CONFUCIUS IN EAST ASIA: CONFUCIANISM’SHISTORY IN CHINA, KOREA, JAPAN, AND VIETNAM. By Jeffrey L. Richey. Key Issues in Asian Studies, 13.Ann Arbor, MI: Association of Asian Studies, 2013.Pp. xvii + 99. $20.06.

Like all volumes in the “Key Issues” series, this booktraces central themes in Asian Studies and presents them ina clear, accessible way for nonspecialists (teachers, under-graduates, etc.) Richey draws on a wealth of scholarship todetail the rise and spread of the rujia (“Confucian tradition”)from Warring States-era China through the rest of East Asia,clearly demonstrating the tradition’s political and culturalinstitutionalization. His concluding chapter, “Confucianismin East Asia Today,” is a particularly good overview of thecontinuing role of Confucianism as a bearer of “Asianvalues” in the contemporary world. It is far too easy toquibble over minor points in a book of this sort (I would haveliked more details on Buddhist–Confucian interaction inTang China), but those of us who teach this sort of materialat the undergraduate level should deeply appreciateRichey’s efforts. Certainly his “Suggestions for FurtherReading,” with its liberal inclusion of URLs alone, make thisbook an excellent resource. Confucius in East Asia is a goodchoice for East Asian history and culture classes, and I planon using it when I next teach my university’s “Introductionto Asian Studies” course—readers of RSR will, I hope, takethat as my strong endorsement.

John M. ThompsonChristopher Newport University

PENTECOSTALISM AND SHAMANISM IN ASIA.Edited by Paul L. Swanson. Nanzan Institute for Religion andCulture, Symposium 16. Nagoya, Japan: Nanzan Institute forReligion and Culture, 2013. Pp. 398. ¥1500.

This volume includes the editor’s introduction plus fivechapters of the Nanzan University Symposium 16 concern-ing Pentecostalism and shamanism in Asia held in January2012. While the discussion of at least the Korean Pentecos-tal situation rehashes many of the previous debates aboutits at least phenomenological similarity with shamanism,another chapter helpfully expands the focus toward KoreanPentecostals in the Japanese context, and a third spotlightsrelatively unknown developments in the Brazilian–Japaneseneopentecostal scene (involving both Brazilian andBrazilian–Japanese im/migrants to Japan). Although theclaim (by one of the authors) that shamanism is an essen-tial feature of basic religiosity universal to humanityis not new, the long middle chapter adopting aninterdisciplinary—sociological, religious studies, andtheological—analysis is brilliant, full of methodologicallysophisticated and insightful reflections. Here Pentecostalvoices are heard most forcefully, even as the author insiststhat this only takes us halfway home, since the question ofwho speaks for shamanism is not yet answered (either inthat chapter or in the rest of the book). The inclusion of one

essay on a Sufi mystic in this volume, even the editoracknowledges as being “a bit anomalous,” although it doesprovide some comparative perspective to the other fourfocused on Pentecostalism. The full volume is in bilingualformat—the English from pp. 1–169 and the Japanese textthrough p. 398—and is available online at the Nanzan Insti-tute website at http://nirc.nanzan-u.ac.jp/en/publications/symposia/pentecosalism-and-shamanism-in-asia/. Those in-terested in Korean and Japanese Pentecostalism will begrateful for this book.

Amos YongRegent University School of Divinity

SEVEN TAOIST MASTERS: A FOLK NOVEL OFCHINA. Translated by Eva Wong. Boston: Shambhala Pub-lications, 1991. Pp. 208. $16.95.

This is a delightful novel of late Ming times, fictionaliz-ing the lives of Wang Che (1112–1170) and his sevenprimary disciples. The unknown author clearly intended toinstruct as well as entertain: didactic monologues introducethe practice of self-cultivation according to Wang’s Ch’üan-chen tradition. Through dedication, sacrifice, and meditativediscipline, the characters overcome various failings andexemplify the process of moral and spiritual maturation. Themodern reader can identify with the spiritual journeys of thecharacters, particularly Ch’iu Ch’ang-ch’un, Ma Tan-yang,and his wife Sun Pu-erh (the novel’s true heroine). Scholarsof Chinese culture will enjoy analyzing the interplay andcreative tensions among the competing value-systems of lateimperial China as focused in “real-life” situations. This bookbelongs in all libraries and will make a stimulating additionto courses in Asian religion.

Russell KirklandMacalester College

BuddhismGONE BEYOND: THE PRAJÑAPARAMITA SUTRAS,“THE ORNAMENT OF CLEAR REALIZATION,” ANDITS COMMENTARIES IN THE TIBETAN KAGYÜTRADITION. Volume 1. Translated and introduced by KarlBrunnhölzl. Tsadra Foundation Series. Ithaca, NY: Snow LionPublications, 2010. Pp. 937; illustrations, charts. Cloth,$54.95.

GONE BEYOND: THE PRAJÑAPARAMITA SUTRAS,“THE ORNAMENT OF CLEAR REALIZATION,” ANDITS COMMENTARIES IN THE TIBETAN KAGYÜTRADITION. Volume 2. Translated and introduced by KarlBrunnhölzl. Tsadra Foundation Series. Ithaca, NY: Snow LionPublications, 2011. Pp. 685; illustrations, charts. Cloth,$44.95.

These two volumes belong to a three-volume pro-ject aiming to present Tibetan commentaries on the

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Abhisamayalam· kara (Ornament of Realizations), a veryimportant Indian Buddhist scholastic treatise that deals withthe details of the Buddhist path. The first two volumesinclude two Kagyüpa commentaries: a complete translationof the Concise Elucidation of the “Abhisamayalam· kara”written by the Fifth Shamarpa Göncho Yenla (1525–1583)and a translation of large sections of the Noble One’s Restingat Ease by the Eighth Karmapa Mikyö Dorje (1507–1554).The choice of Göncho Yenla’s commentary is a judicious one,given its concise overview of the Ornament. Mikyö Dorje’spassages, on the other hand, were selected so as to expandissues that Göncho Yenla treated minimally. Brunnhölzlprovides numerous and ample footnotes that consist essen-tially of translations of Indian and Tibetan authors and pas-sages from Mikyö Dorje’s commentary that do not appear inthe second part of both volumes. These notes reveal thebreadth of his scholarship on the subject: not only its scope(all major commentators of the tradition are referred to), butalso its precision (each issue is given proper consideration),though one wishes for more critical appraisal. The quantityof materials Brunnhölzl makes accessible to English-speaking readers is impressive and unequaled. The thirdpart of each volume contains several appendices with chartsthat are quite valuable given the complexity of the subject(they can serve as references for finding one’s way in thedescription of the Buddhist path) and translations of supple-mentary texts (other small Kagyüpa texts more or lessrelated to the Ornament, and biographies). Translations ofprimary texts are too often sidestepped for secondarystudies in Buddhist scholarship; hence Brunnhölzl’s workshould be celebrated and encouraged. However, the volumeswould have benefited from more historical and philosophicalcontextualization, especially given the obscurity of thesubject matter. The Ornament is already one of the mosttechnical treatises on the Buddhist path. Moreover, thetwo translated commentaries are rather late, being writtenafter and shaped by centuries of debates. Without a properscholastic background, it is to be feared that nonspecialistswill either miss the point of the issues addressed by thecommentators or find these issues tedious and hollow.The introduction (in Volume 1), despite its length and itswelcome clarification of some issues (such as the particularMadhyamika interpretation of the commentaries), onlyresponds partly to such concerns. The footnotes are some-times of little help because they are expressed in exactly thesame scholastic idiom as the commentaries, since they arethemselves translations of other commentaries. Reformulat-ing the issues at stake with proper, maybe more familiarphilosophical or historical, terminology would have helpedto soften the inherent strangeness of the texts. However,Brunnhölzl’s remarkable work remains a stunning achieve-ment and can serve as an encyclopedic reference to manypoints of the Buddhist doctrine as seen through the eyes oftwo sixteenth-century Tibetan authors.

Pierre-Julien HarterUniversity of Chicago

GROUNDLESS PATHS: THE PRAJÑAPARAMITASUTRAS, “THE ORNAMENT OF CLEAR REALIZA-TION”, AND ITS COMMENTARIES IN THETIBETAN NYINGMA TRADITION. Translated andintroduced by Karl Brunnhölzl. Tsadra Foundation Series.Ithaca, NY: Snow Lion Publications, 2012. Pp. 893; illustra-tions, charts. Cloth, $54.95.

This is the third and last volume of the series dedicatedto Tibetan commentaries on the Ornament of Realizations. Itpresents translations of works belonging to the Nyingmapaschool, essentially two commentaries by Dza PatrulRinpoche (1808–1887), a famous figure of the nonsectarianmovement of Tibetan Buddhism. As in the first two volumes,Brunnhölzl provides often impressive and lengthy footnotesthat compare Patrul’s commentaries with other Nyingmapacommentaries or with the commentary of the great Tibetanreformer Tsongkhapa (1359–1419). Indeed Brunnhölzldemonstrates that Patrul’s commentaries consist almostentirely of literal or abridged passages from Tsongkhapa’swork. Consequently, one cannot help but wonder how“Nyingmapa” Patrul’s commentaries are, and why Brunn-hölzl chose to translate those over other, more originalNyingmapa commentaries that he alludes to. Translationsare given priority again in this volume, and the introductionis reduced to a few considerations regarding chiefly the rela-tionship between Patrul’s and Tsongkhapa’s texts. There isno doubt that making these texts accessible in translation isa much needed and commendable achievement, but onewould have found it helpful had he provided historical andphilosophical explanations of particular passages and of thereasons that motivated Patrul Rinpoche (who has a reputa-tion for privileging practical over scholastic approaches) toundertake the task of commenting upon such a technicaltreatise. Brunnhölzl adds useful appendixes includingsupplementary texts by Patrul. Readers already familiarwith Buddhist literature should especially notice this thirdvolume, that reveals so pointedly Patrul’s originality andpersonal voice.

Pierre-Julien HarterUniversity of Chicago

MEDITATION IN MODERN BUDDHISM: RENUN-CIATION AND CHANGE IN THAI MONASTIC LIFE.By Joanna Cook. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press,2010. Pp. 224. Cloth, $95.00; ebook, $75.00.

Two main interrelated arguments run through Cook’sanalysis of meditation in Thai Buddhism: tensions betweenthe individual and the social in meditation practice; and thechanging religious roles of women. Her work is based onsignificant ethnographic fieldwork at Wat Bonamron inChiang Mai, a year of which she spent ordained as a maechee (“nuns” who receive only partial ordination). Shehighlights the growing interest in vipassana meditation inThailand, showing how the sangha not only practices medi-tation, but teaches it to the laity in a process she labels the

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“monasticization of the laity.” In particular, the mae cheebecome mediators between the laity and the fully ordainedsangha. At Wat Bonamron, the mae chee take on religiousmonastic roles usually denied to women as meditationpractitioners and teachers, while remaining hierarchicallyinferior to monks. Drawing critically from Mauss, Dumont,and Carrithers, Cook offers insight into the interplaybetween the personal and the social aspects of meditationpractice, such as the relationships between mae chee,monks, and laity. Cook’s theoretical analysis of the evolu-tion of religious practice is richly supported through thedepth and clarity of her presentation of how people learnand practice meditation, and how they negotiate a complexsocial world that enables renunciates to work towardsenlightenment. She offers a new analysis of how religion—in both its interior and exterior experiences—changes inresponse to the modern world, an analysis well worthreading and pondering.

Susan M. DarlingtonHampshire College

BEYOND MEDITATION: EXPRESSIONS OF JAPA-NESE SHIN SPIRITUALITY. Edited by Michael Pye.London: Equinox, 2011. Pp. xviii + 307. $34.95.

This book is a collection of essays that originallyappeared in The Eastern Buddhist that focuses on the prac-tice of nembutsu or “Buddha reflection” as articulated by theclassical teachers of Japanese Pure Land Buddhism (HonenShonin, Ippen Shonin, Shinran Shonin, Rennyo Shonin). Italso describes the roots of Shin Buddhism within the widercontexts of Mahayana Buddhism, as well as the relevance ofShin Buddhist teachings and practices in the contemporaryworld. Written at a time when Western scholarly andpopular focus was on Japanese Zen during the fist sixtyyears of the twentieth century, the essays gathered into thisanthology laid the foundations for the scholarly study ofPure Land Buddhist tradition that is still ongoing. Anyoneengaged in research on Buddhism in general and Pure LandBuddhism in particular will find the essays gathered in thisvolume an excellent starting point.

Paul O. IngramPacific Lutheran University (Emeritus)

BUDDHIST NUNS AND GENDERED PRACTICE:IN SEARCH OF THE FEMALE RENUNCIANT. ByNirmala S. Salgado. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2013.Pp. ix + 319. $35.00.

Salgado’s thesis is that the renunciant narratives of Bud-dhist nuns are misinterpreted and misunderstood whenplaced, as they usually are, within a theoretical framework ofliberal feminist methodologies. She calls into question howthe subject of the “female renunciant,” that is, “Buddhistnuns”—at least in Theravada traditions and other traditionsof Buddhism—is conceptualized through cross-culturalcomparisons and embodied in concepts and philosophical

assumptions foreign to the actual experiences of Theravadawomen who enter the Samgha as Theravada nuns. At theheart of her thesis is her questioning of the conceptionsof the post-Christian vocabulary of secular modernityassumed by liberal feminist translations, and interpreta-tions of the history and practices of Buddhist nuns thatactually falsify the experiences of Buddhist nuns. She con-cludes that the actual renunciant experiences of Theravadanuns are not easily comparable to those of Tibetan orMahayana nuns. That is, the renunciant experiences of Bud-dhist nuns are pluralistic structures of existence. Salgado’sbook is a good corrective to much scholarship on the prac-tices and lives of Buddhist nuns, particularly in Sri Lanka,and therefore deserves serious attention by all scholars ofBuddhism.

Paul O. IngramPacific Lutheran University (Emeritus)

MAKING SENSE OF TANTRIC BUDDHISM:HISTORY, SEMIOLOGY, AND TRANSGRESSION INTHE INDIAN TRADITIONS. By Christian Wedemeyer.South Asia Across the Disciplines Series. New York: Colum-bia University Press, 2013. Pp. 313. Cloth, $50.00; paper,$26.00.

Wedemeyer’s Making Sense of Tantric Buddhism, despiteits inviting title, is no simple overview or introduction.Indeed, it complicates the very idea of the ways in whichscholars of the history of religions have attempted to makesense of Tantric Buddhism. In this way, it is a refreshingguide to the historiography of Tantric Buddhism as much asan explanation of the major texts, ritual complexities, andcommentaries of the (mostly) Indian traditions. Wedemeyerbegins with a short, but very convincing argument againstthe seeking of “origins” when beginning to study TantricBuddhism. It is a good lesson for students and scholarsengaged in the study of any religious tradition and I planto make it standard reading for graduate students in mydepartment (most of whom study Early Christianity, Islam,and Judaism). From there, he provides an overview of theway Tantric Buddhism has been studied by historians, butnot just by Western scholars. He looks closely at the indig-enous historiographical narratives as well. The heart of thebook is his turn towards the “semiology of transgression,”where he draws upon Saussure, Hjelmslev, and Barthes toexamine the literal and figural in antinomian (and oftenshockingly bizarre!) practices of Tantra. This model of con-notative semiotics helps, Wedemeyer emphasizes, discernthe “structuring principles that inform discourses . . . thatseem on the surface to be about something else.” He returnsto this approach in his conclusion that answers the questionevery teacher of Tantric Buddhist traditions in the West getsfrom her/his students: “But did they really do it?” Along theway he clears up some basic misunderstandings about thedifferences between marginal and central practices, lay/amateur and ordained/expert practitioners, and esoteric and

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mainstream traditions. Moving back and forth between astudy of the history and practices of Indian Tantric Bud-dhism and a critical appraisal of the way Tantric Buddhismhas been studied by scholars, Wedemeyer not only providesan advanced introduction, but also makes the reader ques-

tion the assumptions (and almost everyone has assumptionsabout Tantra!) they bring to and expect of the study ofTantric Buddhism. Highly recommended.

Justin Thomas McDanielUniversity of Pennsylvania

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