Transforming the Void: Embryological Discourse and Reproductive Imagery in East Asian Religions (Sir Henry Wellcome Asian)

Transforming the Void: Embryological Discourse and Reproductive Imagery in East Asian Religions considers paths to self-cultivation and salvation that are patterned on human embryological development or procreative imagery in the religions of China and Japan.
Focusing on Taoism, Esoteric Buddhism, Shinto, Shugendō, and local religious traditions, the contributors to the volume provide new insight into how the body’s generative processes are harnessed as powerful metaphors for spiritual attainment. This volume offers an in-depth examination of the religious dimensions of embryology and reproductive imagery, topics that have been hitherto solely approached through the lens of the history of medicine.
Contributors include: Brigitte Baptandier, Catherine Despeux, Grégoire Espesset, Christine Mollier, Fabrizio Pregadio, Dominic Steavu, Lucia Dolce, Bernard Faure, Iyanaga Nobumi, Anna Andreeva, Kigensan Licha, Gaynor Sekimori.

Anna Andreeva, Ph.D. (2007), is a Research Fellow in Japanese Religions and Cultural History at the Cluster of Excellence “Asia and Europe in a Global Context,” at University of Heidelberg. She has published articles on Japanese esoteric Buddhism and Shinto and women’s health. Her monograph on medieval Shinto is forthcoming from Harvard University Asia Center Publications Program.

Dominic Steavu, Ph.D. (2010), is Assistant Professor of Chinese Religions and Chinese Buddhism at the University of California, Santa Barbara. He has published articles on Taoism and Esoteric Buddhism and is the editor of a special issue of the Medieval History Journal on “The Literary Subversive: Writings of Resistance in East Asia” (2015).