Signs from the Unseen Realm: Buddhist Miracle Tales from Early Medieval China

About the Author, Back Cover

About the Author Robert Ford Campany is professor of asian studies and religion at Vanderbilt University. He is co-editor of Early Medieval China: A Sourcebook (columbia University press, in press) and the author of three previous books, including Making Transcendents: Ascetics and Social Memory in Early Medieval China (University of Hawai‘i press, 2009), which won the american academy of Religion award for Excellence in the study of Religion and honorable mention in the association for asian studies Joseph levenson prize competition. Production Notes for Campany / Signs from the Unseen Realm Cover design by Mardee Melton Interior design by Santos Barbasa Jr. Composition by Wanda China with display type in Palatino and text in New Baskerville Printing and Binding by Sheridan Books, Inc. Printed on 60 lb. House Opaque, 500 ppi. ISBN 978-0-8248-3602-3 9 780824 836023 9 0 0 0 0 www.uhpress.hawaii.edu BUDDHISM/CHINESE RELIGION By the same author Winner of the American Academy of Religion Award for Excellence in the Study of Religion MAKING TRANSCENDENTS Ascetics and Social Memory in Early Medieval China 2009, 302 pages Cloth: ISBN 978-0-8248-3333-6 “Campany summarizes scholarship on the sociology of secrecy, recent work on how identity is shaped through culture, and he supplies the best discussion I have read on the problems and explanatory potential of hagiography. The epilogue which addresses the fundamental problems of how we can assess the sincerity and motivations of adepts and the extent to which we can determine from stories about transcendents what really happened, is especially clear and eloquent. In short, this is a book as surprising and rich in detail as the stories that inspired it.” —Journal of Chinese Studies “If one day we arrive at a more profound understanding of the hidden agendas behind so much of Chinese writing, hagiographical as well as historical, Making Transcendents will undoubtedly have played a significant role in that process.” —Journal of Asian Studies “Invaluable for anyone who wishes to understand the phenomenon of sanctity in general and the Chinese cult of xian in particular.” —Religious Studies Review Jacket illustration: This Northern Wei votive image of the Bodhisattva Sound Observer (dated in the inscription on its base to 453 or early 454 CE) possibly resembles one treasured by Wang Yan made around the same time in the south. Source: Freer Gallery of Art, Smithsonian Institution, Washington, D.C.: Gift of Charles Lang Freer, F1909.266. Used by permission. Jacket design by Mardee Melton University of Hawai‘i Press Honolulu, Hawai‘i 96822–1888 ...