Description
Book SynopsisIs there a Buddhist discourse on sex? This book reveals Buddhism's paradoxical attitudes toward sexuality. It covers the geography of this religion, and its long evolution from the time of its founder, Xvkyamuni, to the premodern age.
Trade Review"Although many scholars strive to locate their research within the study of Chinese religions as a whole, and thus to incorporate perspectives, insights, and approaches derived from the fields of popular religious studies and poststructuralist anthropology, there is as yet only one scholar who has adopted this breadth of vision as the fundamental characteristic of his intellectual agenda. This is of course Bernard Faure."--The Journal of Asian Studies
Table of ContentsIntroduction3The Two Roads4Buddhist Sexualities8Ch. 1The Hermeneutics of Desire15Protean Desire16The Buddhist Economy of Desire23Ascetic Lust29The Trend Reversal39The Ambivalent Body54Ch. 2Disciplining Sex, Sexualizing Discipline64Law, Order, and Libido65Sexual Offenses74The Rise of Mahayana Precepts89Ch. 3The Ideology of Transgression98The Rule of Antinomianism100Crazy Cloud111Transgression - Sublime or Sublimated?118Ritual Infractions124Feminine Transgression129Ch. 4Clerical Vices and Vicissitudes144Monastic Decline and Anticlericalism145The Demonic Priest161The Juridical Background172Nyobon181Order or Freedom197Ch. 5Buddhist Homosexualities207The New Sodom207The Social and Cultural Context(s)227The Quest for Origins233Ch. 6Boys to Men241The Literary Tradition of the Chigo241The "Divine Child" Mystique249Head or Tail265Afterthoughts279Glossary289Bibliography293Index333
