ABSTRACT
In China Proper, the government of the emperor ruled through a hierarchy of appointed officials, a bureaucracy in charge of administrative units from the provinces down to the districts. The non-Chinese people outside of China Proper in areas that at varying times became parts of the empire were linked with the emperor through their own kings, chieftains, and aristocratic or religious leaders. Chinese nationalism, a contradiction to Confucian universalism, came into its own only when the political experts of Confucianism in the empire had lost their validity. One important step in bringing religions under control was the establishment of party-controlled organizations for all accepted religious faiths. At the outset, the government of the People’s Republic required all religious groups to affiliate with eight national organizations, three for Catholicism, two for Protestantism, and one each for Buddhism, Islam, and Daoism.
