Buddhism, Medicine and Gender in 10th-16th century Japan: toward a transcultural history of women's health in premodern East Asia

10-16世纪日本的佛教、医学和性别：前现代东亚女性健康的跨文化史

• 批准号: 329397061
• 负责人: Dr. Anna Andreeva
• 金额: --
• 依托单位: Exzellenzcluster "Asia and Europe in a Global Context" (aufgelöst)
• 依托单位国家: 德国
• 项目类别: Research Grants
• 财政年份: 2016
• 资助国家: 德国
• 起止时间: 2015-12-31 至 2021-12-31
• 项目状态: 已结题
• 来源: https://gepris.dfg.de/gepris/projekt/329397061?language=en
• 关键词: Buddhism; Medicine; Gender; 10th; 16th

This project investigates the impact of Buddhist concepts, theories, and practices on the formation of knowledge about women’s bodies and women’s health in medieval Japan. Its aim is, for the first time, to write a cultural history of childbirth as seen through the Buddhist manuscripts from Japanese temple archives, which cast new light on the histories of knowledge, medicine, and gender. Forming the basis for a second book, the project analyses the primary source materials that were previously not considered significant by the historians of East Asia who so far tended to privilege Chinese medical sources. The project rectifies this problem by considering the Japanese primary sources against the background of transcultural flows of Buddhist and medical knowledge from India, China, and Korea that brought with them Buddhist scriptures and medical texts as well as ritual technologies focusing on risk control, divination, longevity, and talisman-writing. It is proposed that these flows shaped the spheres of medico-religious knowledge about women’s bodies in medieval Japan. This project thus clarifies how heterogeneous types of knowledge with regard to healing, materia medica, calculation of risks, and ritual technologies focusing on the reproductive health of women were adopted and further developed by Japanese Buddhist scholar-monks, and how such Buddhist expertise was used in the historical, political, and economic settings of pre-1600 Japan. A particularly important objective of this project is to find, transcribe, transliterate, and historically contextualise the medieval manuscripts preserved in Buddhist temples of esoteric persuasion, particularly those specialising in Shingon, Tendai, and Zen teachings, and to cast light on their historic position vis-a-vis classic Indian Abhidharmic and Yogācāra teachings as those were understood in premodern East Asia, primarily through Chinese Buddhist translations. More broadly, the project brings to the fore the multiple strategies of forecasting and risk management developed by the Buddhist monks, physicians, and diviners for the benefit of noble women from the imperial court, elite warrior and shogunal families, and later, non-elite women. As a result, this project elucidates the complex historical, religious, and cultural factors that defined the concepts of womanhood in medieval Japan.

本课题研究佛教的观念、理论和实践对中世纪日本女性身体和女性健康知识形成的影响。其目的是首次通过日本寺庙档案中的佛教手稿撰写分娩的文化史，为知识、医学和性别的历史提供新的视角。作为第二本书的基础，该项目分析了东亚历史学家以前认为不重要的主要来源材料，迄今为止，他们倾向于优先考虑中国医学来源。该项目纠正了这一问题，将日本的主要来源放在来自印度、中国和韩国的佛教和医学知识的跨文化流动的背景下，这些知识带来了佛教经典和医学文本，以及专注于风险控制、占卜、长寿和护身符书写的仪式技术。有人建议，这些流量塑造了中世纪日本妇女的身体的医学宗教知识领域。因此，本项目阐明了日本佛教僧侣如何采用并进一步发展关于治疗、药物、风险计算和注重妇女生殖健康的仪式技术的各种知识，以及这些佛教专业知识如何用于1600年前日本的历史、政治和经济背景。这个项目的一个特别重要的目标是寻找、转录、翻译和历史地分析保存在佛教寺庙中的中世纪手稿，这些寺庙具有深奥的说服力，特别是那些专门研究真言、天台宗和禅宗教义的寺庙，并阐明它们相对于前现代东亚所理解维斯经典印度阿毗达罗和瑜伽的历史地位。主要是通过中国佛教翻译。更广泛地说，该项目突出了佛教僧侣、医生和占卜师为皇室贵族妇女、精英武士和幕府家族以及后来的非精英妇女制定的预测和风险管理的多种战略。因此，这个项目阐明了复杂的历史，宗教和文化因素，定义了妇女在中世纪日本的概念。