Confucianism and Sacred Space: The Confucius Temple from Imperial China to Today

347 Pages·2020·13.337 MB·English

by  Chin-shing Huang

CONFUCIANISM AND SACRED SPACE

Confucianism and
Sacred Space
THE CONFUCIUS TEMPLE FROM
IMPERIAL CHINA TO TODAY
Chin-s hing Huang

TRANSLATED BY
Jonathan Chin with Chin-s hing Huang
Columbia University Press
New York
Columbia University Press wishes to express its appreciation for assistance given
by the Chiang Ching-kuo Foundation for International Scholarly Exchange and
Council for Cultural Affairs in the publication of this book.
Columbia University Press
Publishers Since 1893
New York Chichester, West Sussex
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Copyright © 2021 Columbia University Press
All rights reserved
Library of Congress Cataloging-i n- Publication Data
Names: Huang, Jinxing, author. | Chin, Jonathan (Translator), translator.
Title: Confucianism and sacred space : the Confucius temple from imperial China to today /
Chin- shing Huang ; translated by Jonathan Chin with Chin-s hing Huang.
Description: New York : Columbia University Press, 2021. | Includes bibliographical
references and index.
Identifiers: LCCN 2020014408 (print) | LCCN 2020014409 (ebook) | ISBN 9780231198967
(hardback) | ISBN 9780231198974 (trade paperback) | ISBN 9780231552899 (ebook)
Subjects: LCSH: Temples, Confucian—C hina. | Confucianism— China.
Classification: LCC BL1882.C6 H8313 2021 (print) | LCC BL1882.C6 (ebook) |
DDC 299.5/1235—d c23
LC record available at https:// lccn. loc . gov / 2020014408
LC ebook record available at https://l ccn . loc . gov / 2020014409
Columbia University Press books are printed on permanent and durable acid-f ree paper.
Printed in the United States of America
Cover image: Confucian temple at Qufu, the ancestral temple in Confucius’s
hometown and the “original” temple. Rebuilt in 1724. Courtesy
of Cultural Relics Publishing House, Beijing, 2010
Cover design: Chang Jae Lee
Contents
Preface vii
Introduction: The Confucius Temple as a Ritual System:
Manifestations of Power, Belief, and Legitimacy
in Traditional China 1
i Expanding the Symbolic Meaning and Function of the Rites:
The Evolution of Confucius Temples in Imperial China 21
ii Confucianism as a Religion: A Comparative Study
of Traditional Chinese Religions 58
iii Sages and Saints: A Comparative Study of Canonization
in Confucianism and Christianity 88
iv The Cultural Politics of Autocracy: The Confucius Temple
and Ming Despotism, 1368– 1530 125
v Xunzi: The Confucius Temple’s Absentee 149
vi The Disenchantment with Confucianism
in Modern China 171
[ v ]
vii The Lonely Confucius Temples Across the Taiwan Straits:
The Difficult Transformation of Modern China’s
Traditional Culture 198
Conclusion: Reflections on My Study of Confucianism
as a Religion 212
Notes 229
Bibliography 299
Index 323
[ vi ] CONTENTS
Preface
The Holy Grounds of Confucian Religion
In his analysis of religions, famous theologian and historian of religion
Mircea Eliade (1907–1 986) highlighted sacred space, sacred time, and
myths as essential attributes of religion— a thesis that led to much aca-
demic discussion.1 Although Confucius temples are obviously the holy
grounds of Confucianism, fortuitous factors unrelated to Eliade’s work
inspired my research of the temples. Many years ago, by sheer chance, I
visited the Confucius temple in Taipei with a friend, an excursion that ini-
tiated an intellectual pilgrimage into the world of these temples. Histori-
cally, Confucius temples dotted the entire East Asian landscape, spreading
far and wide, from China to Korea, Japan, Ryukyu, and Taiwan, with Viet-
nam at the southernmost reach of their limit. Although each region’s
temples were marked by certain local characteristics, they represent a
supraregional cultural phenomenon that deserves attention. Confucius
temples are magnificent sanctuaries invested with deep cultural and
political significance.
That Confucius temples are the holy grounds of Confucianism is an irre-
futable fact, easily proven by perusing historical texts. For example, Feng
Menglong (cid:26966)(cid:10442)(cid:28469) (1574– 1646) of the Ming dynasty included a statement in
his compiled Tales Old and New (Gujin xiaoshuo (cid:9100)(cid:7794)(cid:11191)(cid:23122)) that reads:
[ vii ]
Since the ending of the primordial chaos, there were the Three Reli-
gions: Taishang Laojun (cid:10450)(cid:7602)(cid:20393)(cid:9155) founded Daoism, the Buddha
founded Buddhism, and Confucius founded Confucianism. Confu-
cianism yields sages, Buddhism yields bodhisattvas, and Daoism yields
immortals. Among the three, Confucianism is the most common-
place and Buddhism is the most austere; however, Daoist teachings
promise immortality and infinite transformative powers, which
makes it the most liberating.2
Though the author obviously had a bias favoring Daoism, it is important
that he acknowledged that Confucian sages were directly comparable to
bodhisattvas and immortals as virtuous exemplars of a religion. Further-
more, as the holy grounds of Confucianism, Confucius temples performed
the same roles that shrines and temples played for other religions. Record of
the Rebuilding of a Qingzhen Temple, dating to the year 1489, during the Ming
dynasty, proclaimed:
In my humble opinion, each of the Three Religions glorifies its
founding master by establishing halls and shrines. Confucians have
Dacheng halls (cid:10447)(cid:12728)(cid:15207) to glorify Master Confucius, Buddhists have
Shengrong halls (cid:20478)(cid:11105)(cid:15207) to glorify Sakyamuni Buddha, and Daoists
have Yuhuang halls (cid:17201)(cid:17967)(cid:15207) to glorify their Three Pure Ones (cid:7601)(cid:15789).
In Qingzhen (cid:15789)(cid:18119) temples, Yicileye halls (cid:7592)(cid:23684)(cid:14762)(cid:14613)(cid:15207) are erected to
honor God.3
The fact that the Dacheng hall—t he main structure of the Confucius
temple—w as directly commensurate to the temples of Buddhism, Daoism,
and Judaism showed that Confucius temples were sacred spaces fully
invested with religious meaning and symbolism. My project, then, is to
excavate the religious nature and character of Confucianism through the
history of its temples.
Over the past thirty years, I have dedicated myself to the study of Con-
fucius temples. Certainly it has been a long and exciting intellectual jour-
ney, with very rewarding results. Conceptualizing temples as the holy
ground of Confucianism is a perspective that could shed light on many
aspects of traditional society, including the intellectual, political, social, and
religious dimensions of imperial China.
[ viii ] PREFACE
Conventionally, the problem of whether Confucianism is a religion is
tackled via philosophical, theological, or textual analysis of the classics, such
as The Analects and The Doctrine of the Mean. I consider these methodolo-
gies to be reductionist, essentialist, and unfruitful. Instead, my analysis of
Confucianism as religion is inspired conceptually by Ludwig Wittgenstein’s
(1889– 1951) “family resemblance,” which takes into account the diverse and
variegated nature of religions. Furthermore, I treat Confucius temples as
the sacred sites of Confucianism. Beyond the addition of historical and
anthropological analysis, I approach these places with the viewpoint of his-
torical subjects in mind. In brief, I argue that deciding whether Confu-
cianism is a religion is a question of history, not of philosophy or theology.
A historical question can be answered only by evaluating Confucianism in
its original context. To consider Confucius temples as arrangements of
scared space is to ground the study of Confucianism on practices that are
tangible and accessible to analysis.
With this understanding in mind, I will briefly introduce the arrange-
ment of this book. Chapter 1 is a relatively recently written and published
essay, “Expanding the Symbolic Meaning and Function of the Rites: The
Evolution of Confucius Temples in Imperial China,” which sums up
much of my work exploring Confucius temples as a cultural phenome-
non. Taking a broad overview, this essay traces the historical process
through which Confucius temple rites were integrated with the system of
imperial rites, and thus approaches both from a broad cultural perspec-
tive. Formerly, my studies focused on the origins of Confucius temple
rites, with particular attention to the interactions between the literati and
imperial rulers. This chapter shifts the focus to an institutional level,
especially the dynamics of structural changes within Confucius temple
rites throughout history.
Although particular aspects of the rites varied in time and place, they
generally conformed to operations of imperial ritual systems. As an insti-
tution, Confucius temple rites were either a “Symbol,” with an uppercase
S, or “symbols” in the plural. Confucian temple rites existed in China for
more than two thousand years, and over time they acquired new meaning
and functions through the process of generation and accretion. Compared
to my earlier studies of Confucius temples, this essay has two distinctly new
findings. First, the central court and local governments, particularly in late
imperial China, continued to expand the scope and elevate the status of
PREFACE [ ix ]
Confucius temple rites. Second, as the sacred space of a state religion,
Confucius temples embodied the exclusive and monopolistic tendencies of
the official state.
Chapter 2, “Confucianism as a Religion: A Comparative Study of Tra-
ditional Chinese Religions,” addresses why and how Chinese- speaking
people have questioned Confucianism’s religiosity since the founding of
the republic in 1911. Using internal comparisons, this chapter shows that
traditional Chinese society had always thought of Confucianism, Bud-
dhism, and Daoism as its three religions. I raise the question: Why is it
that modern Chinese society only places Buddhism and Daoism in the tax-
onomical category of religion, whereas traditional Chinese society
included all three?
Chapter 3, “Sages and Saints: A Comparative Study of Canonization in
Confucianism and Christianity,” takes a cross- cultural approach to com-
pare Confucianism’s institution of enshrinement with Christianity’s insti-
tution of canonization, in order to emphasize Confucian religiosity and its
political and social implications.
Chapter 4, “The Cultural Politics of Autocracy: The Confucius Tem-
ple and Ming Despotism, 1368–1 530,” focuses on the reform of the Confu-
cius temple system by Emperor Shizong (cid:7614)(cid:11071) (r. 1521– 1566) of the Ming
dynasty. It demonstrates how China’s rulers were able to weaken and trans-
form the temples’ cultural symbolism to strengthen autocratic rule. I will
show that Confucius temple rites were contested and fought over by impe-
rial rulers and scholar-o fficials.
Chapter 5, “Xunzi: The Confucius Temple’s Absentee,” addresses the
practice of Confucius temple enshrinement through the example of Xunzi,
the great pre- Qin scholar and philosopher. It aims to show the intertwined
political and intellectual factors that effected great changes in Xunzi’s
enshrinement throughout history.
Chapter 6, “The Disenchantment of Confucianism in Modern China,”
addresses an issue that arises if the preceding analysis is correct; that is, mod-
ern Chinese largely refuse to think of Confucianism as a religion, a phe-
nomenon that begs explanation. This chapter narrates the process of Con-
fucianism’s decline from imperial China’s state religion to a mere collection
of “nonreligious” teachings in the late Qing and the early republic. The
narrative illustrates that the controversy over Confucianism’s religious tax-
onomy was a conflict rooted in a highly specific historical context rather
than in a philosophical inquiry.
[ x ] PREFACE