Temples dedicated to Confucius are found throughout China and across East Asia, dating back over two thousand years. These sacred and magnificent sanctuaries hold deep cultural and political significance.
This book brings together studies from Chin-shing Huang's decades-long research into Confucius temples that individually and collectively consider Confucianism as religion. Huang uses the Confucius temple to explore Confucianism both as one of China's "three religions" (with Buddhism and Daoism) and as a cultural phenomenon, from the early imperial era through the present day. He argues for viewing Confucius temples as the holy ground of Confucianism, symbolic sites of sacred space that represent a point of convergence between political and cultural power. Their complex histories shed light on the religious nature and character of Confucianism and its status as official religion in imperial China. Huang examines topics such as the political and intellectual elements of Confucian enshrinement, how Confucius temples were brought into the imperial ritual system from the Tang dynasty onward, and why modern Chinese largely do not think of Confucianism as a religion.
A nuanced analysis of the question of Confucianism as religion, Confucianism and Sacred Space offers keen insights into Confucius temples and their significance in the intertwined intellectual, political, social, and religious histories of imperial China.
Rezensionen / Stimmen
Chin-shin Huang's book is a masterpiece of careful and diligent scholarship. -- John Butler * Asian Review of Books * This is a valuable translation of Chin-shing Huang's decades-long and learned study of Confucianism as a comprehensive historical tradition. Among his many insights, a most significant one is that, notwithstanding later denials, Confucianism cannot be understood unless seen in its religious dimension-albeit an elite and statist one. -- Prasenjit Duara, author of <i>The Crisis of Global Modernity: Asian Traditions and a Sustainable Future</i> Cutting through centuries of misguided theological and political debate, one of the world's most eminent historians of China charts the changing cultural, political, and institutional forces at work in Confucianism as a vibrant ritual system. -- Stephen F. Teiser, coeditor of <i>Readings of the Platform Sutra</i> Chin-shing Huang is one of the most distinguished and discerning scholars in Confucian studies today. His extensive account of Confucian temples as a ritual system in imperial and modern China is a magnificent contribution to the field. Its vast temporal range and its keen analysis of specific historical episodes illuminate the crucial elements that make Confucian temples essential to Chinese religious, cultural, and political life. -- Anna Sun, author of <i>Confucianism as a World Religion: Contested Histories and Contemporary Realities</i> Confucianism and Sacred Space brings to light the legacy of Chin-shing Huang, a leading scholar of Confucianism and Confucian temples, whose work has not received the attention it deserves in Western scholarship. -- James Flath, author of <i>Traces of the Sage: Monument, Materiality, and the First Temple of Confucius</i> Huang knows the history and culture of Confucius temples best and makes a case for regarding Confucianism as a religion, instead of just a philosophy. Underscoring that Confucianism was a state religion for ruling male elites, he counters a rising trend to portray it as a popular religion among the masses. -- Hoyt Cleveland Tillman, coauthor of <i>Cultural Authority and Political Culture in China: Exploring Issues with the Zhongyong and the Daotong During the Song, Jin, and Yuan Dynasties</i> The book is an informative and authoritative account of how Confucian temples served as the main carriers of Confucian religion in imperial China. I'd also recommend Huang's book as the authoritative source on how and why Confucianism declined as a religion in the late Qing and early Republic -- Daniel A. Bell * China Review * Exploring issues from the Han times up until the present, Huang demonstrates great depth of scholarship in these histories of the Confucian temple . . . This collection contains a wealth of thoroughly documented research that is not otherwise available in English-language scholarship. It presents multiple points of conversation for exploring the many things that are signified by the term 'Confucian.' -- Deborah Sommer * China Review International * This volume makes [Huang's arguments] accessible to students and interested laymen through fluent, even conversational translations. -- Julia K. Murray * Monumenta Serica * Heartily recommended to scholars and all those interested in Chinese Confucianism, religion, and history. * Religious Studies Review *
Sprache
Verlagsort
Zielgruppe
Produkt-Hinweis
Illustrationen
8 b&w photographs and illustrations
Maße
Höhe: 229 mm
Breite: 152 mm
ISBN-13
978-0-231-19896-7 (9780231198967)
Copyright in bibliographic data and cover images is held by Nielsen Book Services Limited or by the publishers or by their respective licensors: all rights reserved.
Schweitzer Klassifikation
Chin-shing Huang is distinguished research fellow and vice president of Academia Sinica in Taiwan. His books in English include Philosophy, Philology, and Politics in Eighteenth-Century China: Li Fu and the Lu-Wang School Under the Ch'ing (1995) and Business as a Vocation: The Autobiography of Wu Ho-su (2002).
Preface
Introduction. The Confucius Temple as a Ritual System: Manifestations of Power, Belief, and Legitimacy in Traditional China
1. Expanding the Symbolic Meaning and Function of the Rites: The Evolution of Confucius Temples in Imperial China
2. Confucianism as a Religion: A Comparative Study of Traditional Chinese Religions
3. Sages and Saints: A Comparative Study of Canonization in Confucianism and Christianity
4. The Cultural Politics of Autocracy: The Confucius Temple and Ming Despotism, 1368-1530
5. Xunzi: The Confucius Temple's Absentee
6. The Disenchantment with Confucianism in Modern China
7. The Lonely Confucius Temples Across the Taiwan Straits: The Difficult Transformation of Modern China's Traditional Culture
Conclusion: Reflections on My Study of Confucianism as a Religion
Notes
Bibliography
Index
