Superstitious Regimes: Religion and the Politics of Chinese Modernity (Harvard East Asian Monographs)

This Title Explores The Recategorisation Of Religious Practices And People And Examines How State Power Affected The Religious Lives And Physical Order Of Local Communities In China. It Also Looks At How Politicians Conceived Their Own Ritual Role In An Era When Authority Was Meant To Derive From Popular Sovereignty. Introduction: Religion, Modernity, Nationalism -- Part I: Of Legislation And Ling -- Inventing Religion -- Temples And The Redefinition Of Public Life -- Part Ii: Material Motives -- Jiangsu Temples As Target And Tactic -- Idealized Communities And The Religious Remainder -- Part Iii: Transactional Modernity -- Embodying Superstition -- Affective Regimes -- Conclusion: Superstition's Legacy. Rebecca Nedostup. Includes Bibliographical References (p. 385-428) And Index. Copyright 4 Acknowledgments 6 Contents 10 Tables, Maps, and Figures 12 Note on Romanization and Measurements 14 1. Introduction: Religion, Modernity, Nationalism 16 Auspicious Omens of the Blue-and-White 16 Why Is China Important to the History of Nationalist Secularism? 19 Categories 21 A Brief Evolutionary History of the Anti-Superstition Campaign 26 The Scope of the Book 31 Bringing the State Back In 33 Local and National 36 Overview 37 Part I - Of Legislation and ling 靈 40 2. Inventing Religion 42 Tongshanshe and a Freedom Denied 44 Exempting Christianity 49 Religious Freedom: Defining the Obligation 52 Faith, Nation, Temple: Religious Identity Under the Nationalist State 54 Fitting into the National Body 58 Religious Patriotism to Religious Corporatism: Reviving the Buddhist Association of China 62 The Limits of the Corporatist Model 68 Finding Redemptionin the Kuomintang World 71 Zailijiao Saves the Nation 72 Daoyuan Above- and Underground 75 Conclusion 79 3. Temples and the Redefinitionof Public Life 82 Establishing Secular Authority: The Early Stages of Temple Confiscation 87 Toppling the City God 90 Standardizing Chinese Religion 93 The "Standards" and Modern Religion 94 Enforcing Reason 101 Placing Temples in the Nation 103 Counting Temples and Clergy 103 The "Temple Management Rules" and the Politicization of Temple Space 106 "Regulations for Temple Oversight" and Reinforcing "Religion" 108 The Limits of the Law: Temple Regulations in Practice 110 Public, Private, Government 112 The Abandonment Loophole 116 Conclusion 121 Part II - Material Motives 124 4. Jiangsu Temples as Target and Tactic 126 Knowing Jiangsu: Politics, Society, and Religion During the Nanjing Decade 130 Jiangsu Politics: A Conservative Trend for Whom? 131 Temples in the Four Jiangsus 133 New Traditionalism and Old Pragmatism in Jiangnan 139 Suzhou Buddhism, Refined and Raw 141 When Is a Xuanmiao guan Not a Temple? 146 The Limits of the Law 152 Subei: Perched at Modernity's Edge 156 Is That Temple Really a School? 158 And Are Those Really Buddhists? 160 Conclusion 163 5. Idealized Communities and the Religious Remainder 165 Contesting Space, Capital, and Power: Nanjing as Model Community 166 The Commerce of Trees 171 Competing Revolutions at Qixiashan 174 Rewriting Ritual Space: The Linggu Monastery and the Memorial to Fallen Soldiers 180 Contesting Space, Capital, and Power: Suqian as a Feared Community 190 Plotting Power Across Space and Time in Suqian 193 The Small Sword Aftermath and the Demonization of Suqian Buddhism 196 Conclusion 202 Part III - Transactional Modernity 204 6. Embodying Superstition 206 Urban Reform and the Economics of Popular Ritual 209 Superstitious Products 214 Superstitious Persons and the Meaning of Modern Society 221 Medicine and Magic 230 Pathologizing Superstition 234 7. Affective Regimes 242 Time 244 New Year's and the Persistence of the Abolished 251 Community 256 Nanjing’s Ghosts: "Hot and Noisy?" 259 The Dead 266 Collective Life in Death 269 Heroes 273 The Universe of Sun 274 Honoring the Sages of Old 278 Conclusion: Regime Mixing 287 8. Conclusion: Superstition's Legacy 294 The Governmental Legacy of "Religion" and "Superstition" 299 Appendix 308 Three Major KMT Laws on Temples 310 Reference Matter 316 Notes 318 Works Cited 400 Index 444 Harvard East Asian Monographs 475 'We live in a world shaped by secularism—the separation of numinous power from political authority and religion from the political, social, and economic realms of public life. Not only has progress toward modernity often been equated with secularization, but when religion is admitted into modernity, it has been distinguished from superstition. That such ideas are continually contested does not undercut their extraordinary influence. These divisions underpin this investigation of the role of religion in the construction of modernity and political power during the Nanjing Decade (1927–1937) of Nationalist rule in China. This book explores the modern recategorization of religious practices and people and examines how state power affected the religious lives and physical order of local communities. It also looks at how politicians conceived of their own ritual role in an era when authority was meant to derive from popular sovereignty. The claims of secular nationalism and mobilizational politics prompted the Nationalists to conceive of the world of religious association as a dangerous realm of “superstition” that would destroy the nation. This is the first “superstitious regime” of the book's title. It also convinced them that national feeling and faith in the party-state would replace those ties—the second “superstitious regime.”' We live in a world shaped by secularism—the separation of numinous power from political authority and religion from public political, social, and economic realms. This book explores the modern recategorization of religious practices and people and examines how state power affected the religious lives and physical order of local communities.