EACS-2016. Book of Abstracts

Religion 21st Biennial Conference of the European Association for Chinese Studies 104 This transformation lead to emergence of a new cult of the deity and appearance of very special local mythological traditions, sometimes, strictly isolated and having no connections with legends of other areas. Regions of circulation of these legends are placed far apart from each other, with main centers being found in Yunnan and Liaoning, though variants of myths can also be discovered in other parts of the country. The main focus of the paper is put in tracing the actual transformation of the Dharmapala and Yidam into a secular helper and defender and in analysis of the modern forms of Mahakala worship. The main conclusions of the research are: • Legends of the emergence of Mahakala in Buddhist Tantric tradition differ radically, and thus the dei- ties having transformed from Mahakala in later beliefs can be totally mutually dissimilar. • The main centers of Mahakala worship besides traditional Vajrayana regions are located in areas with substantial Buddhist Tanric influence, sometimes, dating back to a long history. • Modern forms of Mahakala cult has much in common with the tradition of Tudi (local deities) worship. Wu Kuan-hung (National Dong Hwa University) An Exploration of the New Divine-Human Discourse in theWei-Jin Period Key words: Wei-Jin metaphysics; new divine-human discourse; Ji Kang; Wang Bi; Taoism In Shi Shuo Xin Yu (Essays and Criticism), the chapter on literature states that when reading Wang Bi’s Annotations to Tao Te Ching, He Yan praised it for its profound discourse on the human and the divine. Therefore, Wang Bi’s metaphysics has been regarded as a new divine-human discourse from the Wei-Jin, representing a shift from the Han Dynasty’s cosmological views of yin-yang wu-xing to naturalism and metaphysics. But Wang Bi’s new divine-human discourse can be considered to be defective in his attempt to replace the Han Dynasty’s human-divine conception with a rationalized thinking of metaphysics; and although his thinking was pioneering, it lacked a practice-based perspective. In recent years, scholars concerned with Wei-Jin Confucianism have adopted different approaches aimed at clarifying the connection between Han Dynasty concepts of a human-divine division on one hand, and on the other hand Confucianism and Xuan Zhi ( 玄知 ) studies that stress tian shen ren cheng ( 天生人成 heaven gives birth to all things on earth but humans form the world). In view of this, the present author further investigates the meanings of Ji Kang’s music discourse. By so doing, we can clarify the Taoist discourse on divine-human relationships on the one hand and further reveal the concept that We-Jin’s intellectuals’ practice of the Way lives by. Considering Ji Kang’s experiencing the Way via listening to music, can thus provide a better understanding of the new divine-human discourse from the Wei-Jin period.