Abstract
In medieval China, this article demonstrates, nearly all forms of seals and sealing—both physical and metaphorical—w ere translated to use in religious practice: tropes of identity and material transmission; multiple styles of wearing and impressing seals; and the many forms of physical matrix and impression. This article focuses on the place of seals within Buddhism in China, especially within a broad family of localized ritual practices centring on incantations, amulets, and other ritual techniques and objects. Reflecting Buddhism’s history there more generally, its uses of seals were amalgams of local Chinese and imported Indic and Central Asian practices.
Recommended Citation
Copp, Paul
(2018)
"Seals as Conceptual and Ritual Tools in Chinese Buddhism, ca. 600-1000 CE,"
The Medieval Globe: Vol. 4:
No.
1, Article 3.
Available at:
https://scholarworks.wmich.edu/tmg/vol4/iss1/3