{"title":"Robert Ford Campany","description":null,"products":[{"product_id":"dreaming-and-self-cultivation-in-china-300-bce800-ce-book-robert-ford-campany-9780674293731","title":"Dreaming and Self-Cultivation in China, 300 BCE800 CE","description":"In Dreaming and Self-Cultivation in China, 300 BCE800 CE, Robert Ford Campany examines how dreaming was addressed in texts produced and circulated by practitioners of Daoist, Buddhist, Confucian, and other self-cultivational disciplines. He uncovers paradigms by which dreams are viewed and shows how they underlay diverse religious texts.","brand":"WoB","offers":[{"title":"GB \/ NEW \/ GARDNERS","offer_id":49745363304721,"sku":"NGR9780674293731","price":0.0,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":false}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0784\/4072\/6801\/files\/0674293738.jpg?v=1751167828"},{"product_id":"dreaming-and-self-cultivation-in-china-300-bce800-ce-book-robert-ford-campany-9780674293724","title":"Dreaming and Self-Cultivation in China, 300 BCE800 CE","description":"In Dreaming and Self-Cultivation in China, 300 BCE800 CE, Robert Ford Campany examines how dreaming was addressed in texts produced and circulated by practitioners of Daoist, Buddhist, Confucian, and other self-cultivational disciplines. He uncovers paradigms by which dreams are viewed and shows how they underlay diverse religious texts.","brand":"WoB","offers":[{"title":"GB \/ NEW \/ GARDNERS","offer_id":49745465344273,"sku":"NGR9780674293724","price":0.0,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0784\/4072\/6801\/files\/067429372X.jpg?v=1750944746"},{"product_id":"making-transcendents-book-robert-ford-campany-9780824867461","title":"Making Transcendents","description":"By the middle of the third century B.C.E. in China there were individuals who sought to become transcendents (xian)—deathless, godlike beings endowed with supernormal powers. This quest for transcendence became a major form of religious expression and helped lay the foundation on which the first Daoist religion was built. Both xian and those who aspired to this exalted status in the centuries leading up to 350 C.E. have traditionally been portrayed as secretive and hermit-like figures. This groundbreaking study offers a very different view of xian-seekers in late classical and early medieval China. It suggests that transcendence did not involve a withdrawal from society but rather should be seen as a religious role situated among other social roles and conceived in contrast to them. Robert Campany argues that the much-discussed secrecy surrounding ascetic disciplines was actually one important way in which practitioners presented themselves to others. He contends, moreover, that many adepts were not socially isolated at all but were much sought after for their power to heal the sick, divine the future, and narrate their exotic experiences.  The book moves from a description of the roles of xian and xian-seekers to an account of how individuals filled these roles, whether by their own agency or by others’—or, often, by both. Campany summarizes the repertoire of features that constituted xian roles and presents a detailed example of what analyses of those cultural repertoires look like. He charts the functions of a basic dialectic in the self-presentations of adepts and examines their narratives and relations with others, including family members and officials. Finally, he looks at hagiographies as attempts to persuade readers as to the identities and reputations of past individuals. His interpretation of these stories allows us to see how reputations were shaped and even co-opted—sometimes quite surprisingly—into the ranks of xian.  Making Transcendents provides a nuanced discussion that draws on a sophisticated grasp of diverse theoretical sources while being thoroughly grounded in traditional Chinese hagiographical, historiographical, and scriptural texts. The picture it presents of the quest for transcendence as a social phenomenon in early medieval China is original and provocative, as is the paradigm it offers for understanding the roles of holy persons in other societies.","brand":"WoB","offers":[{"title":"US \/ GOOD \/ SBYB","offer_id":50246976012561,"sku":"CIN0824867467G","price":0.0,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":false}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0784\/4072\/6801\/files\/0824867467.jpg?v=1761388905"},{"product_id":"strange-writing-book-robert-ford-campany-9780791426609","title":"Strange Writing","description":"Between the Han dynasty, founded in 206 B.C.E., and the Sui, which ended in 618 C.E., Chinese authors wrote many thousands of short textual items, each of which narrated or described some phenomenon deemed \"strange.\" Most items told of encounters between humans and various denizens of the spirit-world, or of the miraculous feats of masters of esoteric arts; some described the wonders of exotic lands, or transmitted fragments of ancient mythology. This genre of writing came to be known as zhiguai (\"accounts of anomalies\").  Who were the authors of these books, and why did they write of these \"strange\" matters? Why was such writing seen as a compelling thing to do? In this book, the first comprehensive study in a Western language of the zhiguai genre in its formative period, Campany sets forth a new view of the nature of the genre and the reasons for its emergence. He shows that contemporaries portrayed it as an extension of old royal and imperial traditions in which strange reports from the periphery were collected in the capital as a way of ordering the world. He illuminates how authors writing from most of the religious and cultural perspectives of the times—including Daoists, Buddhists, Confucians, and others—used the genre differently for their own persuasive purposes, in the process fundamentally altering the old traditions of anomaly-collecting. Analyzing the \"accounts of anomalies\" both in the context of Chinese religious and cultural history and as examples of a cross-culturally attested type of discourse, Campany combines in-depth Sinological research with broad-ranging comparative thinking in his approach to these puzzling, rich texts.","brand":"WoB","offers":[{"title":"US \/ VERY_GOOD \/ SBYB","offer_id":50306591523089,"sku":"CIN0791426602VG","price":0.0,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":false},{"title":"GB \/ NEW \/ INGRAM","offer_id":53213310320913,"sku":"NLS9780791426609","price":0.0,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":false}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0784\/4072\/6801\/files\/0791426602.jpg?v=1751264634"},{"product_id":"chinese-dreamscape-300-bce-800-ce-book-robert-campany-9780674247796","title":"The Chinese Dreamscape, 300 BCE-800 CE","description":"The Chinese Dreamscape, 300 BCE-800 CE investigates what dreams meant in late classical and early medieval China. Mapping a common dreamscape that underlies manuals of dream interpretation, scriptural instructions, and other texts, Robert Ford Campany sheds light on how people in a distant age wrestled with-and celebrated-the strangeness of dreams.","brand":"WoB","offers":[{"title":"US \/ GOOD \/ SBYB","offer_id":50359118430481,"sku":"CIN0674247795G","price":0.0,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":false}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0784\/4072\/6801\/files\/0674247795.jpg?v=1750911988"},{"product_id":"chinese-dreamscape-300-bce-800-ce-book-robert-ford-campany-9780674247802","title":"The Chinese Dreamscape, 300 BCE-800 CE","description":"The Chinese Dreamscape, 300 BCE-800 CE investigates what dreams meant in late classical and early medieval China. Mapping a common dreamscape that underlies manuals of dream interpretation, scriptural instructions, and other texts, Robert Ford Campany sheds light on how people in a distant age wrestled with-and celebrated-the strangeness of dreams.","brand":"WoB","offers":[{"title":"- \/ - \/ INTERNAL","offer_id":52888701665553,"sku":null,"price":0.0,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":true},{"title":"US \/ GOOD \/ SBYB","offer_id":52888703041809,"sku":"CIN0674247809G","price":0.0,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":false}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0784\/4072\/6801\/files\/9780674247802.jpg?v=1765472061"},{"product_id":"strange-writing-book-robert-ford-campany-9780791426593","title":"Strange Writing","description":"The first comprehensive, Western-language study of the important Chinese genre of writing known as \"accounts of the anomalies\" (zhiguai) in its formative period. The book sets forth a new view of the nature and origins of the genre  Between the Han dynasty, founded in 206 B.C.E., and the Sui, which ended in 618 C.E., Chinese authors wrote many thousands of short textual items, each of which narrated or described some phenomenon deemed \"strange.\" Most items told of encounters between humans and various denizens of the spirit-world, or of the miraculous feats of masters of esoteric arts; some described the wonders of exotic lands, or transmitted fragments of ancient mythology. This genre of writing came to be known as zhiguai (\"accounts of anomalies\").  Who were the authors of these books, and why did they write of these \"strange\" matters? Why was such writing seen as a compelling thing to do? In this book, the first comprehensive study in a Western language of the zhiguai genre in its formative period, Campany sets forth a new view of the nature of the genre and the reasons for its emergence. He shows that contemporaries portrayed it as an extension of old royal and imperial traditions in which strange reports from the periphery were collected in the capital as a way of ordering the world. He illuminates how authors writing from most of the religious and cultural perspectives of the times-including Daoists, Buddhists, Confucians, and others-used the genre differently for their own persuasive purposes, in the process fundamentally altering the old traditions of anomaly-collecting. Analyzing the \"accounts of anomalies\" both in the context of Chinese religious and cultural history and as examples of a cross-culturally attested type of discourse, Campany combines in-depth Sinological research with broad-ranging comparative thinking in his approach to these puzzling, rich texts.","brand":"WoB","offers":[{"title":"- \/ - \/ INTERNAL","offer_id":53213310681361,"sku":null,"price":0.0,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":true},{"title":"GB \/ NEW \/ INGRAM","offer_id":53213310845201,"sku":"NLS9780791426593","price":0.0,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":false}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0784\/4072\/6801\/files\/9780791426593.jpg?v=1772754246"},{"product_id":"signs-from-the-unseen-realm-book-robert-ford-campany-9780824896829","title":"Signs from the Unseen Realm","description":"In early medieval China hundreds of Buddhist miracle texts were circulated, inaugurating a trend that would continue for centuries. Each tale recounted extraordinary events involving Chinese persons and places—events seen as verifying claims made in Buddhist scriptures, demonstrating the reality of karmic retribution, or confirming the efficacy of Buddhist devotional practices. Robert Ford Campany, one of North America’s preeminent scholars of Chinese religion, presents in this volume the first complete, annotated translation, with in-depth commentary, of the largest extant collection of miracle tales from the early medieval period, Wang Yan’s Records of Signs from the Unseen Realm, compiled around 490 C.E.  In addition to the translation, Campany provides a substantial study of the text and its author in their historical and religious settings. He shows how these lively tales helped integrate Buddhism into Chinese society at the same time that they served as platforms for religious contestation and persuasion. Campany offers a nuanced, clear methodological discussion of how such narratives, being products of social memory, may be read as valuable evidence for the history of religion and culture.  Readers interested in Buddhism; historians of Chinese religions, culture, society, and literature; scholars of comparative religion: All will find Signs from the Unseen Realm a stimulating and rich contribution to scholarship.","brand":"WoB","offers":[{"title":"GB \/ NEW \/ GARDNERS","offer_id":53484148064529,"sku":"NGR9780824896829","price":0.0,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":false}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0784\/4072\/6801\/files\/9780824896829.jpg?v=1777620547"},{"product_id":"traditions-of-exemplary-transcendents-by-liu-xiang-798-bce-book-robert-ford-campany-9783112236871","title":"Traditions of Exemplary Transcendents by Liu Xiang (79–8 BCE)","description":"By the middle of the third century BCE, some people in China had begun to imagine it possible to employ esoteric methods to refashion themselves into posthuman beings with spirit-like capabilities, enhanced bodies, and greatly extended lifespans. Such beings were termed transcendents (xian 仙). Traditions of Exemplary Transcendents (Liexian zhuan 列仙傳), attributed to the imperial bibliographer Liu Xiang 劉向 (79-8 BCE), is the earliest extant collection of colorful stories about such figures. This volume makes available a critical edition and the first complete, annotated English translation of a text preserving some of the earliest mentions of alchemical, dietary, and medicinal methods of self-cultivation that later became standard in transcendence-seekers’ repertoire of practices. Through this work we can already glimpse the sorts of engagements with local communities that made the quest for transcendence a matter of keen interest not just to practitioners themselves but to many in Chinese society for centuries thereafter.","brand":"WoB","offers":[{"title":"GB \/ NEW \/ GARDNERS","offer_id":53606354419985,"sku":"NGR9783112236871","price":0.0,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":false},{"title":"US \/ NEW \/ INGRAM","offer_id":53657313542417,"sku":"NIN9783112236871","price":0.0,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0784\/4072\/6801\/files\/9783112236871.jpg?v=1780039723"}],"url":"https:\/\/www.worldofbooks.com\/collections\/author-books-by-robert-ford-campany.oembed","provider":"World of Books ","version":"1.0","type":"link"}