Vol. 27 No. 1 (2021): Dossier - Visions of Chinese History
Dossiê

1898: the Beginning of the End for Chinese Religion?

pdf (Português (Brasil))
  • Vincent Goossaert
DOI: https://doi.org/10.34019/2594-8296.2021.v27.33104

Published 2021-05-13

Keywords

  • Chinese Religion,
  • Qing Dynasty,
  • Religious reforms in China,
  • Shenbao

How to Cite

Goossaert, Vincent. 2021. “1898: The Beginning of the End for Chinese Religion?”. Locus: History Journal 27 (1):23-60. https://doi.org/10.34019/2594-8296.2021.v27.33104.

Copyright (c) 2021 Vincent Goossaert

Creative Commons License

This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License.

Abstract

On July 10, 1898, the reformist leader Kang Youwei 康有為 (1858–1927) memorialized the throne proposing that all academies and temples in China, with the exception of those included in registers of state sacrifices (sidian 祀典), be turned into schools. The Guangxu Emperor was so pleased with the proposal that he promulgated an edict (shangyu 上諭) the same day taking over Kang’s phrasing. On three occasions in the following weeks, the editorial in the famous Shanghai daily Shenbao 申報 discussed the edict not as a piece of legislation aiming at facilitating the creation ex nihilo of a nationwide network of public schools, but as the declaration of a religious reform, that is, a change in religious policy that would rid China of temple cults and their specialists, Buddhists, Taoists, and spirit-mediums. This it was, indeed, although both Chinese and Western historiography have so far usually neglected to appreciate the importance of the religious element in the so-called Wuxu reforms (June 11–September 21, 1898) and later modernist policies. This importance, as we will see, can be gauged both in the writings of some of the reformist leaders, and among the populations concerned by the practical consequences.

pdf (Português (Brasil))

Downloads

Download data is not yet available.

References

  1. A Ying 阿英. Wanqing xiaoshuo shi 晚清小說史 (A history of late Qing novels). Hong Kong: Zhonghua shuju Xianggang fenju, 1973.
  2. Ayers, William. Chang Chih-tung and Educational Reform in China. Cambridge: Harvard University Press, 1971.
  3. Bailey, Paul J. Reform the People: Changing Attitudes towards Popular Education in early twentieth-century China. Vancouver: University of British Columbia Press, 1990.
  4. Bastid-Bruguière, Marianne. “Sacrifices d’État et légitimité à la fin des Qing” (State sacrifices and legitimacy during the late Qing). T’oung-pao, 83 (1997): 162–73. https://doi.org/10.1163/1568532972631011
  5. Bastid-Bruguière, Marianne. “Liang Qichao yu zongjiao wenti 梁啟超與宗教問題” (Liang Qichao and the question of religion). Tôhô gakuhô 東方學報, 70 (1998): 329–73.
  6. Bastid-Bruguière, Marianne. “La campagne antireligieuse de 1922” (The 1922 anti-religious campaign). Extrême-Orient Extrême-Occident, 24 (2002): 77–93. https://doi.org/10.3406/oroc.2002.1151
  7. Bauberot, Jean. Laïcité 1905–2005 entre passion et raison (Secularism [“laïcité”], 1905–2005. Between passion and reason). Paris: Seuil, 2004.
  8. Butler, Matthew. “Keeping the Faith in Revolutionary Mexico: Clerical and Lay Resistance to Religious Persecution, East Michoacán, 1926–1929”. The Americas, 59, n.1 (2002): 9–32. https://doi.org/10.1353/tam.2002.0067
  9. Chen Xiyuan 陳熙遠, “Confucianism Encounters Religion: The Formation of Religious Discourse and the Confucian Movement in Modern China.” PhD diss. Harvard University, 1999.
  10. Chen Xiyuan 陳熙遠. “‘Zongjiao’ – yige Zhongguo jindai wenhua shi shang de guanjian ci 宗教 – 一個中國近代文化史上的關鍵詞.” (‘Religion,’ a key term in the history of modern Chinese culture) Xin shixue 新史學 , 13, n.4 (2002): 37–66.
  11. Chow Kai-wing 周啟榮, The Rise of Confucian Ritualism in Late Imperial China: Ethics, Classics, and Lineage Discourse. Stanford, Calif.: Stanford University Press, 1994.
  12. Clart, Philip. “Confucius and the Mediums: Is there a ‘Popular Confucianism’?”. T’oung-pao, 89, n.1–3 (2003): 1–38. https://doi.org/10.1163/156853203322691301
  13. Dongfang zazhi 東方雜誌 (Eastern Miscellany), 1904–.Mensal.
  14. Duara, Prasenjit. Culture, Power, and the State. Rural North China, 1900–1942. Stanford, Calif.: Stanford University Press, 1988.
  15. Duara, Prasenjit. “Knowledge and Power in the Discourse of Modernity: The Campaigns against Popular Religion in Early Twentieth-Century China”. Journal of Asian Studies, 50 (1991): 67–83. https://doi.org/10.2307/2057476
  16. Duara, Prasenjit. Rescuing History from the Nation: Questioning Narratives of Modern China. Chicago: Chicago University Press, 1995. https://doi.org/10.7208/chicago/9780226167237.001.0001
  17. Duara, Prasenjit. Sovereignty and Authenticity. Manchukuo and the East Asian Modern. Lanham, Md.: Rowman and Littlefield, 2003.
  18. Faure, David. “The Emperor in the Village: Representing the State in South China”. In State and Court Ritual in China, ed. Joseph P. McDermott, 267-98. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1999.
  19. Feuchtwang, Stephan. “A Chinese Religion Exists”. In An Old State in New Settings: Studies in the Social Anthropology of China in Memory of Maurice Freedman, ed. Hugh D.R Baker, and Stephan Feuchtwang, 139-61. Oxford: JASO, 1991.
  20. Franke, Wolfgang. The Reform and Abolition of the Traditional Chinese Examination System. Cambridge, Mass.: Center for East Asian Studies, 1960. https://doi.org/10.1163/9781684171415
  21. Goldfuss, Gabriele. Vers un bouddhisme du XXe siècle. Yang Wenhui (1837–1911), réformateur laïque et imprimeur (Towards a Twentieth-Century Buddhism. Yang Wenhui (1837–1911), Lay Reformer and Publisher). Paris: Collège de France, Institut des Hautes Études Chinoises, 2001.
  22. Goossaert, Vincent. “La gestion des temples chinois au XIXe siècle: droit coutumier ou laisser-faire?” (The Management of Chinese Temples during the Nineteenth Century: Customary Law or Laisser-Faire?). Extrême-Orient Extrême-Occident, 23 (2001): 9–25. https://doi.org/10.3406/oroc.2001.1132
  23. Goossaert, Vincent. “Anatomie d’un discours anticlérical: le Shenbao, 1872–1878” (The Anatomy of an Anticlerical Discourse: the Shenbao, 1872–1878). Extrême-Orient Extrême-Occident, 24 (2002a): 113–31. https://doi.org/10.3406/oroc.2002.1154
  24. Goossaert, Vincent, ed. “Anticléricalisme en Chine” (Anticlericalism in China). Extrême-Orient Extrême-Occident, 24, 2002b.
  25. Goossaert, Vincent. “Starved of Resources. Clerical Hunger and Enclosures in Nineteenth-Century China”. Harvard Journal of Asiatic Studies, 62, n.1 (2002c): 77–133. https://doi.org/10.2307/4126585
  26. Goossaert, Vincent. “Le destin de la religion chinoise au 20e siècle”. (Chinese Religion’s Twentieth-Century Destiny). Social Compass, 50, n.4 (2003): 429–40. https://doi.org/10.1177/0037768603504002
  27. Guangxu chao donghua lu 光緒朝東華錄 (Official Records of the Guangxu reign). Beijing: Zhonghua shuju, 1958.
  28. Hardacre, Helen. Shintô and the state, 1868–1988. Princeton, N.J.: Princeton University Press, 1989. https://doi.org/10.1515/9780691221298
  29. He Changling 賀長齡 (1785–1848). Huangchao jingshi wenbian 皇朝經世文編 (Anthology of Statecraft Essays of Our [Qing] Dynasty). Shanghai: Guangbaisong zhai, 1889. (Publ. original, 1826.)
  30. Hu Shi 胡適. Hu Shi zaonian wencun 胡適早年文存 (Prose Writings of the Young Hu Shi). Taipei: Yuanliu chuban shiye gongsi, 1995.
  31. Huang Zhangjian 黃彰健. Kang Youwei wuxu zhen zouyi (fu Kang Youwei wei wuxu zougao) 康有為戊戌真奏議 (附康有為偽戊戌奏稿) (Authentic Memorials by Kang Youwei in 1898. Appendix: Spurious Memorial Drafts). Taipei: Zhongyang yanjiuyuan Lishi yuyan yanjiusuo, Shiliao congshu, 1974.
  32. Husband, William B. Godless Communists: Atheism and Society in Soviet Russia, 1917–1932. DeKalb: Northern Illinois University Press, 2000.
  33. Janku, Andrea. Nur leere Reden: Politischer Diskurs und die Shanghaier Presse im China des späten 19. Jahrhunderts (Just Empty Words: Political Discourse and the Shanghai Press in Late Nineteenth-Century China). Wiesbaden: Harrassowitz, 2003.
  34. Jiang Zhushan 蔣竹山. “Tang Bin jinhui Wutong shen – Qingchu zhengzhi jingying daji tongsu wenhua de gean 湯斌禁毀五通神 –清初政治菁英打擊通俗文化的個案.” (Tang Bin’s Destruction of the Wutong (Temples). A Case of Early Qing Political Elite’s Attack on Popular Culture) Xin shixue 新史學 6, n.2 (1995): 67–110.
  35. Jochim, Christian. “Carrying Confucianism into the Modern World: The Taiwan Case”. In Religion in Modern Taiwan. Tradition and Innovation in a Changing Society, ed. Philip Clart, and Charles B. Jones, 48–83. Honolulu: University of Hawai’i Press, 2003.
  36. Kang Youwei. Kang Youwei quanji 康有為全集 (Complete Works of Kang Youwei), ed. Jiang Yihua 姜義華, Wu Genliang 吳根樑. Shanghai: Shanghai guji chubanshe, 1990.
  37. Karl, Rebecca E., and Peter Zarrow, eds. Rethinking the 1898 Reform Period: Political and Cultural Change in late Qing China. Cambridge, Mass.: Harvard University Asia Center, 2002. https://doi.org/10.1163/9781684173747
  38. Ketelaar, James Edward. Of Heretics and Martyrs in Meiji Japan: Buddhism and its Persecution. Princeton, N.J.: Princeton University Press, 1990.
  39. Kojima Tsuyoshi 小島毅. “Seishi to inshi: Fukken no chihôshi ni okeru kijutsu to rami 正祠と淫祠: 福建の地方志における記述と論理.” (Proper and Improper Cults: Theory and Descriptions in Fujian Gazetteers). Tôyô Bunka Kenkyûjo kiyô 東洋文化研究所紀要 114 (1991): 87–213.
  40. Lee Fong-mao 李豐楙. “Lisheng yu daoshi: Taiwan minjian shehui zhong liyi shijian de liangge mianxiang 禮生與道士台灣民間社會中禮儀實踐的兩個面向.” (Confucian Priests and Taoist Priests: Two Aspects of Ritual Practice in Taiwanese Society). In Shehui minzu yu wenhua zhanyan guoji yantaohui lunwenji 社會民族與文化展演國際研討會論文集 (Proceedings of the International Conference on Society, Ethnicity, and Cultural Performance), ed. Wang Ch’iu-kuei 王秋桂, Chuang Ying-chang 莊英章, and Ch’en Chung-min 陳中民. Taipei: Hanxue yanjiu zhongxin, 2001, 331–64.
  41. Li Boyuan 李佰元. Xingshi yuan tanci 醒世緣彈詞 (A Drum-Story to Awaken the World). Vol. 3 of Li Boyuan quanji 李伯元全集 (Complete Works of Li Boyuan). Nanjing: Jiangsu guji chubanshe, 1997.
  42. Li Xiaoti 李孝悌. Qingmo de xiaceng shehui qimeng yundong: 1901–1911 清末的下層社會啟蒙運動 (The Movement for the Education of the Lower Classes during the Late Qing, 1901–1911). Taipei: Zhongyang yanjiuyuan Jindaishi yanjiusuo, 1992.
  43. Liu Ruji 劉汝驥. Taopi Gongdu 陶甓公牘 (Official Papers from the Brick Kiln). Vol. 10 of Guanzhen shu jicheng 官箴書集成 (Compendium of Bureaucratic Handbooks). Hefei: Huangshan shushe, 1911/1997.
  44. Mair, Victor. “Language and Ideology in the Written Popularizations of the Sacred Edict”. In Popular Culture in Late Imperial China, ed. David Johnson, Andrew J. Nathan, and Evelyn S. Rawski, 325–59. Berkeley: University of California Press, 1985. https://doi.org/10.1525/9780520340121-014
  45. Makita Tairyô 枚田諦亮. “Seimotsu irai ni okeru byôsan kôgaku 清末以來に於ける廟產興學.” (The Movement for Building Schools with Temple Property since the Late Qing). In Chûgoku bukkyôshi kenkyû 中國佛教史研究 (Studies on Chinese Buddhist History), vol. 2, 290–318. Tokyo: Taito shuppansha, 1984, [originalmente publicado em Chûgoku kinsei bukkyô shi kenkyû 中國今世佛教史研究. Kyoto: Heirakuji shoten, 1957].
  46. Mitani Takashi 三谷考. “Nankin seiken to ‘meishin daha undô’ (1928–1929) 南京政權と迷信打破運動.” (The anti-superstition campaign of the Nanking regime, 1928–29) Rekishigaku kenkyû 歷史學研究 455, n.4 (1978): 1–14.
  47. Mittler, Barbara. A newspaper for China? Power, Identity, and Change in Shanghai’s News Media, 1872–1912. Cambridge, Mass.: Harvard University Asia Center, 2004. https://doi.org/10.1163/9781684173884
  48. Nedostup, Rebecca Allyn. “Religion, Superstition, and Governing Society in Nationalist China”. PhD diss., Columbia University, 2001.
  49. Picard, Michel. “What’s in a Name? Agama Hindu Bali in the Making.” In Hinduism in Modern Indonesia. A Minority Religion between Local, National and Global Interests, ed. Martin Ramstedt. London and New York: Routledge Curzon-IIAS Asian Studies Series, 2003.
  50. Prazniak, Roxann. Of Camel Kings and Other Things. Rural Rebels against Modernity in Late Imperial China. Lanham: Rowman and Littlefield, 1999.
  51. Qinghua Daxue Lishixi 清華大學歷史系. Wuxu bianfa wenxian ziliao xiri 戊戌變法文獻資料系日 (Documents of the 1898 Reforms Arranged Chronologically). Shanghai: Shanghai shudian chubanshe, 1998.
  52. Rhoads, Edward. China’s Republican Revolution: The Case of Kwangtung, 1895–1913. Cambridge, Mass.: Harvard University Press, 1975.
  53. Rowe, William T. Saving the World. Chen Hongmou and Elite Consciousness in Eighteenth-Century China. Stanford, Calif.: Stanford University Press, 2001.
  54. Saomi zhou 掃迷帚 (The Broom to Sweep Away Superstitions). In Wanqing wenxue congchao 晚清文學叢鈔 (A Collection of Late Qing Literature), “Xiaoshuo yi juan, xiace 小說一卷下冊,” (Novels, First Volume), ed. A Ying 阿英. Beijing: Zhonghua shuju, 1960.
  55. Sawada Mizuho 澤田瑞穗. “Seimotsu no shiten mondai 清末の祀典問題” (The Problem of the Sacrificial Register during the Late Qing). In Chûgoku no minkan shinkô 中國の民間信仰 (Chinese Popular Beliefs). Tokyo: Kôsakusha, 1982.
  56. Schneewind, Sarah. “Competing Institutions: Community Schools and ‘Improper Shrines’ in Sixteenth-Century China.” Late Imperial China 20, n.1 (1999): 85–106. https://doi.org/10.1353/late.1999.0003
  57. Shenbao 申報. 1872–1949. Diário.
  58. Shi Dongchu 釋東初. Zhongguo fojiao jindai shi 中國佛教近代史 (Modern History of Chinese Buddhism). Taipei: Dongchu chubanshe, 1974.
  59. Shi Zhouren 施舟人 (Kristofer Schipper). “Daojiao zai jindai Zhongguo de bianqian 道教在近代中國的變遷.” (The Transformation of Taoism in Modern China). In Zhongguo wenhua jiyin ku 中國文化基因庫 (The Gene Bank of Chinese Culture), 146-62. Beijing: Beijing daxue chubanshe, 2002.
  60. Shishi baoguan wushen quannian huabao 時事報館戊申全年畫報 (Illustrated News of the Year 1908 Published by the Shishi baoguan). 1909. In Qingmo minchu baokan tuhua jicheng 清末民初報刊圖畫集成 (An Anthology of the Late Qing and Early Republican Illustrated Press), Guojia tushuguan fenguan 國家圖書館分館, comp., vols. 10-17. Beijing: Quanguo tushuguan wenxian weisuo fuzhi zhongxin, 2003.
  61. Song Shu. Song Shu ji 宋恕集 (Complete Works of Song Shu, 1862–1910). Beijing: Zhonghua shuju, 1993.
  62. Sutton, Donald. “From Credulity to Scorn: Confucians Confront the Spirit Mediums in Late Imperial China”. Late Imperial China, 21, n.2 (2000):1–39. https://doi.org/10.1353/late.2000.0010
  63. Szonyi, Michael. “The Illusion of Standardizing the Gods: The Cult of the Five Emperors in Late Imperial China”. Journal of Asian Studies, 56, n. 1 (1997): 113–35. https://doi.org/10.2307/2646345
  64. Thompson, Roger. “Statecraft and Self-Government: Competing Visions of Community and State in Late Imperial China”. Modern China, 14, n. 2 (1988): 188–221. https://doi.org/10.1177/009770048801400203
  65. Vittinghoff, Natascha. Die Anfänge des Journalismus in China (1860–1911) (The Beginnings of Journalism in China, 1860–1911). Wiesbaden: Harrassowitz, 2002.
  66. Wagner, Rudolf. “The Early Chinese Newspapers and the Chinese Public Sphere”. European Journal of East Asia History, 1 (2001): 1–33. https://doi.org/10.1163/157006102775123012
  67. Wang, David Der-wei. Fin-de-siècle Splendor. Repressed Modernities of Late Qing Fiction, 1849–1911. Stanford, Calif.: Stanford University Press, 1997.
  68. Wang Di. Street Culture in Chengdu. Public Space, Urban Commoners, and Local Politics, 1870–1930. Stanford, Calif.: Stanford University Press, 2003.
  69. Wang Shuhuai 王樹槐, “Qingmo Jiangsu difang zizhi fengchao 清末江蘇地方自治風潮” (The Unrests Caused by Local Self-Government in Late-Qing Jiangsu) Zhongyang yanjiuyuan Jindaishi yanjiusuo jikan 中央研究院近代史研究所集刊 6 (1977): 313–27.
  70. Welch, Holmes. The Buddhist Revival in China. Cambridge, Mass.: Harvard University Press, 1968.
  71. Wu Jianren 吳趼人. Xiapian qiwen 瞎騗奇聞 (Strange Stories of Stupidity and Fraud). Huhehaote: Neimenggu renmin chubanshe (Zhongguo lidai guben Xiaoshuo qingpin daxi), 1908/1998.
  72. Yufo yuan 玉佛緣 (The Cause of the Jade Buddha). In Xiaoshuo yi juan, xiace 小說一卷下冊, vol. 1 de Wanqing wenxue congchao 晚清文學叢鈔, ed. A Ying 阿英. Beijing: Zhonghua shuju, 1960.
  73. Zhang Jian 張謇. Zhang Jizi jiulu 張季子九錄 (Zhang Jian’s Essays, in Nine Collections). Shanghai: Zhonghua shuju, 1931.
  74. Zhang Taiyan 章太炎. Qiushu 訄書 (Urgency). Vol. 3 de Zhang Taiyan quanji 章太炎全集 (Complete Works of Zhang Taiyan). Shanghai: Shanghai renmin chubanshe, 1984.
  75. Zhang Zhidong. Zhang Zhidong quanji 張之洞全集(Complete Works of Zhang Zhidong). Shijiazhuang: Hebei renmin chubanshe, 1998.
  76. Zhang Zhidong, Rongqing 榮慶 e Zhang Baixi. Zouding xuetang zhangcheng 奏定學堂章程 (School Regulations approved by the Emperor). S.l.: Hubei xuewuchu, 1904.
  77. Zhejiang fengsu gailiang qianshuo 浙江風俗改良淺說 (Straightforward Speeches for Reforming the Customs in Zhejiang). Hangzhou: Zhejiang guanbao, 1910.
  78. Zheng Guanying 鄭觀應. Shengshi weiyan 盛世危言 (Daring Words in an Age of Abundance). Zhengzhou: Zhongguo guji chubanshe, 1998.