Saving the Chinese Nation and The World: Religion and Confucian Reformation, 1880s-1937

Abstract

This study seeks to re-examine the encounter between the Confucian tradition and western modernity. China?s encounter with the forces of modernity such as democratic politics, nationalism, science and industrial capitalism not only challenged the Confucian tradition, but also introduced new categories and organizations for its reinvention and revival in the modern period. In particular, this dissertation examines the reformation of Confucianism as a ?religion? in the late nineteenth and first half of the twentieth century. The Western concept and institution of ?religion? allowed Confucianism to break free from its attachment to the imperial state to become an autonomous agent of moral civilizing transformation for China and the whole world. This study focuses on the emergence of the state-religion movement and the Confucian redemptive societies, the two main expressions of Confucian religious inventions and revival in republican China. The former aimed to institute Confucianism as the national faith of China and the latter espoused a mission of universal salvation through Confucian morality and charity.