About

Thomas Mazanec is a faculty member at the Graduate Center for Literary Research at the University of California, Santa Barbara, specializing in East Asian Languages & Cultural Studies. His role involves engaging with literary research and cultural studies related to East Asia, contributing to the academic community through teaching, research, and participation in university programs. His contact information includes an email address at mazanec@eastasian.ucsb.edu and a faculty webpage providing further details about his academic profile and work.

Research topics

• Computer Science
• Political Science
• Ancient history
• Psychology
• History
• Philosophy
• Library science

Selected publications

• 6. Meditation: Effort and Absorption

  Cornell University Press eBooks · 2024-02-09

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• Bibliography

  Cornell University Press eBooks · 2024

  1st authorCorresponding
  • Computer Science
  • Library science
  • Computer Science
  PublisherDOI

• 3. Becoming Poet-Monks: The Formation of a Tradition, 810–960

  Cornell University Press eBooks · 2024-02-09

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• 2. Inventing Poet-Monks: The First Generation and Their Reception, 760–810

  Cornell University Press eBooks · 2024-02-09

  book-chapter1st authorCorresponding
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• 5. Incantation: Sonority and Foreignness

  Cornell University Press eBooks · 2024-02-09

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• Poet-Monks

  Cornell University Press eBooks · 2024-01-01

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• Poet-Monks

  Cornell University Press eBooks · 2024 · 2 citations

  1st authorCorresponding
  • Philosophy
  • Psychology

  Poet-Monks focuses on the literary and religious practices of Buddhist poet-monks in Tang-dynasty China to propose an alternative historical arc of medieval Chinese poetry. Combining large-scale quantitative analysis with close readings of important literary texts, Thomas J. Mazanec describes how Buddhist poet-monks, who first appeared in the latter half of Tang-dynasty China, asserted a bold new vision of poetry that proclaimed the union of classical verse with Buddhist practices of repetition, incantation, and meditation. Mazanec traces the historical development of the poet-monk as a distinct actor in the Chinese literary world, arguing for the importance of religious practice in medieval literature. As they witnessed the collapse of the world around them, these monks wove together the frayed threads of their traditions to establish an elite-style Chinese Buddhist poetry. Poet-Monks shows that during the transformative period of the Tang-Song transition, Buddhist monks were at the forefront of poetic innovation.

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• 4. Repetition: Retriplication and Negation

  Cornell University Press eBooks · 2024-02-09

  book-chapter1st authorCorresponding
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• Buddhist Poetry of China

  2023-01-11 · 1 citations

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  Buddhism entered China sometime in the first century ce, first in relatively small communities of foreign merchants, only to take hold among the elites in the following centuries. It should be no surprise, then, that it soon interacted with the indigenous poetry of China, the most highly regarded literary art of the elites. Comprised of multiple broad terms, “Buddhist poetry of China” eludes easy definition, which has led to some scholarly confusion. In this bibliography, we define “poetry” as any rhymed verse form (including but not limited to shi詩); “Buddhism” as the institutions, practices, people, and texts that located spiritual authority in a Buddha, especially the historical Buddha Siddhārtha Gautama; and “of China” as works written in the Sinitic languages as they were used in the polities that claimed continuity with the Qin and Han dynasties (thus excluding much noteworthy Buddhist Sinitic verse composed in Korea, Japan, Vietnam, and elsewhere). Chinese poetry intersected with Buddhism in a variety of ways, which varied considerably by time, place, and social setting. Some poems drew upon Buddhist scriptures for stories and images, some were composed at Buddhist settings, some passed on Buddhist teachings, some were informed by Buddhist doctrines, some were written by or addressed to Buddhist practitioners, some were recited during Buddhist rituals or sermons, and some were designed to perform Buddhist practices themselves. Buddhist institutions were ambivalent toward poetry. Canonical scriptures warned against excessive indulgence in literary and other arts, and later monastic rulebooks shared many of these concerns. At the same time, Buddhist institutions recognized that facility with literary language could be a powerful tool for expression and proselytization, and that certain kinds of aesthetic refinement was important for ritual efficacy. Individual Buddhists held all kinds of attitudes toward poetry—some monks denounced it as a dangerous, slippery slope toward laicization, while others obsessively wrote thousands of poems, sometimes justifying it in Buddhist terms and other times not. Most seem to have come to peace with poetry as an integral part of the Chinese cultural sphere that could not be completely proscribed. The Buddhist poetry of China remains a vibrant, living tradition to this day. This bibliography focuses on English-language studies (but includes some in other languages, especially Chinese) and is arranged by the categories typically addressed in existing scholarship: Buddhist poetry by literati, poetry by Buddhist monks, poetry by legendary Buddhists, practical and didactic Buddhist verse, and the influence of Buddhism on poetic theory.

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• Literary Debts in Tang China

  Monumenta Serica · 2023-01-02

  article1st authorCorresponding

  This article describes three concepts of debt that were prominent in the literary world of Tang China – money, merit, and meter – and makes a case for their fungibility in certain contexts. The relationship between the three was more than just metaphoric – all were forms of currency with exchange value within their own spheres. In some cases, debts of money, merit, and meter could be repaid not just in kind, but also with one of the other forms of currency. An understanding of these interconnected systems leads to a deeper understanding of one aspect of Chinese literary history – namely, the importance of Buddhism in the Tang literary world – and prompts questions that shed new light on its dynamics.

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Frequent coauthors

• Jeffrey Tharsen

  2 shared

• Chao-Lin Liu

  National Chengchi University

  1 shared

• Chen Jing

  1 shared

Education

• Ph.D., East Asian Studies

  Princeton University

  2017

• M.A., Comparative Literature

  University of Colorado Boulder

  2011

• B.A., English, Asian Studies

  Calvin College

  2007