David Ownby
- Published in print:
- 2008
- Published Online:
- May 2008
- ISBN:
- 9780195329056
- eISBN:
- 9780199870240
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/acprof:oso/9780195329056.003.0002
- Subject:
- Religion, World Religions
This chapter situates Falun Gong in the history of popular religion in late imperial and modern China, seeking to identify genealogical linkages among the late imperial White Lotus sectarian ...
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This chapter situates Falun Gong in the history of popular religion in late imperial and modern China, seeking to identify genealogical linkages among the late imperial White Lotus sectarian tradition, the redemptive societies of the Republican period, and the qigong movement (including Falun Gong) of China's reform era. It argues that all such groups should be called “redemptive societies,” which share the following characteristics: leadership by charismatic masters, who teach fundamentalist morality and techniques of corporal transformation and who offer the promise of redemption, in the forms of healing, supernormal powers, and perhaps immortality. Methodologically, this chapter illustrates that fieldwork is crucial if one wishes to go beyond the discourse of orthodoxy and heterodoxy that has been employed by the Chinese state for centuries to label and condemn certain popular religious groups and practices.Less
This chapter situates Falun Gong in the history of popular religion in late imperial and modern China, seeking to identify genealogical linkages among the late imperial White Lotus sectarian tradition, the redemptive societies of the Republican period, and the qigong movement (including Falun Gong) of China's reform era. It argues that all such groups should be called “redemptive societies,” which share the following characteristics: leadership by charismatic masters, who teach fundamentalist morality and techniques of corporal transformation and who offer the promise of redemption, in the forms of healing, supernormal powers, and perhaps immortality. Methodologically, this chapter illustrates that fieldwork is crucial if one wishes to go beyond the discourse of orthodoxy and heterodoxy that has been employed by the Chinese state for centuries to label and condemn certain popular religious groups and practices.
David Ownby
- Published in print:
- 2008
- Published Online:
- May 2008
- ISBN:
- 9780195329056
- eISBN:
- 9780199870240
- Item type:
- book
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/acprof:oso/9780195329056.001.0001
- Subject:
- Religion, World Religions
This book treats Falun Gong as an example of one form of Chinese popular religion, and the core of the volume, based on a close reading of founder Li Hongzhi's writings and on fieldwork among Falun ...
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This book treats Falun Gong as an example of one form of Chinese popular religion, and the core of the volume, based on a close reading of founder Li Hongzhi's writings and on fieldwork among Falun Gong practitioners in the Chinese diaspora in North America, offers a detailed description of the doctrine, practices, and appeal of Falun Dafa (the term practitioners use to describe their “cultivation practice”). It is argued that Falun Gong, and the larger qigong movement out of which Falun Gong emerged, should be understood as part of reform era China's religious revival and that the historical roots of Falun Gong may be traced through qigong to the redemptive societies of the Republican period and even to the White Lotus sectarian tradition of late imperial times. The nature and historical importance of these groups has often been obscured by a state discourse of orthodoxy and heterodoxy, which the study of Falun Gong allows us to problematize. The ongoing campaign of suppression waged by the Chinese state against Falun Gong suggests that this discourse is alive and well and illustrates the state's role in the politicization of popular religious organizations. The volume concludes that religions like Falun Gong have played a more important role in China's modern history than has been recognized and are likely to continue to play such roles in China's future.Less
This book treats Falun Gong as an example of one form of Chinese popular religion, and the core of the volume, based on a close reading of founder Li Hongzhi's writings and on fieldwork among Falun Gong practitioners in the Chinese diaspora in North America, offers a detailed description of the doctrine, practices, and appeal of Falun Dafa (the term practitioners use to describe their “cultivation practice”). It is argued that Falun Gong, and the larger qigong movement out of which Falun Gong emerged, should be understood as part of reform era China's religious revival and that the historical roots of Falun Gong may be traced through qigong to the redemptive societies of the Republican period and even to the White Lotus sectarian tradition of late imperial times. The nature and historical importance of these groups has often been obscured by a state discourse of orthodoxy and heterodoxy, which the study of Falun Gong allows us to problematize. The ongoing campaign of suppression waged by the Chinese state against Falun Gong suggests that this discourse is alive and well and illustrates the state's role in the politicization of popular religious organizations. The volume concludes that religions like Falun Gong have played a more important role in China's modern history than has been recognized and are likely to continue to play such roles in China's future.
David Ownby
- Published in print:
- 2008
- Published Online:
- May 2008
- ISBN:
- 9780195329056
- eISBN:
- 9780199870240
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/acprof:oso/9780195329056.003.0007
- Subject:
- Religion, World Religions
The conclusion uses the case of Falun Gong to probe deeper issues in the history and historiography of modern China, arguing that the metanarratives of politics and revolution have obscured the ...
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The conclusion uses the case of Falun Gong to probe deeper issues in the history and historiography of modern China, arguing that the metanarratives of politics and revolution have obscured the important roles that religion in general and redemptive societies in particular have played in China's modern experience. The popularity of Falun Gong and qigong in the Chinese diaspora suggests that redemptive societies are not simply a product of the post‐Mao era and that they are likely to reappear in one form or another as China becomes a more open, less controlled society.Less
The conclusion uses the case of Falun Gong to probe deeper issues in the history and historiography of modern China, arguing that the metanarratives of politics and revolution have obscured the important roles that religion in general and redemptive societies in particular have played in China's modern experience. The popularity of Falun Gong and qigong in the Chinese diaspora suggests that redemptive societies are not simply a product of the post‐Mao era and that they are likely to reappear in one form or another as China becomes a more open, less controlled society.
David Ownby
- Published in print:
- 2017
- Published Online:
- December 2016
- ISBN:
- 9780190494568
- eISBN:
- 9780190494582
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/acprof:oso/9780190494568.003.0008
- Subject:
- Religion, Religious Studies
This chapter chronicles the life of Li Yujie, student leader in the Shanghai May Fourth movement and Guomindang member who went on to found a redemptive society, the Tiandijiao (Heavenly Emperor ...
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This chapter chronicles the life of Li Yujie, student leader in the Shanghai May Fourth movement and Guomindang member who went on to found a redemptive society, the Tiandijiao (Heavenly Emperor Teachings) in Taiwan in the 1980s. Li was a technocrat in the Nanjing government’s Finance Ministry when he met Xiao Changming, the founder of the Tiandejiao (Heavenly Virtues Teachings). Li became Xiao’s lieutenant, helped him to establish his society in Shanghai, and was subsequently sent to Xi’an to proselytize. Li spent the eight years of the Sino-Japanese War on Huashan, one of China’s sacred mountains, where he corresponded with the gods via spirit-writing and authored his own sacred texts combining science with the White Lotus tradition. He succeeded Xiao to the leadership of the group after Xiao’s death in 1943, but for political reasons postponed most of his religious activities until after his retirement in 1965.Less
This chapter chronicles the life of Li Yujie, student leader in the Shanghai May Fourth movement and Guomindang member who went on to found a redemptive society, the Tiandijiao (Heavenly Emperor Teachings) in Taiwan in the 1980s. Li was a technocrat in the Nanjing government’s Finance Ministry when he met Xiao Changming, the founder of the Tiandejiao (Heavenly Virtues Teachings). Li became Xiao’s lieutenant, helped him to establish his society in Shanghai, and was subsequently sent to Xi’an to proselytize. Li spent the eight years of the Sino-Japanese War on Huashan, one of China’s sacred mountains, where he corresponded with the gods via spirit-writing and authored his own sacred texts combining science with the White Lotus tradition. He succeeded Xiao to the leadership of the group after Xiao’s death in 1943, but for political reasons postponed most of his religious activities until after his retirement in 1965.
Sebastien Billioud and Joel Thoraval
- Published in print:
- 2015
- Published Online:
- September 2015
- ISBN:
- 9780190258139
- eISBN:
- 9780190258160
- Item type:
- book
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/acprof:oso/9780190258139.001.0001
- Subject:
- Religion, Religion in the Ancient World
Based on a decade of fieldwork and a cross-disciplinary approach (anthropology, sociology, history), this book studies the popular revival of Confucianism that has taken place in China since the ...
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Based on a decade of fieldwork and a cross-disciplinary approach (anthropology, sociology, history), this book studies the popular revival of Confucianism that has taken place in China since the beginning of the twenty-first century. It does not primarily focus on intellectual or normative discourses but on the reappropriation and reinvention of popular practices in society. After a long twentieth century, during which Confucianism was often considered as ousted from history or confined to philosophical speculations, this book explores the new relations between the sage and the people in realms such as education, self-cultivation, religion, rituals, and politics. Empirically analyzing cases and narratives of activists involved in this “revival,” it attempts to understand their motivations, aspirations, difficulties, and achievements, as well as their ambiguous relation to Chinese politics. The Confucian revival is analyzed within the broader context of emerging challenges to great modernization narratives that prevailed throughout the twentieth century. Finally, by means of a comparison between state cults carried out in both Mainland China and Taiwan, the book discusses the articulation of the political and the religious and, beyond that, the contemporary fate of the Chinese cosmological tradition.Less
Based on a decade of fieldwork and a cross-disciplinary approach (anthropology, sociology, history), this book studies the popular revival of Confucianism that has taken place in China since the beginning of the twenty-first century. It does not primarily focus on intellectual or normative discourses but on the reappropriation and reinvention of popular practices in society. After a long twentieth century, during which Confucianism was often considered as ousted from history or confined to philosophical speculations, this book explores the new relations between the sage and the people in realms such as education, self-cultivation, religion, rituals, and politics. Empirically analyzing cases and narratives of activists involved in this “revival,” it attempts to understand their motivations, aspirations, difficulties, and achievements, as well as their ambiguous relation to Chinese politics. The Confucian revival is analyzed within the broader context of emerging challenges to great modernization narratives that prevailed throughout the twentieth century. Finally, by means of a comparison between state cults carried out in both Mainland China and Taiwan, the book discusses the articulation of the political and the religious and, beyond that, the contemporary fate of the Chinese cosmological tradition.
Fan Chunwu and David Ownby
- Published in print:
- 2017
- Published Online:
- December 2016
- ISBN:
- 9780190494568
- eISBN:
- 9780190494582
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/acprof:oso/9780190494568.003.0005
- Subject:
- Religion, Religious Studies
Duan Zhengyuan was the charismatic leader of the Moral Studies Society, an early example of a “redemptive society”; these were new religious movements that were the most vital expressions of Chinese ...
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Duan Zhengyuan was the charismatic leader of the Moral Studies Society, an early example of a “redemptive society”; these were new religious movements that were the most vital expressions of Chinese religiosity during the Republican period. These groups recycled traditional spiritual teachings (the scriptures were frequently conveyed via spirit-writing), often adding Western religions and embrace of science as part of their teachings, and marketed themselves as forms of “cultivation” (rather than “religion”) in which qigong or similar body technologies offered the promise of healing. Duan’s particular teachings drew on a “religionized Confucianism” with local roots in Duan’s home province of Sichuan. More generally, the redemptive societies served as popular vehicles for Confucian teachings, which had lost institutional support as well as that of much of the intellectual elite. Like Yinguang, Duan employed the tools of the new media technology of the time—including photographs—to spread his movement.Less
Duan Zhengyuan was the charismatic leader of the Moral Studies Society, an early example of a “redemptive society”; these were new religious movements that were the most vital expressions of Chinese religiosity during the Republican period. These groups recycled traditional spiritual teachings (the scriptures were frequently conveyed via spirit-writing), often adding Western religions and embrace of science as part of their teachings, and marketed themselves as forms of “cultivation” (rather than “religion”) in which qigong or similar body technologies offered the promise of healing. Duan’s particular teachings drew on a “religionized Confucianism” with local roots in Duan’s home province of Sichuan. More generally, the redemptive societies served as popular vehicles for Confucian teachings, which had lost institutional support as well as that of much of the intellectual elite. Like Yinguang, Duan employed the tools of the new media technology of the time—including photographs—to spread his movement.
Sébastien Billioud and Joël Thoraval
- Published in print:
- 2015
- Published Online:
- September 2015
- ISBN:
- 9780190258139
- eISBN:
- 9780190258160
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/acprof:oso/9780190258139.003.0002
- Subject:
- Religion, Religion in the Ancient World
Part I of the book is dedicated to the current revival of Confucianism-inspired jiaohua, that is, education associated with a transformative dimension. The objective of this chapter is to ...
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Part I of the book is dedicated to the current revival of Confucianism-inspired jiaohua, that is, education associated with a transformative dimension. The objective of this chapter is to contextualize the current revival of Confucian education by tracing lines of continuity that ran across the twentieth century. It introduces institutions (e.g., traditional schools, or sishu, and Confucian academies, or shuyuan) and projects that aimed at perpetuating or regenerating Confucian education. It also proposes a brief overview of the status ascribed to classical texts—and especially Confucian texts—in school curriculums and it introduces debates that have taken place about the importance to ascribe to those texts.Less
Part I of the book is dedicated to the current revival of Confucianism-inspired jiaohua, that is, education associated with a transformative dimension. The objective of this chapter is to contextualize the current revival of Confucian education by tracing lines of continuity that ran across the twentieth century. It introduces institutions (e.g., traditional schools, or sishu, and Confucian academies, or shuyuan) and projects that aimed at perpetuating or regenerating Confucian education. It also proposes a brief overview of the status ascribed to classical texts—and especially Confucian texts—in school curriculums and it introduces debates that have taken place about the importance to ascribe to those texts.
Xiaoxuan Wang
- Published in print:
- 2020
- Published Online:
- April 2020
- ISBN:
- 9780190069384
- eISBN:
- 9780190069414
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/oso/9780190069384.003.0002
- Subject:
- Religion, Religion and Society
Under nation-building efforts in the first half of the twentieth century, communal temples became targets of political and military appropriation, which shook the foundations of traditional communal ...
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Under nation-building efforts in the first half of the twentieth century, communal temples became targets of political and military appropriation, which shook the foundations of traditional communal religion in Rui’an and Wenzhou. Yet local religion continued to thrive. Protestant churches, the Catholic Church, traditional salvationist groups, and redemptive societies all grew rapidly, perhaps due in large part to the greater social uncertainty brought about by political turbulence and wars. Since its foundation in the region in the late 1920s, communist forces stayed close to local peasant society, including their religious communities. Before 1949, they both clashed and collaborated with religious groups, depending on the circumstances.Less
Under nation-building efforts in the first half of the twentieth century, communal temples became targets of political and military appropriation, which shook the foundations of traditional communal religion in Rui’an and Wenzhou. Yet local religion continued to thrive. Protestant churches, the Catholic Church, traditional salvationist groups, and redemptive societies all grew rapidly, perhaps due in large part to the greater social uncertainty brought about by political turbulence and wars. Since its foundation in the region in the late 1920s, communist forces stayed close to local peasant society, including their religious communities. Before 1949, they both clashed and collaborated with religious groups, depending on the circumstances.
Sébastien Billioud
- Published in print:
- 2020
- Published Online:
- August 2020
- ISBN:
- 9780197529133
- eISBN:
- 9780197529164
- Item type:
- book
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/oso/9780197529133.001.0001
- Subject:
- Religion, Religion and Society, World Religions
The Yiguandao (Way of Pervading Unity) was one of the major redemptive societies of Republican China. It is nowadays one of the largest and most influential religious movements of the Chinese world ...
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The Yiguandao (Way of Pervading Unity) was one of the major redemptive societies of Republican China. It is nowadays one of the largest and most influential religious movements of the Chinese world and at the same time one of the least known and understood. From its powerful base in Taiwan, it develops worldwide, including in Mainland China, where it nevertheless remains officially forbidden. Based on extensive ethnographic work carried out over nearly a decade, Reclaiming the Wilderness explores the expansionary dynamics of this group and its regional circulations such as they can be primarily observed from a Hong Kong perspective. It analyzes the proselytizing impetus of the adepts, the transmission of charisma and forms of leadership, the specific role of Confucianism that makes it possible for the group to defuse tension with Chinese authorities and, even sometimes, to cooperate with them. It also delves into Yiguandao’s well-structured expansionary strategies and in its quasi-diplomatic efforts to navigate the troubled waters of cross-strait politics. To readers primarily interested in Chinese studies, this work offers new perspectives on state–religion relationships in China, the Taiwan issue seen through the lenses of religion, or one of the modern and contemporary fates of Confucianism—that is, its appropriation by redemptive societies and religious organizations. But it also addresses theoretical questions that are relevant to completely different contexts and thus contributes to the fields of sociology, anthropology, and psychology of religion.Less
The Yiguandao (Way of Pervading Unity) was one of the major redemptive societies of Republican China. It is nowadays one of the largest and most influential religious movements of the Chinese world and at the same time one of the least known and understood. From its powerful base in Taiwan, it develops worldwide, including in Mainland China, where it nevertheless remains officially forbidden. Based on extensive ethnographic work carried out over nearly a decade, Reclaiming the Wilderness explores the expansionary dynamics of this group and its regional circulations such as they can be primarily observed from a Hong Kong perspective. It analyzes the proselytizing impetus of the adepts, the transmission of charisma and forms of leadership, the specific role of Confucianism that makes it possible for the group to defuse tension with Chinese authorities and, even sometimes, to cooperate with them. It also delves into Yiguandao’s well-structured expansionary strategies and in its quasi-diplomatic efforts to navigate the troubled waters of cross-strait politics. To readers primarily interested in Chinese studies, this work offers new perspectives on state–religion relationships in China, the Taiwan issue seen through the lenses of religion, or one of the modern and contemporary fates of Confucianism—that is, its appropriation by redemptive societies and religious organizations. But it also addresses theoretical questions that are relevant to completely different contexts and thus contributes to the fields of sociology, anthropology, and psychology of religion.
Sébastien Billioud and Joël Thoraval
- Published in print:
- 2015
- Published Online:
- September 2015
- ISBN:
- 9780190258139
- eISBN:
- 9780190258160
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/acprof:oso/9780190258139.003.0011
- Subject:
- Religion, Religion in the Ancient World
While still focusing primarily on state cults and the ambiguous intertwinement between the “religious” and the “political,” this chapter broadens the scope. While refusing any culturalistic ...
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While still focusing primarily on state cults and the ambiguous intertwinement between the “religious” and the “political,” this chapter broadens the scope. While refusing any culturalistic interpretation of history, it questions the possible perpetuation until today of fundamental schemes borrowed from an ancient cosmology. It exposes what is meant by this ancient cosmology (termed “continuism”) and emphasizes that its remains need to be understood within a modern context of ruptures and discontinuities. The argument is based on a comparative analysis of state-sponsored ceremonies taking place in both the People’s Republic of China (Confucius and the Yellow Emperor cult) and Taiwan (the Confucius cult and the “sacrifice to Heaven”). The chapter introduces ideal types of “political ceremonial” and “religious ritual” and an overall reflection about the different relations between the sage, the people, and the state on the two sides of the Taiwan straight. The discussion echoes current debates about an “ontological turn” in anthropology.Less
While still focusing primarily on state cults and the ambiguous intertwinement between the “religious” and the “political,” this chapter broadens the scope. While refusing any culturalistic interpretation of history, it questions the possible perpetuation until today of fundamental schemes borrowed from an ancient cosmology. It exposes what is meant by this ancient cosmology (termed “continuism”) and emphasizes that its remains need to be understood within a modern context of ruptures and discontinuities. The argument is based on a comparative analysis of state-sponsored ceremonies taking place in both the People’s Republic of China (Confucius and the Yellow Emperor cult) and Taiwan (the Confucius cult and the “sacrifice to Heaven”). The chapter introduces ideal types of “political ceremonial” and “religious ritual” and an overall reflection about the different relations between the sage, the people, and the state on the two sides of the Taiwan straight. The discussion echoes current debates about an “ontological turn” in anthropology.
Sébastien Billioud
- Published in print:
- 2017
- Published Online:
- December 2016
- ISBN:
- 9780190494568
- eISBN:
- 9780190494582
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/acprof:oso/9780190494568.003.0007
- Subject:
- Religion, Religious Studies
This chapter chronicles the life of Zhang Tianran, the Republican-period leader of China’s most successful redemptive society, Yiguandao (the Unity Way). In the 1930s and 1940s, Zhang presided over ...
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This chapter chronicles the life of Zhang Tianran, the Republican-period leader of China’s most successful redemptive society, Yiguandao (the Unity Way). In the 1930s and 1940s, Zhang presided over the astonishing expansion of Yiguandao’s fortunes, which began as a small, local group in Shandong and spread throughout the country before and after the Sino-Japanese War. Yiguandao’s success led to a massive campaign of suppression launched by the Communist regime in the early 1950s, one result of which was to thoroughly politicize Zhang’s biography, which is hopelessly divided between hagiography and demonization. Much of Billioud’s research draws on his fieldwork with contemporary Yiguandao groups in Hong Kong, Taiwan, China, and France, and explores the ways in which the group has harnessed Zhang’s charisma so as to maintain the group’s vitality.Less
This chapter chronicles the life of Zhang Tianran, the Republican-period leader of China’s most successful redemptive society, Yiguandao (the Unity Way). In the 1930s and 1940s, Zhang presided over the astonishing expansion of Yiguandao’s fortunes, which began as a small, local group in Shandong and spread throughout the country before and after the Sino-Japanese War. Yiguandao’s success led to a massive campaign of suppression launched by the Communist regime in the early 1950s, one result of which was to thoroughly politicize Zhang’s biography, which is hopelessly divided between hagiography and demonization. Much of Billioud’s research draws on his fieldwork with contemporary Yiguandao groups in Hong Kong, Taiwan, China, and France, and explores the ways in which the group has harnessed Zhang’s charisma so as to maintain the group’s vitality.
Xiaoxuan Wang
- Published in print:
- 2020
- Published Online:
- April 2020
- ISBN:
- 9780190069384
- eISBN:
- 9780190069414
- Item type:
- book
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/oso/9780190069384.001.0001
- Subject:
- Religion, Religion and Society
This book explores grassroots religious life under and after Mao in Rui’an County, Wenzhou, in southeastern China, a region widely known for its religious vitality. Drawing on hitherto unexplored ...
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This book explores grassroots religious life under and after Mao in Rui’an County, Wenzhou, in southeastern China, a region widely known for its religious vitality. Drawing on hitherto unexplored local state archives, records of religious institutions, memoirs, and interviews, it tells the story of local communities’ encounters with the Communist revolution, and their consequences, especially the competitions and struggles for religious property and ritual space. It demonstrates that, rather than being totally disrupted, religious life under Mao was characterized by remarkable variance and unevenness and was contingent on the interactions of local dynamics with Maoist campaigns—including the land reform, the Great Leap Forward, and the Cultural Revolution. The revolutionary experience strongly determined the trajectories and development patterns of different religions, inter-religious dynamics, and state-religion relationships in the post-Mao era. This book argues that Maoism was destructively constructive to Chinese religions. It permanently altered the religious landscape in China, especially by inadvertently promoting the localization and even (in some areas) the expansion of Protestant Christianity, as well as the reinvention of traditional communal religion. In this vein, the post-Mao religious revival had deep historical roots in the Mao years, and cannot be explained by contemporary economic motives and cultural logics alone. This book calls for a renewed understanding of Maoism and secularism in the People’s Republic of China.Less
This book explores grassroots religious life under and after Mao in Rui’an County, Wenzhou, in southeastern China, a region widely known for its religious vitality. Drawing on hitherto unexplored local state archives, records of religious institutions, memoirs, and interviews, it tells the story of local communities’ encounters with the Communist revolution, and their consequences, especially the competitions and struggles for religious property and ritual space. It demonstrates that, rather than being totally disrupted, religious life under Mao was characterized by remarkable variance and unevenness and was contingent on the interactions of local dynamics with Maoist campaigns—including the land reform, the Great Leap Forward, and the Cultural Revolution. The revolutionary experience strongly determined the trajectories and development patterns of different religions, inter-religious dynamics, and state-religion relationships in the post-Mao era. This book argues that Maoism was destructively constructive to Chinese religions. It permanently altered the religious landscape in China, especially by inadvertently promoting the localization and even (in some areas) the expansion of Protestant Christianity, as well as the reinvention of traditional communal religion. In this vein, the post-Mao religious revival had deep historical roots in the Mao years, and cannot be explained by contemporary economic motives and cultural logics alone. This book calls for a renewed understanding of Maoism and secularism in the People’s Republic of China.