Description
Book SynopsisThis book examines the interrelationship between narrative, ritual, and royal authority, including discussions of Daoism, yin-yang, and Buddhist doctrine, as depicted in a variety of texts from
The Chronicles of Japan (7th century) to
The Tale of the Heike (14th century).
Trade Review"Dense, detailed, and deeply conversant with literary theory, Bialock provides excellent overviews of the reception of Chinese religious culture in early Japan (chapters 1-3, 6) as well as the role of Buddhist traditions in shaping medieval Japanese culture (chapters 7-8)." -- Jeffrey L. Richey *
Religious Studies Review *
"This important study challenges long-held assumption about pre-modern Japanese culture. It is a work of great scholarship that makes high demands of readers, but well repays the effort" -- Michael Watson *
Monumenta Nipponica *
"Bialock focuses on overlooked details and aspects of the many subjects he treats, and he opens up new perspectives on the
Heike and on the long sweep of texts and history he covers." --
CHOICE"The sophisticated application of contemporary critical theory to the study of premodern Japanese literary and historical texts is something of a rarity in English-language scholarship However, David Bialock's
Eccentric Spaces, Hidden Histories is one such work: a book of extraordinary breadth and depth Bialock's book is an inspirational study that is likely to exert profound effects upon the fields of premodern Japanese literary and cultural studies for years to come." -- R. Keller Kimbrough, University of Colorado * Boulder *
"
Eccentric Places, Hidden Histories is a work of comprehensive erudition, well worth the wait that medievalists have endured since the appearance of Bialock's doctoral dissertation that presaged it . . . Following the multiple threads that he untangles and winds in new patterns will change the way readers configure the whole cloth of premodern Japan." --
Harvard Journal of Asiatic StudiesTable of ContentsTable of Contents Acknowledgments 2 Abbreviations 9 A Note to the Reader 10 Introduction 12 Part I 1. Hidden Texts: The Construction of Yin-Yang and Daoist Studies 2. The Yin and the Yang of Power 3. Recovering the Daoist Text Part II 4. Royalizing the Realm and the Ritualization of Violence 5. Peripheries of Power: Toward an Ambulatory History Part III 6. China in the Medieval Imaginary 7. Reimagining Late Heian and Early Medieval Space 8. The Apocryphal History of Kiyomori Epilogue 556 Glossary of Chinese Characters 559 Notes Bibliography 568 Index
