A Comparative Study of Buddhism’s Impacts on the Rise and Evolution of Female Rule in China and Japan

Approaching this project from an international perspective, I plan to use cross-disciplinary methods to explore Buddhism’s
influence on the birth, evolution and gradual recession of female rule in East Asia, with a comparative study of several Chinese
and Japanese empresses as the focus. My approach will be interdisciplinary and multimedia, subjecting a plethora of relevant
materials from a variety of media to rigorous multidisciplinary scrutiny. I will also combine literary works such as biography,
artwork such as painting, and social customs such as costume and mores, in order to conduct thorough and in-depth research.I
expect this project to reveal significant insights to scholars who study Empress Wu in China or her counterparts in Japan. I will
also conduct a systematic investigation into Buddhism’s influence upon female rule in these two countries. More importantly, my
research will underscore the necessity of contextualizing any specific tradition of East Asian Buddhism within a broader East
Asian perspective, given Buddhism’s cross-cultural and cross-boundary characteristics. I also wish for my research to provide a
new perspective on feminist studies in the context of East Asia.

Faculty Supervisor:

Jinhua Chen

Student:

Partner:

Tokyo University

Discipline:

Sociology

Sector:

Other

University:

The University of British Columbia

Program: