Late Imperial Chinese Anticlericalism and the Division of Ritual Labor

Bibliographic Data

ID3974912
AuthorsVincent Goossaert (École Pratique des Hautes Études, corresponding author)
Year2021
Volume61
Issue1
Pages87-104
Publication date2021-08-01
Peer ReviewedYes
Open AccessNo
TypeARTICLE
VenueHistory of Religions (JOURNAL)
Journal identifiersISSN: 0018-2710 • E-ISSN: 1545-6935
PublisherUniversity of Chicago Press (PUBLISHER • US)
DOI10.1086/714966
OpenAlexW3203589519
LanguageEN
Citations received2
References cited14

This article proposes to place the anticlerical discourses in late imperial China (1368–1912), notably directed at professional Buddhists and Daoists, in a social context where the rights and duties of religious specialists were closely regulated by local social institutions (rather than by the state) and embedded in thick contractual processes. Drawing on the rich data available for the Jiangnan region, it argues that the fact that one could not freely choose which ritual specialist to employ (or not to employ) for various life-cycle events (weddings, funerals, ancestor worship) directly informed the type of asymmetrical relationships these people had with clerics and hence the discourse they held about them

Ancient history · Arithmetic · Division (mathematics) · Division of labour · Political science · Chinese history and philosophy · History · Japanese History and Culture · Law · Vietnamese History and Culture Studies