Six Dynasties

Using received texts and excavated funerary epitaphs, this article examines the intricacies of gender and migration in early medieval China by exploring women's long-distance mobility from the fourth century to the sixth century, when what is now known as China was divided by the Northern Wei and a succession of four southern states-the Eastern Jin, Liu-Song, Southern Qi, and Liang. I focus on three types of migration in which women participated during this period: war-induced migration, family reunification, and religious journeys. Based on this analysis, I propose answers to two important questions: the connection between migration and the state, and textual representations of migrants. Though the texts under consideration are usually written in an anecdotal manner, the references to women, I argue, both reveals nuances in perceptions of womanhood at the time and elucidates the contexts within-and through-which long-distance travel became possible for women.



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The paper intends to show that archaeological data may offer a glimpse beyond the historical facts known about Wang Xizhi and his kin. The discussion centers on the question of the location of Wang Xizhi's tomb. Comparing written sources with archaeological material, i.e. Jin Dynasty tombs excavated in what used to be Kuaiji and in the capital area of Jiankang (present-day northeastern Zhejiang and Nanjing respectively), It will argue that there is ample reason to believe that Wang Xizhi himself was, in contrast to what was passed down in tradition, not buried in the mountains of Kuaiji, but near the Eastern Jin capital Jiankang, maybe even next to his kin.

鑑戒畫是中國古代人物畫中一個重要的題材，雖然唐代以前的傳世畫作已經非常稀少，但藉由出土的墓葬美術，仍能從中一窺古代人物鑑戒畫的表現手法及使用方式。本文以東漢的武氏祠及北魏的元謐石棺為例，討論鑑戒畫當中的孝子圖像一類。孝子圖像何以從原本武氏祠中複雜的鑑戒圖像中殘留到元謐石棺的圖像表現，而沒有隨之消失。其原因可能在於，孝子圖像背後蘊含的孝行思維，剛好與當時推崇孝道的狀態相符，然而在外來宗教的影響之下，孝子圖像逐漸加入外來文化的神異思想，其神異思想的功能從後世子孫對現世的需求，轉而死後世界的想像，因而造成孝子圖像在意涵上的轉變。

Early imperial and early medieval Chinese foreign relations have been mainly viewed through the prism of the so-called tributary system. Consequently, tribute relations with the Northern Wei court are either reduced to business ventures undertaken by foreign polities, or empty ideological exercises by the Tuoba emperors, who were only interested in having their worldview confirmed. Such views disregard the actual political and diplomatic value of tribute offerings to the Northern Wei. This article will provide a corrective through a close reading of diplomatic interactions recorded largely in the Wei shu that involved tribute offerings. Since these interactions sometimes also involved diplomatic hostages and marriage alliances, they will be briefly analyzed as well. I will show that tribute, in fact, was a political tool that was successfully utilized to meet various ends by both parties involved in bilateral exchanges. In the true sense of diplomatic interaction, tribute relations were highly effective means to negotiate peace.

作為宋代以來佛、道教濟幽科儀最主要的薦拔對象，孤魂並非一開始就出現的。“孤魂”一詞的被選定以及孤魂概念與類型的形成，歷時漫長，過程複雜，也是道教消化與應對佛教“餓鬼”觀念衝擊的一個最終結果。而在道教創造出孤魂概念之後，佛教水陸儀在延續餓鬼救濟的同時，也將孤魂納入其賑濟序列，儘管在適用中也存在一些觀念上的衝突和表達上的困境。而最值得注意的是，孤魂在佛、道教幽科中被按照社會身份予以分類，包括十類以上，反映齊同慈愛的關懷。同時，作為幽科服務的提供者，僧、道二類也被列入孤魂，反映對修行者遭遇死亡的正視與應對。

On July 13, 2008, the world's largest word emblazoned in landscape was revealed with great fanfare near Beijing. Carved into the cliff of Yunlongjian Peak, this word was the 2008 Olympic logo "Dancing Beijing," featuring the stylized calligraphic character jing 京 (capital). The carving project also included the Record of the Carving of the Olympic Logo, describing the circumstances under which it was produced. One may argue that the carving of the logo, so large and prominent that it is visible from miles away, is a product of modern commercialism. But in fact the simple concept of fixing memories and ideas on the surface of the earth through the carving of texts has deep roots in Chinese culture. This event illuminates the importance and relevance of Robert E. Harrist Jr. 's new book. The carved logo and the Record are recent additions to the centuries-old tradition of "polished-cliff carving" (moya 摩 崖), the subject of Harrist's study. Moya, or moya shike 摩崖石刻, are texts carved into granite boulders and cliffs that are part of the natural terrain. They began to appear in China during the first century C.E. Over the course of the two thousand years since then, they have been carved in all areas of the country, and have become one of the distinguishing features of Chinese civilization.

魏晋南北朝時代に長江流域以南を統治した江南六朝は、異民族に追われて中国古来の都が位置する中原の地を失った漢民族が樹立した政権である。しかし他方で、中国内外の文化や国際秩序に少なからぬ影響をもたらしていた。
　本書では、南方社会の立場から、江南六朝が史上初めて南方に現れた「正統」の中国王朝であることに注目する。江南六朝は周辺の地にありながらどのようにして中国王朝たりえたのか、六朝文化における南方の在地性、そして南方社会の歴史的意義とはどのようなものか。近年急速に進む発掘調査と著者自身の現地調査の成果を踏まえ、南北の皇帝陵墓と金属工芸を考古学的に分析・比較し、南方社会の結実としての江南六朝の特徴を浮き上がらせる。(早稲田大学博士論文に加筆刊行)

Questa tesina analizza la dimensione dei fantasmi nei testi letterari della Cina antica a partire dalle ossa oracolari di epoca Shang sino ai testi zhiguai 志怪 del periodo delle Sei Dinastie (ca. 220–589 d.C.). I testi di riferimento sono principalmente i Classici confuciani, i manoscritti della tomba numero 11 di Tianshui di epoca Qin (221 -206 a.C.), il Rishu 日書, i zhiguai dello Yiyuan 異苑 e lo Soushenji di Gan Bao 干寳. La ricerca si concentra prima sull'analisi del lessico scelto per la descrizione dei fantasmi, per poi soffermarsi sull'immagine del fantasma all’interno delle tradizioni confuciana, taoista e buddhista e la sua rielaborazione in ambito letterario, in particolar modo all'interno della letteratura zhiguai. Dall’analisi delle occorrenze lessicali emerge una trasformazione graduale del significato del termine fantasma sia attraverso il passaggio dall’utilizzo di termini monosillabici a termini bisillabici sia per mezzo di una diversificazione di accezioni nel tempo. Sul piano religioso, mentre il confucianesimo mantenne un atteggiamento di rispetto verso le credenze popolari sfruttandole per riaffermare i temi di umanità e moralità, il taoismo e il buddhismo intervennero in profondità nella definizione del rapporto tra i fedeli e il mondo dei fantasmi ponendosi come unici intermediari nelle pratiche di esorcismo e nei rituali di pacificazione. Si passò quindi da un concetto di fantasma semplice e privo di un profilo morale a un fantasma impregnato di significato sociale e intellettuale.

This dissertation argues that early medieval Chinese poetry had a hermeneutical function and that by reconstructing the past within an aesthetic realm poetry played a role in the constitution of its own tradition. Imitative poetry from the Six Dynasties period provides a pertinent illustration of the self-referential nature of poetic discourse, and the dissertation examines the ways in which poetic imitation resembled other forms of textual commentary and collection.

Chapter One discusses relevant theoretical and historical perspectives on the practice of imitation in early medieval China and is divided into two parts. The first section examines poetic intertextuality in light of conceptual schemes developed both in theories on cultural memory and in the study of ritual and textual practice in ancient China. The second section places the practice of poetic imitation within the wider literary and historical scene of the Han and Six Dynasties and in relation to the development of other forms of written textual exegesis.

Chapters Two through Four provide analysis and discussion of Six Dynasties imitation poetry. Chapter Two considers the extent to which imitation poetry resembled textual commentary and exposes the reflexive nature of the poetry's rhetoric. Additionally, the chapter explores how the poetic models from the late Han themselves are likely imitative of even more ancient verse.

Chapter Three examines the correlation between imitation poetry and other forms of literary criticism, literary history and personality assessment. The chapter suggests that distinctions between lyrical and critical forms are often normative rather than descriptive. It also argues that reflexivity within poetry draws attention to literary parameters from the past and reveals the extent to which poets were shaped by earlier statements about literary value.

Chapter Four analyzes the ways in which poets used rhetoric to reorganize the past according to new aesthetic logic. Their efforts reflected the same drive toward order that governed the compilation of anthologies and typologies. To conclude, the chapter argues that poetic authority was shared and that poetic success depended not simply on individual literary talent, but on a moral commitment to transmit the values that embodied the Chinese cultural identity.

本文在華夏與內亞兩種傳統遭遇、碰撞、融合的背景下重新審視流刑入律的過程,指出流刑實爲北族習慣法與儒學觀念表裏結合的產物。內亞草原上存在過一套不同於漢魏刑制的流放刑傳統,匈奴、烏桓、突厥、蒙古等都曾沉浸其中。北魏前期推行的流徙之刑,就是由拓跋鮮卑帶入中原的北族習俗。太安年間源賀的上書,既拓展了流徙刑的施用範圍,又將這一部族刑制比附爲《尚書》所載之"流",爲其融入華夏典制提供了可能。在太和年間以律爲治的法制改革中,廣泛運用且被認爲與經典相符的流徙,始以"流刑"的面目被列爲法定正刑。爲營造取法聖人之制的形象,北朝隋唐歷次修律都將流刑包裝成上古之"流"的繼承者,其內亞淵源遂被掩蓋和遺忘。

太和十三年（489）孝文帝於平城北郊靈泉池御龍舟，是北魏史上的重要一幕。它的出現，蘊含著北族與華夏兩種傳統遭遇、融合的豐富信息。靈泉池是馮太后主導下人工打造的園林勝景，反映了中原的都城設計和山水審美對平城建設的影響。從明元帝朝開始，在同南朝的戰爭、交流中，代人朝廷逐漸接觸、掌握了造舟行船的技術。著力推動華夏化轉型的孝文帝，主動踏上龍舟以實踐這項漢晉帝王的好尚。遷都洛陽以後，孝文帝不再把乘船活動限定在皇室禁苑，於巡幸、征伐的場合亦屢屢選擇揚帆而行，使舟楫這一新樹立的符號得以延伸與强化。川澤網絡甚至成爲洛陽君臣構築軍事戰略、統治體系的思考維度。同該進程形成鮮明對比的是，本受推崇的騎射技藝在統治階層的日常生活裏逐漸黯淡。“龍舟”與“馬背”的一進一退，爲探尋北魏的政治文化變遷提供了一條新的綫索。

作为类传的一种，“佞幸传”由《史记》首创，《汉书》则奠定了后世佞幸书写的基调。《宋书》《南齐书》在“何为佞幸”上设立了全新的标准，收录的人物均为担任中书舍人的寒人。南朝正史“佞幸传”的此项特质与魏晋以来中书制度的发展密切相关。魏晋时期，皇帝出于集权需要而新设的中书机构曾激起朝臣的普遍不满，中书监、令在舆论中常常遭受佞幸之讥。南朝皇帝以寒人任中书舍人典掌机要，又让作为官僚集团主体、引领社会文化的士人感到不可接受，代表这一阶层立场的《宋书·恩幸传》《南齐书·幸臣传》《梁史·权幸传》由此诞生。中央官制的演进以及士族政治的终结，是初唐官修《梁书》《陈书》不立“佞幸传”的原因。“制度性佞幸”现象展现了新制度被社会认可之前的曲折过程，也为观察中古政治文化的转型提供了新线索。

The set of mold-impressed tiles bearing low-relief representations of the so-called Seven Sages of the Bamboo Grove (Zhulin qixian) and Rong Qiqi from the late fifth-century CE brick-structure burial at present-day Xishanqiao near Nanjing, Jiangsu province has been recognized as one of the most iconic works of ancient Chinese pictorial art. Whereas the previous scholarship has emphasized its Chinese style and iconography, this paper argues that the Xishanqiao master introduced hand gestures that originated and developed in Indo-Iranian art traditions to portray the Chinese heroes as unconventional, noble, wise, and respectful and to mark the deceased as socially and morally distinctive. It further demonstrates that the geographical and temporal gap between the Xishanqiao and West imagery could have been bridged by the transmission of Buddhist art via the Silk Road(s), the network of intercultural exchange. In doing so, the paper examines the forms of hand gestures of the Chinese sages at the site of Xishanqiao in comparison with earlier and contemporary gestures of veneration in Central and West Asia, as well as in Buddhist art. Ultimately,
this paper reveals how some traditionally praised “Chinese” artworks were actually the fruit of cross-cultural interaction yet to be further appreciated.

Tracing the life of Crown Prince Xiao Tong's (550-551) and the production, at his court, of the greatest medieval Chinese anthology, I present an extended discussion of _The Age of Courtly Writing_ by Wang Ping (Leiden: Brill, 2012) and, in counterpoint to this book, my own interpretation of important issues in this period of Chinese literary and cultural history.

This article introduces the spirit path monuments and tombs of the Liang Dynasty built for members of the closer family of the founding Emperor Wu. Against the background of historical facts, the analysis of both statuary and tombs reveals that these monuments were all built during the lifetime and most probably by order of Emperor Wu himself. The resemblance of the columns in the spirit path to those erected by the Mauryan King Aśoka has already been pointed out by previous scholars. The author proposes that Emperor Wu not only emulated King Aśoka by erecting these columns, but by integrating them into the cemetery of his family, he moreover turned them into a truly Chinese monument of power.

《西征記》的創作動機，固然緣於劉裕（363-422）「命參軍戴延之，與府舍人虞道元，即舟溯流，窮覽洛川，欲知水軍可至之處。」意在探索水軍的水道，具有明確的軍事意圖；但是從現今遺文中發現大量記載山川城市中的廟宇、先人塚墓和碑銘等歷史遺跡和神聖地景。這樣的敘述模式實際上已超出地理辨識的目的，而是具有文化認同（cultural identity）作用。也就是說，自從晉元帝司馬睿在建康即位（316），至劉裕北伐抵長安（417），百年時間內，早已人事全非。唯有歷代祖先留下的神聖地景遺跡，不僅反映了前代的信仰、實踐和技術，更可以喚起南方民眾認同早已不是故鄉的北土。
本文根據《西征記》、《述征記》所殘存的地景書寫比較，論證《西征記》具有協和天、地、人的內在意圖，其書寫策略則是經由刻意地篩選，選定征途中墳冢、祠墓、靈祠和神廟等具有神聖氛圍的特殊物景，重新組合成為有別於東晉臣民記憶中的一種華北空間，作為劉裕對彭城先祖的認同和徐兗地方意識崛起的文化象徵，以形成一套精密的「造宋」話語。另一方面，發現兩者同樣作為北伐姚泓的延途記錄，後者特色在於如實地呈現行記文類所反映的普遍經驗，其所見所記，基本上根據了「記實」的原則，也可說是東晉軍民「戀本之志」的自然流露，然在旅人搜奇獵異的心理下，也保留了江南中下層官民期待的華北奇觀。經由這兩種行記神、聖地景書寫的解讀，彰顯了中古歷史書寫的多樣性，同時再次詮釋歷史文化思維的本質，展示中國傳統文人如何在文化資料庫中擷取資源，靈活利用歷史遺存物、事件碎片和特定地景創造出各種文化象徵的典範。

In early medieval China (220–589 CE), the territory once ruled by the Han empire (206 BCE–220 CE) was divided into competing cultural, ethnic and political regions. The north, controlled by the Tuoba clan of the Xianbei tribe (fourth–sixth centuries), 1 and the south, governed by a series of Chinese dynasties headquartered in Jiankang (present-day Nanjing), had pronounced cultural differences that are discussed in the writings of the period. The heightened sense of regional difference and pride is exemplified in a clash between a northern princess and an elite southern lady documented in a peculiar entry found in the well-known sixth-century work A Record of Buddhist Monasteries in Luoyang (Luoyang qielan ji 洛陽伽藍記). 2 Written around 547 CE by the northern official and Buddhist scholar Yang Xuanzhi 楊衒之 (fl. 528–547), the work lists some of the grandest Buddhist temples that once flourished in the Northern Wei (386–534) capital of Luoyang. 3 One finds among these entries on grand structures that of a modest nunnery in which an account of the aforementioned clash is relayed through the perspective of its northern author. While unremarkable at first glance, the entry reveals an intriguing tale of regional rivalry.

Dated to 524 CE, the lavishly carved stone sarcophagus for Prince Yuan Mi exemplifies an early Chinese method to use diagonal gaze as a rhetoric device to visually construct a three-dimensional space. On the exterior faces of the sarcophagus, the anonymous artist simulated a three-layer space, imagining the deceased’s wooden coffin (the inner layer) being contained in his burial chamber (middle layer), which is in turn embraced by a complex three-dimensional natural and supernatural world (the outer layer). In the middle layer, eight anthropomorphic figures cast the slant gaze from behind four windows at filial paragons dwelling in the outer layer. This gaze was used as a rhetorical device to bridge the physical and psychological gap between the gazer and the gazed at. Evoking the idiom of “watching the ancients as neighbors” in medieval Chinese texts, the artist defined the deceased as a neighbor of the ancient filial paragons, hiding in the ideal landscape as recluses.  Besides the visual analysis of the sarcophagus, this article also examines the epitaph buried with the sarcophagus. While the carving praises the private virtue of the dead, the text paints another rosy picture of the deceased prince as a good official. Eventually, the image and text were used in tandem with each other to create a perfect image of the deceased.

This article uses evidence from digital databases to re-examine two controversial issues regarding the “Six Criteria” (liufa 六法) of painting listed by Xie He 謝赫 (d. after 532) in the preface to his Gu huapin lu 古畫品錄: (1) their syntax and phrasing, and (2) the origin and connotations of qiyun 氣韻, the most famous of the six. Despite recent claims to the contrary, the series of six numbered clauses taking the form “X, Y shi ye 是也” is unremarkable for the language of the time; moreover, the application of the Six Criteria in the subsequent biographies discloses that they are listed in decreasing order of importance. While the meaning and connotations of qiyun are impossible to state succinctly because they vary from one source to another, it is used (like similar phrases, such as yayun 雅韻 and shenyun 神韻) both to praise people’s character and as an aesthetic quality pertaining to music, literature, and art.

Production, Distribution and Appreciation: New Aspects of East Asian Lacquer Ware, edited by Patricia Frick and Annette Kieser, focuses on various aspects of East Asian lacquer art ranging from the 2nd century BC to the 17th century. Recent excavations in China, the distribution of lacquer objects throughout the Eurasian region, the significance of lacquer ware in everyday life, technical aspects of lacquer production in Korea, and the appreciation of Japanese lacquer in Asia and Europe are analysed in six chapters by international experts in the field: Patricia Frick; Annette Kieser; Nanhee Lee; Yan Liu; Margarete Prüch and Anton Schweizer. Production, Distribution and Appreciation: New Aspects of East Asian Lacquer Ware is published in association with the European Association for Asian Art and Archeaology.

本文在考察五輅制成立過程的基礎上，重新審視《晉書·輿服志》車制部分的史料來源和形成經過。天子五輅真正從經典進入現實是在劉宋時期，晉志以及《唐六典》、《通典》等文獻傳達了錯誤的信息。晉志的相關記載完全出於初唐史官之手，參雜有大量南朝後期制度。《晉書》編纂者將五輅制度强加於晉代歷史的做法，反映了隋唐時期的歷史認識，亦帶有强烈的現實意義。晉志五輅之外的部分主要繼承自臧榮緒《晉書》，對瞭解兩晉的輿服制度仍具有很高的史料價值。另外，本文通過材料的比對，具體說明了晉志與《續漢書·輿服志》、《宋書·禮志》的關係。

Boshanlu, or mountain-shaped incense burners, appeared in a fully developed form
during the Western Han; later ceramic variations were produced throughout the Six
Dynasties. Vessels of this type are generally interpreted as representations of the mythical islands of xian-immortals, while their origins and employment are frequently brought into connection with Han cults of immortality. However, this line of scholarship, to a great extant inherited from the Song antiquarians, largely obscures the multiplicity of meanings the vessel possessed in various contexts of elite life. After surveying archaeological, textual, and visual sources on the boshanlu and outlining multiple contexts in which incense burners were used and their potential functions, the paper focuses on poems on the incense burner composed during the late Han and the Six Dynasties. There the incense burner is connected with the themes of feasting, forsaken women, or with the frustrated ambitions of an honest official—themes that are removed from the religious symbolism scholars have discerned in the material object. The paper examines this discrepancy, and explores the ways metaphoric meanings are engendered in these poems.

SAGES OF THE BAMBOO GROVE IN EARLY MEDIEVAL CHINESE TOMBS Seven Sages of the Bamboo Grove (zhulin qixian) and Rong Qiqi, generally dated from the fifth to sixth centuries, is a low-relief pictorial composition comprised of eight portraits of virtuous men assembled with a group of mold-impressed tiles. Since its first discovery in 1960 on two sides of the Xishanqiao tomb, Nanjing, Jiangsu, it has fascinated scholars with its new mode of representation in Chinese art history (see fig. 1 for line drawing of tiles). 1 Portrayed with fluid lines that give a feeling of three-dimensionality, the eight figures wear loose robes and sit barefoot on animal skins under trees. Some play the qin zither, some drink wine, some make gestures, and others appear lost in meditation. Thanks to cartouches, scholars securely identified the eight figures as Shan Tao (205-283), Ruan Ji (210-263), Liu Ling (ca. 221-300), Ji Kang (223-263), Xiang Xiu (ca. 227-272), Wang Rong (234-305), Ruan Xian (fl. 3rd C.), and Rong Qiqi. The first seven were later termed the Seven Sages of the Bamboo Grove after a bamboo garden in which they were said to have 1 Nanjing bowuyuan and Nanjing shi wenwu baoguan weiyuanhui, "Nanjing Xishanqiao Nanchao mu jiqi zhuanke bihua," Wenwu (August-September 1960): 37-42; and Alexander Coburn Soper, "A New Chinese Tomb Discovery: The Earliest Representation of a Famous Literary Theme," Artibus Asiae 24 (1961): 79-96. All dates are Common Era unless otherwise noted.

First volume of the new series, Inner and Central Asian Art and Archaeology:

How Objects Tell Stories. Essays in Honor of Emma C. Bunker, eds. Katheryn M. Linduff and Karen S. Rubinson

Series edited by Judith A. Lerner and Annette L. Juliano

This paper is confined the ancient kamrupa and its different dynasties at different times. There were
many kingdoms in ancient Kamrupa which are elaborate in this paper. This paper contains different
kingdoms and their rulers’ tenure. Several monarchs rose and fell in ancient Assam throughout the
Dynastic period. The territory of Assam, formerly known as Kamrupa or Pragjyotishpur, had been
occupied by a variety of ancient kingdoms, including Varman, Mlechchha, and Pala, among others,
since the early stages around 350 AD.

Sun Chuo 孫綽 (ca. 314-ca. 371) was one of the most prominent and influential writers of the Eastern Jin 東晉 (317-420) period. 1 Together with Xu Xun 許詢 (300?-356?) he is considered a major exponent of the xuanyan 玄言 ("neo-daoist") poetry which extensively discoursed on Daoist concepts in diction close to philosophical texts. Flourishing during the Eastern Jin, this type of didactic verse has been held in very low esteem ever since the early 6th century. To later readers these poems sounded abstruse, "flat and insipid," "more philosophy than poetry". 2 Although Sun Chuo was a prolific author, very little of his works remains-only 37 poems shi 詩 and 45 pieces and fragments of prose wen 文 attributed to him survive. 3 The best known work among his corpus is "You Tiantai shan fu" 遊天台山賦 (Rhapsody on Roaming the Celestial Terrace Mountains). Its literary qualities were appreciated by Xiao Tong 蕭統 (501-531), who included it as the only composition by Sun Chuo in the Wenxuan 文選 (Selections of Refined Literature) anthology. Echoes of this composition are perceptible in later poetry and prose ac-__________________ * This article is part of the Research Project No. MSM0021620824, The Foundation of Modern World in the Mirror of Literature and Philosophy, a project of the Faculty of Arts, Charles University in Prague. It evolved from the research for my PhD dissertation, Roaming into the Beyond-the Theme of Immortality (xian) in Early Medieval Chinese Verse (Charles University, Prague 2007). I gratefully acknowledge support by the Chiang Ching-kuo

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A whimsical, though  not a followed-up and seriously researched thought came to me: Cultures and dynasties fall or are conquered, as much from their self-centered, hubristic focused and provincial self-identification of themselves that doesn't match the energies of the forms of the invasive force that overwhelms them.

Run through the historical and scriptural records. Foundational to the culture's demise was their corrupting smugness of their self-centered locally-focused provincial ways. This is a prospective advisory to those who envision an insular, near-utopian paradise of their societal order, while discounting the caveats the dynamics of the human nature-conditioned or chosen, which the ages have noted (Job 1:6-11) as the false vanities of virtuosity.

Aspire to-the-fullest for the practical necessities and urgency which the moment demands. Keep in mind that the justness of your motivation is not necessarily inclusive of the means of unjust expedience you'd choose.

The fall of the uniWed empire of the Han (206/202 bc-ad 220) was one of the most momentous events in Chinese history. Its origins go back to the Wrst half of the second century ad, while its repercussions were being felt during the entire Six Dynasties period (220-589) and even beyond. If I had to choose just three events to highlight the main themes and images inXuential in the intellectual and religious developments in the centuries after the breakdown of the imperial order, I would suggest the following dates: