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HUBERT SEIWART
and modern Chinese culture. They present, to a certain degree, a religious interpretation of modernization in Taiwan. But if we examine the above mentioned elements, we find that virtually none of them is really new. They are all patterns which are well known from Chinese intellectual history. I shall just give a few examples:
The devaluation of the present time as a period of moral decline can be traced back as far as Confucius. In the earliest Confucian writings we can also find the theme of the return of the Golden Age of Yao and Shun.
The concept of the Great Harmony, Ta T'ung, also originated in antiquity, it is elaborated in the Li Chi. Probably somewhat later, during the Han dynasty, the idea was formulated that the emergence of the new ideal world would be preceded by a period of destruction, as can be seen in the T'ai-p'ing Ching. Finally Buddhism added to these elements the theory of the declining dharma and the expectation of the future Buddha Maitreya. Maitreya is still of utmost importance in the eschatological teachings of I-kuan Tao.
The rejection of foreign influence is also a familiar topic. As we know, Buddhism has long been the target of anti-foreign propaganda. During the Six Dynasties Buddhism was held responsible for all the deficiencies of the time.
Finally, we should observe that I-kuan Tao as well as most of the other popular cults combine elements of Buddhism, Confucianism and Taoism, and promote the idea of san chiao he i, "the three teachings form a unity". This explicit syncretism goes back at least to the Sung dynasty.
These remarks suffice to show that the reactions of these popular religious movements to the social changes resulting from modernization are by no means new. The symbolization of the tensions caused by cultural contact and modernization draws heavily upon the traditional symbol repository. Not only are the traditional symbols relied on, but also their content: The values by which modern society is measured derive mainly from the traditional moral teachings. It would therefore not be untrue to say that the religious responses to modernization as we have analyzed them so far can be characterized as traditionalism and conservatism.
Nevertheless, it would be misleading to regard movements like I-kuan Tao as mere survivals of a past historical period. For, as we shall see presently, besides the traditional elements there are also