BA Chinese Studies

This course unit explores religion in China from the earliest evidence in the Bronze Age to the present day. Presently one of the most religiously diverse countries in the world, the religious culture and history of China are exceptionally rich and diverse, with virtually no area of human life going unrelated to religious matters. In this course unit we seek to better understand the historical religious traditions of China, not to make judgements on matters of religious belief or religious truth. Our sources include a variety of historical studies, translated religious texts, anthropological and ethnographic accounts, and sacred images. Students do not need to be able to read Chinese for this unit, but if they can, they have the option of consulting primary sources in the language. Students will not only learn the essential features and histories of the major religious traditions in China, but also important aspects of how they influenced Chinese history, and how they continue to influence its development today. 

The unit aims to:

• Provide students with a sound understanding of the crucial role played by religion in Chinese culture and history, and how it has shaped Chinese civilisation.
• Foster greater awareness of the scope and diversity of primary source materials relating to religion in China, and of the cultural contexts in which they were produced.
• Provide students with the option to engage with primary Chinese-language source material in conjunction with English-language secondary sources.
• Train students how to critically assess religious traditions while not impinging on the freedom of belief of others.
• Improve students’ ability to express complex ideas in oral and written form.

Syllabus:

Teaching weeks are organised by groups of key themes in religion:

Week 1 History and Repertoires

Week 2 Writing and Promulgation

Week 3 Space, Territory, and Relics

Week 4 Home, Family, and Gender

Week 5 Conflict and Transgression

Week 6 Reading Week, Midterm Exam

Week 7 Transformation and Liberation

Week 8 Image and Performance

Week 9 Minorities and Outsiders

Week 10 Salvation and Disaster

Week 11 Rationality and Modernity

Week 12 Review and Exam Preparation

One two-hour lecture and one one-hour seminar per week, 33 total contact hours

200 notional study hours  

Students should be able to:  

• Show familiarity with key religious ideas, figures, and institutions in China, and be able to identify how these elements developed over time
• Illustrate how an understanding of and appreciation for religion deepens our understanding of Chinese culture and history

• Read, discuss, and critically analyse primary and secondary academic materials relating to religion in China
• Apply independent critical thinking skills when making use of historical sources
• Make connections between different ideas, figures, and institutions, and between religion and the larger context of Chinese culture and history

• Think independently, critically, and analytically about complex topics
• Express ideas clearly in speech and writing
• Read effectively (both primary and secondary texts)

• Manage time effectively, self-motivate, and work to deadlines
• Communicate a coherent and critical argument of depth and complexity in written form
• Assess the relevance and importance of the ideas of others
• Show awareness of and responsiveness to the nature and extent of intercultural diversity

David A. Palmer and Vincent Goossaert, The Religious Question in Modern China (University of Chicago Press, 2011)

Chün-fang Yü, The Renewal of Buddhism in China, Fortieth Anniversary Edition (Columbia University Press, 2020)

Lai Guolong, Excavating the Afterlife: the Archaeology of Early Chinese Religion (University of Washington Press, 2015)

Alimtohte Shiho, Islam in China and the Islamic World A History of Chinese Scholarship (Gorgias Press, 2024) 

Fan Ruiping, ed., The Renaissance of Confucianism in Contemporary China (Springer Netherlands, 2011)

Cao Feng, Daoism in Early China: Huang-Lao Thought in Light of Excavated Texts (Palgrave Macmillan, 2017)

George Kam Wah Mak, Protestant Bible Translation and Mandarin as the National Language of China (Brill, 2017)