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Abstract
The relics of the Catacomb Saint Urban, which are preserved in Monok, Hungary, were falsely identified as the mortal remains of Pope Urban I in 1983. Spreading of the Pope's patronage of preserving the grapes from the spring frost damage led to the development of his new local cult.
The study deals with this misidentification and its consequences, with the circumstances of the baroque reliquary's arrival to the village in 1771, with its procurer and the real reason of the purchase, finally with its translatio to the Holy Cross altar in the chapel located in the Andrássy Castle.
The Brāhmī leaf in Sanskrit and Uigur (TT VIII H) from the Berlin Turfan collection, edited by A. von Gabain in 1954, suggests an Indian origin, although this cannot be definitively proven in its current form. The fragment appears to be a commentary on the Agraprajñaptisūtra, the sūtra that declares the triratna (Buddha, Dharma, Saṃgha) as the best. The preserved part is about the question of its origin or occasion (utpatti). The present new edition includes an introduction on the Agraprajñaptisūtra (I), the text, translation, and comments (III), along with the description of the leaf, characteristic usage of the Uigur Brāhmī script and thoughts on dating (II) and three Appendices (IV) on the Agraprajñaptisūtra, the *Ekāgrasūtra in Uigur sources, and the interpretation of etadagrikeṣu vyākr̥teṣu. Additionally, three glossaries (V) (Sanskrit – English – Uigur; Uigur – English – Sanskrit; Uigur – English), abbreviations and bibliography (VI) and plates (VII) are provided.
Jin Ping Mei 金瓶梅 details the legal activities in Ming society with exceptional vividness. In other pre modern Chinese literary narratives, the ending usually featured poetic justice. However, Jin Ping Mei is a novel with unique realism in Chinese fiction in that it does not have a happy ending. More importantly, the novel depicts the normal condition and rationale of life based on guanxi 关系, an informal institution that was ubiquitous in Chinese society. Guanxi is a concrete embodiment of métis in the novel. This article sets out to demonstrate the métis in Jin Ping Mei through the analysis of guanxi in two cases. It argues that Jin Ping Mei depicts guanxi as the rationale of legal activities. Through guanxi, which is achieved through the manipulation of li 禮, ganqing 感情, renqing 人情, and mianzi 面子, gifts, banquets, and intermediaries, the culprits can easily find their way out of the unfavorable condition. The blend of rationality and emotion which is embodied in guanxi is the cultural root of the manipulation in the legal activities. The narrative of legal activities in Jin Ping Mei focuses on the métis based on guanxi in microlevel society and thus achieves unprecedented realism in premodern Chinese fiction narrative.
Abstract
The paper has a dual purpose, one historical and one theoretical. It aims to show, first, that Plotinus' notion of perceptual memory heavily draws on Stoic views insofar as both regard memory as a linguistic phenomenon. Furthermore, it aims to answer two questions, both are intimately connected to the Plotinian thesis of the impassibility of the soul. How could it happen that a present tense perceptual judgment changes into a past tense memory judgment and what explains that our judgments on perceived objects change, and occasionally fade, over time, that is, how can we remember in a way different from sense-perception?
Néhány gondolat az avar kori fülkesírok értelmezéséhez
Some thoughts on the interpretation of the graves with an end-wall shaft
A fülkesírok eredete már régóta megoldatlan kérdése az avar kor kutatásának. Jelen tanulmányban új szempontokat kívánunk nyújtani a sírforma értelmezéséhez. Ehhez belső- és közép-ázsiai, valamint kelet-európai analógiákat mutatunk be. Ezek a kora avar kori sírokhoz képest jóval korábbiak, néhány esetben egykorúak. A padmalyos sírokkal való együttes előfordulásuk alapján a két típus valószínűleg egymás formai variánsaként értelmezhetők.
This paper addresses several important aspects of the historical spread of the Huayan and Chan Buddhist teachings in the Tangut state, and traces local developments of Chan and Huayan thought among the Tang-uts. These developments, as they emerge from the received texts, indicate not only local developments in Xixia, but also provide broader implications for the study of Sinitic Buddhism in Northern China and Central Asia during 11th–13th centuries. The core of the paper concerns Tangut Huayan commentaries, the Huayan lineage composed by Yixing Huijue, Tangut recensions of texts authored by Guifeng Zongmi and the Tangut texts of Hongzhou Chan Buddhism.
The word T1G2 occurs three times in the Ongi Inscription. The sentences containing T1G2 have been interpreted in a variety of ways, with no single reading thus far being deemed satisfactory. A notable aspect of the Old Turkic script is the presence of two distinct characters for the majority of consonant sounds, one representing a back-vocalic and the other a front-vocalic sign. Given that T1G2 occurs on three occasions, it is plausible that the individual(s) responsible for inscribing the text may have deliberately employed this format. The author hypothesizes that T1G2 in question represents the Turkic rendering of the Chinese character dí 敵, which translates to “enemy; hostile.”
This study examines the influence of Mongolian language on spoken Chinese, with a focus on the Sino-Mongolian, or Chinese language translated using the literal translation style (zhiyi-ti 直譯體) from Mongolian. Sino-Mongolian was a type of contact language, based on the Chinese vocabulary and Mongolian syntactic structure. Common linguistic elements are observed between Sino-Mongolian and the Chinese textbook No Gŏltae edited in the Koryŏ Kingdom under Mongol rule. The analysis confirms that No Gŏltae was not translated from Mongolian language but a type of spoken Chinese that was influenced and shaped by Sino-Mongolian through oral dissemination. Although Sino-Mongolian was an artificially translated language, the literal translation style may have been based on Altaic Pidgin Chinese. Hence, it was readily accepted in Northern China and naturally influenced and shaped the spoken Chinese there. It is concluded that the colloquial Chinese influenced by Sino-Mongolian, as observed in No Gŏltae, would be defined as Mongolo-Chinese, a type of Creole language.
Abstract
The paper provides a close reading of Plotinus' obscure chapter Ennead IV.6.2. I try to make clear, beyond the central thesis that sense-perception is an active power, how it contributes to the argument of the whole treatise, how its seemingly disconnected comments make up a coherent line of thought, and how it remains consistent with Plotinus' positions expressed elsewhere.
From passion to knowledge
Plotinus' grades of virtues as stages in the development of practical moral agency
Abstract
In this paper, I aim to situate the practical agency of the sage in an overall picture of the development of the Plotinian moral agent. This development can be seen as a gradual transition from external to internal principles of action guidance which endow the agent with autonomy and coherence in her practical actions. The transition from external to internal principles corresponds to a changing relationship between the agent's telos and particular actions. Non-virtuous agents aim at the attainment of an object of desire, while the civically virtuous person aims to perform virtuous actions irrespectively of the achievement of particular objects of desire. Finally, the telos of the sage is the contemplation of forms and she acts practically as a consequence and external activity of having achieved her goal. The analysis of Plotinus' theory of moral development shows that the sage's inward turn and detachment from external circumstances do not involve inactivity in the practical sphere but figure as a necessary condition of her making an active contribution to the order of the sensible world through her actions as opposed to passively responding to external circumstances.
