9
CHINESE RELIGION AND RURAL COHESION IN THE NINETEENTH CENTURY
MARJORIE TOPLEY*
In China in the nineteenth century some of the most important ideas which were religious, or had religious implications, linked the destiny of individuals to their ancestors; to numerous gods and sanctified worthies; and to certain cosmic “ethers” and “elements” and their process. Such ideas were associated with organized groups of different kinds. Religious elements were found in a number of institutions of society not primarily religious in purpose and gave an underlying sanctity to secular aims. Religious aims were also the primary aims of other groups who in turn sometimes used secular activities to support their ultimate goals. The majority of China's social institutions in fact contained, with differing emphases, a combination of religious and secular items.
Much of the discussion of all this: religion and its importance for social organization, has taken place either against a wide background, territorially speaking, or against the background of a particular local community. But we know not all areas and communities displayed the same amounts of religious activity and the same religious ideas were not everywhere of the same importance. Did the importance of religion as an integrating force vary then, in different local communities, because of variations in their social composition—the kinds of groups using religion? What other social factors affected such variation? If religion provided solidity for different kinds of groups in what circumstance could it work, in a particular community, for or against their integration one with another? Many of the religious ideas of traditional China were regarded by the majority of people as complementary rather than competitive but could they, or the values connected with them, become competitive when used by
*
Dr. Topley is a B.Sc. (Econ) and Ph.D. (London) and lives in Hong Kong. Her doctorate is in the field of Chinese religion. She is currently a Vice-President of the Royal Asiatic Society, Hong Kong Branch,