Stylometric Analysis of Chinese Buddhist texts - Do different Chinese translations of the Gaṇḍavyūha reflect stylistic features that are typical for their age?

Below we develop a method to determine whether the use of grammatical particles in Chinese Buddhist scriptures is characteristic for the period of their translation. The corpus consists of three different Chinese translations of an early Indian Mahāyāna text from two different periods. We use the results of Principal Component Analysis (PCA) to discern if the samples of texts from different periods cluster together. We found that PCA used on common grammatical particles that exhibit great variance between texts, but occur evenly distributed within the texts, does in this case indeed yield distinctive patterns that distinguish the translations from different time periods. This is relevant for historical Chinese linguistics and Buddhist studies. It allows us to identify grammatical particles the use of which differs between translations from different periods. This in turn is an important basis for further research into Buddhist Hybrid Chinese translation idioms and the better attribution and dating of Chinese Buddhist texts

Adaptive Reuse

The present volume explores a specific aspect of creativity in South Asian systems of knowledge, literature and rituals. Under the heading of “adaptive reuse,” it discusses the relationship between innovation and perpetuation of earlier forms and contents of knowledge and aesthetic expressions within the process of creating new works. Although this relation rarely became the topic of explicit reflections in the South Asian intellectual traditions, it is here investigated by taking a closer look at the treatment of older materials by later authors."Adaptive Reuse" ist ein wichtiges theoretisches Konzept aus dem Bereich der Architektur. Dort bezeichnete es die Verwendung eines teilweise umgebauten Gebäudes zu andern Zwecken als denen seiner ursprünglichen Errichtung. Im vorliegenden Band wird dieses Konzept zum ersten Mal auf ein weiteres Spektrum kulturellen Schaffens übertragen, nämlich auf die Komposition von Texten und auf die Kreation neuer Konzepte und Ritual

Primary Sources and Asian Pasts

This conference volume unites a wide range of scholars from diverse fields in an effort to explore new perspectives and methods in the study of primary sources from the premodern world. It represents the culmination of the ERC's Synergy project Asia Beyond Boundaries, a research consortium of the British Museum, the British Library and the School of Oriental and African Studies, in partnership with Leiden University

The Syntax of Colophons

The present volume focuses on the colophons found in several pothi manuscripts from Central, South and South East Asia. Its contributions discuss the colophons’ defining features, thus exposing their ‘syntax’, focusing particularly on the tracing of recurring patterns. The information extrapolated from colophons is further analysed to obtain a better understanding of these distinct manuscript cultures

A global perspective on mindfulness-based interventions in schools

The practice of mindfulness, which originated in ancient Buddhist philosophy, has gained popularity in secular society through the work of Western researcher Jon Kabat-Zinn. Kabat-Zinn\u27s focus on using mindfulness to help chronically ill patients cope with stress soon expanded into non-clinical areas, including education. Mindfulness-based interventions (MBIs) adapted from Kabat-Zinn’s work, have been utilized in schools since 2005, but there has been a lack of systematic research on the effectiveness of MBIs in classroom settings globally. To address this gap, this critical interpretive synthesis (CIS) study conducted a comprehensive literature review of quantitative and qualitative studies from around the world to examine the types of MBIs utilized in classroom settings and their effects on student outcomes. The review process provided a wide lens on current available literature related to the topic and further allowed for narrowing the focus to include 16 studies reporting specifically on the efficacy of MBIs on student learning, behavior, and emotional well-being, as reported worldwide. The study found that MBIs have a positive impact on these outcomes in school settings globally. However, it also highlights the need for more research on the lasting effects and sustainability of MBIs in schools globally and recommends including evaluators of different categories to improve the representativeness of the results

Pagodas, polities, period and place: a data led exploration of the regional and chronological context of Liao dynasty architecture

The Liao dynasty (907-1125) was a dominant force in the political landscape of East Asia for a period of over two centuries. Despite this, when placed within the framework of Chinese history, the Liao polity and its associated architecture are forced to the periphery. This study aims to re-centre the Liao by exploring the pagodas constructed under this polity within a wider regional and chronological framework. To achieve this end, extant pagodas from China, North Korea, South Korea and Japan were recorded together in a database for the first time. The HEAP (Historical East Asian Pagoda) Database logs the date, location and feature set of each pagoda it contains and provides a means to compare Liao examples to those from other polities, places and periods. Through analysis and visualisations of this data, the Liao are identified as a polity that produced unique pagoda designs and a distinct visual style. While Liao pagodas played a major role in the wider design trends of the period, it is the influence they had at a more local level that may be of most significance, potentially making us rethink the way we frame and construct histories of architecture in China and East Asia

Development and Validation of a Scale of Subjective Well-being for Cambodian Refugees

This is a study of the Subjective Well-Being (SWB) of refugees from Cambodia. A correlational study design composed of questionnaires was used to assess subjective well-being in a Cambodian population in the USA. The purpose of this study was to develop and validate a newly constructed Scale of Subjective Well-Being for Khmer Refugees (SSWB-KR), to be used with Cambodian refugees living in the US. The scale is a 49-item, 4-pt. Likert -Type scale that was administered to a sample of 20 Cambodian refugees in Philadelphia, PA. It was administered along with three other measures, the Satisfaction With Life Scale (SWLS), (Diener, Emmons, Larsen, & Griffin, 1985), the Hopkins Symptom Checklist -25) (HSCL-25) (Mollica, Wyshak, deMameffe, Khuon, & Lavelles, 1987b), the Khmer Acculturation Scale (KAS) (Lim, Heibi, Brislin, & Griffin (2002). A demographics questionnaire was also administered. The SSWB-KR was validated against the Satisfaction With Life Scale (SWLS) (Diener, Emmons, Larsen, & Griffin, 1985). A group of expert informants provided information that was used to create items that were classified under 11 domains of SWB. Correlations were obtained among the above scales. The SSWB-KR achieved significant positive correlations with the SWLS. No relationship was found between the SSWB-KR and the KAS. Results were also obtained for demographics and SWB. The SSWB-KR could be a useful clinical and research tool. Implications for CBT and recommendations for further validation are discussed

Corpus-Based Research on Chinese Language and Linguistics

This volume collects papers presenting corpus-based research on Chinese language and linguistics, from both a synchronic and a diachronic perspective. The contributions cover different fields of linguistics, including syntax and pragmatics, semantics, morphology and the lexicon, sociolinguistics, and corpus building. There is now considerable emphasis on the reliability of linguistic data: the studies presented here are all grounded in the tenet that corpora, intended as collections of naturally occurring texts produced by a variety of speakers/writers, provide a more robust, statistically significant foundation for linguistic analysis. The volume explores not only the potential of using corpora as tools allowing access to authentic language material, but also the challenges involved in corpus interrogation, analysis, and building

1 Folklore and New Media communications: an exploration of Journey to the West, its modern orality and traditional storytelling in contemporary online spaces

This paper is the study of Journey to the West as a medium and cultural commodity rather than merely a novel; one that has been continuously told in one form or another for over a thousand years. I examine the story diachronically, through a media ecology lens, in an effort to understand the story's traditions through temporal synchronic studies. I propose that the study of the book has largely overshadowed the true scope of the story’s cultural importance. I posit that Journey to the West is a medium that should be considered separately from the technologies and media that use it as content. I assert that its components and structural elements are deeply rooted in the Chinese oral tradition, which is reliant on the interplay of orality and literacy. I complete a content analysis of film and television texts to validate this hypothesis. I use the results to identify patterns across the texts that can be explored more deeply across historical texts in the Journey to the West canon. The aim of this analysis is to identify storytelling motifs that can be traced back to the popularised novel and its antecedents. I also look at the discourse surrounding online culture and storytelling relating to the milieu of pre-literate societies, and how modern devices may also mimic elements of storytelling experience in Journey to the West's past. The evidence points to a complex relationship between medium, technology and audience, the investigation of which, I argue, demonstrates culturally contextual episteme within the story. I finally assert that the story and the Monkey King are an environment that is immersive due to the multitude of texts and representations within Chinese culture. This I state, is why the story has such substantive cultural value; it goes almost unnoticed and therefore becomes a powerful medium to tell stories laden with messages that the storyteller wishes to make