Buddhist Mountain Research Articles

The Impact of Digital Finance on Tourism in Putuo Mountain

Digital finance is a contemporary financial paradigm that leverages information technology and Internet platforms for the execution of financial transactions and operations. Putuoshan, being one of the renowned Buddhist mountains in China, attracts a significant number of devotees and tourists. The advent of digital finance is expected to offer Putuoshan improved payment systems, wealth management options, and financial services, thereby positively influencing its economic growth and augmenting its tourism sector. The literature review approach is primarily employed to synthesize and assess the extant research findings through the collection, organization, and analysis of relevant literature. This process furnishes both theoretical and empirical substantiation for the research inquiries at hand. Digital finance plays a crucial role in mitigating the service-related challenges faced by the tourism industry. The findings indicate that the utilization of big data and mobile payment in the realm of digital finance has a substantial impact on the promotion of the tourism industry in Putuo Mountain. Based on this premise, digital finance plays a significant role in enhancing the tourism experience of travelers visiting Putuo Mountain. The advent of digital banking technology has significantly enhanced the visitor experience and revitalized classic tourist destinations such as Putuo Mountain.

Impact of spiritual values on tourists' psychological wellbeing: evidence from China's Buddhist mountains.

Spiritual values can be a source of meaning for people, and can also determine their feelings, behavior, and mental health. In China's Buddhist mountains, we collected a total of 400 valid questionnaires from Mount Putuo and Mount Jiuhua, and identified spiritual values as transcendence, general connectedness, inner balance, positive life direction, and special religious feelings. We also explored the impact of these spiritual values on tourists' psychological wellbeing according to the PERMA model (positive emotion, engagement, relationships, meaning, and achievement). The results revealed that the more easily attained spiritual values (general connectedness, positive life direction, and special religious feelings) had a greater influence on psychological wellbeing than the less easily-attained spiritual values (transcendence and inner balance). Positive emotion and meaning, as components of psychological wellbeing, were strongly influenced by the four spiritual values, whereas engagement, accomplishment, and relationships were influenced by fewer spiritual values. The research contributes to the existing knowledge on spiritual values by analyzing their dimensions and relationships with tourists' wellbeing from different levels, and also provides empirical suggestions for the sustainable development of religious tourism destinations.

Corporate Religion and Spiritual Tourism at a Luxury Tibetan Buddhist Resort

ABSTRACT This article analyses how spiritual tourism and the corporate form of religion are contributing to the rapid spread of Tibetan Buddhism in Vietnam. Specifically, we place the newly established Samten Hills, a Buddhist luxury resort, in two scholarly contexts. First: ecological discourses about Đà Lạt. Once a French hill station, Đà Lạt in the Central Highlands is famous for natural beauty and spiritual possibilities. Samten Hills is dedicated as a Drikung Kagyu spiritual area, and many of the resident monks are from Ladakh (North India). We highlight the transposition of Ladakhi Buddhist branding to a novel Vietnamese context. Through tour packages, advertising, spiritual practices, camping, and discourses about Buddhist mountain hierophanies, we consider this new iteration of spiritual tourism. Second: a spiritual business model that blurs the distinction between economic and religious activity and negotiates state surveillance. With Vietnam Federation of United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO) Associations (VFUA) and Guinness recognition and plans to construct a 2000-person Buddhist university, Samten Hills is the most public-facing, large-scale Vajrayana site in Southeast Asia. We analyse Samten Hills’ operational model – a for-profit business licence allied with discourses of heritage preservation and regional tourism initiatives but concealing Tibetan Buddhist practices – as an increasingly popular strategy for navigating state surveillance of religious activity.

Merit, Karma, and Exchange: Chinese Buddhist Mountain Tourism Company Listings on the Stock Market

Abstract Since Mount Emei, one of the four famous Chinese Buddhist mountains, became associated with a publicly traded stock as a tourism company in 1997, other Chinese Buddhist sites in mainland China have announced plans for their own Initial Public Offerings (IPOs) in China’s stock exchanges. This has elicited sharp criticism by Chinese officials and citizens denouncing these actions as greedy and against the spirit of Buddhism. However, Chinese Buddhist institutions have always extensively engaged in commercial economic activities. Attributing IPO plans’ agency to Buddhists is not straightforward due to the conflict between state actors, who control local tourist development, with others in how to present a public Buddhist image. There are differences in class perceptions of these IPOs. Examining mountain gazetteers, news articles, and public finance records, I argue Buddhist economies of merit, karma, and exchange offer alternative lenses for understanding the epitome of contemporary capitalism: engaging the stock market.

Buddhist Medicine at Putuo Mountain since the late Qing Dynasty

The Putuo Mountain, as one of the four famous Buddhist mountains in China, has a long history with Buddhist medicine. Buddhist medicine at Putuo Mountain was developed extensively in the late Qing Dynasty and was shaped with a variety of characteristics resulting in some great achievements. Hua Yu Tang, as a Chinese medicine clinic, was established by the Fa Yu Temple at the end of the Qing Dynasty. After that, Yi De Ji was written by Xin Chan, a Buddhist physician. Some medical hospitals, such as Pu Ji Hospital, and drug stores were also opened to serve people, and commonly did charity when there were epidemic or natural hazard outbreaks.Buddhist medicine was almost bogged down after the establishment of the New China. It has been well developed, however, since the 80s last century, through processes such as the operation of hospitals funded by Buddhist Associations and helping people in trouble in epidemic and natural hazard.The review of the Buddhist medicine at Putuo Mountain is meaningful to understand the significance of Buddhist medicine and also helpful to inherit traditional cultures.

Mount Wutai: Visions of a Sacred Buddhist Mountain by Wen-shing Chou

Mount Wutai: Visions of a Sacred Buddhist Mountain by Wen-shing Chou

Lihong Liu. Review of "Mount Wutai: Visions of a Sacred Buddhist Mountain" by Wen-shing Chou.

Lihong Liu. Review of "Mount Wutai: Visions of a Sacred Buddhist Mountain" by Wen-shing Chou.

Visitors' spiritual values and relevant influencing factors in religious tourism destinations

AbstractThis study has conducted two rounds of interviews at the Four Great Buddhist Mountains (FGBMs) in China mainland to explore spiritual values and relevant influencing factors of religious visitors. The results analysis has categorized seven themes of spiritual values. It reflected that visitors were trying to seek a balanced life status through maintaining good relationships with their inner selves, other people, and all forms of life. The identified spiritual values were simultaneously influenced by visitors' religious belief, cultural values, and environmental elements. The findings contribute to the existing knowledge about values and provide implications for developing religious tourism sustainably.

Happiness, wellbeing and ecosocialism – a radical humanist perspective

ABSTRACTThe GDP growth paradigm has come under increased scrutiny in recent years, with the rising threats of global social inequality, poverty, and environmental degradation. New thinking around ecosocialism, degrowth, happiness and the wellbeing economy insist on keeping alive the utopian imagination. It seeks to break through the constraints of traditional state-or-market development debates, by searching for ways to subordinate both the state and market to society, in harmony with non-human nature. Pioneering work on alternative development indicators has been done in recent times, the most notable being the Gross National Happiness Index, currently in practice within the small Buddhist mountain state of Bhutan. The happiness/wellbeing perspectives do not have an explicit critique of capitalism, and avoid any mention of ‘socialism’ or ‘ecosocialism'. Is there a Chinese Wall between the Buddha and Marx – or can these perspectives be harmonized, as part of building a broader counter-hegemonic movement?

Visitors' perceptions of religious tourism destinations

Abstract This paper addresses the question of how contemporary visitors perceive the more commercial facets of religious destinations. The Four Great Buddhist Mountains of China provided subtly different contexts for the work, but the themes addressed have a broad applicability to the tensions between secular and spiritual features of such sites. Two rounds of detailed interviews in 2014 and 2016 were undertaken. The first identified four types of Buddhist site images: sacred with high spiritual values, cultural with long histories, attractive with natural features, and commercial with shops and restaurants. The second found that visitors' perceptions of these types of destination image contained both strong cognitive and affective reactions to the Buddhist sites. Such perceptions were strengthened by key site features such as an impressive atmosphere, attractive environment, personal beliefs, and loyal behaviors, but weakened by commercial activities, modern buildings, environmental pollution, and secular behaviors. The findings contribute to both theory and practice by clarifying the factors influencing visitors' perceptions about these Buddhist sites and providing further implications for the sustainable development of religious tourism.

Tourists and Buddhist heritage sites: An integrative analysis of visitors’ experience and happiness through positive psychology constructs

The influence of visiting Buddhist heritage sites on happiness is the core concern of this article. China’s four sacred Buddhist mountains provided the setting for the study. Sixty semi-structured interviews were conducted to examine the positive effects of Buddhism on visitors. Thematic analysis was first undertaken to understand the Buddhism-induced happiness. In the terms of Buddhism, the visitors’ happiness was related to the law of karma, impermanence and reincarnation. The PERMA model from positive psychology was then utilized as a second interpretive framework, in which positive changes in visitors’ attitudes, behaviours and life were noted. The links between the core values of Buddhism and the PERMA model were then established and portrayed. The study makes a theoretical contribution by connecting the positive psychology constructs and the effects of Buddhism in the tourism context. In addition, this study provides insightful suggestions for local communities to manage religious heritage sites sustainably.

Mount Wutai: Visions of a Sacred Buddhist Mountain, by Chou, Wen-shing

Mount Wutai: Visions of a Sacred Buddhist Mountain, by Chou, Wen-shing

Tourists' Attitudes Toward Religious Commercialization

Commercial activities exist at different religious sites and the practices arouse global concern. This study identifies and assesses religious commercial activities and explores how they affect tourists' attitudes. The well-known Four Great Buddhist Mountains in China were selected as research sites. Using grounded theory, this study initially conducted 80 detailed interviews to build an understanding of commercialization and then investigated 438 travel blogs. The resulting seven commercial categories were: entrance ticket, food and drinks, accommodation, transportation, shopping, staff service, and entertainment. In addition, the level of different commercial categories for all research sites were assessed. The findings showed that tourists had more negative comments about food and drinks, accommodation, and staff service, with less criticism of transportation and entertainment. It implied that tourists were more likely to feel annoyed when tourism products have ambiguous or exaggerated prices and there is a lack of uniform service standards. The research findings offer insights for sustainable development of religious tourism aiming to benefit both local communities and tourists.

The Reality of Community through Social Network Analysis: the Case of 7 Sansa, Buddhist Mountain Monasteries in Korea

The Reality of Community through Social Network Analysis: the Case of 7 Sansa, Buddhist Mountain Monasteries in Korea

Religious Tourist Motivation in Buddhist Mountain: The Case from China

This study aims to develop a measurement scale assessing motivations of tourists traveling to religious sites within the Chinese context. Deploying quantitative methods in relation to Putuo Buddhist Mountain – one of the most visited Buddhist destinations in China, this study depicts 20 motivation attributes. Accordingly, the scale dimensionality of tourist motivation in the context of religious tourism is first revealed by an exploratory factor analysis and further validated by a confirmatory factor analysis. Consequently, three resultant constructs entailing religious belief, cultural enjoyment, and mental relaxation exhibit acceptable levels of reliability. Construct validity, including discriminant and convergent validity, is satisfactorily established. Furthermore, this study examines how tourists’ past experience and degree of religious belief affect the derived constructs that define the motivations of religious tourist. The results suggest that past experience significantly affects tourists’ motivation to achieve religious beliefs, while degree of tourist religious belief has a great impact on both their motivation to achieve religious beliefs and mental relaxation. Finally, according to motivation theory, religious beliefs and mental relaxation can be classified as push factors, while cultural enjoyment and one item belonging to religious beliefs are pull factors.

Exploring Buddhist Travelers' Expectations Toward Buddhist-Themed Hotels

Despite the growing trend and demand, religious tourism, particularly Buddhist tourism, has rarely been touched upon in scholarly research. Building on the case study of Mount Putuo, one of the four sacred Buddhist mountains in China, this study explores Buddhist travelers’ expectations toward Buddhist-themed hotels and provides recommendations on the development and management of Buddhist-themed hotels. Research results based on in-depth interviews and Delphi exercises are in line with previous research findings in other religious contexts that Buddhist tourism is a mixture of pilgrimage and tourism experiences. Employees’ appearance, Buddhist-themed decor, and tranquil environment, among others, are found to be highly expected by the Buddhist travelers. In light of the rising demand for tourism in general and for Buddhist tourism in particular in China, and given the fact that a mass population of followers of Buddhism are found in the country, the findings of this research provide timely and useful insights to the industry.

Stairway to Heaven: A Journey to the Summit of Mount Emei (review)

Reviewed by: Stairway to Heaven: A Journey to the Summit of Mount Emei Mario Poceski (bio) James M. Hargett. Stairway to Heaven: A Journey to the Summit of Mount Emei. Albany: State University of New York Press, 2006. xvii, 294 pp. Hardcover $75.00, ISBN 0-7914-6681-7. An increasingly common approach to the study of Chinese religion is to explore local manifestations of discrete beliefs, traditions, and practices. Close attention to specific sites or localized manifestations of religiosity facilitates the unearthing of germane data and the development of fresh perspectives, thereby adding nuance and texture to our understating of the intricacy and richness of religious life in traditional (and modern) China. When properly contextualized, localized studies nicely supplement the many works that reflect a traditional focus on classical texts, paradigmatic thinkers, and mainstream schools of thought or practice, typically subsumed into one of the three main religious traditions in China, namely Buddhism, Confucianism, and Daoism. Within that context, especially fertile topics of study are the various mountains with rich religious associations and close links to Buddhism or Daoism, or sometimes a combination of both. Within the context of Chinese Buddhism, especially noteworthy are the four major Buddhist mountains, which over successive dynastic epochs grew into important pilgrimage sites, thriving centers of cultic activity, and key points in the sacred geography of China. The four Buddhist mountains are strategically located in different parts of China, and each is associated with a popular bodhisattva: Mt. Wutai 五台山 (in Shanxi) with Wenshu 文殊 (Mañjuśrī), Mt. Putuo 普陀山 (off the coast of Zhejiang) with Guanyin 觀音 (Avalokiteśvara), Mt. Jiuhua 九華山 (in Anhui) with Dizang 地藏 (Kṣitigarbha), and Mt. Emei 峨嵋山 (in Sichuan) with Puxian 普賢 (Samantabhadra). James Hargett’s informative and well-researched book is a comprehensive study of the history and position in Chinese culture of the last of these important mountains. With its breathtaking scenery, longstanding and illustrious history, and copious presence in Chinese literature, Emei has exerted a notable impact on the popular Chinese imagination. The mountain has elicited—and still continues to bring out—an array of responses and sentiments, both religious and secular. The book provides a wealth of materials that document the multifaceted developments that facilitated Emei’s gradual emergence as a famous mountains and a place renown for its sublime beauty—including its early reputation as an abode of Daoist immortals and its evocations by famous poets and writers—and details its rich history as a Buddhist pilgrimage site. Thorough his account of Emei’s history, the author contextualizes the intricate patterns of human interactions with the mountain. He also relates the growth of its iconic image, with its peculiar physical features and assorted properties, that secured its exceptional place in traditional Chinese culture. [End Page 101] In the introduction, the author informs us of his decision to structure the book as a guided journey on the mountain, from the monastery at its foothills up to its summit. This approach is adopted by him with the expressed intent of involving the reader and making the narrative more interesting. Instead of presenting himself as a guide, Hargett uses a travelogue written by Fan Chengda 范成大 (1126–1193), the noted Song dynasty (960–1279) literatus and official. Fan’s descriptions of his visit to Emei in 1177, along with the reflections on his experiences there—expressed by means of prose and poetry—are accompanied by the author’s extensive background information and commentary. I am not sure if that is the best way to structure the books as a whole; at any rate, Hargett uses Fan’s travel narrative with mixed results. To begin with, the basic structure articulated by the author is not really applied to the whole book, but only to chapters 3–6, which constitute less than half of the text. Moreover, in these chapters the combination of travelogue with commentary is not used with equal success. On occasions, they work pretty well together (e.g., chap. 6); at other places, however, the narrative flow is interrupted as the travelogue disappears for long stretches, and the reader faces page upon page of general or tedious historical detail and background information. For instance, after citing a passage in which Fan...

The Gold-Colored World: "Eulogyon the HolyRegions of Mount Wutai"

Dunhuang, an oasis on the Silk Road, is generally credited as the point of entry for Buddhism into China. Mount Wutai (Five Terrace Mountain 1i_ L1J),a sacred Buddhist mountain associated with the bodhisattva Mafijusri, was an important pilgrimage site for the disciples of tho AvataQlsaka, Pure Land, Tiantai, Chan, and Tantric schools. There must have been considerable communication between Dunhuang and Mount Wutai in the Tang and Five Dynasties era, judging from the materials found at Dunhuang, which include an intriguing corpus of poems celebrating the mountain appearing in over thirty manuscripts preserved in the Pelliot, Stein, Leningrad, and Beijing collections. 1 The authors are thought to be monks or lay devotees, and the poems date from the Late Tang to the Five Dynasties period. This essay focuses on one set of poems from the Wutai corpus: the "Eulogy on the Holy Regions of Mount Wutai" (Wutai shan shengjing zan 1i_L1.J~:tl_), eleven poems by Xuanben, monk of the Golden Terrace ~_"T~*, dating from the ninth century. The poems not only describe the most important miraculous sites on Mount Wutai but significant Indian figures as well. The "Eulogy" demonstrates an extraordinary mix of Chinese

The Gold-Colored World: “Eulogy on the Holy Regions of Mount Wutai”

T'ang Studies 23-24 (2005-06) The Gold-Colored World: "Eulogy on the Holy Regions of Mount Wutai" MARY ANNE CARTELL! HUNTER COLLEGE Dunhuang, an oasis on the Silk Road, is generally credited as the point of entry for Buddhism into China. Mount Wutai (Five Terrace Mountain 1iff. Lin, a sacred Buddhist mountain associated with the bodhisattva Mafijusrl, was an important pilgrimage site for the disciples of the Avatarp.saka, Pure Land, Tiantai, Chan, and Tantric schools. There must have been considerable communication between Dunhuang and Mount Wutai in the Tang and Five Dynasties era, judging from the materials found at Dunhuang, which include an intriguing corpus of poems celebrating the mountain appearing in over thirty manuscripts preserved in the Pelliot, Stein, Leningrad, and Beijing collections. 1 The authors are thought to be monks or lay devotees, and the poems date from the Late Tang to the Five Dynasties period. This essay focuses on one set of poems from the Wutai corpus: the "Eulogy on the Holy Regions of Mount Wutai" (Wutai shan shengjing zan 1iff.LlJ~:f:ff~),eleven poems by Xuanben, monk of the Golden Terrace ~ff.*'T~1js:, dating from the ninth century. The poems not only describe the most important miraculous sites on Mount Wutai but significant Indian figures as well. The "Eulogy" demonstrates an extraordinary mix of Chinese I wish to acknowledge the support of the Fulbright Foundation, the American Council of Learned Societies, and the Research Foundation of the City University of New York during various stages of my research. I also thank the 2005 New York Conference on Asian Studies, where a version of this essay was presented. All translations are my own unless otherwise noted. 1 See Mary Anne Cartelli, "The Poetry of Mount Wutai: Chinese Buddhist Verse from Dunhuang" (PhD diss., Columbia University, 1999), for a detailed study of the entire corpus of poems. Cartelli: The Gold-ColoredWorld and Indian motifs. Xuanben portrays the different realms of gods and men living side by side in a higher reality not seen by an ordinary person, a recurring theme in Mount Wutai literature. He envisions the gold-colored world ofMaiijusri, describing a Chinese landscape bathed in golden light and transformed into a Buddhist paradise outside the boundaries of time and space. Xuanben takes us on a virtual journey through the five terraces following the traditional pilgrimage circumambulation route, but he also gives us a more profound look at the spiritual aspects of the Mount Wutai experience. The poet seems equally comfortable describing tangible mountain landscapes and abstract Buddhist concepts. To explicate these poems, I have utilized the sidra and pilgrimage literature associated with Mount Wutai as commentaries. The bodhisattva Maiijusri figures prominently in three major sutras that appeared in China between the second and fifth centuries: the Lotus, the Avata'J!Zsaka,and the Vimalakirti sutras.2 The Maftjufriparinirvd1 }a sutra, 3 which appeared in China by the third century, is also significant, as it and the Avata'J!Zsakasutra are believed to prophesy Maiijusri's appearance on Mount Wutai. The oldest pilgrimage record is by the Tang monk Huixiang ~#, the Gu Qjngliang zhuan ~1F1f¥JR1.w (Ancient Record of the Clear and Cold).4 Yet another significant source of material about Mount Wutai is Nitto guho junrei gyoki A)~f*1:t~t.t1::ygC (The Record of a Pilgrimage to China in Search of the Law), the diary of the Japanese monk Ennin [§]i- (793-864), who visited from 838 to 847.5 Yanyi 2.[-, a monk of the Northern Song, wrote a more 2 Miaofa lianhuajing~j>lt;'jjff1JJgL tr. Kumarajiva, 406. T 262: 9. Dafangguang fa huayan jing *:hJi~¥~#,ill (hereafter DFGFHYj), tr. Buddhabhadra, 418-421, T 278: 9; tr. Si~ananda, 695-699, T 279: 10. Weimojie suoshuojing f.iiUl'f§5PJT"ii5l.#,ill,tr. Kumarajiva, 406, T 475: 14. 3 Wenshu shili ban niepan jing )(JJKI~Hp;fIj¥1£!lli#,ill,tr. Nie Daozhen am~,yd century, T 463: 14. 4 Huixiang ~ff, Gu Qjngliang zhuan tlrnl~1$(hereafter GuQLZ), ca. 667, T 2098: 51. S Ennin, Nitta guM junrei gyaki Ajgf*I*~1I1T~c (hereafter NGfG), in Nitta 2 Tang Studies 23-24 (2005-06...

Landscape, Culture, and Power in Chinese Society (review)

Reviewed by: Landscape, Culture, and Power in Chinese Society Nancy Shatzman Steinhardt (bio) Wen-hsin Yeh , editor. Landscape, Culture, and Power in Chinese Society. China Research Monograph 49. Berkeley: Institute of East Asian Studies and Center for Chinese Studies, University of California, 1998. xv, 153 pp. Paperback $15.00, ISBN 1-55729-061-X. Landscape, Culture, and Power in Chinese Society is a set of five essays developed from papers presented at a symposium of the same name at the Center for Chinese Studies, University of California-Berkeley, in March of 1996. The theme was the idea of Wen-hsin Yeh, who has also edited the volume and written the introduction. The participant-essayists represent the broadest range of fields in which the interrelation between landscape, culture, and power are addressed in current sinology. Moreover, each is a scholar who is extremely active in his or her discipline and who has dealt with one or more aspects of the subject in previous writings. Each essay stands alone as a contribution to its own field. At the same time, the collection in this book represents the best of interdisciplinary studies. The success of the volume as a collaborative effort no doubt is largely due to Yeh, who, as she tells us in her introduction, framed the way in which she hoped the essays would address a potentially broad subject essentially unbounded by temporal limitations (the Song period to the present). Yeh seeks answers to two questions: what does an attention to space teach us about power relationships and the cultural dynamics that shaped Chinese society, and what is peculiarly Chinese about the function of space as a medium for the negotiation of power? The first author, Martin Powers, explores these questions through Chinese landscape painting in an essay called "When Is Landscape Like a Body?" Using poetry, inscriptions on paintings, and writings by painters, mostly of the Song dynasty, Powers argues that the rise of the landscape as a subject in post-Tang painting was a reflection of social and societal change. He suggests that Song officials whose status and position had come by way of the civil service exam sought painting subjects that were different from those of the hereditary aristocracy of Tang China. He concedes that the subject matter of Tang painting was carried into the Song dynasty—but, he explains, in new contexts. The change had to do with what Powers calls a "gestural theory of pictorial expression." In the writings of the tenth-century painter-essayist Jing Hao and the eleventh-century essayist on painting Guo Ruoxu, the vocabulary of Chinese painting comes to include words like qi, feng, shi, and tai, which Powers translates as "character," "manner," "gesture," and "demeanor." Drawing from studies of British and other European landscape painting by J. Barrell, A. Bermingham, S. Daniels, and W.J.T. Mitchell, among others, Powers turns to the vocabulary of Song landscapists to explain his theory of the "body" of Song landscape painting, concluding that landscape can [End Page 270] be a "site for negotiating cultural hegemony." Powers ends with a strong and specific conclusion, four features of the "competition between social groups" as it is "projected onto natural imagery": (1) Social and political discourse is opportunistic; (2) in China, discursive evolution was dialectical; (3) style can encode deep suppositions about identity; and (4) the fundamental rhetorical advantage offered by landscape was its lack of artifice. Those who have read Martin Powers are used to such bold ideas. Not all Chinese painting experts will agree with him, but they will find in this essay challenges to the study of Song landscape painting as it is customarily expounded. In the second essay, Linda Walton investigates academies of the Southern Song as a means of understanding societal changes in the period. She sees the establishment and naming of academies in Southeast China as a direct result of the rise of Neo-Confucianism, specifically of the response of Neo-Confucians to the "sacred geography" of Buddhism and Daoism—for example, the Four Famous Buddhist Mountains and the Five Marchmounts. Even though feng and shan sacrifices at sacred peaks had been prescribed since earliest times in order to ensure the...