Kings of Oxen and Horses: Draft Animals, Buddhism, and Chinese Rural Religion by Shahar, Meir
Kings of Oxen and Horses: Draft Animals, Buddhism, and Chinese Rural Religion by Shahar, Meir

Kings of Oxen and Horses: Draft Animals, Buddhism, and Chinese Rural Religion

For centuries in China, people beseeched deities to protect the draft animals on which they relied. Across...
€89,22 EUR
€89,22 EUR
SKU: 9780231218290
Product Type: Books
Please hurry! Only 627 left in stock
Author: Meir Shahar
Format: Paperback
Language: English
Subtotal: €89,22
Kings of Oxen and Horses: Draft Animals, Buddhism, and Chinese Rural Religion by Shahar, Meir

Kings of Oxen and Horses: Draft Animals, Buddhism, and Chinese Rural Religion

€89,22
Kings of Oxen and Horses: Draft Animals, Buddhism, and Chinese Rural Religion by Shahar, Meir

Kings of Oxen and Horses: Draft Animals, Buddhism, and Chinese Rural Religion

€89,22
Author: Meir Shahar
Format: Paperback
Language: English
Description

For centuries in China, people beseeched deities to protect the draft animals on which they relied. Across social classes--from peasants plowing the fields to merchants transporting goods through soldiers riding into battle--animals were essential to daily life and so took on a central place in the religious imagination. Prayers and rituals for animal well-being were most frequently addressed to the Horse King, divine protector of horses, donkeys, and mules, or the Ox King, who watched over oxen and buffaloes.

Kings of Oxen and Horses is a history of these two gods: their myths, their rituals, and their worshipers. It examines the place of draft animals in Chinese and Buddhist religious traditions and, in so doing, sheds new light on human interaction with nonhuman animals more broadly. Meir Shahar traces the history of the Horse and Ox Kings from late imperial China back to ancient India, revealing the long-term Buddhist influence on Chinese rural religion. He explores the myth of the draft animal as incarnate god, showing how Buddhism transmitted a belief in the sanctity of cattle and a taboo on beef from India to China. Shahar considers the ties between humans and their animal companions through the prism of religious practice, and he draws illuminating comparisons to other world religions. Bridging the gap between animal studies and religious studies, this book is a major contribution to both.

Author: Meir Shahar
Publisher: Columbia University Press
Published: 03/04/2025
Pages: 376
Binding Type: Paperback
Weight: 1.27lbs
Size: 9.21h x 6.14w x 0.84d
ISBN: 9780231218290

About the Author
Meir Shahar is the Shoul N. Eisenberg Chair for East Asian Affairs at Tel Aviv University. His books include Crazy Ji: Chinese Religion and Popular Literature (1998); The Shaolin Monastery: History, Religion, and the Chinese Martial Arts (2008); and Oedipal God: The Chinese Nezha and His Indian Origins (2015).
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