On September 29, 2024, the USC U.S.-China Institute hosted a workshop at the Huntington’s Chinese garden, offering K-12 educators hands-on insights into using the garden as a teaching tool. With expert presentations, a guided tour, and new resources, the event explored how Chinese gardens' rich history and cultural significance can be integrated into classrooms. Interested in learning more? Click below for details on the workshop and upcoming programs for educators.
Signs from the Unseen Realm (Mingxiang ji): A Collection of Buddhist Miracle Tales from Early Medieval China
The UCLA Center for Buddhist Studies presents a talk by Robert Campany on the Buddhist miracle tales.
Where
A Numata Colloquium Series talk by Professor Robert Campany, USC
Just prior to 500 C.E., scholar-official Wang Yan compiled and circulated a collection of Buddhist miracle tales titled Mingxiang ji 冥祥記 or Signs from the Unseen Realm. Around 130 tales from this once much larger text, plus Wang’s preface, survive. In this talk he will first introduce the text and the larger miracle-tale genre to which it belongs. He will then offer remarks on selected themes in the text that are of interest to historians of Buddhism, Chinese religions, and comparative religions. One of these themes will be the relation, in general, between miracle tales and the social and religious networks that produce them. Another will be the extent to which Mingxiang ji exemplifies the “sinification” of Buddhism—and what this might mean.
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