“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.

IMPLICATIONS OF PHONETIC VS. PICTOGRAPHIC LANGUAGES

IN CULTURAL EVOLUTION

Classical Languages of India and China

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

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

Sanskrit (Devanagari)

the 50 aksaras (indestructibles)

Phonetic logic: 14 vowels are first, followed by 36 consonants

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)

 

The Hindu Tradition: Spatial Dimensions

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)

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

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

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

The Pictographic Basis of Chinese Characters

Oracle bones from about 1400 BCE

Typology of Chinese Characters

1. Pictographs

2. Ideographs

3. Lexigraphs: Meaning-meaning Combinations

4. Phonetic Lexigraphs: Sound-meaning Combinations

1. Pictographs

日 ri sun/day月 yue moon/month田 tian field口 kou mouth水 shui water人 ren person

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

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

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)

Kangxi Zidian 康熙字典

Character Dictionary of the Kangxi Reign

Period (1716)

49,030 characters

Literacy: 2,000University degree: 5,000

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)

Advantages of a Pictographic System?

in the face of dialectical diversity in the face of geographical extent in the face of temporal/historical scope

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

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”)                                                         

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”)                                                         

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