Overview

""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.

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9780190494568

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Reviews

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 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

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. <em>Making Saints</em> 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 <em>Dream Trippers: Global Daoism and the Predicament of Modern Spirituality</em>

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

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.

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