture on the ancient Chinese philosopher Zhuangzi was given by Professor Wang Bo, Professor of Philosophy at Peking University, as part of Imperial Tours-sponsored research into Chinese philosophy and ideas. The Spirit of Zhuangzi By Professor Wang Bo Good evening everybody. My name is Professor Wang Bo and I have been at Peking University […]
Prophesied by the historic Buddha approximately 2,000 years before his birth, Tsongkhapa (1357–1419) was a child prodigy who went on to establish and inspire Tibet’s most powerful monastic sect. Dissatisfied by the intellectual, religious, and monastic indiscipline of contemporary orders, he reined his disciples and followers into a strict new order. The Gelug sect re-established […]
Jamyang Choje, a disciple of Tsongkhapa, founded Drepung Monastery in 1416. He is reputed to have been born to a wealthy family near the town of Samye and to have secured the initial financing for the monastery’s construction from a wealthy childhood friend. Likewise, the monastery’s immediate popularity, with some 2,000 monks in residence within […]
These are the bare facts: the Mogao cave complex is comprised of 492 caves, containing 450,000 square feet of murals dating from the fourth to the fourteenth centuries – a period which corresponds to an immense growth in international commerce along the nearby Silk Road. The caves were abandoned in the fourteenth century and lay […]
