E-Book Content
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