ABSTRACT
Is religion important in China? While some people think that China is one of the least religious societies in the world, others hold that religion has strong and pervasive influence in China. In the nineteenth century, the prevailing view among Western intellectuals was that Chinese were immune to religion. The Jesuits thought that Confucian rites which focused on remembrance of the ancestors were not a kind of worship, so that Confucianism was not ‘religious’ in nature; Buddhism was foreign; Daoism was superstitious; and in sum, China was a country without religion. But this view was challenged in the twentieth century. Some scholars argue that China is ‘a religious state’ (Lagerwey 2010). Historically, China has described itself as Shenzhou which literally means a ‘continent of the spirits’ since the Zhou dynasty (1046 BCE-256 BCE). Various religions have enjoyed explosive growth, and China is arguably experiencing a religious revolution. This chapter, beginning with an intro duction to Chinese religious traditions, will centre on the transition of religion and state regulation since 1949.
