This talk is co-sponsored by the Religion Department. It is open to the public. This is a hybrid event. If you cannot make it in person, you can also participate through Zoom. To participate through Zoom, please click here to register.

Description

Travel diaries written by Song literati provide precious materials for understanding the society and the culture at that time. They also include many descriptions of Daoism, Buddhism, and popular religions that the literati witnessed in their travels. 

This talk focuses on the travel diaries written by Zhou Bida (1126～1204). He visited a lot of Daoist sacred sites and Daoist abbeys from the Longxing era to the Qiandao era (1163-1172) and recorded the facilities of Daoist abbeys, the landscape of Daoist sacred sites, the intercourse with Daoist priests. His descriptions of Daoism are more detailed than the famous travel diaries of Lu You and Fan Chengda. I will explain the works by Zhou have high value as sources of Daoist study.

Bio

Norifumi Sakai is an Associate Professor at Keio University, Japan. His research interests include Daoist rituals, Daoist abbeys, and Daoist sacred sites from Song to Ming China. He has published several academic articles, including Localization of Daoist Thunder Rites (2012), Hereditary Abbot system of Daoist Abbey in Song and Yuan China (2016), and Daoist Sacred Sites and Daoist Abbeys in Travel Records in Song China (2021). During his stay at the Harvard-Yenching Institute, he will research Daoist liturgical manuals in the collection of the Harvard-Yenching Library and conduct a comparative study of pre-modern and modern Daoist Rituals. This research is an extension and development of his previous research focus.