The Current Development of Religious Studies in the Chinese Intellectual World
作者 ｜ 蔡彥仁＿國立政治大學宗教研究所教授
第十七期 2026.07.15
摘要
一九八〇年代以來因著中國大陸與台灣兩地政治箝制的鬆綁，宗教活動也隨之蓬勃發展起來。為因應這個現象，雙方學界開始意識到宗教研究的重要，並陸續設立為數眾多的宗教 系、所，個別針對特定宗教傳統或主題進行深度研究。本論文首先釐清此一宗教研究盛況的歷史、政治、以及意識型態等背景，繼之根據兩地官方所提供二〇〇〇～二〇〇六年之間一千篇以上的碩、博士論文，分析其主題分類與發展趨勢。本論文一方面肯定兩地當前宗教研究的成就，但在另一方面也指出，此一學術領域如欲進至更成熟的階段，則有必要在學術視野與實踐上有所變革，其中至為重要者包括正視宗教為一有機生命體、接觸更廣的宗教理論、紮實的基礎訓練、以及與國際宗教研究學界緊密接軌。
關鍵字：中國思想史、宗教研究、宗教系、世界宗教、比較宗教
I. Introduction
While religion has played a very important role in shaping different aspects in the life of the Chinese people for millennia, it has not received sufficient attention in traditional Chinese scholarship.[1] Since the declaration of China’s gaige kaifang（改革開放 reform and open-door）policy in 1978, however, the situation has substantially changed. “The rise of China” in recent years has included not only this country’s rapid economic growth and expansion of military might but also the flourishing of religious activities. Taiwan, too, has witnessed a parallel development since 1987 when its government ended thirty-eight years of martial law. Religious groups have mushroomed, and religious activities of all types have appeared widely on the island.[2] In response to this drastic transformation, scholars in China and Taiwan from different academic trainings have begun seriously to probe into this area. Their collective effort has contributed to the establishment of a new field that is vibrant and promising but, at the same time, problematic.
What follows is an attempt to present the current development of religious studies in the Chinese intellectual world.[3] The presentation, however, is not a detailed report on the state of the art in the field, a formidable task that would require tremendous knowledge, time, and space. Rather, this paper intends to describe the major features of religious studies in the Chinese world. It distinguishes itself from other similar studies in at least two aspects. While all previous researches deal exclusively either with mainland China or with Taiwan, this study covers both China and Taiwan from a comparative perspective. Further, in contrast to the isolated examples other research has tended to highlight by way of illustration, the argument of this study is based upon systematic analysis of empirical data gathered from a range of scholarly institutions.
This paper consists of three parts. The first begins with laying out background information that is crucial to the understanding of some fundamental attitudes or guiding principles still prevalent in the current Chinese intellectual community. The second section treats of the contents of religious studies by dealing particularly with the academic institutions, including religion departments and research institutes, as well as with religious traditions and themes that have attracted Chinese scholars’ interest. Based on this information, the final part discusses issues or problems involved in Chinese scholarship in the field of religious studies. It is hoped that by so doing, the paper can provide a general portrait of religious studies in the current Chinese intellectual world as well as point to possible directions in which this nascent academic discipline might evolve.
II. Background Information
The seething years of the early twentieth century marked a new phase in Chinese intellectuals’ attitudes toward their past as well as to their future, as they confronted the demise of imperial China in 1911 which ended in the collapse of the Manchu Dynasty. Although a Republic was established in its stead, foreign domination and internecine fighting among warlords persisted. Many Chinese intellectuals were, in these circumstances, brooding over the destiny of China and searching for a way out of this national crisis. Whether revolutionary, liberal, or reformist, they seemed to reach a consensus that China, with its Confucian ideology, old customs, family system, social structure, and political mechanisms, was in dire peril, needing a thorough overhaul to stave off its final doom. The May Fourth cultural movement (1917-21), catalyzed by the Treaty of Versailles in which the Allies transferred colonial possessions in China from the defeated Germany to Japan, radicalized Chinese intellectuals. They regarded Chinese tradition as the cause of the country’s continued weakness and humiliation. They asserted that only democracy and science, core virtues of a Westernization agenda imported wholesale, could save China from total destruction.[4]
Religion, within this iconoclastic ethos, was severely deprecated on two levels. First, as part and parcel of Chinese culture, it seemed to represent superstition and backwardness. Many opined that it should be removed from the people’s lives if China wanted to pursue goals of progress and modernity. Secondly, “religion” as a term or concept had nearly always been associated with Christianity, as far as the intellectual world was concerned. Since Christianity, as widely understood in contemporary China, was utilized by the Western powers as a weapon to disorientate and subjugate the Chinese people, China would survive only by resisting its spread over the land.[5] Chen Duxiu (陳獨秀，1879-1942), A Marxist radical and one of the early founders of the Chinese Communist Party (CCP), vehemently opposed the advancement of Christianity in China. “All religions,” in his own words, “are idols and rackets,” and as such should be destroyed.[6] Hu Shi (胡適，1891-1962), student of the pragmatist philosopher John Dewey derided religious believers as selfish and self-deceiving. According to him, holding a scientific philosophy of life and building a healthy, humanistic society on Earth was a “religion of the highest kind,” if “religion” were appropriately understood.[7] Leading educationalists like Cai Yuanpei （蔡元培，1868-1940） proposed substituting aesthetics for religion, arguing that what the latter would attempt, that is, to sublimate human emotion, the former could competently accomplish.[8] All in all, as a Christian writer, Neander C. S. Chang, cogently summarized, the popular intellectual sentiment toward religion was:
that religion is the product of primitive peoples; that it is superstition and as such has been superseded by science and philosophy; that it is dogmatic, intolerant, and claims supremacy over other aspects of culture; that it is unfavorable to human progress; that it hinders individual development and social advancement; that it is hypocritical; that morality issues from human nature and needs no help from religion; and that mankind can better its lot by improving its environment, promoting the arts, and achieving real knowledge.[9]
At the outset of modern Chinese history, Chinese intellectuals, whether communist, nationalist, pragmatist, or rationalist, tended to cast strong negative judgments upon religion rather than research it. So, in the first half of the twentieth century, religious studies would remain largely undeveloped. A few prominent scholars of Buddhism and Daoism, such as Chen Yuan （陳垣，1880-1971）, Chen Yinque （陳寅恪，1889-1869）, and Tang Yongtong（湯用彤，1893-1964）, engaged in historical and textual research, a line of scholarship continued from the Qing imperial period. What is significant is that the mentality of the early twentieth century Chinese intellectuals towards religion was largely carried over to the generations that followed without further reflection. To a substantial degree, that mentality still determines the basic orientation of religious studies in the Chinese intellectual world today.
The CCP took over in China in 1949. after defeating the Nationalist government of the Kuomintang (KMT), which then fled to Taiwan and ruled over that island until 2000. Their political rivalry notwithstanding, the two regimes implemented broadly parallel religious policies that have seriously affected the study of religion on both sides of the Taiwan Strait. Communist China adhered to the fragmented Marxist theory that religion is the opiate of the masses. While its people had the constitutional right to believe or not to believe in any religion, in socialist mass education religion was equated with ignorance and superstition, a relic of feudal China. If any religion, popular religion in particular, organized itself, it would be suspected and repressed because of its perceived reactionary and subversive potential. The government thus viewed religion either as a social epiphenomenon or as a threat that it determined to eliminate; scholars of religion accordingly worked on research that might help the state fulfill its policies. The anti-religion campaigns accelerated in the period of the Cultural Revolution (1966-76), during which almost no significant works on religious studies were produced.[10]
Avowing its aim to “counter-attack the Chinese mainland and recover the lost motherland,” the KMT exercised authoritarian rule over Taiwan during 1949-87. With almost all political, social, and cultural activities under strict control, people’s basic rights were generally curtailed. This martial law allowed the island’s residents limited religious freedom, but believers were very cautious about stepping into sensitive political ground.[11] Although scholars and intellectuals, contrary to their counterparts across the Taiwan Strait, advocated the necessity of upholding Chinese culture, they were meticulous to distinguish “the essence” of religion from “the dregs.” Within this view, popular or non-institutional religions, considered to be backward and senseless, belonged to the latter and hence should be swept away. Since most intellectuals were rational humanists, their scientific and empiricist worldview also tended to belittle institutional religions. Thus, religion could be tolerated according to general intellectual opinions, but was never presented as being an important subject worthy of discussion in school or in public forums.
China resumed a more normal pattern of life after the end of the Cultural Revolution. In view of the need to stabilize society and unify different nationalities, the study of religion gradually gained in importance. The Institute of World Religions at the Chinese Academy of Social Sciences (CASS), first founded in 1964 but having ceased functioning for almost a dozen years, began to gather scholars and engage in the study of institutional world religions. Similar institutes belonging to the provincial academies of social sciences, notably in such border regions as Xinjiang, Gansu, Ningxia, Shanxi, and Yunnan, where ethnicity and religion have been closely connected, also joined in the research.[12] On the whole, the CCP remained adamant in its control of religious activities and religious organizations nationwide. For example, it granted legal status to only five religious traditions—Buddhism, Daoism, Islam, Catholicism, and Protestantism— but disapproved of popular religious practices and severely repressed sectarian groups.[13] However, the Party loosened its religious policies somewhat to accommodate the opening up of society in the 1980s. It officially recognized five basic characteristics of religion, namely, “the long-term character of religion and its mass base, national and international aspects, and complexity.”[14] Since the 1990s, the CCP has reduced its harsh criticism of religion and saw it simply as a part of the larger social constituency. It emphasized the benefits of activating religion’s positive influences in ways that could be incorporated into the contemporary construction of a socialist state.[15] This softened tone in turn allowed scholars of religion to explore broader religious issues heretofore eschewed. Following developments in the larger political context, government officials and scholars began to explore mutual accommodation between religion and a socialist society. Furthermore, some of them have worked on the possibility of going beyond traditional ideological boundaries and treated religion as culture from new perspectives, hence paving the way for more sophisticated endeavors in religious studies.[16]
Taiwan’s social and political development with respect to the study of religion may be said to have evolved in fashion comparable to that of China. While the KMT regime might have been authoritarian, the geopolitical position and small territory of Taiwan rendered it susceptible to foreign influence. Indeed, the island-nation has for a long time depended upon international trade for its survival. With rapid economic development accelerating from the mid-sixties and quickly taking off throughout the seventies, however, residents of Taiwan, after accumulating wealth and building up self-confidence, began to voice their diverse needs. The KMT, in response to pressing demands from all sides, changed from “hard” to “soft” authoritarianism, gradually loosening its longstanding and rigid control. This political transformation continued to progress until 1987, which saw the announced termination of martial law and resumption of constitutional rule.[17]
What followed was a rupture of enormous social energy that had been bottled up for almost four decades. Religious activities were but the most conspicuous of activities of various types that suddenly appeared and received wide and enthusiastic participation. The KMT had formerly recognized only certain types of religion, primarily those associated with the dominant global traditions, and certain organized groups with verifiable roots in Chinese history. Now, hundreds of religious sects and organizations of diverse backgrounds emerged and asked for official recognition, in accordance with their constitutional rights. Moreover, many new religions and temple cults, perceiving their weight in local or even national elections, began to play a crucial role in shaping the island’s power politics.[18] All these forced the authoritarian government to look at religion anew and to take religious studies seriously. Change in this regard did transpire. The government allowed Fu Jen Catholic University to set up a graduate institute of religious studies in 1988, the first of its kind ever in Taiwan’s educational history. As the next section will make clear, further academic institutes of a similar nature sprang up over the following years. In this context, Taiwan’s scholars and intellectuals, too, had to rethink their previous attitudes toward and understanding of religion, as well as deal with religious studies as a legitimate academic discipline.
In sum, three important forces, occurring progressively in modern Chinese history and intimately related to one another, have shaped the study of religion in the present Chinese world. The first is constituted by the intellectual trends of the May Fourth era, including Marxism, nationalism, progressivism, pragmatism, and scientism. Although belonging to different intellectual inclinations, these philosophies commonly share a very low opinion of religion, even to the degree of entirely negating its value and existence. The second is that later ruling authorities, both in China and Taiwan alike, translated these philosophies into political ideologies and religious policies. They accordingly restricted people’s religious freedom and the development of religious studies as well. The third concerns the drastic social transformations in China and Taiwan in the 1980s. As religious activities have begun thriving and pervasively influencing both Chinese societies, ruling authorities have been forced to face religion as a social reality. In recent years, the loosening of official control over religion and pragmatic reappraisal of its nature and status has in turn created a larger space for scholars to engage in religious studies.
III. Religious Studies in the Chinese Intellectual World
The contents of religious studies in the Chinese world today are vast and variegated. In order to contribute to a concrete understanding of this field of study, this section has chosen academic institutions and their areas of study (in terms of religious traditions and religious themes) as its illustrative foci.
A. Academic Institutions
In mainland China, the study of religion occurs in four institutional contexts: within the Academies of Social Sciences (ASS), universities, the Party, and religious associations. The Party system is concerned with ideological control and security surveillance, while religious seminaries, managed by the national associations of the five officially recognized religious groupings, exist for the training of clergy or professional functionaries. By comparison, the institutes of religion of the ASS on the national or provincial level as well as religion departments in the universities are more academically oriented. Hence, these latter two shall form the main subject of this presentation.[19]
It is hard to give a precise figure for the total number of research institutes of religion as well as religion departments in mainland China. Information thus far available shows that at least 35 universities have set up religion departments.[20] Along with the institutes of religion within the ASS system, these academic units may in total exceed 40.[21] Except for a few universities like Sichuan and Fudan, which established their religion departments in 1980 and 1985 respectively, all of the other universities studied began their programs in the 1990s or even after 2000. This indicates that the study of religion in China’s higher education is a very recent and concentrated phenomenon; it is a young and energetic intellectual activity.
In Taiwan, there are no research institutions of religion orchestrated or guided by the government. While Academia Sinica, the highest state-funded research academy and counterpart to the CASS, has some accomplished scholars of religion, it has not established an institute of religion. All of the Buddhist and Christian seminaries are run by civil religious groups and are intended to train religious functionaries. As previously mentioned, Fu Jen Catholic University established Taiwan’s first graduate institute of religious studies in 1988. The second one of similar nature, set up at Aletheia University, came into being in 1996. The years of 2000 and 2001 saw six institutes of religious studies established, a dramatic expansion within a short period of time. As of 2008, there are in total ten universities that have an institute or department of religion.[22] This number is far less than that in China, but it similarly tells the short history of religious studies and its quick growth in Taiwan (see Chart 1).
What is more significant are the areas of study that different academic institutions concentrate upon. It seems that China has an overall strategic plan which assigns different research areas to institutes or universities according to their respective histories and cultural or geographical locations. For example, the Institute of World Religions of the CASS, the oldest and most renowned location of religious studies in China today, has maintained a comprehensive coverage of major religions. In addition to the five officially recognized world religions, it has in recent years expanded to include Confucianism, Chinese popular religions, theories of religion, contemporary religions, and religious culture and art into its research repertoire. Peking University also takes these areas within its research purview, thanks to its close tie with this Institute of World Religions. By contrast, the Institute of Religion of the Shanghai ASS focuses on theories of religion, especially on the sociology of religion. Others, like Wuhan University and Xinjiang Normal University, set their sights on the philosophy of religion, but their inclination toward Marxist theory may be derived from their consideration of CCP religious policies. In most cases, each university has tended to specialize in one or two particular religions as its major area of study. For instance, Nanjing University, Suzhou University, and Anhui University have focused on Buddhist studies, because the geographical area where they are situated has been prominently influenced by this religion. This geographical and cultural consideration applies to Sichuan University, which has studied Daoism in a province where this Chinese indigenous religion originated and has been particularly influential for almost two millennia. Noteworthy in this respect is Xiamen University. Since Fujian province has been famous for Daoist activities, it is accordingly appropriate that this university emphasizes Daoism. In addition, due to its nearness to Taiwan and for the purpose of promoting a “united front,” it has also been assigned the task of researching Taiwanese religions. The general division of labor amongst these universities demonstrates that the study of religion in China is a well-coordinated, concerted effort. It is an enterprise imposed from the top down and harbors more purposes—cultural, historical, geographical, and political—than individual scholars’ pure academic interests.
The situation in Taiwan is simpler. Because the government observes a policy of separation between church and state, it instructs state-funded Chengchi University to adopt the position of neutrality in its engagement in the field of religious studies. The Graduate Institute of Religious Studies of this university thus seeks to avoid favoring any particular religious tradition. It covers world religions within its scope of study and methodologically emphasizes an interdisciplinary approach. The nine other religion institutes or departments are supported by either Buddhist or Christian organizations. Consequently, they tend to lean toward the religious tradition most akin to their own backgrounds. For example, Hsuan Chuang University, Nanhua University, and Fo Guang University explicitly choose Buddhism as their sole interest. On the other hand, Chung Yuan Christian University and Chang Jung University opt for Christian studies only. However, for such practical considerations as addressing public interest and students’ needs in the job market, some of these departments have explored newer areas of concentration. The Buddhist Tzu Chi University has put an emphasis upon “religion and culture,” while the Christian Tunghai University and Aletheia University have specified “religion and society” and “religion and administration,” respectively, as their areas of study. Seen in this light, religious studies institutes or departments in Taiwan, while not interfered with by the government but guided by religious groups, nonetheless retain either religious or practical motives in their approach to religious studies (see Table 1).
B. Religious Traditions and Themes Researched
1. Religious Traditions
An important index that can help us understand the current state of religious studies in the Chinese intellectual world is the MA and PhD theses produced there. What follows is an analysis of those theses culled from the respective official data banks of China and Taiwan. It should be noted that their authors are not necessarily graduates of religious studies departments; many of them are non-religion majors. However, so long as these theses are related to religion, as indicated by their titles, they have been searched and categorized for analytical purposes. Further, the names of traditions as well as of themes, as will be discussed in this and next subsections respectively, have not been pre-determined; rather, they are inductively conceived according to what the titles of the theses indicate.
As Tables 2 and 3 show, there have been 627 MA and PhD theses produced in China that relate to religion during the period 2000-2006.[23] Among these, 206 come from religion institutes or departments, representing 32.9% of the total, whereas 427 or 67.1% come from non-religion departments. One thus gets the impression that religion is an attractive subject in the humanities and other academic disciplines.
With reference to religious traditions, Buddhism, with an 18.2% representation in all departments and 34% within religion departments, has been the tradition most studied. This indicates that as a concrete practice and cultural manifestation, Buddhism occupies a very important position in the mind of Chinese intellectuals.
Further, although “religion” as a generic term or concept is widely used, its scope and content are loosely defined. This explains why as many as 14.7% of the entire corpus of theses refer to “religion” without probing into any specific religious tradition. By contrast, students trained in religion departments tend to do so less often (9.7%). “Popular beliefs”（民間信仰）and “Chinese religion”（中國宗教） combined take up over 25% of the entire thesis count. The former (Popular beliefs) is mainly associated with religions of the ethnic minorities in mainland China. The latter (Chinese religion) includes primarily non-institutional religions that have appeared in Chinese history and as such are often studied from a historical perspective. These two religious types have caught the attention of many scholars, but it is noteworthy that only a very tiny number of students in religion departments have chosen these two categories as their subjects (7.8% & 0.5%). Instead, they are more interested in Christianity (13.1%), still regarded as a foreign religion, and Daoism, China’s oldest, indigenous institutionalized religion (22.3%). Confucianism presents a very special case. Western scholars of religious studies have long treated this tradition as one of the world religions. But this seems not to be the case in China. Some Chinese intellectuals might be interested in certain religious aspects of Confucianism (6.1%), but almost no student in the religion departments has manifested that kind of interest (0.5%). This may have something to do with the fact that except for the Institute of World Religions of the CASS, where Confucianism is studied along with other world religions, this native tradition, long regarded as humanistic in nature, has been studied in literature, philosophy, and history, rather than religion departments.
Primarily because Islam is the religion of the Hui and other large minorities in China, some theses deal with this world religion (6.2% & 4.4%). Very few students, however, pay attention to Judaism (1.4% & 1.5%) or Hinduism (0.2% & 0%). Even fewer take interest in such historical religions as Greco-Roman religion (0.5% & 0.5%), ancient Egyptian religion (0.3% & 0.5%), or Zoroastrianism (0.2% & 0%). While traditional or contemporary Chinese sectarian religions have caught much attention among Western scholars of Chinese religion, political taboos have meant that no young Chinese intellectuals have taken these religious types into study (0% & 0%). The same situation applies to the case of new religions, to which not even a single thesis has been dedicated (0% & 0%).
A total of 532 MA & PhD theses in religion were written in Taiwan during 2000-2006.[24] The number might be fewer than its Chinese counterpart, but in consideration of Taiwan’s far smaller size of intellectual community, this amount of output is comparably substantial.[25] More noteworthy is the fact that 346 theses out of the entire corpus were produced in religious studies institutes or departments, representing 65%, or almost two-thirds of the total. These two percentages are higher than those in mainland China. There are two possible explanations for the marked differences. One is that because PhD programs in religious studies are relatively new in Taiwan, religion departments there have not yet produced any PhD theses.[26] In contrast to the 206 works produced in China inside of religion departments and religious studies institutes, among which 79 are PhD theses, the 346 theses in Taiwan are all authored by MA graduates. Because, on average, it takes a shorter time tofinish an MA thesis than a PhD dissertation, Taiwan has been able to produce more theses during the six years considered in this paper. The other explanation is that religious studies as an academic discipline is more specialized in Taiwan than in China. Non-religion departments tend not to encourage their students to write on religious subjects, which helps explain their lower thesis output.
In terms of religious traditions, students of religion departments in Taiwan preponderantly chose Buddhism as their preferred target of study (39%). This may reflect the fact that four out of Taiwan’s ten religion institutes or departments are associated with some type of Buddhist background. But it also indicates that Buddhism has exerted its influence on Taiwan’s residents to a great degree, thus forming an important part of their cultural and intellectual make-up. Christianity takes the second position (24%). Again, the five institutes or departments of religion with Christian backgrounds may be the cause underlying this high output. This is quite a remarkable achievement in view of the fact that Christians constitute less than 4% of Taiwan’s entire population. “Religion” as a genetic subject is popular among thesis writers, as the high percentages reflect (10.2% & 10.7%). Confucianism attracted quite a few non-religion graduates (9.4%), but similar to the case in China, it seems to have been far less appealing to religion majors (0.6%). In the curricula of Taiwan’s religion departments, this important tradition has not yet been perceived as a legitimate subject.
Other world religions like Islam (1.3% & 1.2%), Hinduism (0.6% & 0.9%), and Judaism (0.4% & 0 % ) are not significantly covered in comparison with Buddhism and Christianity, nor are ancient Egyptian (0.4% & 0.6%) and Greco-Roman (0% & 0%) religions. In this connection, Taiwan intellectuals’ vision might be globalized only in a limited sense. Institutional Daoism as well as diffuse popular beliefs, active and widespread on the island, have gradually caught the attention of Taiwanese scholars of religion. Although theses in these two categories are low in percentage (Daoism, 7.1 % & 6.6%; popular beliefs, 6.2% & 4.6%), their actual numbers are comparable to those produced in mainland China. Another distinctive feature about the study of religion in Taiwan is that thanks to religious freedom, the so-called xiejiao 邪教 in mainland China (“evil teaching” or cult / illegal religion as classified by The CCP government) and new religions of diverse kinds are thriving. Scholars of religion have no qualms about including them as part of serious study. Although these on xiejiao, instead called zhongguo minjian jiaopai （中國民間教派 Chinese popular sects） or simply minjian jiaopai （民間教派 popular sects） in Taiwan, are still small in proportion (6.2% & 4.6%), together with theses on new religions (1.3% & 1.7%), such works constitute an impressive part of religious studies.
2. Religious Themes
The theses discussed above cover a variety of themes. As Table 3 indicates, they can be generally classified into fourteen thematic categories. In China, the highest percentage of theses in religion is related to historical studies (20.1%). But focusing upon the religion departments, one finds that theses about religious doctrine (25.2%) far exceed those on other subjects. History and doctrine, two basic phenomenological dimensions of a religious tradition, have been predominant attractions in such departments as history, Chinese literature, and philosophy. The statistics here thus reflect the traditional interest of Chinese scholarship in the humanities. The theme of religious literature and art has a special appeal to intellectuals more generally (18.2%), but not so among those trained in religion (4.9%). The reason may be that, unlike many non-religion departments, most religion departments do not consider literature and art to form a central part of a religious tradition or religious studies, in comparison with such themes as doctrine, history, theory, and religious figures. Additionally, writing a thesis on the former subject areas usually involves a more demanding, interdisciplinary effort. In view of the areas of study that religion departments in China are assigned, a low percentage in topics relating to literature and art is easily understood.
Many religion majors write on theories of religion (13.1%). Interest in this subject reflects the fact that quite a number of religion institutes and departments, like the Institutes of World Religions in Beijing and Shanghai, Peking University, Wuhan University, Zhongshan University, etc., are renowned for the study of the philosophy of religion. Interestingly, an equal percentage of these is devoted to a single religious figure （13.1 %）, such as Masters Lianchi （蓮池大師） and Taixu （太虛大師） in Buddhism, Xuantian Shangdi （玄天上帝） and Kou Qianzhi （寇謙之） in Daoism, or Thomas Aquinas and Martin Luther in Christianity, a traditional category to which students apply historical and textual approaches. By contrast, fewer theses deal with community or organization (9.2%) or with religion and society (5.8%), two subjects that require sociological training and, in many cases, participant observation. Some students pay attention to the role and function of religion in the international arena (4.1%), among them students in political or social sciences more than religion majors (0.5%). Scriptural studies remain important (6.3%), in particular with respect to Chinese Buddhism and Daoism. But in general, such themes as ritual (3.4% & 3.4%), symbol (1.4% & 2.4%), and myth (1.1% & 0.5%), normally approached from an anthropological perspective, seem new to China’s scholarly community. Similarly, gender issues have only begun to catch the attention of a minority of scholars (1.6% & 1.9%). Least familiar is the subject of religious experience (0% & 0%), a theme that has become salient in the Western religious scholarship but is so far untreated in mainland China.
The thematic distribution of theses produced in Taiwan shares many differences from, and similarities with, that found in China. However, doctrine, instead of history, ranks highest among the fourteen themes (17.9%). Another significant contrast is that community or organization as a religious theme is extremely popular in Taiwan (16.2%), particularly so among students of religion institutes or departments (19.4%). In my view, this has something to do with the fact that religious groups and activities are extremely popular on the island. Fieldwork or observant participation is required or even mandatory for those who would do serious religious studies. The understanding of this social and intellectual background also explains why the study of religion and society (7.5% & 6.4%) as well as ritual (6.6% & 7.5%) is well received.
Similar to the case in China, the theme of religious studies theory has attracted many students (10.7% & 14.5%). Likewise, many theses are devoted to the category of literature and art (10.2%), but in comparison, non-religion students, as already noted above, seem more enthusiastic about this area than are religion majors (3.2%). The study of scriptures (10% & 13.3%) and religious figures (8.8% & 7.5%) has developed steadily, primarily in the style of traditional scholarship in humanities. What is surprising is the small number of theses in the category of history (5.5% & 5.8%), a sharp contrast to the abundant enthusiasm devoted to this theme in China (20.1% & 13.6%). Also markedly different from the case in China, religious experience as a new theme has attracted some followers in Taiwan (3.6% & 3.8%). This, of course, is also related to the social and intellectual environment just mentioned. Another difference is that, while China, along with its rise to be an important power-player in the world community, takes heed of the role of religion in international relations (4.1%), Taiwan pays far less attention to this area (0.6%). But parallel to the case in mainland China, research on gender (1.7% & 1.7%), symbol (0.6% & 0.9%), and myth (0.4% & 0.6%) in Taiwan continues to lag behind other themes, an indication that religious studies on this island has yet to be fully developed.
A delineation of the academic institutions related to the study of religion and their respective areas of study, together with an analysis of the MA and PhD theses in religion produced during 2000-2006, have presented to us a general picture of this academic discipline in the current Chinese intellectual world. In terms of academic institutions, a careful reader notices that most religious institutes and departments have a very short history; they have come into existence only recently, mainly in the 1990s or in this present century. Moreover, in China, since all universities are under the supervision of the CCP, religious studies has developed along a prescribed line. The government’s emphasis on establishing a “target point” for religious studies combines historical, cultural, and ideological deliberations. As a result, the study of religion in China tends to be a well-coordinated, collective endeavor. By contrast, almost all the universities with a religious studies institute or department in Taiwan are supported by either Buddhist or Christian groups. Hence, they incline towards focusing on the particular religion related to their supporting faith as their area of study. But social or market demands have also prompted these departments to be flexible in designing their programs. This has made the study of religion in Taiwan diverse and pragmatic.
With respect to world religious traditions, scholars of religion single out Buddhism and Christianity to be their preferred options, while taking less interest in Islam and ignoring Judaism and Hinduism. Chinese ethnic religions and popular beliefs are important for many, but students in the religion departments tend to choose institutional Daoism for their study. Because of the government’s policy against traditional religious sects as well as new religions, rarely would scholars of religion in mainland China break forbidden ground to study in these areas. But the case is reversed in Taiwan where the study of these two religious types has been an attractive engagement.
I have also observed that, as religious themes, history, doctrine, and theory are highly regarded in the Chinese intellectual world. These are seen as important subjects that are pursued by scholars in the humanities, including those in religion and non-religion departments. This academic phenomenon is more conspicuous in mainland China than in Taiwan. In Taiwan, however, the study of religious communities or organizations has taken precedence over many other themes. Research in the relationship between religion and society, ritual, and religious experience, too, has been popular. Emphasis is laid more on the scholars’ contact with and interpretation of the society in which religious activities feature prominently, but whether in mainland China or in Taiwan, scholars of religion have not yet become conscious of some newer areas of study developed in the West. This may explain the sparse scholarly output on gender, myth, and symbol.
IV. Discussion of Issues and Problems
The background information presented in the first section, which includes historical, philosophical, political, and social aspects, has set the context in which the study of religion in the Chinese intellectual world has been operating. The data analyzed in the second section has spoken to the substantive areas that this new academic field has engaged, particularly stemming from leading research and training institutions that have directed the trends in religious studies in China and Taiwan. It has also revealed to us the major areas and themes that scholars of religion have concentrated upon. How then do we evaluate this new discipline in contrast to the general field of religious studies that has been going on for at least a century in the West? There are indeed many issues and problems mentioned in the preceding two sections that are worthy of further discussion and reflection. While interrelated, the following section, for the sake of clarity, divides these problematic issues into two dimensions, external and internal.
A . External Dimension
There is no denying that state ideology and CCP religious policies have continued to guide the study of religion in mainland China. State control of academic activities functions as a double-edged sword. On the one hand, with collective power and concerted effort, scholars of religion in China have accomplished tremendous work that would not have been easily completed by individual scholars. Two illustrative examples are the publications of the Zhonghua dazangjing（中華大藏經 Chinese Buddhist Canon）in one hundred and six volumes during 1984-96 and Zhonghua daozang （中華道藏 Chinese Daoist Canon）in forty-nine volumes in 2004.[27] The completions of these two stupendous collections of original texts mark great milestones in Buddhist and Daoist philological and textual studies. Other minor projects, notably works of comprehensive and general types, such as Zhongguo fojiaoshi中國佛教史 (A History of Chinese Buddhism) and Zhongguo daojiaoshi 中國道教史 (A History of Chinese Daoism), have also been completed by scholar-teams supported by the state.[28] On the other hand, this top-down academic orchestration, with an emphasis on a Marxist and materialist understanding of religion, has led to a negative result: mainland Chinese scholarship on religion has disproportionately leaned toward textual and historical studies, as these areas are thought to be politically “correct” and “safe.”
Over-concentration on a couple of areas of study has forestalled scholarly explorations of other areas which may be of equal, if not more, importance. Concerned observers have noticed, for instance, that theories of religion and Chinese popular religion are just such neglected areas.[29] While the CCP’s policy of adaptation of religion and the socialist state might be a progressive idea in relation to China’s history of religious studies, this policy is still not flexible enough to accommodate the complicated religious phenomena that are currently taking place in society.[30]
Curiously, this negative aspect of intellectual control is also seen in Taiwan, although in a less harsh way and in a very different context. As mentioned, most of the religious institutes or departments on the island are managed by either Buddhist or Christian organizations. The specific sectarian predilections direct the development of these academic institutions, including recruiting desired faculty and shaping their research interests to a great degree. Narrow focus on one religion or even on certain subjects often limits scholars’ vision and restricts the possibility of their multiple approaches. Facing the rapid expansion of Taiwan’s pluralistic society, these weaknesses of these institutes or departments have become all the more prominent.[31]
Related to the external dimension that has guided the development of religious studies in the Chinese world is the prodigious social demand for general religious knowledge. The open-door policy, along with its concomitant rapid economic growth in China, has triggered people’s interest in knowledge of all kinds, including religion, an area that has long been suppressed and misunderstood. A restoration of this particular field seems good news, but the massive demand has caused many scholars of religion to devote themselves to writing books of a general and popular nature. These books tend to be of two types. One includes publications that treat briefly various aspects of a religious tradition, like the many concise encyclopedic works on Islamic cultures.[32] The other type touches upon religion and its related cultural expressions, like religion and art, or religious art in different religious traditions.[33] Works of either type appear general and sometimes superficial. They might satisfy popular needs, but they are far from serious academic studies. Similarly, whenever religious events break out and are deemed internationally or politically important, scholars of religion rush out en masse to answer very general questions. The recent craze in the publication of books on radical Islamic activities is a good case in point.[34]
This pragmatic attitude toward religion and religious studies is a feature of scholarship of religion in Taiwan as well. Religious groups and activities are so influential and well-received there that they have become an integral part of Taiwan’s society. Some religion institutes or departments, catching on to the potential of this “religion market,” have designed their programs to profit from this social trend. The study of religion, then, has been transformed into a field that is practically oriented. In this way, one would raise such questions: Does this academic discipline have its own autonomous status and operate for its own sake? Is it a dependent subject, a combined and extended field of humanities and social sciences? Or is it a form of professional training that prepares the students for the job market? Or can it possibly combine all the aforementioned features? These issues have not yet been discussed in depth, but their occurrence realistically reflects the challenges the study of religion and many religion institutes or departments are confronting today.
The tendency to ingratiate oneself with external demands, as well as the uncertainty about the status of religious studies, has something to do with the academic backgrounds of those scholars involved in the field. Our statistical analysis in the preceding section has already indicated that almost two-thirds of the scholars of religion in China work outside religious studies institutes or departments. While it is unwarranted to judge that, so far as the study of religion is concerned, they are all unqualified to do so,[35] it is safe to surmise that most are not adequately trained in this academic discipline. One is reminded that from 1949 to the early 1980s, the study of religion was virtually unpracticed in China. Given the fact that religious institutes or departments have expanded very quickly since the 1990s, it is reasonable to doubt that these academic institutions have invariably recruited well-qualified researchers or faculty members. It happens often that many scholars who had been previously trained in, for example, English literature, Chinese history, and Marxism have now switched gears to teach, respectively, Christianity, Buddhism, and theories of religion. Scholars from diverse backgrounds and without prior understanding of the nature of human religiosity and exposure to the many ways to study it have consequently tended to undermine the foundation of this new discipline.[36]
In Taiwan, scholars in religion institutes or departments have received more solid training either on the island or abroad.[37] However, their total number, 63, is rather small in comparison with the large cohort comprised by their mainland counterparts.[38] Somehow similar to the situation in China, a substantial percentage of these scholars comes from the fields of history, philosophy, and literature, all branches of traditional Chinese learning which do not, for the most part, take religion seriously
or consider it a specialized field of study. A change to the new field seems not to have changed their old way of doing research and teaching. It has, apparently, hardly occurred to them that the study of religion as a new discipline requires new understandings of what religion might be about as well as new approaches to it. In this way, a nascent academic community composed of members with these traditional trainings and different understandings of their common profession presage a time of difficult development for the field of religious studies. This has posed an intractable problem to the study of religion in the present Chinese intellectual world.
B. Internal Dimension
There are further issues related to the study of religion that have compelled scholars of religion in the Chinese world to struggle with their new discipline. Foremost among these issues is the definition of religion. As mentioned, the CCP recognized only five world religious traditions, and it has formed national associations for these five groupings as supervisory authorities. It is within this general external structure that Chinese scholars of religion have had to think about how to view not only legitimate religions but religions in general. That is, if only great and institutionalized world religions can be counted as religion, how does one define those not of their kind, such as popular religions and new religious movements?
Insofar as they have subscribed to a Marxist or materialist perspective, scholars of religion in mainland China have long regarded religion as a social epiphenomenon. At the present stage, in order to construct a socialist state, this understanding is compounded by, as China’s former president Jiang Zemin urged, “the need to enforce Party policies on religion, strengthen management of religion according to law, and actively lead the adaptation of religion and socialism.”[39] Thus, scholars of religion tend to confine their view of religion to a particular conceptual area or aspect of social functioning. While leading theoreticians like Lü Daji might have pointed out that doctrine, experience, performance, and organization are four important dimensions that constitute a realistic phenomenological approach to religion, they continue to regard religion as a conceptual system.[40] This restricted definition or understanding of religion is, not surprisingly then, unable to account for what is actually happening in society. For example, much fieldwork by some folklorists has found that traditional Daoist rituals, local cults, and popular culture are flourishing in many parts of rural China, but they are treated with negligence, contempt, or suppression because of being suspected of superstition.[41] Similarly, under the examination of “scientific atheism” espoused in socialist China, new religious phenomena such as qigong（氣功） or Cultivation of bodily vital force, supernatural or extrasensory pursuits, and parapsychological experiments are all repudiated.[42] What appears to be the most salient and interesting religious manifestations in China today are in this way brushed aside, a regrettable loss from the academic point of view.
The above explained problem of the definition or understanding of religion also reveals that current Chinese exploration of theories of religion is far from satisfactory, although our statistics have indicated that a substantial number of scholars in China are interested in this question. Predominantly guided by Marxism and state ideology, scholars of religion in mainland China have limited space to develop their thinking in this regard. The situation in Taiwan is not much better. As described in the
first section, the prevailing scientific or empiricist trend on the island does not render any service to a theoretical discussion of religion. On the contrary, its overemphasis on objective evidence seems to restrict scholarly exposure to many other theoretical possibilities.[43] Scholars’ attention paid to doctrinal, scriptural, or historical studies far exceeds that devoted to in-depth theoretical research. Social scientists’ approaches to religion, usually related to the application of theories to the Chinese or Taiwanese cases, as evidenced in the circle of anthropological studies, tend to echo theories originated from the West more than to any endeavor to create new theories.[44]
Parallel to the preceding problems is another fact: that scholars of religion in the Chinese world hardly see religion as a lived and living reality. As a result, what they have researched so far appears to be general, abstract, and conceptual. This is something that many a review article done by Chinese scholars themselves has pointed out. For example, a general review of the Chinese study of Christianity in the past forty years discloses that scholars have devoted much energy to this religion’s history, scriptures, theologies, organizations, international relations, etc. Very few seem interested in how Chinese Christians today are conducting their religious activities.[45] Buddhist studies in China, as previously analyzed, represent the highest percentage in the study of religion. Scholars of Buddhism have demonstrated strong regard for this tradition’s history, canons, and philosophy. In this context, Pure Land Buddhism, although widely practiced, but due to its lack of “philosophical depth” in the opinion of scholars devoted to this subject, has been ignored.[46] The preference for sophisticated Buddhist philosophy has actually led to a general prejudice against the devotional aspects of this religion that are popularly seen, even widely seen, in Chinese society.[47]
Some scholars of religion in mainland China have called for a change in current intellectual inclinations and have begun to face religious realities in present-day Chinese society, including looking into traditional popular religious practices, new religious movements, and the rapid development of Chinese Christianity.[48] Specifically in terms of Daoism, they have expressed the need to participate in fieldwork so as to communicate with Daoist groups and document their rituals, music, incantations, and other related performances.[49] By comparison, many scholars of religion in Taiwan, due to freedom in religious studies and frequent contacts with the changing social realities, have already taken the practice of fieldwork seriously. Enthusiasm for the study of Chinese popular sects as well as new religions since the early 1990s bears witness to this scholarly concern.[50] In addition, Taiwanese scholars’ participation in and promotion of the collection of Chinese ritual and folklore information through international, collaborative effort has marked a new direction in the study of religion in the Chinese world.[51]
Lastly, if one evaluates the scholarship of religion in mainland China and Taiwan in the international context, one finds a further set of comparable issues. By strict academic standards, Chinese scholarship of religion is still immature, although it might be thriving in appearance. This has something to do with the basic training of its young scholars. Let us take up Buddhism as an example. Statistics indicate that this religion has attracted most scholars of religion in mainland China and Taiwan. But careful examination finds that, by and large, none have received solid training in scriptural languages such as Sanskrit, Pali, and Tibetan, nor have they cared to learn academic languages such as English, Japanese, and German. Linguistic insufficiency thus prevents them from in-depth research and, without a comparative perspective, limits their academic scope to a fairly local radius. This is why Buddhist studies in the Chinese world have remained focused on the study of Chinese Buddhism and, even more narrowly, have concentrated upon only certain parts of this tradition.[52] The recent passion for the study of Confucianism is another good case in point. Quite a few scholars have been heatedly debating the extent to which this centuries-old Chinese tradition may be viewed as a religion, in contrast to more popular understandings of it as a state ideology, a school of learning, or a system of philosophy.[53] Their discussions, however, have rarely referred to achievements or developments of similar topics outside the realm of Chinese scholarship. Because of language barriers and a limited academic vision, such an important task as the intellectual re-evaluation of the Confucian tradition has not yet reached a commendable level. Thus, for a breakthrough in the development of religious studies in the Chinese intellectual world, basic language training and more communication with the international academic community are absolutely essential.
V. Conclusion
The development of religious studies in the Chinese intellectual world is quickly progressing, and it is difficult to render a definitive conclusion at this stage. Some scholars in mainland China have been happy to announce that the study of religion has been founded as a non-confessional, new, and autonomous discipline.[54] Others claim that scholars based at the Institute of World Religions of the CASS as well as Peking University have together established themselves as a “China School.”[55] This might be the case if one judges these statements solely in terms of academic organization and the number of scholars involved. But in terms of academic achievement, as the preceding discussion has made clear, this nascent community still has some steep steps to climb.
It seems obvious that for the study of religion in the Chinese world to make real progress, two interconnected forces will have to play a determining role. The first would entail a loosening of the CCP’s religious policy with commensurately less ideological control. Should this occur, religious studies in China will have a more flexible and larger space in which to shape its future. The other factor involves civil groups, similar to those manifest in Taiwan’s society. If they can quickly grow along with the rapid economic development that Taiwan has experienced, their strong presence and activity will definitely have an impact on scholars’ research. As far as one can observe, these twoforces seem to be moving toward a direction favorable to the development of this new discipline.
Before the external circumstances reach the stage of scholars’ satisfaction, however, the Chinese scholarly community can do quite a few things. For example, rather than debating the definition of religion in an abstract way, it would be of heuristic value for Chinese scholars of religion to go into the field and observe what religious activities are all about. This is particularly pertinent in view of the fact that most of those researchers of religion institutes and faculty of religion departments, both in China and Taiwan alike, have been recruited from the branches of Chinese traditional scholarship, trainings that distinguish themselves as armchair reflections much more than as practical engagements. A change of approach to religion would bring about new perspectives on religion, and an experience like this would also contribute to the formation of the scholarly community of religious studies.
Further, while the fact that the Chinese scholarly community of religion is composed of researchers of diverse backgrounds may pose a problem for the development of this nascent discipline, it may also provide multiple possibilities for growth. As in the West where religious scholarship has undergone constant self-reflections and self-criticisms to reform its identity by participants of different disciplines, the Chinese scholarly community needs to start searching for its own identity. This can be accomplished through dialogue in two ways. One is for Chinese and Taiwanese scholars of religion to communicate about the nature and contents of religious studies among themselves by pooling their respective specialties as assets in the discussion. Indeed, there is not one way of pursuing religious studies but many different ways that await exploration. The other is for the Chinese scholarly community to take opportunities to communicate with its Western counterpart. The expansion or acquisition of knowledge, such as the strengthening of linguistic skills and exposure to new themes and theories of religion, would certainly enhance academic standards. International exposures of this kind would in turn help to shape the field’s own identity.
Last but not least, although it is always helpful for the Chinese intellectual world to be more open to the larger international community of religious studies, it is essential that it define itself by striking a balance between local realities and global contexts. As indicated, the study of theory of religion is relatively weak in China and Taiwan due to the distinctive scholarly backgrounds of these two places. This has often resulted in the misapplication of Western theories to the Chinese or Taiwanese cases either by international or native scholars without careful evaluation of their suitability. Powerful Western theories in this sense tend to dominate the interpretation of Chinese or Taiwanese religions.[56] Thus, Chinese scholars of religion must be proficiently acquainted with their local religions first and then judiciously learn from Western theories that might be appropriate in their case studies. This would create an important common understanding on the basis of which they can begin to build up their collective academic identity. The ideal in the long run is for Chinese scholars to conduct conversations with their Western colleagues on an equal footing and contribute to the international scholarly community by broaching their experience and identifying its more distinctively Chinese characteristics.
This essay touches on the current development of religious studies in China and Taiwan only, although it assumes the title of “the Chinese intellectual world.” One is thus reminded that such areas as Singapore, Hong Kong, and many other Chinese communities within the global diaspora are not included. Indeed, these places deserve further consideration if one intends to more thoroughly understand what religious studies is being conducted in the entire Chinese intellectual world. In particular, since these different areas have their respective historical, cultural, social, and political backgrounds, a study of these scholarly communities would arguably bring about a picture more complex than the one just outlined. It is hoped that the present paper at least serves as a starting point for a continuous exploration of an important topic that should be of concern to members of the entire international community of religious studies.
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Abstract
Religious activities have been thriving in China and Taiwan since the 1980s when the respective governments of these two states loosened their political control. The study of religion, in response to this rising phenomenon, has become an attractive field in the Chinese intellectual world. Many institutes or departments of religion have been established, and each has distinguished itself in a certain area of study. This paper spells out the historical, political, and ideological background from which the current development of religious studies has derived. Analyzing and classifying over one thousand M A and Ph D theses produced during 2000-2006, it further highlights the trends and prominent features of this nascent scholarship. The paper acknowledges the achievement of religious studies in present-day China and Taiwan. It at the same time points out that if this scholarship is to advance to a more sophisticated stage, it is in need of a change of vision and practice that includes viewing religions as lived and living realities, more exposure to theories of religion, solid basic training, and more interaction with the international field of religious studies.
Keywords: Chinese intellectual history, study of religion, religious department, world religions, comparative religion
† This paper was first read at Lafayette College and then at the 2007 annual meeting of the American Academy of Religion. I would like to thank Eric J. Ziolkowski and Kwok Pui Lan for their stimulating responses. My special thanks go to Julius Tsai and John Shufelt whose insights and stylistic suggestions greatly helped improve its revision. The two anonymous reviewers’ comments provided me with useful information as well as urged me to rethink some of my viewpoints; to them, I extend my gratitude. All the errors and weaknesses that still remain are, of course, mine.
[1] Daniel L. Overmyer made a similar observation thirteen years ago in his Introduction to a series of articles on the development of the study of Chinese religions; see Overmyer, “Chinese Religions: the State of the Field (Part II): Living Traditions: Taoism, Confucianism, Buddhism, Islam and Popular Religion,” The Journal of Asian Studies 54, no. 2 (1995): 316.
[2] For reports on the present situation of various religions in China and Taiwan, see Religion in China Today, ed. Daniel L. Overmyer, special issue, The China Quarterly, n. s., 3 (2003).
[3] Some scholars have made similar attempts in the past few years. For the study of religion in mainland China since 1978, see Fenggang Yang, “Between Secularist Ideology and Desecularizing Reality: The Birth and Growth of Religious Research in Communist China,” Sociology of Religion 65, no. 2 (2004): 101-19; Long Xiuqing, “Developing a Discipline: The Recent Study of Western Church History in the People’s Republic of China,” Journal of Ecclesiastical History 56, no. 3 (2005): 514-28; Jean-Paul Wiest, “Religious Studies and Research in Chinese Academia: Prospectus, Challenges, and Hindrances,” International Bulletin of Missionary Research 29, no. 1 (2005): 21-26; Peter Tze Ming Ng 吳梓明 and Liu Yi 劉義, “Zhongguo dalu zongjiao shehuixue yanjiu de xianzhuang yu fansi” 中國大陸宗教社會學研究的現狀與反思 [The Sociological Study of Religion in Mainland China: The State of the Field], Fujen Religious Studies 輔仁宗教研究, no. 13 (2006): 131-56. For the study of religion in Taiwan, see Paul R. Katz, “Religion and the State in Post-war Tawian,” in Religion in China Today, 89-106; also see the different essays collected in Dangdai Taiwan bentu zongjiao yanjiu daolun 當代台灣本土宗教研究導論 [Reader in Contemporary Religious Studies in Taiwan], ed. Hsun Chang 張珣 and Tsann-terng Jiang 江燦騰 (Taipei: SMC Publishing Inc., 2001), chaps., 5-12.
[4] For an excellent historical account and incise analysis of the May Fourth period, see Tse-tsung Chow, The May Fourth Movement: Intellectual Revolution in Modern China (Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press, 1960). See also Yu-sheng Lin, The Crisis of Chinese Consciousness: Radical Antitraditionalism in the May Fourth Era (Madison: University of Wisconsin Press, 1979).
[5] See Hsi-yuan Chen, “Confucianism Encounters Religion: The Formation of Religious Discourse and the Confucian Movement in Modern China” (Ph.D. diss., Harvard University, 1999), 99-139.
[6] Wing-tsit Chan, Religious Trends in Modern China (New York: Columbia University Press, 1953), 228.
[7] Hu Shi, “Science and Philosophy of Life,” in Sources of Chinese Tradition, 2 vols., comp. Wm. Theodore de Bary and Irene Bloom, 2nd ed. (New York: Columbia University Press, 1999), 2: 377.
[8] Chan, Religious Trends in Modern China, 220-21.
[9] Ibid., 229. For a discussion of the composition of this mentality, see Tu Wei-ming, “Iconoclasm, Holistic, and Patient Watchfulness: A Personal Reflection on the Modern Chinese Intellectual Quest,” Daedalus 116, no. 2 (1987): 75-94.
[10] Dai Kangsheng 戴康生, “Xin Zhongguo zongjiao yanjiu wushi nian” 新中國宗教研究五十年 [Religious Studies in New China in the Past Fifty Years], in Zhongguo zongjiao yanjiu nianjian 1999-2000 中國宗教研究年鑑 1999-2000 [Yearbook of Religious Studies in China, 1999-2000], ed. Cao Zhongjian 曹中建 (Beijing: Zongjiao wenhua chubanshe, 2001), 38-57.
[11] For Taiwan’s sociopolitical situation in this period of time, see Hung-mao Tien, “Taiwan in Transition: Prospects for sociopolitical change,” The China Quarterly, no. 64 (1975): 615-44; Edwin A. Winckler, “Institutionalization and Participation on Taiwan: from Hard to Soft Authoritarianism,” The China Quarterly, no. 99 (1984): 481-99.
[12] He Guanghu 何光滬, “Zongjiaoxue zai zhongguo” 宗教研究在中國 [The Study of Religion in China], Zhonghua dushu bao中華讀書報, Aug. 11, 2004.
[13] Pitman B. Potter, “Belief in Control: Regulation of Religion in China,” in Religion in China Today (see note 2), 11-31, esp. 13-18.
[14] Ibid., 15.
[15] Wang Zhaoguo 王兆國, “Jiji yindao zongjiao yu shehuizhuyi shehu xiangshiying: xuexi Jiang Zemin tongzhi zai quanguo zongjiao huiyishang de jianghua” 積極引導宗教與社會主義社會相適應：學習江澤民同志在全國宗教會議上的講話 [Positively Leading Religion and the Socialist Society to Mutual Accommodation: Learning from Comrade Jiang Zemin’s Talk at the National Conference on Religion], in Zhongguo zongjiao yanjiu nianjian 2001-2002 中國宗教研究年鑑 2001-2002 [Yearbook of Religious Studies in China, 2001-2002], ed. Cao Zhongjian (Beijing: Zongjiao wenhua chubanshe, 2003), 1-10.
[16] Zhuo Xinping 卓新平 and Cao Zhongjian, “Ershi shiji de Zhongguo zongjiao fazhan, daiqianyan” 二十世紀的中國宗教學發展(代前言) [The Development of Religious Studies in Twentieth-century China: A Preface], in Zongjiao yanjiu sishinian (shang)宗教研究四十年(上) [Forty Years of Religious Studies], ed. Zhongguo shehui kexueyuan shijie zongjiaosuo, 2 vols. (Beijing: Zongjiao wenhua chubanshe, 2004), 1-13; Lü Daji 呂大吉, “Zhongguo xiandai zongjiao xueshu yanjiu bainianlai de huigu yu zhanwang” 中國現代宗教學術研究百年來的回顧與展望 [A Review and Prospect of Chinese Religious Studies in the Past One-hundred Years], in Zongjiao yanjiu sishinian (shang), 288-96.
[17] Many political scientists have noted in detail this process of democratization during these years. See Ts’ai Ling and Ramon H. Myers, “Surveying the Rough-and-Tumble of Presidential Politics in an Emerging Democracy: The 1990 Elections in the Republic of China on Taiwan,” The China Quarterly, no. 129 (1992): 123-48; Shao-chuan Leng and Cheng-yi Lin, “Political Change on Taiwan: Transition to Democracy,” The China Quarterly, no. 136 (1993), 805-39; Yun-han Chu, “Social Protests and Political Democratization in Taiwan,” in The Other Taiwan: 1945 to the Present, ed. Murray A. Rubinstein (Armonk, NY: M. E. Sharpe, 1994), 99-113.
[18] Katz, “Religion and the State in Post-war Taiwan,” 89-106; Chengtian Kuo, “Democracy and Religion in Taiwan” (paper delivered at the annual meeting of the American Political Science Association, Boston, Aug. 29-Sept. 1, 2002).
[19] Dai, “Xin Zhongguo zongjiao yanjiu wushi nian,” 49.
[20] Zhongguo jiaoyu zaixian 中國教育在線, http://www.eol.cn/ (accessed Oct. 3, 2007).
[21] Data presented and analyzed here is derived from the following sources: Zhongguo zongjiao yanjiu nianjian 2001-2002中國宗教研究年鑑 2001-2002 [Yearbook of Religious Studies in China, 2001-2002], 535-61; Hua Fangtian 華方田, “Ershi nianlai zhongguo dalu foxue yanjiu xiankuang yu weilai zhanwang” 二十年來中國大陸佛學研究現況與未來展望 [The Study of Buddhism in the Past Twenty Years in Mainland China and Its Prospect], in Jianwang zhilai: Liangan foxue jiaoyu yanjiu yu fazhan yantaohui lunwenji 鑒往知來：兩岸佛學教育研究與發展研討會論文集 [Knowing the Future by Examining the Past: Essays on the Buddhist Education across the Taiwan Straight], ed. Zhongguo shehui kexue yuan shijie zongjiao yanjiusuo (Beijing: Zhongguo shehui kexue yuan shijie zongjiao yanjiusuo, 2002), 65-69; Chen Jianming 陳建明, “Zhongguo daxue jidujiao yanjiu de xianzhuang yu yiyi” 中國大學基督教研究的現狀與意義 [Current Development and Significance of the Study of Christianity in Chinese Universities], in Daxue yu jidu zongjiao yanjiu 大學與基督教研究 [A Study of University and Christianity], ed. Ping-cheung Lo 羅秉祥 and Phee Seng Kang 江丕盛 (Hong Kong: Research Center for Chinese Christianity, Hong Kong Baptist University, 2002), 175-97; He, “Zongjiaoxue zai zhongguo.”
[22] See the following website information: Fu Jen Catholic University 輔仁大學: http://www.rsd.fju.edu.tw/index.asp; Aletheia University 真理大學: http://www.au.edu.tw/ox_view/edu/religious; Hsuan Chuang University 玄奘大學: http://www.hcu.edu.tw/hcu3/content/ird01/content/act/news.asp; Chengchi University 政治大學: http://www.religion.nccu.edu.tw/index.html; Chung Yuan Christian University 中原大學: http://wwwsrv.cc.cycu.edu.tw/religion; Tzu Chi University 慈濟大學: http://www.religion.tcu.edu.tw/index.asp; Nanhua University 南華大學: http://www.nhu.edu.tw/~compare; Fo Guang University 佛光大學: http://www.fgu.edu.tw/~religion/fo; Tunghai University 東海大學: http://www2.thu.edu.tw/~religion/index-top.htm; Chang Jung Christian University 長榮大學: http://www.cjcu.edu.tw/chowo/ind1.htm (accessed March 4, 2008).
[23] The data is gathered from Zhongguo zhishi ziyuan zongku — CNKI xilie shujuku 中國知識資源總庫—CNKI 系列數據庫: http://cnki50.csis.com.tw/kns50/single_index.aspx (accessed Oct. 3, 2007).
[24] The information is culled from Guojia tushuguan quanguo boshuoshi lunwen zixunwang 國家圖書館全國博碩士論文資訊網 http://etds.ncl.edu.tw/theabs/index.jsp (accessed Oct. 3, 2007).
[25] As of 2008, Taiwan has a population of 23 millions, in contrast to China’s 1.3 billions; the ratio is roughly 1:56.5.
[26] So far only Fu Jen Catholic University and Chengchi University have PhD programs in religious studies. The former began its program in 2003, whereas the latter started its own in 2007.
[27] Zhonghua dazangjing bianjizu 中華大藏經編輯組, eds., Zhonghua dazangjing 中華大藏經 [Chinese Buddhist Canon], 106 vols. (Beijing: Zhonghua chubanshe, 1984-96); Zhang Jiyu 張繼禹, ed., Zhonghua daozang 中華道藏 [Chinese Daoist Canon], 49 vols. (Beijing: Huaxia chubanshe, 2004).
[28] Ren Jiyu 任繼愈, ed., Zhongguo fojiaoshi 中國佛教史 [A History of Chinese Buddhism] (Beijing: Zhongguo shehui kexue chubanshe, 1981-85); Qing Xitai 卿希泰, ed., Zhongguo daojiaoshi 中國道教史 [A History of Chinese Daoism] (Chengdu: Sichuan renmin chubanshe/Taipei: Zhonghua daotong, 1997); see also Fang Guangchang 方廣錩, “Fojiao yanjiu sishinin zongshu” 佛教研究四十年綜述 [General Review of Buddhist Studies in the Past Forty Years], in Zongjiao yanjiu sishinian (shang), 59-71; Wang Ka 王卡, “Daojiao yanjiu de huigu yu zhanwang” 道教研究的回顧與展望 [A Review and Prospect of Daoist Studies], in Zongjiao yanjiu sishinian (shang), 72-79.
[29] Although many scholars’ works are related to “theory,” under the strong spell of Marxist ideology and state religious policies, they tend to be superficial and narrow in scope. In that sense, large quantity does not guarantee depth and richness of content. See Dai, “Xin Zhongguo zongjiao yanjiu wushi nian,” 55-57; Franciscus Verellen, “Taoism,” The Journal of Asian Studies 54, no. 2 (1995): 322-46; Stephen F. Teiser, “Popular Religion,” The Journal of Asian Studies 54, no. 2 (1995): 378-95.
[30] See the criticism by Lü Daji, “Zongjiaoxue lilun yanjiushi de chengzhang licheng” 宗教學理論研究室的成長歷程 [The Developing Process of the Section of the Theory of Religion], in Zongjiao yanjiu sishinian (shang), 14-24.
[31] Dong Weizhen 董維真 has discussed some of the problems caused by this narrow orientation among Taiwan’s religion institutes or departments; see her “Jiangouzhong de Taiwan zongjiaoxue jiaoyu: zongjiao xisuo fazhan zhi xiankuang tantao” 建構中的台灣宗教學教育：宗教系所發展之現況探討 [Current Development of Religious Studies in Taiwan: An Investigation of Religious Departments] (master thesis, National Chengchi University, 2004), 92-96.
[32] Qin Huibin 秦惠彬, “Yisilan wenhua yanjiu” 伊斯蘭文化研究 [The Study of Muslim Culture], in Zhongguo zongjiao yanjiu nianjian 1999-2000, 432-35.
[33] Wang Zhiyuan 王志遠 and others, “Zhongguo zongjiao wenhua yishu yanjiu sishinian” 中國宗教文化藝術研究四十年 [The Study of Chinese Religious Art in the Past Forty Years], in Zongjiao yanjiu sishinian (shang), 25-45.
[34] Zhou Xiefan 周燮蕃, “Yisilan yanjiu sishinian” 伊斯蘭研究四十年 [Islamic Studies in the Past Forty Years], in Zongjiao yanjiu sishinian (shang), 80-96.
[35] It is regrettable that almost none of the religion institutes or departments provide background information about their researchers and faculty. This makes detailed statistics and analysis in this regard difficult.
[36] There are very few reflections on and critiques of the study of religion by Chinese scholars. There are, however, many works in this regard in the West. Only a few examples of the more recent ones are here listed: Walter H. Capps, Religious Studies: The Making of a Discipline (Minneapolis: Fortress Press, 1995); Russell T. McCutcheon, ed., The Insider/Outsider Problem in the Study of Religion: A Reader (London: Cassell, 1999); Gavin Flood, Beyond Phenomenology: Rethinking the Study of Religion (London: Cassell, 1999); Timothy Fitzgerald, The Ideology of Religious Studies (New York: Oxford University Press, 2000); Tomoko Masuzawa, The Invention of World Religions (Chicago: The University of Chicago Press, 2005); John R. Hinnells, ed., The Routledge Companion to the Study of Religion (London: Routledge, 2005).
[37] See note 22.
[38] Even this number, distributed in ten religion institutes or departments, is not impressive compared with the only two religion departments in Hong Kong, which collectively have 48 full-time faculty. See the website of the Department of Culture and Religious Studies of the Chinese University of Hong Kong: http://www2.cuhk.edu.hk/crs/crs0708/index.php as well as the website of the Department of Religion and Philosophy of Hong Kong Baptist University: http://arts.hkbu.edu.hk/dep_rel.asp.
[39] Pitman B. Potter, “Belief in Control: Regulation of Religion in China,” 17.
[40] Lü, “Zongjiaoxue lilun yanjiushi de chengzhang licheng,” 17; also see idem, Zongjiaoxue tonglun宗教學通論 [A General Introduction to the Study of Religion] (Beijing: Zhongguo shehui kexue chuban, 1989), 17-19.
[41] Lai Chi-Tim, “Daoism in China Today, 1980-2002,” in Religion in China Today (see note 2), 107-21.
[42] Ren Jiyu 任繼愈, “Bujinyao tuopin, erqieyao tuoyu: tan kexue wushenlun xuanchuan de biyaoxing han yiyi” 不僅要脫貧，而且要脫愚：談科學無神論宣傳的必要性和意義 [Not Only Out of Poverty But Also Out of Ignorance: On the Necessity and Significance of Scientific Atheistic Propaganda], in Zongjiao yanjiu sishinian (shang), 139-44.
[43] Tsai Yuanling, in his recent survey of Taiwan scholars’ achievement in the field of theory of religion, also attributes scientism and agnostic humanism as the main cause behind the scarce output of this academic sub-category; see his “Wushinian lai Taiwan zongjiao yanjiu chengguo pinggu jihua: zongjiao lilun zhijihua jiean baogao” 五十年來台灣宗教研究成果評估計畫：宗教理論子計畫結案報告 [General Review of Religious Studies in Taiwan in the Past Fifty Years: A Division Report on the Study of Religious Theories], in Wushinian lai Taiwan zongjiao yanjiu chengguo pinggu jihua 五十年來台灣宗教研究成果評估計畫 [General Review of Religious Studies in Taiwan in the Past Fifty Years], ed. Yen-zen Tsai 蔡彥仁 (Taipei: Center of Humanities, National Science Council, 2002), 1-11.
[44] Huang Xuanwei 黃宣衛, “Wushinian lai Taiwan zongjiao yanjiu chengguo pinggu jihua: Taiwan nandao minzu de zongjiao zijihua jiean baogao” 五十年來台灣宗教研究成果評估計畫：台灣南島民族的宗教子計畫結案報告 [General Review of Religious Studies in Taiwan in the Past Fifty Years: A Division Report on the Study of Austronesian Religions], in Tsai, Wushinian lai Taiwan zongjiao, 1-37.
[45] Ren Yanli 任延黎, “Jidujiao yanjiu de xueke fazhan” 基督教研究的學科發展 [The Development of the Study of Christianity], in Zongjiao yanjiu sishinian (shang), 97-108.
[46] Hong Xiuping 洪修平 and Fu Xinyi 傅新毅, “Zhongguo fojiao sixiangshi yanjiu de xianzhuang ji qianjing” 中國佛教思想史研究的現狀及前景 [Current Development and Prospect of the Study of the History of Chinese Buddhist Thought], in Zhongguo zongjiao yanjiu nianjian 2001-2002, 125-45, esp. 137.
[47] Fang, “Fojiao yanjiu sishinin zongshu,” 67.
[48] He, “Zongjiaoxue zai zhongguo.”
[49] Wang, “Daojiao yanjiu de huigu yu zhanwang,” 79.
[50] Li Shiwei 李世偉, “Wushinian lai Taiwan zongjiao yanjiu chengguo pinggu jihua: minjian zongjiao (jiaopai zongjiao) zijihua jiean baogao” 五十年來台灣宗教研究成果評估計畫：民間宗教(教派宗教)子計畫結案報告 [General Review of Religious Studies in Taiwan in the Past Fifty Years: A Division Report on the Study of Popular Sectarian Religions], in Wushinian lai Taiwan zongjiao, 1-35; Zheng Zhiming 鄭志明, “Wushinian lai Taiwan zongjiao yanjiu chengguo pinggu jihua: xinxing zongjiao jiean baogao” 五十年來台灣宗教研究成果評估計畫：新興宗教結案報告 [General Review of Religious Studies in Taiwan in the Past Fifty Years: A Division Report on the Study of New Religions], in Wushinian lai Taiwan zongjiao, 1-27.
[51] One notable example is Wang Qiugui 王秋貴 and his team members who have endeavored to search for local rituals, dramas, and folklores throughout many provinces in China. Their collections have been published since 1993 as monograph series titled Minsu quyi congshu 民俗曲藝叢書 [Studies in Chinese Ritual, Theatre and Folklore] (Taipei: Shih Ho-cheng Folk Culture Foundation, 1993-); see also Daniel L. Overmyer, ed., Ethnography in China Today: A Critical Assessment of Methods and Results (Taipei: Yuan-Liou Publishing Co., Ltd., 2002), esp. 2-11.
[52] John McRae, “Chinese Religions: The State of the Field (Part II): Buddhism,” The Journal of Asian Studies 54, no. 2 (1995): 354-71; Hong and Fu, “Zhongguo fojiao sixiangshi yanjiu,” 142-45; Zhou Bokan 周伯戡, “Cong ‘fojiao xiangguan boshuoshi lunwen tiyao huibian (1963-2000)’ luelun Taiwan fojiao yanjiu xuewei lunwen timu de xuanze” 從《佛教相關博碩士論文提要彙編(1963-2000)》略論台灣佛教研究學位論文題目的選擇 [A Brief Discussion of the Choice of Buddhist Themes for Graduate Degrees in Taiwan: Based upon Compendium of Buddhism-related Graduate Theses, 1963-2000], Fojiao tushuguan guanxun佛教圖書館館訊, no. 27 (2001): 35-36.
[53] Jia Runguo 加潤國, “Rujiao yanjiu de shiji huigu yu zhanwang” 儒教研究的世紀回顧與展望 [A Review and Prospect of Confucian Studies in the Past Century], in Zhongguo zongjiao yanjiu nianjian 2001-2002, 464-89.
[54] Zhuo and Cao, “Ershi shiji de Zhongguo zongjiao,” 1.
[55] He, “Zongjiaoxue zai zhongguo.”
[56] Some scholars in Taiwan, Japan, and the West have begun to address this issue and search for possible solutions; see Hsun Chang and Tsann-terng Jiang, eds., Taiwan bentu zongjiao yanjiu de xinshiye han xinsiwei 台灣本土宗教研究的新視野和新思維[Searching for the Paradigm: New Perspectives on Taiwanese Religious Studies] (Taipei: SMC Publishing Inc., 2003), esp. chaps. 2-7.
