ESHS/HSS Annual Meeting

Spatial and Temporal Mappings of the Heavens: Moving Spirits, the Heavens in the Body and Mind-Body Dualism

• In Event: GRAPHICS AND TEXT TWENTY YEAR LATER-1: Patterns, Charts And Maps For The State

English Abstract

There are many representations of the heavens in the body in Chinese religion and philosophy, including philosophical macrocosm-microcosm analogies and correlations between somatic sites and Daoist gods. Most of these are spatial maps, in which locations in the body are analogized to locations in the heavens. This paper addresses a different kind of representation of the skies within: temporal mappings, which represent astral movements in the heavens within the body over time. They take the form of charts, rather than maps. I examine astral calendars that govern movements of the “human spirit” (renshen 人神) within the body, their implications for medicine, and their implications for contemporary debates on mind-body dualism in Chinese and Western contexts

Author

• Lisa Raphals, University of Edinburgh and University of California Riverside