Living in the Chinese Cosmos: Understanding Religion in Late-Imperial China


• Introduction to Living in the Chinese Cosmos

• The Chinese Cosmos: Basic Concepts
	... What Is the Chinese Conception of the Cosmos?
	... The “Basic Stuff”: Qi
	... Understanding Yin and Yang
		• The Yinyang Symbol
		• Yinyang and Qi in Human Beings
		• Yinyang and Fengshui
	... “God” in the Context of Chinese Religion
	... Understanding Shen: Human Spirit, Gods and Spirits, and the Spiritual

• Understanding “Religion” in Context

• 19th Century: Intrusion of “the West” and Assault on Traditional Chinese Thought
	... Prelude to the 19th Century: Jesuit Missionaries in China and the “Rites Controversy”
	... Increasing European Aggression and China’s Defeat
	... New Nationalism and the Rejection of Traditional Beliefs

• 20th Century: Communism and Internal Challenges to Tradition

• Religion in China Today: Reemergence of Traditional Practices and the Question of National Identity
	... 1970s to the Present
	... Contemporary Reemergence of Popular Religion and the Question of Chinese Identity
	... Ethnicity, Religious Activity, and State Control: Falun Gong; Catholicism, House Churches, and Tibetan Buddhism; Religion and Ethnicity


• Sanjiao: The Three Teachings

• Defining “Daoism”: A Complex History
	... What Is “Daoism” and Who Uses the Term?
		• The Daoist Golden Age: Primordial Chaos
		• The Early Daoist Writings
		• Daoist Religious Movements: The Way of the Celestial Masters
		• Daoism and the Imperial State
	... Diversity, Continuity, and Immortality in Daoism
	... History of Daoism as a Succession of Revelations
		• Morality and Daoism
	... Daoism, Buddhism, and Popular Religion: Identity and Difference

• Buddhism: The “Imported” Tradition
	... The Place of Buddhism in Chinese Society
		• Fojiao: “The Teaching of the Buddha”
	... The Origin of Buddhism and the Early Indian Worldview
		• RELATED LINKS: THE SPREAD OF BUDDHISM
		• Reincarnation and the Forms of Life
		• Gods of Buddhism
		• Karma
		• The Cycle of Existence
		• The Path to Salvation
	... Understanding the “Buddha”
		• The Buddha
		• buddhas
		• bodhisattvas
	... The Three Jewels: Buddha, the Dharma, and the Saṅgha
	... The History of Buddhism in China
		• The Translation of Buddhist Texts
		• Xuanzang: Translator of Buddhist Texts and Hero of The Journey to the West (The Tale of Monkey)
		• Schools of Buddhism in China

• Confucius and the “Confucian Tradition”
	... Who Was Confucius?
	... What Did Confucius Teach?
		• The Ideal Ruler
		• Ritual (Li)
	... The Emergence of “Confucianism” during the Han Dynasty
		• The Classical Texts
		• State Sponsorship
		• Dong Zhongshu’s Cosmological Framework
	... Genealogy of the “Confucian Tradition” and What It Reveals


• What Is Popular Religion?
	... Why “Popular Religion”?
	... Understanding the Limitations of the Term “Popular Religion”
	... Popular Religion in What Sense?
	... Religion and Social Class

• Settling the Dead: Funerals, Memorials, and Beliefs Concerning the Afterlife
	... Looking After the Ancestors: Honoring Virtue and Repaying Merit
		• Ancestor and Spirit Tablets
	... The Soul’s Journey after Death: Into the Underworld Realm
	... The Golden Bridge or the Silver Bridge?: Choosing between Paradise and Heaven
	... Helping the Dead Move through Hell Quickly

• The Jade Emperor and Other Gods of the Heavenly Domain
	... The Jade Emperor and the Bureaucracy of Heaven
	... Gods at the Jade Emperor’s Court: Mazu and Guan Yu
	... Appeasing the Gods
	... Becoming a God

• The Kitchen God and Other Gods of the Earthly Domain
	... The Kitchen God and His Wife
		• RELATED LINKS: CHINESE PAPER GODS
	... The Earth God
		• Gods of the Earthly Domain in the Chinese Home
	... The City God

• The Ten Magistrates of the Underworld Realm
	... The Soul’s Journey through the Underworld Realm
		• RELATED LINK: CHINESE HELL SCROLLS
	... The Ten Bureaucrats of Hell?: The Magistrates in the Popular Imagination
	... Crime and Punishment: Popular Depictions of the Ten Courts of Hell
	... The Tenth Court of Hell: Final Judgment and Reincarnation for All


• The Confucian Classics and the Civil Service Examinations
	... The Confucian Tradition Institutionalized through the Examination System
	... Who Took the Civil Service Examinations?
	... The Levels of the Examination System
	... Social Mobility and Curricular Uniformity under the Confucian System

• Temples of the State Cult
	... Overview of the State Cult: Organization and Practice
		• Should Confucius Be Worshipped as a God?
	... Confucian Temples
	... Military Temples
	... City Gods and City God Temples
		• Worship of the City God in Popular and Official Religion

• The Emperor in the Cosmic Order
	... The Official Rites and Duties of the Emperor
	... The Emperor at the Temple of Heaven: Worshipping Heaven, Earth, and the Ancestors
		• Worship at the Temple of Heaven: An Enduring Tradition
	... The Three Prostrations and the Nine Kowtows: From the Imperial Court Down to the Village
	... The Importance of an Enduring Bureaucracy
	... Imperial Legitimacy and the Cosmic Order: The Manchu Qing and the “Mandate of Heaven”