@inbook{c85e5d0965764a1d804b28505dc67cfb,
title = "Branches and Bones: The Transformative Matter of Coral in Ming Dynasty China",
abstract = "Through international trade, coral fragments from the Mediterranean Sea arrived in Ming dynasty China. There, they were represented in paintings as a significant constituent of pan-Asian Buddhist iconographies. Against the backdrop of coral{\textquoteright}s meanings in early modern Europe and its trade links to Asia, this chapter investigates red coral in Ming dynasty China with a focus on Buddhist imagery, particularly through Korean paintings and Indian mythology. Entangled in a web of transcultural meanings, coral was perceived as having a unique ability to transform. It was viewed as an object “in between”: between global and local spaces, between resembling tree branches and the blood-covered bones of self-sacrifice, between foreign commodity and sacred offering.",
keywords = "Coral, Ming dynasty, Buddhism, Korea, India, Mythology, Paintings",
author = "Anna Grasskamp",
note = "Publisher copyright: {\textcopyright} The Editor(s) (if applicable) and The Author(s) 2019",
year = "2018",
month = dec,
day = "6",
doi = "10.1007/978-3-319-96379-2_5",
language = "English",
isbn = "9783319963785",
series = "Europe's Asian Centuries",
publisher = "Palgrave Macmillan",
pages = "119--148",
editor = "Michael Bycroft and Sven Dupr{\'e}",
booktitle = "Gems in the Early Modern World",
edition = "1",
}