Late Imperial Chinese Anticlericalism and the Division of Ritual Labor
This article proposes to place the anticlerical discourses in late imperial China (1368-1912), notably directed at professional Buddhists and Daoists, in a social context where the rights and duties of religious specialists were closely regulated by local social institutions (rather than by the stat...
Main Author: | |
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Format: | Electronic Article |
Language: | English |
Check availability: | HBZ Gateway |
Journals Online & Print: | |
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Published: |
University of Chicago Press
2021
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In: |
History of religions
Year: 2021, Volume: 61, Issue: 1, Pages: 87-104 |
Standardized Subjects / Keyword chains: | B
China
/ Taoism
/ Buddhism
/ Ritual
/ Layman
/ Anti-clericalism
/ History 1368-1912
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IxTheo Classification: | AD Sociology of religion; religious policy BL Buddhism BM Chinese universism; Confucianism; Taoism KBM Asia KCA Monasticism; religious orders |
Online Access: |
Volltext (lizenzpflichtig) Volltext (lizenzpflichtig) |
Summary: | This article proposes to place the anticlerical discourses in late imperial China (1368-1912), notably directed at professional Buddhists and Daoists, in a social context where the rights and duties of religious specialists were closely regulated by local social institutions (rather than by the state) and embedded in thick contractual processes. Drawing on the rich data available for the Jiangnan region, it argues that the fact that one could not freely choose which ritual specialist to employ (or not to employ) for various life-cycle events (weddings, funerals, ancestor worship) directly informed the type of asymmetrical relationships these people had with clerics and hence the discourse they held about them. |
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ISSN: | 1545-6935 |
Contains: | Enthalten in: History of religions
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Persistent identifiers: | DOI: 10.1086/714966 |