Religion in Modern China : Chau; Fan & Whitehead

1. Religion in Modern China:Chau; Fan & Whitehead “Reclaiming and refashioning their traditions in order to move on” (Sociology 156)

2. Chau • A question of how people do religion • “These modalities are frameworks for religious practice and action. They both restrain and enable people to express their religious imagination in words, images sculptural and architectural forms, and actions.” • Some more common among some classes, ethnic groups, etc. than others • Form & content influence one another dialectically • An vast number of beliefs in Chinese religion, but a limited number of modalities • Ideal types (67-68) • “Three teachings” model (Confucianism, Daoism, Buddhism) “half reality and half reification. [...] What happens on the ground ‘religiously’ is very much a congruence of local customs, historical accidents, social environment, personal temperaments, and configurations of modalities of doing religion.” (82)

3. 1. Discursive/Scriptural Modality • “This modality often requires a high level of literacy and a penchant for philosophical and ‘theological’ thinking.” • “Paradigmatic forms include reading, thinking about, discussing, debating, composing, translating, and commenting on religious texts.” • “Great texts” of Confucian, Buddhist, Daoist traditions • Western bias toward thinking of religion in this way

4. 2. The Personal-Cultivational Modality • “This modality presupposes a long-term interest in cultivating and transforming onself.” • Daoism: to become an immortal; Buddhism: to be reincarnated in a better life or achieve nirvana; Confucianism: to become a man of virtue or approach sagehood • “The shared element is the concern with one’s own onltological status and destiny, something akin to Foulcaultian ‘care of the self.’ In other words, the practices in this modality provide ‘technologies of the self.’” • Popular (chanting, memorization) and elite (working on scriptures, poetry, asceticism, calligraphy) (71-72)

5. 2. The Personal-Cultivational Modality • The Great Learning • The ancients who wished to illustrate illustrious virtue throughout the kingdom, first ordered well their own states. Wishing to order well their states, they first regulated their families. Wishing to regulate their families, they first cultivated their persons. Wishing to cultivate their persons, they first rectified their hearts. Wishing to rectify their hearts, they first sought to be sincere in their thoughts. Wishing to be sincere in their thoughts, they first extended to the utmost their knowledge. Such extension of knowledge lay in the investigation of things.  • Things being investigated, knowledge became complete. Their knowledge being complete, their thoughts were sincere. Their thoughts being sincere, their hearts were then rectified. Their hearts being rectified, their persons were cultivated. Their persons being cultivated, their families were regulated. Their families being regulated, their states were rightly governed. Their states being rightly governed, the whole kingdom was made tranquil and happy. 

6. 3. The Liturgical Modality • “Compared to the personal-cultivational modality, practices in this modality aim at more immediate transformations of reality conducted in complex and highly symbolic forms, and are commissioned by and conducted for collective groups • Families, clans, villages, neighborhoods, temple communities, the State • The modality of the religious specialist • Priests, monks, ritual masters, mediums, exorcists • John Lagerwey: “The characteristic form of the language of the two Testaments [in Christianity] is history..., the characteristic form of the Covenant of Orthodox Unity [of Daoism] is ritual.” (73) • 2008 Beijing Olympics • Proves China has been recognized as a peer on the world stage

7. 4. The Immediate-Practical Modality • “Practices in this modality also aim at immediate results but compared to those in the liturgical modality they are more direct and involve shorter and simpler procedures. There is minimal ritual elaboration.” • Divination, healing, talismans, consulting a spirit medium, begging for rain, ritual cursing, offerings of incense (76)

8. 5. The Relational Modality • “This modality emphasizes the relationship between humans and deities (or ancestors) as well as relationships among worshippers.” • Building temples, making offerings (ancestors, deities, ghosts), taking vows, pilgrimages, founding religious communities • Annual pilgrimage to parent temples & statues creates complex web of relationships • Filial piety • “The key concepts in this modality are ‘social comings and goings’ and social relations, or connectedness.”

9. Fan & Whitehead • Shenzhen • 1979, Deng Xiaping declares surrounding area “special economic zone” as precursor to free market reforms • Huge surge in construction & labor as migrants come for work • 1980s, migration of middle class Chinese to fill management roles or start own business • Population explodes from 80,000 to 12,000,000 • 90% current residents born elsewhere • Average age of less than 30 • “With the dynamics of globalization cast here in such sharp relief, Shenzhen presents a compelling site for examining the impact of social change on religious consciousness.” (14-15) • Tradition & progress, “reclaiming and refashioning their traditions in order to move on” (27)

10. Meaning & Modernity • Shenzhen’s membership in legally recognized religions on the rise • Daoism, Buddhism, Islam, Christianity (Protestant & Catholic) • “Confronted by new questions of meaning and purpose, many of the [residents of Shenzhen] did not turn to the now-approved religious institutions of Buddhism or Christianity. Instead they gave very personal expression to their spiritual search in the age-old idiom of China’s common spiritual heritage. • “Despite determined opposition over the past hundred years—from state Confucianism, from Christian missionary efforts, from the westernizing efforts of Chinese intellectuals, and from Maoist-Marxist political philosophy, this sensitivity survives on the mainland today.” (15)

11. Meaning & Modernity • Common: Shared by Chinese across history • Heaven as transcendent source of moral meaning, ancestor veneration, qi, cosmic recompense • Cosmic recompense “a fundamental, at times the fundamental, belief of Chinese religion since teh beginning of recorded history” • Fateful coincidence: “In a universe that is thoroughly moral, there are no mere coincidences.” • Life as meaningful • Destiny as probabilistic, not a final fate but a process of living • Spiritual: religious? Hard to say. • An orientation to spirituality that is largely non-institutionalized, though routinized • Heritage: indigenous religion (16-18)

12. Moral Capital • “Through meritorious actions of honesty and compassion, a person acquires virtue much as money (capital) might be saved.” • Can be invested, passed down as inheritance or squandered • Builds social capital, in this case trust: “This communal confidence becomes a moral resource that accrues like any other capital: it can be accumulated and invested in the future; but it can be squandered until moral bankruptcy looms.” • “Religion as the management of social capital thus involves taking responsibility: Learning to manage one’s life and human relationships so as not to exhaust moral collateral” (19-20)

13. Continuities with the Past in Shenzhen • Practical nature of spiritual concerns • Ms. Shi has a Buddhist shrine in home, with fruit that can be given out to “friends who are suffering with bad health or family problems.” Shi reads “morally uplifting” books and meditates. Insists she is not a Buddhist, embraces these activities to enhance spiritual well-being.” • Spiritual practices drawn from plural traditions • Long-held practice of drawing from three great traditions: Confucianism, Daoism, Buddhism, freely combining elements w/o regard for denominational distinction or orthodoxy. Reflects practical orientation. • Historically, festivals would be celebrated in different ways from village to village and city to city. A common heritage of syncretism. (21-22)

14. Continuities with the Past in Shenzhen • Dominance of lay leadership • “Because the ritual activities were so intimately woven into the patterns of daily life, it was natural that those who carried out ordinary village responsibilities would play the significant roles in village rituals.” • Monks or priests may be involved, but traditions led, organized, & practiced by the people themselves • “Freeing of animals” to demonstrate compassion. Originates & organized on an email list, flyers, word of mouth, monk hired from nearby monastery (22)

15. New Religious Developments in Shenzhen • Broader range of spiritual options available • Christianity, Islam, Communist ideas, beliefs, & symbols may be adopted whole or incorporated into syncretic practice • New communal setting: Vegetarian restaurants • Residents disembedded from home communities (90% born elsewhere), new organizations of communal spiritual practice • Vegetarian restaurants common locations for informal spiritual groups • Small altar, bulletin board, ad hoc discussions • Heightened awareness of individual agency in belief & practice • Disembedded from family & home communities, compelled to choose beliefs & practices for selves. Personal choice has become the standard (25-27) • Religious revival?