“appropriate goals for an asian religions course” 1to attain enlightenment or nirvana or cosmic...
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“Appropriate Goals for an Asian Religions Course”
1 To attain Enlightenment or Nirvana or Cosmic Consciousness.
2 To “try out” a religion different from my own.
3 To learn how to practice Hindu yoga or Buddhist meditation.
4 To learn how to practice Taoist sexual alchemy.
5 To participate in a religious service (such as a puja at the Hindu Temple of San Antonio).
6 To understand better how the world appears to people in Asian cultures.
7 To investigate what all religions have in common, (namely) the belief in God or gods.
8 To see how Asians experience God or “Ultimate Reality.”
9 To find out more about whether God exists or what “Ultimate Reality” is.
10 To discover the true spirituality of the East and thus be able to escape the materialism of the West.
11 To be better able to convert Asians to Christianity, armed with the knowledge of what they believe.
12 To be better able to do business in Asia, armed with the knowledge of what they believe.
13 To find out why Asians were backward and non-progressive, economically and socially, until encountering the West in the past 100-150 years.
14 To understand the differences between Asian Religions and Christianity.
15 To discover why Hindus worship obscene and grotesque idols.
16 To think critically about cultural-religious claims, beliefs, and practices, including my own.
17 To find out more about what it means to be “religious.”
18 To become a better person.
19 To determine whether religion has been a positive force or a negative force in world history.
20 To understand why religious people are terrorists.
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IMPLICATIONS OF PHONETIC VS. PICTOGRAPHIC LANGUAGES
IN CULTURAL EVOLUTION
Classical Languages of India and China
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Oral LanguagesOral Languages Written LanguagesWritten Languages
total (spoken by at least 1,000,000 persons)
India - 461 (32) China – 299 (13) Japan – 15 (2)
Hindi as primary – 21% Mandarin as primary – 70% Japanese as primary – 95%
Sanskrit - phonetic Chinese - pictographic Japanese –
phonetic/pictographic
Linguistic Groups
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Sanskrit
Ǒ¡Û ȣ�Hindi
ϭΩέUrdu
ąđáĊđĒĊĒăBengali
ȡȤ� � �Marāṭhī
ą ĉ Ć đĊÝMalayālaṁ Į m_ ¡E�
Telugu
BUÇģKannada
Ȳè� Ǚ� ȡfrançais
englishespañol
português
italiano
Latin
Sanskrit:The Phonetic Roots of Indic Languages
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Sanskrit (Devanagari)
the 50 aksaras (indestructibles)
Phonetic logic: 14 vowels are first, followed by 36 consonants
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India: An Oral/Aural Culture
primacy of the spoken wordthe living word over the dead letteremphasis on the sound over the meaningbeing in the presence of God(s) and teachers
(darśan)
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The Hindu Tradition: Spatial Dimensions
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Chinese:A Diverse Spoken Language
Chinese dialects
Cantonese and other regional dialects (8 / 13 / 8,000 ?)
"Mandarin" Chinese: the "common" dialect 普通話 (putong hua)
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Written Chinese
Minbei
Hakka
Mandarin
Xiang
CantoneseWu
Minnan
漢字
A Common Written Language
閩南語
粵語
客家話
閩北語
普通話
吳語
湘語
Gan 贛語
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a common written language, regardless of pronunciation
我不會講廣東話 wǒ bù huì jiǎng guǎng dōng huàngo5 m4 sik1 gong2 gwong2 dung1 waa6*2
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Mythical Origins of Written Chinese
Cang Jie 倉頡 (minister to the Yellow
Emperor)
“observing the footprints of birds and beasts”
... 文
culturewritingcivility
discovering “culture” in “cosmos”Sculpted bronze figure, Library of Congress , 1939
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The Pictographic Basis of Chinese Characters
Oracle bones from about 1400 BCE
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Typology of Chinese Characters
1. Pictographs
2. Ideographs
3. Lexigraphs: Meaning-meaning Combinations
4. Phonetic Lexigraphs: Sound-meaning Combinations
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1. Pictographs
日 ri sun/day月 yue moon/month田 tian field口 kou mouth水 shui water人 ren person
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2. Ideographs
上 shang up/above下 xia down/below中 zhong middle/center一 yi one二 er two三 san three凹 ao concave凸 tu convex
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3. Lexigraphs: Meaning-meaning Combinations
日 (sun) + 月 (moon) is 明 (bright)女 (woman) + 子 (child) is 好 (good)乃 (breast) + 子 (child) is 孕 (pregnant)手 (hand) over 目 (eye) is 看 (look)手 (hand) with 手 (hand) is 拜 (worship)人 (person) in the 山 (mountain) is 仙 (immortal)Three 木 (trees) is a 森 (forest)Three 蟲 (insects) in a 血 (bowl) makes 蠱 (poison)
When you die, thousands of bugs stream from your eyes, ears, nose, and mouth! -- especially used by wives and other (bureaucratic) subordinates
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4. Phonetic Lexigraphs: Sound-meaning Combinations
水 (water) + 羊 (yang) is 洋 (ocean)火 (fire) + 登 (deng) is 燈 (lamp)金 (metal) + 同 (tong) is 銅 (copper)雨 (rain) + 允 (yun) is 雲 (cloud)
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Kangxi Zidian 康熙字典
Character Dictionary of the Kangxi Reign
Period (1716)
49,030 characters
Literacy: 2,000University degree: 5,000
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Chinese Romanization
Systems of romanization:
道 老子 莊子 君子 仁 Tao Lao-tzu Chuang-tzu chun-tzu jen
Dao Laozi Zhuangzi jünzi ren
Wade-Giles
Han-yü pin-yin
(representation of a word or language with the Roman [i.e. Latin] alphabet)
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Advantages of a Pictographic System?
in the face of dialectical diversity in the face of geographical extent in the face of temporal/historical scope
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Aural-Spatial vs. Visual-Temporal Orientations
India
Sound3 dimensionalityPresence Seeing and hearing
devanagari (gods as origin of sound)
cultural disunity of a phonetic language system
China
Image2 dimensionalityHistory Textuality
characters (gods as origin of script)
cultural unity of a pictographic language system
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Note: What you need to know for the first exam
General Concepts and Ideas (partial list)
8. de 德 (power, virtue in Confucian sense)9. Tian-ming 天命 (the Mandate of Heaven)10. three obediences (women’s roles)11. xin 信 (reliability, trustworthiness)
Chinese Characters for Recognition (partial list)
1. 禮 (li: rites, propriety) 2. 仁 (ren: co-humanity, benevolence) 3. 孝 (xiao: filial piety) 4. 恕 (shu: reciprocity) 5. 道 (dao: the “Way”)
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Note: What you need to know for the first exam
General Concepts and Ideas (partial list)
8. de 德 (power, virtue in Confucian sense)9. Tian-ming 天命 (the Mandate of Heaven)10. three obediences (women’s roles)11. xin 信 (reliability, trustworthiness)
Chinese Characters for Recognition (partial list)
1. 禮 (li: rites, propriety) 2. 仁 (ren: co-humanity, benevolence) 3. 孝 (xiao: filial piety) 4. 恕 (shu: reciprocity) 5. 道 (dao: the “Way”)
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2 TU 1/21 Defining “Religion”: The Confucian Response
Handout 4: Definitions of “Religion” (in class discussion) Handout 5: The Confucian Tradition (outline) Confucianism: Ethics or Religion? Confucius and his World The Junzi ( 君子 ) as the Confucian Ideal The Religious Dimensions of Confucianism
Li ( 禮 ) as “Rites” and “Propriety”Assignment: R. Nadeau, Asian Religions, ch. 3-4