Mandarins and Heretics

Mandarins and Heretics PDF Author: Junqing Wu
Publisher: BRILL
ISBN: 9004331409
Category : Religion
Languages : en
Pages : 190

Get Book Here

Book Description
In Mandarins and Heretics, Wu Junqing explores the denunciation and persecution of lay religious groups in late imperial (14th to 20th century) China. These groups varied greatly in their organisation and teaching, yet in official state records they are routinely portrayed as belonging to the same esoteric tradition, stigmatised under generic labels such as “White Lotus” and “evil teaching”, and accused of black magic, sedition and messianic agitation. Wu Junqing convincingly demonstrates that this “heresy construct” was not a reflection of historical reality but a product of the Chinese historiographical tradition, with its uncritical reliance on official sources. The imperial heresy construct remains influential in modern China, where it contributes to shaping policy towards unlicensed religious groups.

Mandarins and Heretics

Mandarins and Heretics PDF Author: Junqing Wu
Publisher: BRILL
ISBN: 9004331409
Category : Religion
Languages : en
Pages : 190

Get Book Here

Book Description
In Mandarins and Heretics, Wu Junqing explores the denunciation and persecution of lay religious groups in late imperial (14th to 20th century) China. These groups varied greatly in their organisation and teaching, yet in official state records they are routinely portrayed as belonging to the same esoteric tradition, stigmatised under generic labels such as “White Lotus” and “evil teaching”, and accused of black magic, sedition and messianic agitation. Wu Junqing convincingly demonstrates that this “heresy construct” was not a reflection of historical reality but a product of the Chinese historiographical tradition, with its uncritical reliance on official sources. The imperial heresy construct remains influential in modern China, where it contributes to shaping policy towards unlicensed religious groups.

Heretics of China

Heretics of China PDF Author: Nabil Alsabah
Publisher:
ISBN: 9781691579952
Category :
Languages : en
Pages : 354

Get Book Here

Book Description
Why do political leaders often perform fatal miscalculations, take ill-considered actions, and indulge in ludicrous wishful thinking? This book seeks to shed light on these questions by conducting two related case studies from the vantage point of the science of human behavior--psychology. The first one analyzes the decision-making behavior and leadership style of Mao Zedong, a man who, in the words of historian Maurice Meisner, "conceived and led the most popular revolution in world history" only to squander its fruits by embarking on a series of catastrophic political projects that cost tens of millions of Chinese their lives. The second case study follows the path of Mao''s successor, Deng Xiaoping, who renounced his faith in Maoism and embraced a pragmatic decision-making approach that paved the way for China''s remarkable rise.This book is the result of five years of research. Despite being based on the author''s PhD dissertation, this work should be accessible to non-experts. The investigation begins in Chapter 1 with a historical overview of China''s accelerating decline throughout the nineteenth century. This introductory chapter depicts China''s so-called century of humiliation (1839-1949). It offers some context as to the repeated failures to achieve national rejuvenation over the decades. The psychological analysis starts in Chapter 2 with a detailed discussion of Mao''s restlessness. The author will argue that Mao was locked in a never-ending battle against recurring self-doubts, which left him with a constant need for reassurance--a need that he attempted to satisfy by seeking to overcome ever more formidable political challenges. This, in turn, condemned China to a state of uninterrupted mass political campaigns, which greatly interfered with the nation''s attempts at economic and social modernization. Chapter 3 analyzes why Mao''s colleagues went along with his utopian visions. The discussion here will demonstrate that the decision-making behavior of the Chinese leadership exhibited all the hallmarks of groupthink--a modus operandi whereby the yearning to retain the approval of one''s leader as well as one''s colleagues outweighs the desire to draft effective policies. Chapter 4 explores how and why Mao''s principal goal in life eventually shifted from building socialism in China to preventing an imaginary capitalist restoration--a shift that ultimately paved the way for the disastrous Cultural Revolution. The author interprets this shift in Mao''s narrative identity as a reaction to his repeated failure to advance the quest for modernization. Chapter 5 centers on Deng''s silent rebellion against Mao''s decision-making approach. The discussion here will showcase the power of self-reflection--a psychological exercise that subjects one''s past behavioral and thought patterns to ruthless scrutiny so as to learn lessons for the future. Having subsequently renounced his faith in Maoism and all other "isms," Deng espoused fact-based and practice-oriented decision making. Yet, this did not turn either him or the decision-making apparatus over which he presided into dispassionate robots. Beliefs and values, as shown in Chapter 6, still colored how Deng and his colleagues interpreted complex developments in China. These beliefs and values were shaped by the forces of personality, the power of worldviews, and the subjective manner by which different decision makers processed their past experiences. As a result, the senior leaders greatly differed in terms of their visions for advancing China''s quest for modernization. Chapter 7 concludes this book with a summary of the most important findings. It also elaborates on the question of how the developed hypotheses can be validated. Further, this chapter provides an overview of the most pronounced behavioral characteristics of both Mao and Deng.

Christian Heretics in Late Imperial China

Christian Heretics in Late Imperial China PDF Author: Lars Peter Laamann
Publisher: Routledge
ISBN: 1134429975
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 165

Get Book Here

Book Description
Following the prohibition of missionary activity after 1724, China's Christians were effectively cut off from all foreign theological guidance. The ensuing isolation forced China's Christian communities to become self-reliant in perpetuating the basic principles of their faith. Left to their own devices, the missionary seed developed into a panoply of indigenous traditions, with Christian ancestry as the common denominator. Christianity thus underwent the same process of inculturation as previous religious traditions in China, such as Buddhism and Judaism. As the guardian of orthodox morality, the prosecuting state sought to exercise all-pervading control over popular thoughts and social functions. Filling the gap within the discourse of Christianity in China and also as part of the wider analysis of religion in late Imperial China, this study presents the campaigns against Christians during this period as part and parcel of the campaign against 'heresy' and 'heretical' movements in general.

Mandarins and Heretics

Mandarins and Heretics PDF Author: Junqing Wu
Publisher:
ISBN:
Category : China
Languages : en
Pages : 269

Get Book Here

Book Description


Heretics in Revolutionary China

Heretics in Revolutionary China PDF Author: Xuduo Zhao
Publisher: BRILL
ISBN: 9004547142
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 276

Get Book Here

Book Description
In this book, Xuduo Zhao revisits the early twentieth-century Chinese revolution by focusing on two forgotten Cantonese socialists: Chen Gongbo and Tan Pingshan. By analyzing a host of previously untapped primary sources, Zhao discovers a social democratic approach within the newly founded Chinese Communist Party and argues that its decline marked a key moment in the Chinese communist movement. The study of these two figures, and the ebbs and flows of their lives, reflects and reveals the fundamental tensions in the Chinese revolution which have shaped China’s political trajectory to contemporary times and the broader political, social, and cultural landscapes of Republican China.

Heretics in Revolutionary China

Heretics in Revolutionary China PDF Author: Xuduo Zhao
Publisher: Brill
ISBN: 9789004547131
Category : China
Languages : en
Pages : 0

Get Book Here

Book Description
Through analysis of untapped sources, Xuduo Zhao tells the captivating stories of two forgotten Cantonese socialists and discovers a key moment in the history of the Chinese revolution, which has shaped China's political trajectory to the present day.

Minor Heresies, Major Departures

Minor Heresies, Major Departures PDF Author: John H. Espey
Publisher: Univ of California Press
ISBN: 9780520913653
Category : Religion
Languages : en
Pages : 380

Get Book Here

Book Description
An American boy, son of Presbyterian missionaries, was born in Shanghai early in this century. The boy lived two lives, one within the pious church compound, the other along the canal and in the alleys of a traditional Chinese city. There he faced the alley brats' Lady Bandit, heard the shrill screams of a child's foot-binding, learned rank obscenities from passing boatmen, and, while still in short pants, chewed Sen-Sen and ogled snake-charmers in the old Native City. He sailed up the Yangtze to attend boarding school, and along with his Boy Scout patrol, met Chiang Kai-shek. And when John Espey grew up, he wrote about his years in China. This memoir is the story of those years, and while it is a wry, affectionate account, it also conveys an often overlooked picture of China in the years before communism. Seen through the eyes of a child, the interplay of religion, commerce, and American colonialism that took place during this period is revealed more tellingly—and more lightheartedly—than in many an analysis by an "old China hand." Espey's bent is to use a "Chinese" approach to his subject, that is, to hide a second meaning within his words, to speak in parables. This he learned from both his single-minded missionary father and the family's Chinese cook. The result is that the reader of Minor Heresies, Major Departures will learn a great deal about the Pacific Rim while having a rollicking good time.

Minor Heresies, Major Departures

Minor Heresies, Major Departures PDF Author: John Jenkins Espey
Publisher: University of California Presson Demand
ISBN: 9780520082502
Category : Biography & Autobiography
Languages : en
Pages : 349

Get Book Here

Book Description
Offers a look at the boyhood memories of the author, who was born in Shanghai to Protestant missionary parents, and spent the greater part of his life there until graduating from the Shanghai American school

Heresy and Orthodoxy in Song Dynasty China (960-1279 C.E.)

Heresy and Orthodoxy in Song Dynasty China (960-1279 C.E.) PDF Author: Robert Andrew Eddy
Publisher:
ISBN:
Category : China
Languages : en
Pages : 113

Get Book Here

Book Description


Schism

Schism PDF Author: Christie Chui-Shan Chow
Publisher: University of Notre Dame Pess
ISBN: 0268200548
Category : Religion
Languages : en
Pages : 434

Get Book Here

Book Description
Schism is the first ethnographic and historical study of Seventh-day Adventism in China. Scholars have been slow to consider Chinese Protestantism from a denominational standpoint. In Schism, the first monograph that documents the life of the Chinese Adventist denomination from the mid-1970s to the 2010s, Christie Chui-Shan Chow explores how Chinese Seventh-day Adventists have used schism as a tool to retain, revive, and recast their unique ecclesial identity in a religious habitat that resists diversity. Based on unpublished archival materials, fieldwork, oral history, and social media research, Chow demonstrates how Chinese Adventists adhere to their denominational character both by recasting the theologies and faith practices that they inherited from American missionaries in the early twentieth century and by engaging with local politics and culture. This book locates the Adventist movement in broader Chinese sociopolitical and religious contexts and explores the multiple agents at work in the movement, including intrachurch divisions among Adventist believers, growing encounters between local and overseas Adventists, and the denomination’s ongoing interactions with local Chinese authorities and other Protestants. The Adventist schisms show that global Adventist theology and practices continue to inform their engagement with sociopolitical transformations and changes in China today. Schism will compel scholars to reassess the existing interpretations of the history of Protestant Christianity in China during the Maoist years and the more recent developments during the Reform era. It will interest scholars and students of Chinese history and religion, global Christianity, American religion, and Seventh-day Adventism.