How is the city narrated and remembered in Yang Xuanzhi’s nostalgic recollection of Buddhist monasteries, well illustrated by rich histories and anecdotes of all sorts in Northern Wei Luoyang? What perspectives does the narrator take? How does religious space serve as a central locus where political authorities, Buddhist embodiments, cultured elites, and lay men and women at large intersect? To what extent do monasteries and nunneries become “semi-public” sites, in Mark Lewis’s words, which not only witness religious performances, but also are conducive to the accumulation and display of extraordinary things, people, and deeds? What role does gender play in the demarcation and blurring of social boundaries? What do you make of foreign imports, both religious and secular, to the city? How do you comprehend the retelling of miraculous or uncanny stories attached to the monastic spaces?
