Religious Culture and Violence in Traditional China

Summarizes the most important aspects of the role of violence in Chinese religious culture.

Barend ter Haar (Author)

9781108706230, Cambridge University Press

Paperback / softback, published 30 May 2019

75 pages
18 x 12.8 x 0.4 cm, 1.2 kg

The basis of Chinese religious culture, and with that many aspects of daily life, was the threat and fear of demonic attacks. These were inherently violent and could only be counteracted by violence as well - even if this reactive violence was masked by euphemisms such as execution, expulsion, exorcisms and so on. At the same time, violence was a crucial dimension of the maintenance of norms and values, for instance in sworn agreements or in beliefs about underworld punishment. Violence was also an essential aspect of expressing respect through sacrificial gifts of meat (and in an earlier stage of Chinese culture also human flesh) and through a culture of auto-mutilation and ritual suicide. At the same time, conventional indigenous terms for violence such as bao ? were not used for most of these practices since they were not experienced as such, but rather justified as positive uses of physical force.

Preface
1. Setting the stage
2. What is violence?
3. The demonological substrate
4. Messianic and millenarian traditions
5. The enforcement of norms and social values
6. Sacrifice and its counter-discourse
7. Self-inflicted violence
8. Intra-religious conflicts
Concluding comments.

Subject Areas: Religious life & practice [HRLM], Ancient religions & mythologies [HRKP], Oriental religions [HRKN], History of religion [HRAX], Social & cultural history [HBTB], Asian history [HBJF]