This course provides an introduction to the study of the history, major teachings, and practices of the major Chinese religions and spiritual practices and is deigned to give conceptual tools to appreciate diverse religious practice in East. It covers the development of Buddhism, Daoism, Confucianism and wide range of popular and local religions. From historical perspective we will also explore the development of key theological, religious and philosophical doctrines as well as associated practices. An effort will be made to spend time on each tradition according to its importance to Asia as a whole. We will explore the role of religions in politics and social relations in East and South, South East Asia and China in particular, and will analyze the origins, central teachings, divisions and branches, rituals and practices, influences on culture, and responses to modern challenges for each tradition. The emphasis throughout the course is on the hermeneutic difficulties attendant upon the study of religion in general, and Asian religions in particular. We will explore new Asian religions as dynamic, ongoing forces in the lives of individuals and in the collective experience of modern societies.
Islam in China
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Del curso dictado por National Research University Higher School of Economics
Religions and Society in China
53 calificaciones
National Research University Higher School of Economics
53 calificaciones
De la lección
Modern China and its attitude to religions
This module's content is dedicated to describing the religious life in modern China, the main attitudes of officials to religion in PRC and in other places, where Chinese culture is widely spread.
Conoce a los instructores
Aleksey A. MaslovHead
School of Asian Studies
[MUSIC]
Islam in China is a very particular topic about Chinese religions.
First of all, let's speak about the roots of Islam in China.
The emerging of Islam in China could be explained, first of all,
by the development of the trade ties between China and Arab world.
Muslim merchants arrived in Tang, China, especially in the eighth and
the ninth centuries, and established some small communities.
First of all, trade communities.
Arab maritime traders came in the south part of China, for example in Guangdong.
And another stream, another channel was through the Silk Road by the land.
So it meant that two kinds of communities of Islam, of Muslims,
were established in China.
One, in the south part of China in Guangzhou,
in Canton circle and another one in the northern part of China.
Arab Muslims served as military commanders, soldiers and
administrators in China.
A lot of Chinese were converted to Islam first of all,
because in this case they became so called members of the trade club.
And the emergence of Islam in China, first of all
was close connected to the development of the trade between China and outer world.
Some people, which were converted to Islam, moved to China from Persia,
Persia and Central Asia.
And this immigration was mainly stimulated
by Mongols during the Yuan Dynasty in 13th century.
According to the legend, the first mosque in China
was established in Guangzhou in 651, or
in seventh century, it's just a legend.
According to the legend, one of the greatest Muslim leader,
Sa'd ibn abi Waqqas, the maternal uncle of the prophet Muhammad,
came to China at the head of the embassy.
And in spite there is not any reliable evidence of the Waqqas ever coming
to China, there are a lot of legends about his sojourn in the south part of China.
And a lot of people think that it was the first mosque outside the Arab world.
And it was established in the south part of China.
The early school of Islam in China was called Qadim or in Chinese Gedimu.
It means the ancient school.
And sometimes in Chinese it is called [FOREIGN] also ancient school.
Because all other streams and teaching,
like Sufi teaching, was called a new stream or new school.
Officially, Qadim was a Hanafi school of the Sunni tradition and
became very popular in the northern part of China.
By the way, you can see this strange mixture of
the Orthodox church and of the mosque.
This kind of temple was established, actually mosque,
was established at the the beginning of 20th century in Harbin City.
There are at least two main big groups of Muslims in China.
One is Uyghurs and another one is Weiwuer zu.
The Uyghurs, it's known Chinese national minority.
And officially there are more than 10 million
of Uyghur in China, especially in the northern part of China.
And unofficially, there are more than 15 Uyghurs, also in China.
We can find Uyghurs not only in Xinjiang region,
which is inhabited by the 80% of Muslims, but also in Shanghai, in Beijing.
And first of all,
the recourse about Uyghurs in China appeared in the 4th and 6th centuries,
as they called the Gaoche the high vehicles.
There is a contention between Uyghur nationalists and
the Chinese authority today.
During the 20th century, almost during all the 20th century,
but also even today, there is a very strong, but
not very influential movement, for independence of the Uyghur,
also called the Uyghurstan in the northern and the west northern part of China.
But anyway, China, official China, suppressed such a movement.
But at the same time support the official Islam activity in this region.
Another Muslim group in China called the Huizu.
Huizu officially,
there are approximately more than 10 million of Hui people or Huizu in China.
Huizu also inhabited in the northern part of China, but also in the big cities.
Mainly, they are mainly concentrated in the northwest China,
for example, in Ningxia, Gansu, and Qinghai, and Xinjiang.
But also, there are a very huge communities, Xian and Kaifeng for example.
This picture of the Kaifeng community of Huizu also in Mongolia,
in Hebei, in Hainan, in the south part of China, of Yunnan.
The reduced activity is based,
under the leadership also called akhunds, or akhoonds.
In Chinese, it's ahong.
These are religious leaders, not imams, but just like a local priest
that are responsible for leading religious services in a community.
So akhunds are very influential persons among these communities.
Besides these two great people, Uyghur and
Huizu, there is another very interesting
peculiarity of the Chinese Islamic education.
There is a very specific kind of Islamic education in China,
which is called the, officially, scripture hall education.
In Chinese, it's jingtang jiaoyu.
What does mean?
It was a special, very specific system of Sunni Islamic
education established in 16th century.
It was cross connected to the learning of Arabic language.
Because not too much Chinese at that time and
even today could read Arabic words, Arabic characters.
So this system takes Chinese characters to transliterate Arabic writings.
So Chinese characters are used to
phonetically represent the Arabic scriptures.
Even today in some Muslim schools in China,
they used called the scripture hall education.
That's why Islamic give a new impetus, and especially the Koran and
Sunni became very popular because it was written using the Chinese characters.
As well as about all other official religions,
there is a Islamic association of China,
which put under strict control all Islamic activity in the mainland China.
The majority of Chinese Muslims belong to the Sunni.
There are officially more than 21 million followers of Islam in China.
It's official according to the Islamic Association of China.
But at the same time, a lot of schools suggest that there are more
than 50 million of Muslim followers.
It means that China became one of the largest Muslim country in Asia.
There are more than 3,000 mosques and 4,000 imams and
akhunds all over China, many in the [FOREIGN] region.
At the same time we can find a very high tension of ethnic minority.
And Islamic Association of China in the highest level,
in the level of different kind of promises,
put under rigid control all religious expressions and religion activities.
One of the concern of this Islamic Association in China,
that the local communities could become a part of the global Islamic movement,
including the terrorist movement.
So that's why official Islamic China is put under the very strict,
very strong control.
And that's why there's a unique policy for Islam in China.
The Islamic Association of China regulates everything in official Islam in China.
For example, the content of sermons, the interpretation of religious scriptures.
It could exercise control over the confirmation of religious leaders.
And Association also monitors overseas pilgrimages and
any kind of foreign missionaries that came to China.
So Islamic Association of China is maybe the main control body for Islam in China.
At the same time, there are a lot of religious schools, among Muslims.
And these schools enjoy a very massive autonomous network of mosque.
They usually are close connected to the mosque.
They study, not only Chinese language, but also Arabic language.
They read Sunnah, they read Quran.
And this school officially exists in China,
especially in the Muslim regions, but also in the central cities like,
for example, Xi'an, or like this one in the central part of Kaifeng.
[MUSIC]
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