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I CARNEGIE INSTITUTE OF TECHNOLOGY i I , H I , I ! \ I \ THE LIBRARY ' a - ", ReltgiD'1f in' Chif1eJf!, 5f!Ciey Re i j{JU tff; C II1e4e Sera/et A Study of Contemporary Social Functions of Religion and Some of Their Historical Factors B Y C. K. YANG University of California Press Berkeley and Los Angeles I961 University of California Press Berke:ley and Los Ange:les, California Cambridge University Press London, England © '96. by The Regents of the University of California Published with the assistance of a grant from the Ford Foundation Library of Congress Catalog Card Number: 61-7520 . Designed by Theo lung Printed in the United States of America PREFACE FOR MANY YEARS I have been perplexed by the problem of the place of religion in traditional Chinese society, especially the functional basis for the development of religious life and the organizational system by which the religious element in traditional living was propagated and perpetuated. The present volume is a modest at� tempt at analyzing this problem from the sociological approach. Among the sociological concepts, that of diffuseness and specificity (Talcott Parsons) has provided the interpretive key to the structural aspect of the problem. In preparing the work for publication I am indebted to the falp lowing: to the Rockefeller Foundation, the Social Science Research Council, and the Trustees of Lingnan University for their generous financial assistance; to the administrators and my colleagues at the University of Pittsburgh for partial relief from teaching and for providing a hospitable environment; to the late Robert Redfield for his stimulation and support of my work and his incisive sug gestions on this manuscript; to John K. Fairbank for his encour agement and help; to W. T. Chan and Arthur F. Wright for sug gesting sources of information; to Roward Linton of Columbia University Library for generous assistance with library resources; to Robert and Aili Chin for their critical comments and sugges tions; to Joyce Langford for help in typing the manuscript. Special thanks are due my wife, Louise Chin Yang, who contributed to the improvement of the manuscript, and my two sons, Wallace and Wesley, who once more endured the curtailment of family life in the course of my preparation of this volume. University of Pittsburgh August, 1960 c. K. Yang CO NTENTS I INTRODUCTION I 11 RELIGION IN THE INTEGRATION OF THE FAMILY AND III RELIGION IN SOCIAL IV COMMUNAL ASPECTS OF POPULA.R CULTS V VI VII VIII IX X ECONOMIC GROUPS 58 81 POLITICAL ROLE OF CHINESE RELIGION IN HISTORICAL PERSPECTIVE 104 OPERATION OF THE MANDATE OF HEAVEN 127 ETHICOPOLITICAL CULTS; "GUIDANCE BY THE WAY OF THE GODS" 144 STATE CONTROL OF RELIGION 180 RELIGION AND POLITICAL REBELLION 218 RELIGIOUS ASPECTS OF CONFUCIANISM IN ITS DOCTRINE 244 AND PRACTICE XI RELIGION AND THE TRADITIONAL MORAL ORDER XII DIFFUSED AND INSTITUTIONAL RELIGION IN XIV 278 CHINESE 294 SOCIETY XIII 28 THE CHANGING ROLE OF RELIGION IN PRE-COMMUNIST CHINESE. SOCIETY 341 CoMMUNISM AS A NEW FAITH 378 NOTES 405 BIBLIOGRAPHY 423 '" tltu Contents ApPENDIX I ApPENDIX 2 ApPENDIX INDEX Functional Classification of Major Temples in Eight Localities 436 Alphabetical List o