Author : Sébastien Billioud
Publisher : Oxford University Press, USA
ISBN 13 : 0197529135
Total Pages : 313 pages
Book Rating : 4.33/5 ( download)
Book Synopsis Reclaiming the Wilderness by : Sébastien Billioud
Download or read book Reclaiming the Wilderness written by Sébastien Billioud and published by Oxford University Press, USA. This book was released on 2020 with total page 313 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: "The Yiguandao (Way of Pervading Unity) was one of the major redemptive societies of Republican China. It is nowadays one of the largest and most influential religious movements of the Chinese world and at the same time one of the least known and understood. From its powerful base in Taiwan, it develops worldwide, including in Mainland China where it nevertheless remains officially forbidden. Based on extensive ethnographic work carried out over nearly a decade, Reclaiming the Wilderness explores the expansionary dynamics of this group and its regional circulations such as they can be primarily observed from a Hong Kong perspective. It analyses the proselytizing impetus of the adepts, the transmission of charisma and forms of leadership, the specific role of Confucianism that makes it possible for the group to defuse tension with Chinese authorities and, even sometimes, to cooperate with them. It also delves into Yiguandao's well-structured expansionary strategies and in its quasi-diplomatic efforts to navigate the troubled waters of cross-straits politics. To readers primarily interested in Chinese studies, this work offers new perspectives on state-religion relationships in China, the "Taiwan issue" seen through the lenses of religion, or one of the modern and contemporary fates of Confucianism, that is, its appropriation by redemptive societies and religious organizations. But it also addresses theoretical questions that are also relevant to completely different contexts and thus contribute to the fields of sociology, anthropology and psychology of religion"--