Jennifer Eichman has just completed a book manuscript entitled Epistolary Connections: The Spiritual Peregrinations of a Chinese Buddhist Network. Using epistolary sources, the work reconstructs a sixteenth-century network of educated Chinese officials, seeking to understand the milieu in which they created a Buddhist culture. Two of her other projects also examine network relations and Buddhist cultivation practices. One such project, based on fieldwork in Zhengzhou, China, analyzes the Buddhist-inspired work of calligrapher and conceptual artist Zhu Ming (b. 1970), especially his Confinement Series. The other project investigates the autobiographical revelations in the work of the celebrated Ming playwright, Tu Long (1542-1605), whose writings present substantial entries on the definition of spiritual exercises associated with a variety of Inner Alchemical, Chan Buddhist, and Confucian cultivation techniques. Eichman’s research interests include material, cultural, social, and intellectual history of Buddhist and Confucian traditions from the sixteenth-century onward. Her future research will combine network studies with discourse analysis to examine the flow and dissemination of ideas, especially Buddhist sermons.
Image
