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Ryan's thread China's True Spiritual Roots has provided an essential focus to help us develop our understanding of ancient Chinese spirituality. He has provided some guidance:
If you wish to comment, also feel free to do so, but please keep your comments on the topic of Chinese, and specifically ancient Chinese, religion/traditions.
Thus, this thread. As we study ancient China, the question arises, "How do we know what we know?" To answer that question, we need to discover the ancient records, documents, manuscripts, etc.
This thread intends to supplement Ryan's focus on religion/traditions by providing a broader scope of overall Chinese history.
(Message edited by Don on November 05, 2009)
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Who is an authority?
(When I first read these paragraphs, I thought of an earlier discussion with Elaine on the topic of experts. On the Thiele thread, she suggested that a person who wants to be respected as a historian should not put on too many hats. Notice how Parker seems to agree with her (1). Also, note how he defines what makes for authoritative work (2).)
EDWARD HARPER PARKER, M.A. (1849-1926)
PROFESSOR OF CHINESE AT THE VICTORIA UNIVERSITY, MANCHESTER.... I regard M. Chavannes as the soundest and most industrious of living sinologists. The religious works of the venerable Paul Hwang (now approaching his 8oth year) are very profound, and of course no European can pretend to his wide capacity for research ; but then he is a priest, and can only publish what his masters, the Jesuits, approve (1); still, he appears to me to be a man of wonderfully clear and honest views, nor have I ever discovered any hiding away of the truth in his writings.
In the same way Dr Legge, whose knowledge of the Chinese classics was unequalled, had always to approach the subject of religion as a missionary, and no doubt as a convinced one ; hence his " detachment " was not complete (1).
No one has done greater general service to sinology, including, indirectly, religious sinology, than the late Dr Bretschneider ; but (as he frequently told me himself) he was largely inspired by Palladius, a student of original texts of vast and retentive memory ; and over and over again he honestly repudiated the "charge" of being a first-hand sinologist. It does not, however, appear to me to matter much whether a man is a blacksmith or a sinologist, so long as he discovers the means and possesses the aptitude for forming and expressing sound opinions on accepted facts, supported by all available evidence (2);...p. x
Parker, E. H. (1905), China and Religion. New York. E. P. Dutton and Company.
http://www.archive.org/details/cu31924023203932
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