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Abstract
This paper is devoted to the genealogy of the term “evil teaching” (邪教 xiejiao), a Qing label for heretical lay religious groups who were stereotyped as practising black magic, spreading messianic messages and as inherently rebellious. Our modern understanding of the term xiejiao is based on its late imperial use, but in fact its meaning changed greatly over time, in ways that reflect the changing state perception of lay religion. This evolution has been overlooked by many late imperial and modern scholars. As a result they project their contemporary perception of lay religion onto the earlier periods. Here I would like to correct this anachronism, uncovering a more complex and varying history.
Notes
1 Another label used interchangeably in the same period was “White Lotus teaching” (白蓮教 bailianjiao), which has been studied in detail by Barend ter Haar. Barend J. ter Haar, The White Lotus Teachings in Chinese Religious History (Leiden: Brill, 1992).
2 One example is that of the late imperial scholar Zuo Zongtang, who assimilated the then-current lay religious groups to the “eating vegetables and serving the devil” (喫菜事魔 Chicai shimo) label from the Song era, ignoring its different connotations from that of the Qing label. Zuo Zongtang is cited in Ma Xisha and Han Bingfang (eds.) Zhongguo minjian zongjiaoshi (History of Chinese Popular Religion) (Beijing: Zhongguo shehui kexue, 2004), 82. For an example drawn from modern scholarship: Ma Xisha and Han Binfang mistakenly read the term xiejiao used about the “White Lotus tradition” in the Song Buddhist anthology Fozutongji as possessing its late imperial meaning and comment that the Fozutongji contains the first record of the denunciation the “White Lotus tradition” as xiejiao. Ma Xisha Han Bingfang (eds.), Zhongguo minjian zongjiaoshi, 99. See also, Liu Kwang-ching, “A Note on the Chinese Terms for Heterodoxy,” InHeterodoxy in Late imperial China, edited by Liu Kwang-ching and Richard Shek (Honolulu: University of Hawai Press, 2004), 477–90.
3 Melvin Richter, “Conceptual History (Begriffsgeschichte) and Political Theory,” Political Theory, 4 (Nov, 1996), 604–37.
4 Hampsher-Monk, Iain, “The conceptual formation of ‘democracy’,” In Viaggio Nella Democrazia: IL Cammino Dell'idea Democratica Nella Storia del Pensiero Politico, edited by Claudio Palazzolo (Edizioni ETS, 2010), 33–42.
5 Liu Kwang-ching and Richard Shek (eds.), Heterodoxy in Late imperial China (Honolulu: University of Hawai'i Press, 2004) (Most of these essays were in fact written in the 1980s). See also David Palmer, “Heretical Doctrines, Reactionary Secret Societies, Evil Cults,” In Chinese Religiosities: Afflictions of Modernity and State Formation, edited by Mayfair Mei-hui Yang (Berkeley: University of California Press, 2008), 113–34.
6 Barend ter Haar's classic work, The White Lotus Teachings, has been influential in drawing attention to the predominance of stereotyped “labels” in Chinese state discourse. However, his main focus is not xiejiao but bailianjiao or “White Lotus teaching”. His main thesis is that in late imperial China, “White Lotus” evolved from an autonym—a term applied by lay groups to themselves—into a derogatory label applied to condemned lay groups by the state. It became an official construction, implying messianism, black magic and rebellious intent. Ter Haar (1992) See Barend ter Haar, The White Lotus Teachings.
7 C.K. Yang, A Study of Contemporary Social Functions of Religion and Some of Their Historical Factors (Berkeley: University of California Press, 1961), 294–340.
8 For example, the term minjianzongjiao is used in Ma Xisha and Han Bingfang's book to refer to “lay religious groups” in my sense. Ma Xisha and Han Bingfang (eds) Zhongguo minjian zongjiaoshi.
9 David Palmer, “Chinese Redemptive Societies and Salvationist Religion: Historical Phenomenon or Sociological Category?” Minsuqüyi, 6, no. 172 (2011), 15. My thanks to David Palmer for sharing this article with me.
10 For example, Glen Dudbridge, Religious Experience and Lay Society in T'ang China: A Reading of T'ai Fu's Kuang-i-chi (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2002).
11 For detailed discussion on these categories, see David Palmer, “Chinese Redemptive Societies,” 1–52.
12 Rodney Stark and William Sims Bainbridge, The Future of Religion: Secularization, Revival and Cult Formation (Berkeley: University of California Press, 1985), 24–6; Bryan Wilson, Religious Sect—A Sociological Study. (London: Weidenfeld and Nicolson, 1970), 22.
13 Cheng'an zhiyi 11:11; Cheng'an xubian 3: 68–69; Cheng'an Suojian ji 16: 5–6.
14 My survey does not include the annotations of these classics in later dynasties, as these later annotations incorporate later historians’ interpretations.
15 Although these Confucian Classics are alleged to date from the Eastern Zhou (770BC-221BC), they were thoroughly edited (in some cases even rewritten) by Han imperial librarians under the state's guidance. Therefore it is hard to make a distinction between the pre-Han and Han use of xie.
16 Mengzi zhushu 6: 1181. The Chinese goes:“楊墨之道不忘，孔子之道不著，是邪説誣民，充塞仁義也”
17 J. J. M. De Groot, Sectarian and Religious Persecution in China (Amsterdam: Brill, 1903), 16. This misunderstanding is common among modern scholars too. For example, see Wang Hongshi, “Zhongguo gudai fan xiejiao lifa (anti-xiejiao legislation in Chinese history)”, Zhengfa pinglun (2002), quoted by the zhongguo fanxiejiao wang (Chinese anti-xiejiao website) http://www.cnfxj.org/Html/xiejiaocn/2008-6/29/002537772.html accessed in 4th May 2013.
18 Huangdi neijing suwen, 14.
19 Hanshu 56: 2500. The Chinese reads:“刑罰不中，則生邪氣”.
20 For a discussion of the medical use of xie, see Michel Strickmann, Bernard Faure (ed.), Chinese Magical Medicine (Stanford: Stanford University Press, 2002), 72. Michel Strickmann translates xie as “twisted,” “perverse” or “malignant”, and associates it with evil agents of disease in Daoist epidemiology. My thanks to Prof. Joachim Gentz, who kindly pointed this article out to me.
21 Foxue dacidian (The Grand Buddhist Dictionary), 1213.
22 Guang hongming ji T52, 111c. The Chinese reads:“大經中曰，道由九十六種，惟佛一道是于正道，其余九十五中名邪道，朕捨邪外道以事正內……老子周公孔子等。雖是如來弟子而化跡既邪……其公卿百官侯王宗族。宜反偽就真捨邪入正。故經教成實論。若事外道心重佛法心輕。即是邪見……若事佛心強老子心弱者。乃是清信”.
23 Xiong Qingyuan, “Liangwudi tianjian sannian ‘sheshi lilaofa'shi zhengwei (Proving Wrong the “Giving Up Serving the Way of Li-Lao” during the Third Year of Liang Wudi's reign),” Huanggang shizhuan xuebao, 2 (1998), 67–70.
24 On xiedao see Foxue dacidian 1215.
25 Xiaodao lun (Laughing at the Dao) is an example. Commissioned by the emperor, Xiaodao lun was composed circa 570 by a pro-Buddhist courtier Zhen Luan during a court debate in the Northern Zhou Dynasty (557–581). In this text, Zhen denounced Daoism as “the technique of producing spells, writing charms and cursing.” Zheng also associates Daoism with rebellion. Guang hongming ji T52, 143c.
26 On Fu Yi, see Arthur Wright, “Fu I and the Rejection of Buddhism,” Journal of the History of Ideas, 12, no. 1 (1951), 33–47.
27 Guang Hongming ji, T52, 160c.
28 According to Arthur Wright, Fu Yi's arguments can be divided into economic arguments, political arguments, nationalist arguments, social-psychological arguments and intellectual arguments. See Arthur Wright “Fu I and the Rejection of Buddhism”, 33–47.
29 Guang Hongming ji, T52, 160c.
30 Peter N. Gregory. “Vitality of Buddhism in the Sung,” In Buddhism in the Sung, edited by Peter N. Gregory and Daniel A. Gertz, Jr. (Honolulu: University of Hawaii Press, 2002). The Song experienced a decline of monastic power, but not necessarily a decline of Buddhism on the intellectual level.
31 For scholarship on the daily religious life in the Song, see Valerie Hansen, Changing Gods in Medieval China. 1127–1276 (New Haven: Princeton University Press, 1990). and Barend ter Haar, “Buddhist-inspired options: aspect of lay religious life in the lower Yangzi from 1100 until 1340,” T'oung Pao 87, Fasc. 1/3 (2001), 92–152.
32 In claiming that it was not until the Song that generic labels for lay religion were used, I am aware of the fact that the surviving records of earlier periods are scanty compared to those from the Song onwards. But it is surely significant that we do not encounter any reference to generic labels for heresy from pre-Song times in Song and post-Song writings. Textual and historical references are important in Chinese political writing. Therefore, if there was this kind of label, one should expect it to be quoted by Song scholar-officials when dealing with current heresy issues.
33 The authors of the two famous Buddhist anthologies Fozutongji and Shimenzhengtong, Zhi Pan and Zong Jian, were eminent Tiantai monks. They followed the state in using the labels yaojiao and chicai shimo for lay religion. They claim that chicai shimo people are morally loose and rebellious and suggest a connection between contemporary lay religion and the Yellow Turban in the Han and the more recent Wu Yi 毋乙 rebellion (920) in the Five Dynasties. The assumption that all these lay religious groups can be traced to one single origin is in complete accordance with the official line. The theological dispute is simply unmentioned. This approach cannot be found in pre-Song canonical religious polemics, which are written from the standpoint of certain religious traditions rather than that of the state, although they are often influenced by the state's attitude. Shimenzhengton X75, 315a; Fozutongji T49, 384c.
34 For the official documents, I have consulted official or semi-official compilations such as Song Huiyao (Collective Documents of the Song) and Songshi (The Dynastic History of the Song) as well as legal documents such as Song Xingtong (The Song Penal Code) and Minggong shupan qingming ji (The case Collections by Famous Officials).
35 Song Huiyao (Collective Documents of the Song) 165: 6515; 6519.
36 Junqing Wu, “The Development of Song religious polemics” in Globalization and Glocalization in China: proceeding of the 1st Rombouts Graduate Conference (Leiden: shilin, 2012), 112–35.
37 “Three Level teaching” (三階教 Sanjie jiao), a Buddhist school formed in the Sui Dynasty (589–618), was the only case of a religious group or tradition (as opposed to Buddhism as whole) which was singled out for suppression. Although its suppression was motivated by political than theological reasons, the Tang Buddhist anthology kaiyuan shijiao lu puts it in the category of “False Buddhist sutra” (僞經 weijing) and the criticism is mainly doctrinal. Kaiyuan shijiao lu T55, 678b. For scholarship on sanjie jiao, see Jamie Hubbard, Absolute Delusion, Perfect Buddhahood (Honolulu: University of Hawaii Press, 2000).
38 According to the account in Jiuwudaishi (The Old history of the Five Dynasties), the Wu Yi rebellion was sparked by lay religious activity in Chengzhou.
39 Footnote 33.
40 Fozutongji T49, 425a.
41 Examples include Min Li. “Zhengtong zongjiao xiang minjian mimi zongjiao yanbian de yuanyin he lujin (The transformation from orthodox religion to popular secret religion),” Journal of Huazhong University of Science and Technology, 4 (2002), 107–11; and Fan Lizhou, “Mile xinyang yu songyuan bailianjiao (The Maitreya Belief and the White Lotus Teaching in the Song and Yuan),” Journal of Sun Yat-Sen University, 3 (2012), 98–124.
42 See Ter Haar, The White Lotus Teachings, op. cit., 93–96 for an exposure of this widespread fallacy.
43 Pudu, Lushan lianzong baojian (The Precious Mirror of the Lotus Tradition of the Mountain Lu), T47,343c.
44 Chinese Association of Yuan Studies (eds.), Yuanshi luncong (Collected Studies of Yuan History) 2 (Beijing: Zhonghuashuju, 1983), 214.
45 Tongzhitiaoge 28: 305–6.
46 Yuandianzhang xingbu 3: 44–7. It is believed that parts of human body contain life-force and they can be stolen by slicing off these parts. For detail discuss of caisheng, see ter Haar, Telling Stories: Witchcraft and Scapegoating in Chinese History (Leiden: Brill, 2006), 95–154.
47 Tongshi tiaoge 28: 315–16.
48 Yuandianzhang xingbu 3.
49 Pu Du, Lushan lianzong baojian T47, 346c.
50 Ter Haar, “Whose Norm, Whose Heresy: The Case of the Song-Yuan White Lotus Movement,”In Häresien, edited by Irene Pieper, Michael Schimmelpfennig, and Joost van Soosten (München: Wilhelm Fink Verlag, 2003), 80.
51 Ter Haar, The White Lotus Teachings, 196–246.
52 Edward L. Farmer, Zhu Yuanzhang and Early Ming Legislation: The Reordering of Chinese Society Following the Era of Mongol Rule (Leiden: Brill, 1995), 4–17.
53 Zhu's religious policies: Taizu shilu (The Veritable Record of Taizu of the Ming) 53: 1–3.
54 ter Haar, The White Lotus Teaching, 171–2.
55 There is no English equivalent of the Chinese word Wu. It has many meanings, including resorting to supernatural powers and trying to influence the deities. This includes dealings with spirit-seers and soothsayers as well as with exorcists. De Groot defines it as “the priesthood of animism”. De Groot, The Religious System of China (Leiden: Brill, 1910), 6, 1187. The English words “shamanism” and “spirit-mediation” are not broad enough to cover the Chinese meaning of Wu. Thus, I prefer to leave the original Chinese word here.
56 Daming lilü jijie fuyi (The Grand Ming Law and Legal Explanation) 11: 9–12.
57 Daqing lilu jijie fuyi 18: 6–7.
58 De Groot, The Religious System of China (Leiden: Brill, 1892), 1, 342–7. Ter Haar, The White Lotus Teachings, 129.
59 Ter Haar, The White Lotus Teachings, 129–72. The “lay religion” cases he has selected to study are those which were associated with the “White Lotus” label. Although it is not an exhaustive study of the application of anti-lay religious law, he has convincingly established that these two laws were used against heretic lay religious groups.
60 For example, Susan Naquin, “The transmission of White Lotus sectarianism in late imperial China,” In Popular Culture in Late Imperial China, edited by David Johnson, Andrew J. Nathan, and Evelyn Rawski (Berkeley: University of California Press, 1985), 255–291; Hubert Seiwert, Popular Religious Movements and Heterodox Sects in Chinese History (Leiden: Brill, 2002), 209.
61 Susan Naquin, “Connections Between Rebellions,” Modern China, 8, no. 3 (July 1982), 337–60.
62 On the Xu Hongru rebellion as a prototype of “White Lotus rebellion” see Ter Haar, The White Lotus Teachings, 234. For the background of the writing of Poxieji see Ter Haar, The White Lotus Teachings, 235–8.
63 Poxieji, in Mingmo qingchu yesuhui sixiang wenxian huibian Xu Shiyin Juan 5 (The Collection Concerning the Jesuit Church from the Late Ming to Early Qing) (Beijing: Beijing daxue zongjiao yanjiusuo, 2003), 88–98; 90–1.
64 Poxieji in Huibian, 102–3.
65 Ter Haar, The White Lotus Teachings, 228–32.
66 Poxieji in Huibian, 47, 70.
67 For the discussion of Falun Gong's challenge to the regime, see David Palmer, Qigong Fever: Body, Science, and Utopia in China (New York: Columbia University Press, 2007), 241–316.
68 Cheng Xinjiao, “Zongjiao, xinxing zongjiao he xiejiao (Religion, New Religious Movements and Evil teaching),” In Zongjiao, Jiaopai yu Xiejiao: Guoji Yantaohui Lunwenji, edited by Shehui wenti yanjiu congshu weiyuanhui (Religion, Sect and "Evil teaching": The Collection of conference papers) (Guangxi: Guangxi renmin chubanshe, 2003), 175.
69 David Palmer, “Heretical Doctrines”, 115.
70 Footnote 68.
71 This conference, held in 2003, was not merely a scholarly event but had an obvious political function: to provide a scholarly justification for the Falun Gong suppression. Most of the contributors singled out Falun Gong as an example of an "evil cult" in contemporary China.
72 Liu Ping, “On Evil Teaching Studies in Contemporary China” In Zongjiao, Jiaopai yu Xiejiao, 196.
73 W. J. F. Jenner, The Tyranny of History: The Roots of China's Crisis (London: Penguin, 1992), 7.
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Junqing Wu
Dr Junqing Wu is a Past and Present Fellow of the Institute of Historical Research at the University of London. She received her doctorate from University of Nottingham in 2014. Her thesis is on the construction of “heresy” in late imperial China through the transmission of historiography.