The Concise Oxford Dictionary of World Religions (1026 page)

 
Back
  -  
 
New Search

Hsi-an Fu
.

In NW China, site of the discovery in 1625 of a stele usually called the ‘
Nestorian
monument’. It is inscribed in Chinese with a text including a history of the Nestorian Church (see
CHURCH OF THE EAST
) in China up until the time of its erection in 781.

 
Back
  -  
 
New Search

Hsiang
(incense)
:

see
INCENSE
.

 
Back
  -  
 
New Search

Hsiang-yen Chih-hsien
(Jap., Ky
gen Chikan
;

d.
c.
900).
Chinese Ch’an master; pupil and dharma-successor (
hassu
) of
Kuei-shan Ling-yu
. He is best known for the story of his breakthrough to enlightenment. After much text-based study and no progress, he went to Kuei-shan who asked him about his original face (
honrai-no-memmoku
). According to Hsiang-yen, the human predicament is summarized in the story of a man hanging by his teeth from the highest branch of a tall tree, who is asked why
Bodhidharma
came from the West.

 
Back
  -  
 
New Search

(Chin., ‘old age’ + ‘son’). Filial piety, a virtue considered most important in E. Asian social ethics, influenced by the school of Confucius, and by the ancient cult of
ancestral
veneration.
The Classic of Filial Piety
(
Hsiao Ching
) has been associated with Tseng-tzu, a direct disciple of the sage himself. See also
ETHICS (CONFUCIANISM)
.

 
Back
  -  
 
New Search

Hsiao Ching
(Scripture of Filiality)
.

A small text included in the
Confucian Classics
. It purports to be a lecture given by the Master (
Confucius
) to his eminent disciple, Master Tseng (Tseng-tzu), who was noted for his filiality. The text is likely to be no earlier than the late Chou or early Han (roughly 5th–3rd cents. BCE).

 
Back
  -  
 
New Search