Gleanings in Buddha-Fields: Studies of Hand and Soul in the Far East

Hearn, Lafcadio, 1850-1904Project Gutenberg · United StatesDec 2019

Rating 4.0
Word count
321K words
Chapters
33

Tags

English Originals ReligionCulture Humanistic CareSpiritual PracticeBuddhist StudiesTravel EssaysEastern CultureTraditional AestheticsExotic CultureCultural ChangeFolk CustomsCross-Cultural View

Summary

Project Gutenberg was the first provider of free electronic books, or eBooks. Michael Hart, founder of Project Gutenberg, invented eBooks in 1971 and his memory continues to inspire the creation of eBooks and related technologies today.Gleanings in Buddha-Fields: Studies of Hand and Soul in the Far East by HearnAuthor: Hearn, Lafcadio, 1850-1904,Language: English, Class: DS: History: General and Eastern Hemisphere: Asia, Release Date: Oct 5, 2017

Editor's review

Lafcadio Hearn, a Westerner of Greek-Irish descent, lived in Japan for many years and wrote in English. This book is no superficial travelogue but a delicate observation of craftsmanship, religious sensibility, and spiritual life in the Far East—chiefly Japan. The subtitle's "Hand and Soul" names its two threads: the tactile feel embodied in objects, craft, and daily labor, and the subtle recesses of Buddhist faith, views of life and death, and the folk spiritual world. His approach is essayistic and impressionistic, his prose carrying the lyricism and curiosity of a late-nineteenth-century sojourner; he relies on detail and atmosphere rather than systematic argument, so it reads vividly without being dull, yet it is no handbook of historical sources. For today's readers its value lies in offering a cross-cultural gaze from a particular historical moment—revealing one facet of Japanese culture and also the Western gaze and period limitations the observer brought with him. Suited to short reads as essays or bedtime reading, and as a reference text for understanding how modern Westerners made sense of East Asian spirituality. Written entirely in English, the language bears the marks of its era; a solid foundation in English reading is recommended.

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Reading tips

  1. Read the table of contents first, pick chapters by theme, and group them by interest rather than reading straight through.
  2. Mark unfamiliar religious terms and look them up later; return to them after finishing the piece to avoid breaking the rhythm.
  3. After each essay, write two or three lines of impressions, compare them with today's image of Japan, and reflect on the observer's standpoint.
  4. Treat the descriptions of craft and faith as impressionistic material, not as facts to be cited directly.

About the publisher

Project Gutenberg United States · Founded in 1971

Project Gutenberg is a digital publishing project focused on public-domain ebooks. Its publishing direction centers on classic literary works whose copyright has expired, covering genres such as poetry, drama, fiction, and epic. Representative books include Lyrical Ballads by Wordsworth and Coleridge, Proust's Du côté de chez Swann, Shakespeare's Macbeth and The Complete Works of William Shakespeare, Homer's The Iliad, Dante's La Divina Comèdia: Purgatòri, Cervantes's The History of Don Quixote, Volume 2, and Grahame's The Wind in the Willows. Its author resources consist mainly of classic Western writers such as Wordsworth, Proust, Shakespeare, Homer, Dante, Cervantes, Grahame, and Tolstoy. Its publishing feature is the provision of freely accessible ebooks in EPUB and Kindle formats; it is not a traditional publisher, and publicly available information is limited.

Contents

  1. 1
  2. 2
  3. 3
  4. 4
  5. 5
  6. 6
  7. 7
  8. 8
  9. 9
  10. 10
  11. 11
  12. 12
  13. 13
  14. 14
  15. 15
  16. 16
  17. 17
  18. 18
  19. 19
  20. 20
  21. 21
  22. 22
  23. 23
  24. 24
  25. 25
  26. 26
  27. 27
  28. 28
  29. 29
  30. 30
  31. 31
  32. 32
  33. 33

FAQ

Is this book a novel or academic research? Neither. It is closer to a hybrid of essays and research-based impressions, with chapters on craftsmanship and spiritual life in the Far East, marked by strong personal observation and lyricism. It should not be read as a systematic academic work or as fiction.
How difficult is the English, and what foundation is needed? The author wrote in late-nineteenth-century English, with long sentences, period vocabulary, and cultural allusions—not modern plain English. At least the ability to read long English newspaper and magazine articles smoothly is recommended; a translation can be used alongside if needed.
Can I understand it without a background in Japanese culture? Yes, but it takes some patience. The book touches on Buddhist concepts and folk details, and the author often explains them from a sojourner's perspective, which already accommodates Western readers. Look up unfamiliar terms as needed; grasping the atmosphere and the questions behind the text is enough—there is no need to memorize every name.

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About the author

Hearn, Lafcadio, 1850-1904 Author

Hearn, Lafcadio (1850–1904) was an essayist and writer of folk literature who wrote in English in the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries and lived for a long time in Japan. His works draw chiefly on legends, ghost stories and daily life in Japan, China and the Caribbean. Twenty-two of his works are held here, including Kwaidan: Stories and Studies of Strange Things, Kokoro: Hints and Echoes of Japanese Inner Life, Some Chinese Ghosts, Glimpses of Unfamiliar Japan: First Series, Kotto, Exotics and Retrospectives and Two Years in the French West Indies. His writing blends foreign observations, folk tales and personal meditation in a cool, vivid style, and has deeply influenced Western understanding of Japanese culture. Because public information is limited, his early life and biographical details are not elaborated here; this note focuses on the subjects and style of his works.