Making Saints in Modern China

Edited by David Ownby, Vincent Goossaert, and Ji Zhe

Innovative within the growing subfield of Chinese religious history for its focus on religious leadership and religious biography
Each chapter incorporates both narrative (the life of the saint under discussion) and comparative analysis of the saint-making process
Includes the work of several European and Chinese scholars, some of whose work has been made available in English for the first time in this volume

Making Saints in Modern China

Edited by David Ownby, Vincent Goossaert, and Ji Zhe

Description

"Sainthood" has been, and remains, a contested category in China, given the commitment of China's modern leadership to secularization, modernization, and revolution, and the discomfort of China's elite with matters concerning religion. However, sainted religious leaders have succeeded in rebuilding old institutions and creating new ones despite the Chinese government's censure. This book offers a new perspective on the history of religion in modern and contemporary China by focusing on the profiles of these religious leaders from the early 20th century through the present.

Edited by noted authorities in the field of Chinese religion, Making Saints in Modern China offers biographies of prominent Daoists and Buddhists, as well as of the charismatic leaders of redemptive societies and state managers of religious associations in the People's Republic. The focus of the volume is largely on figures in China proper, although some attention is accorded to those in Taiwan, Hong Kong, and other areas of the Chinese diaspora. Each chapter offers a biography of a religious leader and a detailed discussion of the way in which he or she became a "saint." The biographies illustrate how these leaders deployed and sometimes retooled traditional themes in hagiography and charismatic communication to attract followers and compete in the religious marketplace. Negotiation with often hostile authorities was also an important aspect of religious leadership, and many of the saints' stories reveal unexpected reserves of creativity and determination.

The volume's contributors, from the United States, Canada, France, Italy, China, and Taiwan, provide cutting-edge scholarship. Taken together, these essays make the case that vital religious leadership and practice has existed and continues to exist in China despite the state's commitment to wholesale secularization.

Making Saints in Modern China

Edited by David Ownby, Vincent Goossaert, and Ji Zhe

Preface
List of Contributors
Introduction

Chapter 1: The Charismatic Monk and the Chanting Masses: Master Yinguang and his Pure Land Revival Movement (Jan Kiely)
Chapter 2: Zhang Yuanxu: The Making and Unmaking of a Daoist Saint (Vincent Goossaert)
Chapter 3: Chan Master Xuyun: The Embodiment of an Ideal, the Transmission of a Model (Daniela Campo)
Chapter 4: Duan Zhengyuan and the Moral Studies Society: "Religionized Confucianism" during the Republican Period (Fan Chunwu)
Chapter 5: Two Turns in the Life of Master Hongyi,a Buddhist Monk in Twentieth-Century China (Raoul Birnbaum)
Chapter 6: Yiguandao's Patriarch Zhang Tianran (1889 - 1947): Hagiography, Deification and Production of Charisma in a Modern Religious Organization (Sébastien Billioud)
Chapter 7: Sainthood, Science, and Politics: The Life of Li Yujie, Founder of the Tiandijiao (David Ownby)
Chapter 8: Subtle Erudition and Compassionate Devotion: Longlian (1909-2006), "The Most Outstanding Bhiksuni" in Modern China (Ester Bianchi)
Chapter 9: Comrade Zhao Puchu: Bodhisattva under the Red Flag (Ji Zhe)
Chapter 10: The "New Clothes" of Sainthood in China: The Case of Nan Huaijin (1918-2012) (Catherine Despeux)
Chapter 11: Jingkong: From Universal Saint to Sectarian Saint (Yanfei Sun)
Chapter 12: Ren Fajiu : A Living Daoist Immortal in the People's Republic (Adeline Herrou)

Bibliography
Index

Making Saints in Modern China

Edited by David Ownby, Vincent Goossaert, and Ji Zhe

Author Information

David Ownby is Professor of History at the University of Montreal.

Vincent Goossaert is Professor of Religious Studies at the Ecole pratique des hautes études (EPHE) in Paris.

Ji Zhe is Associate Professor of Chinese Studies at the Institut national des langues et civilisations orientales (INALCO) in Paris.

Contributors:

Ester Bianchi (Associate Professor of Chinese Religions and Philosophy, Society and Culture of China and Chinese Literature at the University of Perugia in Italy)
Sébastien Billioud (Professor of Chinese Studies at University Paris-Diderot, Sorbonne Paris Cité, and Head of the East Asian studies department)
Raoul Birnbaum (Proessor of Buddhist Studies at the University of California, Santa Cruz, and the Gary D. Lick Memorial Chair at Cowell College)
Daniela Campo (Sinologist and a post-doctoral researcher of the Societies, Religions, Secularisms Institute, GSRL, in Paris)
Catherine Despeux (Professor Emeritus at Institut national des langues et civilisations orientales, INALCO, in Paris)
Fan Chunwu (Professor and Head of the History Department at Foguang University in Taiwan)
Vincent Goossaert (Professor of Religious Studies at the Ecole pratique des hautes études (EPHE) in Paris)
Adeline Herrou (Research Fellow at the Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique, CNRS, in Paris)
Jan Kiely (Professor and Associate Director of the Centre for China Studies at the Chinese University of Hong Kong)
David Ownby (Professor of History at the University of Montreal)
Yanfei Sun (Associate Professor of Sociology at Zhejiang University in China)
Ji Zhe (Associate Professor of Chinese Studies at the Institut national des langues et civilisations orientales, INALCO, in Paris)

Making Saints in Modern China

Edited by David Ownby, Vincent Goossaert, and Ji Zhe

Reviews and Awards

"a well-formatted, high quality book... there is not one chapter in this book that could not stand on its own." -- Erik Hammerstrom, Journal of Chinese Religions

"This book showcases the recent considerable advancements in the field of modern Chinese religious studies, and it will be of great interest to specialists and nonspecialists alike. For the specialist, there are a number of new avenues of research, and fresh archival and ethnographic materials spanning a fairly wide geographical field. For the nonspecialist, it portrays the surprisingly varied, lively, interconnected, and at the same time deeply rooted modern religious geography of China, providing a useful introduction to the field."--Elena Valussi, JAAR

"The book is highly recommended to scholars and students of Chinese religion, both of whom are certain to learn something they did not know about its modern transmitters." -- Brian J. Nichols, Mount Royal University

"Making Saints is a singular and unique contribution to the study of Chinese religion and modern history. Unusually, for an edited book this volume deserves to be read in order, from beginning to end."--Reading Religion

"This pioneering study of charismatic Chinese religious leaders presents the fruits of cooperative research work undertaken by a highly qualified group of academics representing a diverse range of disciplines and interests. Making Saints should be of immense interest to scholars of Chinese religions as well as the students they teach. In addition, its thoughtful comparative perspectives on issues such as hagiography will ensure its place in courses about religious traditions worldwide." --Paul R. Katz, Distinguished research fellow, Institute of Modern History, Academia Sinica

"The specialist will find here superb studies of the impact of twelve major figures in Chinese religious life of the 20th century, figures that he or she has probably encountered numerous times in various texts and contexts, but could never place exactly-until now. For the non-specialist, this volume offers fascinating case-studies of the interplay of individual religious agency with the enabling and restricting conditions imposed by the social, cultural, and political contexts that shifted so frequently throughout this turbulent century in Chinese history; it is this interplay that lifted these twelve to prominence, while relegating others to obscurity." --Philip Clart, Professor of Chinese History and Culture, University of Leipzig

"Modern China, in the midst of turbulent change, has never ceased producing charismatic religious figures. Through its comparative approach, this book offers a wealth of insights about how spiritual virtuosity and religious accomplishment have been enacted, experienced, interpreted, and narrated across religious traditions, and how modern 'saints' embody, through their lives, the tensions, contradictions, and powerful forces that have been shaping modern Chinese society. It is essential reading for students of Chinese religion and society, and for the comparative study of charisma and religious leadership." --David A. Palmer, co-author of Dream Trippers: Global Daoism and the Predicament of Modern Spirituality