Religion in China

154 Pages·2005·7.492 MB·English

by  E R Hughes

CHINA

RELIGION IN CHINA

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CHINA: HISTORY, PHILOSOPHY, ECONOMICS
I The Chinese Economy Adler
II A Documentary History of Chinese Communism Brandt et al
III China's Economic System Donnithorne
IV A History of China Eberhard
V The Spirit of Chinese Philosophy Fung
VI Chuang Tz(cid:462) Giles
VII People's War Girling
VIII China's Regional Development Goodman
IX Health Care and Traditional Medicine in China Hillier &
Jewell
X The Political Philosophy of Confucianism Hsü
XI Religion in China Hughes &
Hughes
XII Ta T'ung Shu K'ang
XIII China's Foreign Relations since 1949 Lawrance
XIV Confucian China and its Modern Fate V1 Levenson
XV Confucian China and its Modern Fate V2 Levenson
XVI Confucian China and its Modern Fate V3 Levenson
XVII Crisis and Conflict in Han China Loewe
XVIII The Performing Arts in Contemporary China Mackerras
XIX The Rulers of China Moule
XX The Fading of the Maoist Vision Murphey
XXI The Grand Titration Needham
XXII Within the Four Seas Needham
XXIII Education in Modern China Price
XXIV Sino-Russian Relations Quested
XXV Contest for the South China Sea Samuels
XXVI The Classical Theatre of China Scott
XXVII Macartney at Kashgar Skrine &
Nightingale
XXVIII The Analects of Confucius Waley
XXIX Ballads and Stories from Tun-Huang Waley
XXX The Book of Songs Waley
XXXI Chinese Poems Waley
XXXII The Life and Times of Po Chü-i Waley
XXXIII The Opium War Through Chinese Eyes Waley
XXXIV The Real Tripitaka Waley
XXXV The Secret History of the Mongols Waley
XXXVI Three Ways of Thought in Ancient China Waley
XXXVII The Way and its Power Waley
XXXVIII Yuan Mei Waley
XXXIX Confucius and Confucianism Wilhelm
XL Sociology and Socialism in Contemporary China Wong
RELIGION IN CHINA
E R HUGHES AND K HUGHES
First published in 1950

Reprinted in 2005 by
Routledge
2 Park Square, Milton Park, Abingdon, Oxfordshire, OX14 4RN
Routledge is an imprint of the Taylor & Francis Group

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British Library Cataloguing in Publication Data
A CIP catalogue record for this book
is available from the British Library
Religion in China
ISBN 0-415-36155-9

China: History, Philosophy, Economics
RELIGION IN CHINA
by
E. R. HUGHES,
M.A.
LATE READER IN CHINESE RELIGION AND
PHIL080PHYIN THE UNIVERSITY OF OXFORD
and
K. HUGHES
1950 .
HUTCHINSON'S UNIVERSITY LIBRARY
Hutchinson House, London, W.
I
Neto Tork Melbourne Sydney Cape Toton
TRIS VOLUME IS NU!IlBER 39 IN
HUl'CllINSON'S UNIVERSI'fY LIBR.\RY
CONTENTS
Preface page 7
Chapter I Primitive Religion 13
II The Beginnings of Confucianism and Taoism 24
ur Religion in the Han Era 43
IV The Infiltration of Buddhism and tbe Reaction
in T'ang Times 61
v Sung Neo-Confucianism and Later Develop-
ments 82
VI Mohammedanism 98
VII Christianity in China 110
VIII Religion in the Twentietb Century 129
Bibliography 145
Index 147
Thispageintentionallyleftblank
PREFACE
WHEN we were invited by the editor to eontribute to this
series, the proposition whieh eame to us was to write a book on
the religions of China. Our response is a book on Religion in
China. There seem to us good reasons for this. One is that
after living in China for twenty-four years (mainly in South
China but also in the north), we eame away with the deep
impression that the Chinese particular aptitude for religion
was something whieh had taken on different forms in different
parts of the eountry, and in different ways at different times.
Further study in Oxford for sixteen years (one of us heing in
West China for two and a half years during the Japanese
oeeupation) has only eonfirmed this impression. To use the
old eonvention of marking out this praetiee and belief as
Confucianism and that as Taoism and the other as Buddhism,
useful as it is as a simple guide, yet in the last resort is
misleading.
The Chinese, like other folks, have all along been some of
them more religiously inclined and others of them less, some
more orthodox, others more romantie in their working beliefs.
The result is that when all these diverse temperaments got to
work on the original Confucian tradition and the original
Taoist tradition and the original Buddhist tradition from
India, they did what other raees have done, namely bring over
elements from one tradition to another, until eaeh of the three
systemshas becomeinextricablyimbuedwiththe othertwo, and
you can seldomfind in the living fleshany manor womanwho is
apureConfucianistorTaoist or Buddhist.Add ontothisthatthe
three 'isms' did not exterminate the old autoehthonous beliefs
and practices, and these have continued down the ages with
a bewildering variety of Ioeal names and eolouring. It will then
be clear that the subject of this book must be more 'religion in
China' than 'the religions of China'. In other words, there
iSt
as modern anthropological studies have shown with ever-
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