Bringing the Hands to Mind: Embodied Attention in Chinese Buddhist and Latin Christian Hand Mnemonics
This article examines hand mnemonics as technologies of ritual practice in the medieval world, comparing an unstudied tenth-century Chinese Buddhist mnemonic from Dunhuang (Bibliothèque nationale de France MS Pelliot Chinois 3835) with Latin Christian "meditation hands" from thirteenth- to...
| Main Author: | |
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| Format: | Electronic Article |
| Language: | English |
| Check availability: | HBZ Gateway |
| Interlibrary Loan: | Interlibrary Loan for the Fachinformationsdienste (Specialized Information Services in Germany) |
| Published: |
2026
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| In: |
Numen
Year: 2026, Volume: 73, Issue: 1, Pages: 1-41 |
| Further subjects: | B
Phenomenology
B hand mnemonics B Meditation B Comparative Religion B Christianity B Chinese Buddhism B Dunhuang |
| Online Access: |
Volltext (lizenzpflichtig) Volltext (lizenzpflichtig) |
| Summary: | This article examines hand mnemonics as technologies of ritual practice in the medieval world, comparing an unstudied tenth-century Chinese Buddhist mnemonic from Dunhuang (Bibliothèque nationale de France MS Pelliot Chinois 3835) with Latin Christian "meditation hands" from thirteenth- to fifteenth-century Europe. Through phenomenological analysis of their attentional protocols - or how they "bring the hands to mind" - the article identifies cross-cultural patterns and divergences between the mnemonics. Where the Latin hands promise an internal, therapeutic transformation through contemplative self-examination, the P.3835 example serves a primarily apotropaic function via protective spells against external threats. Nevertheless, embodied attention provides a phenomenological link between these traditions, as well as between the P.3835 mnemonic and other texts in its manuscript miscellany, revealing the hybridity of "Buddho-Daoist" ritual practices at Dunhuang. By the article’s conclusion, the hand emerges as a complex nexus where ritual practitioner and world intersect, mediated through the simulacrum of the material text. |
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| ISSN: | 1568-5276 |
| Contains: | Enthalten in: Numen
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| Persistent identifiers: | DOI: 10.1163/15685276-01234010 |
