From Comrades to Bodhisattvas

出版者:University of Hawaii Press

作者:Gareth Fisher

页数:301

出版时间:2014-12-31

价格:USD 50.00

装帧:Hardcover

isbn号码:9780824839666

具体描述

From Comrades to Bodhisattvas is the first book-length study of Han Chinese Buddhism in post-Mao China. Using an ethnographic approach supported by over a decade of field research, it provides an intimate portrait of lay Buddhist practitioners in Beijing who have recently embraced a religion that they were once socialized to see as harmful superstition. The book focuses on the lively discourses and debates that take place among these new practitioners in an unused courtyard of a Beijing temple. In this non-monastic space, which shrinks each year as the temple authorities expand their commercial activities, laypersons gather to distribute and exchange Buddhist-themed media, listen to the fiery sermons of charismatic preachers, and seek solutions to personal moral crises. Applying recent theories in the anthropology of morality and ethics, Gareth Fisher argues that the practitioners are attracted to the courtyard as a place where they can find ethical resources to re-make both themselves and others in a rapidly changing nation that they believe lacks a coherent moral direction. Spurred on by the lessons of the preachers and the stories in the media they share, these courtyard practitioners inventively combine moral elements from China’s recent Maoist past with Buddhist teachings on the workings of karma and the importance of universal compassion. Their aim is to articulate a moral antidote to what they see as blind obsession with consumption and wealth accumulation among twenty-first century Chinese. Often socially marginalized and sidelined from meaningful roles in China’s new economy, these former communist comrades look to their new moral roles along a bodhisattva path to rebuild their self-worth.

Each chapter focuses on a central trope in the courtyard practitioners’ projects to form new moral identities. The Chinese government’s restrictions on the spread of religious teachings in urban areas curtail these practitioners' ability to insert their moral visions into an emerging public sphere. Nevertheless, they succeed, at least partially, Fisher argues, in creating their own discursive space characterized by a morality of concern for fellow humans and animals and a recognition of the organizational abilities and pedagogical talents of its members that are unacknowledged in society at large. Moreover, as the later chapters of the book discuss, by writing, copying, and distributing Buddhist-themed materials, the practitioners participate in creating a religious network of fellow-Buddhists across the country, thereby forming a counter-cultural community within contemporary urban China.

Highly readable and full of engaging descriptions of the real lives of practicing lay Buddhists in contemporary China, From Comrades to Bodhisattvas will interest specialists in Chinese Buddhism, anthropologists of contemporary Asia, and all scholars interested in the relationship between religion and cultural change.

作者简介

Gareth Fisher is assistant professor of religion and anthropology at Syracuse University.

用户评价

读完后，我立刻推荐给了身边的朋友，并且和他们展开了热烈的讨论。这本书的后劲十足，很多情节和人物的命运，在合上书本很久之后，依然在我脑海中盘旋。作者对人性光辉与阴暗面的探讨是如此坦诚和深刻，毫不回避复杂性和矛盾性。我尤其欣赏作品中那种对于“可能性”的探索，即便在最绝望的境地，依然存在着一线生机，这给予了读者巨大的精神慰藉。全书的文风流畅自然，没有故作高深的晦涩感，但其思想深度绝对是顶级的。对于任何渴望在阅读中获得成长和启发的读者来说，这本书都是不容错过的佳作。

这本书的结构设计堪称一绝，仿佛一座精密的建筑，每一个章节都是必不可少的支撑。作者对于时间线的处理手法非常老练，时而倒叙，时而插叙，将过去、现在与未来交织在一起，构建了一个复杂但逻辑严密的叙事网。角色塑造更是可圈可点，每一个配角都栩栩如生，有着自己的动机和背景故事，绝非功能性的“工具人”。我特别留意了作者在环境描写上的用心，那些场景的渲染，不仅仅是背景，更是推动情节发展和烘托人物心境的重要元素。阅读过程中，我多次停下来，反复琢磨某一句台词的深意，不得不佩服作者将哲学思考融入通俗叙事的高超技巧。

这是一本让人读完后心潮澎湃、久久不能平静的作品。作者以细腻的笔触和深刻的洞察力，构建了一个宏大而又充满人情味的世界。故事的开篇就展现了人物性格的复杂性，让人对他们的命运充满了好奇。情节跌宕起伏，高潮迭起，每一个转折都出乎意料却又在情理之中。我尤其欣赏作者在处理人物内心挣扎时的那种克制与爆发力，没有过多的渲染，却能让人感同身受。那些关于选择、牺牲与救赎的主题，在故事情节的推动下，自然而然地浮现出来，引发读者对自身价值和生命意义的深刻反思。读这本书，就像经历了一场漫长而又充实的旅程，沿途的风景和遭遇都让人难以忘怀。作者的文字功底深厚，遣词造句极具张力，读起来有一种酣畅淋漓的快感。

坦白说，我一开始对这类题材并不抱太大期望，但这本书彻底颠覆了我的认知。它不仅仅是一个故事，更像是一面镜子，映照出人性深处的幽微之处。叙事节奏掌握得恰到好处，既有紧张的冲突，也有舒缓的过渡，使得阅读体验非常流畅。书中对社会现象的描绘入木三分，那些看似不经意的细节，却能精准地戳中当代人的痛点。我喜欢作者的叙事角度，时而宏观，时而微观，在不同的视角间切换自如，使得整个故事的层次感异常丰富。更难能可贵的是，尽管探讨了许多沉重的话题，但字里行间始终流淌着一种对生命的热爱与敬畏，让人在看完之后，非但没有感到压抑，反而有了一种重获新生的力量感。

这是一部需要用心去品味的文学作品。它的魅力不在于情节的曲折离奇，而在于其蕴含的深刻思想内涵。作者的文字风格偏向于冷静和内敛，但正是这种克制，使得那些情感爆发的时刻更具冲击力。我发现自己经常在思考书中的人物为什么会做出那样的决定，他们的挣扎、他们的妥协，都仿佛能在我们日常生活中找到影子。这本书提出了许多尖锐的问题，但它并不急于给出标准答案，而是将解读的权利交给了读者，这一点我非常欣赏。它成功地在商业性娱乐和严肃文学之间找到了一个绝佳的平衡点，让人在享受阅读乐趣的同时，也能获得精神上的滋养。

moral breakdown(Jarret Zigon) and ethical demand (Foucault)

moral breakdown(Jarret Zigon) and ethical demand (Foucault)

moral breakdown(Jarret Zigon) and ethical demand (Foucault)

moral breakdown(Jarret Zigon) and ethical demand (Foucault)

moral breakdown(Jarret Zigon) and ethical demand (Foucault)