Hostname: page-component-cd9895bd7-hc48f Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-12-31T15:35:02.539Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false
  • English
  • Français

General Aspects of Chinese Communist Religious Policy, with Soviet Comparisons

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  17 February 2009

Rensselaer W. Lee III
Get access Rights & Permissions [Opens in a new window]

Extract

The Chinese and Russian Communists, as Marxist-Leninists, are fundamentally hostile towards religion, and are committed to its ultimate eradication. Although their attitudes towards religion are similar, their prescriptions for dealing with it are different. In essence, this difference arises from two divergent conceptions, one optimistic, the other pessimistic, regarding the progress of religion towards oblivion in a situation where the Communist Party has assumed leadership and where the “social” roots of religion have supposedly disappeared. The Chinese hold the optimistic view, a position which may be explained in part by the fact that institutional religion has traditionally been weak in China. I quote here C. K. Yang's description of institutional religion in China as it emerged in the modern period:

As an organised body, modern institutional religion had a very small priesthood, divided into minute units of two or three priests each, largely unconnected with each other. It had barely enough financial resources for subsistence for this scanty personnel. It was deprived of the support of an organised laity. … It did not participate in various organised aspects of community life such as charity, education, and the enforcement of moral discipline. There was no powerful centralised priesthood to dominate religious life or to direct operation of the secular social institutions.

Type
Recent Developments
Information
The China Quarterly , Volume 19 , September 1964 , pp. 161 - 173
Copyright
Copyright © The China Quarterly 1964

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

References

1 Yang, C. K., Religion in Chinese Society. A study of contemporary social functions of religion and some of their historical factors (Berkeley and Los Angeles: University of California Press, 1961), p. 339.Google Scholar

2 Ibid. p. 387.

3 Ibid. p. 387.

4 “Atheists and Theists Can Co-operate Politically and Travel the Road to Socialism,” Current Background (CB) (Hong Kong: United States Consulate-General), No. 510, 06 15, 1958.Google Scholar

5 “Tentative Views on the Relation between Peasant Wars and Religion in China,” Survey of the China Mainland Press (SCMP) (Hong Kong: United States Consulate-General), No. 2370, 11 2, 1960.Google Scholar

6 “How to Recognise the Social Roots of Religious Superstition,” Extracts from China Mainland Magazines (ECMM) (Hong Kong: United States Consulate-General), No. 56, 1956.Google Scholar

7 “What is Religion,” SCMP, No. 1438, December 27, 1956.Google Scholar

8 “Freedom of Religious Belief.” ECMM, No. 183, 07 16, 1959.Google Scholar

9 See note 4, also note 8.Google Scholar

10 See note 4.Google Scholar

11 See note 8.Google Scholar

12 Klibanov, A. and Mitrokhin, L., “Communist Education and the Struggle against the Sects,” Kommunist, No. 2, 01 1961.Google Scholar

13 Chernovenko (Secretary of TsKKP Ukraine), “Close Link with Life. Guarantee of Success of Ideological Work,” Kommunist, No. 10, 07 1959.Google Scholar

14 Muraviev, and Dimitriev, , “On Concreteness in Studying and Overcoming Religious Prejudices,” Voprosy Filosofi (Problems of Philosophy), No. 3, 03 1961.Google Scholar

15 Ibid.

16 See below.Google Scholar

17 Current Developments in the Eastern European Churches (Geneva: World Council of Churches, 04 1962).Google Scholar

18 See note 4.Google Scholar

19 See note 4.Google Scholar

20 See note 4.Google Scholar

21 See note 8.Google Scholar

22 “3rd National Conference of Chinese Buddhist Association Concluded,” SCMP, No. 2700, 03 19, 1962.Google Scholar“2nd Representative Meeting of the Chinese Patriotic Catholic Association Closes,” SCMP, No. 2667, 01 26, 1962.Google Scholar

23 See note 4.Google Scholar

24 See note 4.Google Scholar

25 “Powerful Factor in Building Communism,” Kommunist, No. 1, 01 1962.Google Scholar

26 “Against Religious Prejudices,” Pravda, 08 21, 1959.Google Scholar

27 “A Major Victory for Atheism,” ECMM, No. 168, 03 1958.Google Scholar

28 “Counter-revolutionary Operating under Cover of the Cloak of Religion Nabbed in Amoy,” SCMP, No. 1805, 06 7, 1958.Google Scholar

29 “Kirin Protestants Take Road to Socialism,” SCMP, No. 1805, 06 7, 1958.Google Scholar

30 “Protestants Must Oppose Imperialism, Cherish Patriotism, Take Road to Socialism,” SCMP, No. 1805, 06 7, 1958.Google Scholar

31 “True Freedom of Religious Belief is Only Possible under CP Leadership,” CB, No. 510, 06 15, 1958.Google Scholar

32 Holmes, Welch, “Buddhism Under the Communists,” The China Quarterly, No. 6, 04–06 1961, p. 9.Google Scholar

33 “Protestant Study Session in Kweichow Achieves Big Results,” SCMP, No. 1805, 06 7, 1958.Google Scholar

34 Francis Price Jones, The Church in Communist China (New York: Friendship Press, 1962), p. 90.Google Scholar

35 “Protestants in Heilungkiang Province Must Accept CP Leadership, Take the Road to Socialism,” SCMP, No. 1805, 06 7, 1958.Google Scholar

36 Holmes, Welch, “Buddhism Under the Communists,” The China Quarterly, No. 604–06 1961, p. 9.Google Scholar

37 See note 33.Google Scholar

38 “Strengthen the Anti-Imperialist and Patriotic Programme” (Joint Statement of Religious Leaders in Shanghai), SCMP, No. 1943, 11 10, 1958.Google Scholar

39 “Ideological Education of Youth—On the Level of New Tasks,” Molodoi Kommunist, No. 5, 1961.Google Scholar

40 “A Recent Upsurge of Religious Activity as Reflected in the Soviet Press,” Soviet Affairs Analysis Service, No. 72 (Munich: Institute for the Study of the U.S.S.R., 01 1959).Google Scholar

41 Sukhodeev, M., “Problems of Communist Education,” Kommunist, January 2, 1956.Google Scholar

42 “For Leninist Implacability Toward Religion,” Nauka i Religia, 04 1961.Google Scholar

43 Yang, C. K., Religion in Chinese Society, p. 4.Google Scholar