Counting the Monks

The 1736-1739 Census of the Chinese Clergy

Dados Bibliográficos

ID15028086
AutoresVincent Goossaert (Groupe Sociétés, Religions, Laïcités, autor correspondente)
Ano2000
Volume21
Fascículo2
Páginas40-85
Data de publicação2000-12-01
Peer ReviewedSim
Open AccessSim
TipoARTICLE
PeriódicoLate imperial China (JOURNAL)
Identificadores do periódicoISSN: 0884-3236 • E-ISSN: 1086-3257
EditoraProject MUSE (PUBLISHER • US)
DOI10.1353/late.2000.0009
OpenAlexW1976537573
IdiomaEN
Citações recebidas8
Referências citadas16

The quantitative approach has, since the 1950s, deeply changed our knowl-edge of the history of religions in the West, especially for the nineteenth and twentieth centuries. However, this methodology has barely been applied to the history of Chinese religions. Although this situation may be partly ex-plained by sinological tradition, it should be observed that it is also the result of the nature of the currently available sources. Many of the quantitative stud-ies done by Western historians were based upon archives. The archival situa-tion in the West is very different from that in China: there was no Chinese equivalent of a bishop ordering reports on church attendance, and nothing comparable to parish registrars. Yet there was state control of the clergy, but the Chinese central archives have not yet yielded much serial data on reli-gious institutions. Local archives—the next revolution—are slowly begin-ning to open. As for non-state archives, especially for monasteries, temples, and associations, they have either disappeared or are still unavailable. No scholar has yet had access to a substantial amount of such sources. The treasure-trove for quantitative-minded China historians, the local gaz-etteers, are quite disappointing for the quantitative study of religions. They do include lists of temples2 but their demographic sections do not normally count the clerics,3 nor do fiscal sections inform us about landholdings of the reli

Ancient history · Archaeology · Attendance · Census · China · History of China · Nothing · Political science · Sociology · State (computer science) · Chinese history and philosophy · Classics · Computer Science · Demography · History · Law · Philosophy · Reformation and Early Modern Christianity · Vietnamese History and Culture Studies