SOS Could anyone help me to read my lines?

Hi everybody, this forum is very knowledgeable, could anyone help me? From 6 yeas, I didn’t writer in English. Now I must send an email to a professor to ask him some questions. I’m afraid that he couldn’t understand my poor English. Would you please read my lines and correct my sentences?

Dear professor,

I am doctoral student at Ecole des Hautes Etudes in Paris and I am process of writing my dissertation devoted to examining “Representations of emperors in monasteries and temples under T’ang and Song”. Professor *** gave me your email address and advised me to writer to you for some intractable questions:

I)                About the statues that Xuanzong (Li Longji)ordered in 743 to establish in Kaiyuan monasteries and Kaiyuan temples, some history sources reported those images represented probably the emperor in form of the Celestial Venerable of the Primordial Beginning (Yuanshi Tianzun), but we know the most of figures of Xuanzong in place of worship took his own look or the appearance of Immortals (Zhenren)(for example in Ziji Palace and Shangqing Palace), do you think, from the point of view of Taoist theory and in the background which the court imperial venerated Laozi as their ancestor, it was possible that an icon was made for representing Tang sovereign in form of Yuanshi Tianzun? If it was, is that judged incoherent with the figure in form of Zhenren?

II)              Did Taoists have the same tendency as their Buddhist opponents to developer at level of theory the idée of“God-Emperor”by identifying the emperor with the divinity?  

I am perplexed by these questions for a long time. Would you please give me some advises?  I’d appreciate you sending me any information you have available.

Thanks for your time.  

Yours faithfully,"

Duplicate post

You need to fix the highlighted bits.

Helenezh wrote:

Dear professor ***,  I am a doctoral student at Ecole des Hautes Etudes in Paris and I am process of writing my dissertation devoted to examining “Representations of emperors in monasteries and temples under T’ang and Song”. Professor *** gave me your email address and advised me to writer to you for some intractable questions:  About the statues that Xuanzong (Li Longji)ordered in 743 to establish in Kaiyuan monasteries and Kaiyuan temples, some history sources reported that those images represented the emperor in form of the Celestial Venerable of the Primordial Beginning (Yuanshi Tianzun), but we know the most of figures of Xuanzong in place of worship took his own look or the appearance of Immortals (Zhenren)(for example in Ziji Palace and Shangqing Palace).  Do you think, from the point of view of Taoist theory and in the background which the court imperial venerated Laozi as their ancestor, it was possible that an icon was made for representing Tang sovereign in the form of Yuanshi Tianzun? If it was, is that judged incoherent with the figure in form of Zhenren? (I don't understand your question either, and I'm Chinese.) Did Taoists have the same tendency as their Buddhist opponents to developer at level of theory the idée (spelling) of“God-Emperor”by identifying the emperor with the divinity?    I have been perplexed by these questions for a long time. Would you please give me some advises (spelling)?  I’d appreciate you sending me any information you have available. Thanks for your time.    Yours faithfully,

Helenezh wrote:

Hi everybody, this forum is very knowledgeable, could anyone help me? From 6 yeas, I didn’t writer in English. Now I must send an email to a professor to ask him some questions. I’m afraid that he couldn’t understand my poor English. Would you please read my lines and correct my sentences?  " Dear professor,  Professor [name] I am a doctoral student at the Ecole des Hautes Etudes in Paris and I am in process of writing my dissertation devoted to examining “Representations of emperors in monasteries and temples under the  T’ang and Song dynasties”. Professor *** gave me your e-mail address and advised me to write to you for some intractable questions: about some problems I have met.   I)                About the statues that Xuanzong (Li Longji)ordered in 743 to establish place in Kaiyuan monasteries and Kaiyuan temples, some history sources reported that those images probably represented  the emperor in form of the Celestial Venerable of the Primordial Beginning (Yuanshi Tianzun), but we know that most of figures of Xuanzong in places of worship took his own look were portraits or took the form  of Immortals (Zhenren)(for example in Ziji Palace and Shangqing Palace). Do you think, from the point of view of Taoist theory and in terms of the background in which the Imperial Court venerated Laozi as their ancestor, that it was possible that an icon was made for representing the Tang sovereign in the form of Yuanshi Tianzun? If it was, is that judged inconsistent with the figure in the form of Zhenren? II)              Did Taoists have the same tendency as their Buddhist opponents to develop at a theoretical level  the concept of  of“God-Emperor” by identifying the emperor with divinity?   I have been perplexed by these questions for a long time. Would you please give me some advice?  I’d appreciate you sending me any information you have available. Thanks for your time.   Yours sincerely,"

Hi Clive,

ok! I got you correction. And I followed your suggestions that I think very helpful. In fact, I must express at first my boundless gratitude for you, all of anonymous friends, in my dissertation..

I formulated again my second question. Do you understand?

II) Certain Taoists under the T’ang (for example Du Guangting) declared that the heavenly deities such as the Great Saint (dasheng), the zhenren, the zhenren on High (gaozhen), the Superior Immprtal (shangxian) and the Seven Primordial Lords of the Plough (beidou qiyuanjun) would descend to earth one after another to be the sovereign; after completing their mission on earth, the deities would then return to heaven. But how about Tianzun? Does he also descend to earth to be the sovereign? Were there some emperors who were viewed as the incarnation of Tianzun?

thanks

hélène