Harvard Daoist Studies Symposium: The Body, Gender, and Self-cultivation in Daoism
S030, Doris and Ted Lee Gathering Room, CGIS South, Harvard University, 1730 Cambridge Street, Cambridge.
This
two-day symposium aims to bring in several of the world’s leading
experts in the study of Daoism to focus on the topic of body, gender,
and self-cultivation in Daoism. This topic is a fertile ground for
research, especially because Daoism at most stages of its development
envisioned spiritual perfection as inextricably bound with the physical
body, and because attitudes towards gender in many Daoist communities
were complex and could differ in significant ways from those found in
other Chinese sources. The nexus of body, gender, and self-cultivation,
therefore, makes for an exceptionally productive and exciting theme to
explore in a sustained way through a series of talks and extensive
discussions.
Thursday, April 25
9:00 a.m. - 9:15 a.m.
Introductory Remarks
9:15 a.m. - 10:45 a.m.
Panel 1
Medicines, Meridians, and Meditation
Chair:
James Robson
(Harvard)
Michael Stanley-Baker
(Nanyang
Technical College), “
The Medicalizationof Chinese Religion: The Han
Watershed, the Rise of Religions of Personal Salvation, and how Embodied
Practices Came to Figure Spiritual Status in Chinese Religions
”
Kato Chie
(Rikkyo University), “
A Study on the Connection Between the Ren Du Meridian System and Internal Alchemy
” 任脈督脈と内丹との結合についての一考察
10:45 a.m. - 11:00 a.m.
Coffee Break
11:00 a.m. - 12:30 p.m.
Panel 2
Daoism and Buddhism
Chair:
James Robson
(Harvard)
Stephen R. Bokenkamp
(Arizona State University), “
Buddhism in the Declarations of the Perfected
”《真誥》中的剪輯痕跡
Gil Raz
(Dartmouth College), “
Traces of the Way: Memory and Transformation in Daoist Jataka Tales
”
12:30 p.m. - 1:30 p.m.
Lunch for participants
1:30 p.m. - 3:30 p.m.
Panel 3
The Body and Gender: Internal Alchemy and Female Alchemy
Chair:
James Robson
(Harvard)
Dominic Steavu
(University of California at Santa Barbara), “
What Do Divine Embryos
and Mushrooms Have in Common? Some Reflections on the Virtues of
Self-Reproduction in Daoism
”
Sasha Makarova
(Harvard), "
Bodily Formation and Female Impurity: Placenta as the Source of Mortality in Shangqing Texts.
"
Elena Valussi
(Loyola University Chicago), “
Resistant Fleshiness: Gender, Body, and Transcendence in Daoist Self-cultivation
”
Friday, April 26
9:30 a.m. - 11:00 a.m.
Panel 4
The Daoist Master Between This World and the Other World
Chair:
Michael Puett
(Harvard)
David J. Mozina
(Center for the Study of World Religions, Harvard University), “
Transcorporeal Bodies and the Chthonic Realm of Fengdu
