RELI 235 - State and Religion in China

Semester Offered: Fall
1 unit(s)

(Same as ASIA 235) More than two thousand years ago the Han dynasty emperor Yuandi (r. 48-32 BCE) stated at the beginning of his reign: “We make it a point to establish personally our ancestral temple, because this is the ultimate power to build up our authority, eliminate the sprouts of rebellion, and make the people one.” The ‘ancestral state’ (zuguo) has always been an authoritarian one. The ancestral temple has always rendered China – both as imagined, mythologized, and contemporary – as religious. We begin our class then with the controversial assumption that China is a religious state precisely because it is a modern, nation-state. How can this be, and what is the connection to Emperor Yuandi’s assertion? Wang Hui, one of China’s most eminent, contemporary scholars, poses another type of question: “What is the nature of the historical emergence or construction of modern Chinese identity, ideas of geography, and senses of sovereignty?” This question is critical to better understanding China’s past and present. Might we also understand Wang’s question as a type of religious question despite the Chinese Communist Party’s (CCP) historical repudiation of religion? (After all, a history of the past is a history of the present.) And, if we can, what might this even mean, and what advantages or disadvantages might this offer us in further deepening our understanding of China today? Michael Walsh.

Two 75-minute periods.

Course Format: CLS