Of course, some scholars disagreed with statements such as ‘religion is
culture’, maintaining that a religion constitutes the spirit of a culture in the
perspective of the invisible (He 1997; cf. He 1999: 18–19, 2003: 462–63);
nevertheless, many recognized quite well the significant role that the spread of
this idea played in improving the development of religious studies in contem-
porary China.
The growth of religious studies and the ‘cultural religions’.From the late
1980s to the 1990s, nine institutes for the study of religions were set up by
provincial Academies of Social Sciences: in Xinjiang, Gansu, Ningxia, Yunnan,
Shanxi, Tianjin, Qinghai, Inner Mongolia, and Tibet. Even more institutes or
centers for religious studies appeared on the campuses of various universities,
and Peking University, Renmin University of China, and Wuhan University
established departments of religious studies. Even the State Bureau for Religious
Affairs and the High Party School of the Central Committee of the CPC set up
institutions for the study of religion under their direct leadership. In addition,
some government-sanctioned religious associations also began to pay attention
to and allocate resources for the study of religion, as well as to the education
of their own professionals. Hence, the number of professional researchers
increased greatly, and they trained many more students, although unlike
graduate students, who could be associated with the institutes, undergraduates
could enroll in programs only at the three departments of religious studies.
During this period, Chinese scholars extended their research from the history
of Buddhism and Daoism into many new areas and achieved notable results.
Research was conducted in the areas of the history and thought of Christianity,
Buddhism, Islam, Daoism, Confucianism as a religion, Tibetan Buddhism,
primitive and folk beliefs in China, Hinduism, Judaism, Shinto, Zoroastrianism,
Manicheism, the Sikh faith, shamanism, and new religious movements, as well
as in the study of the philosophy, anthropology and sociology of religion, and
in multidisciplinary studies of the relationships of religion to various forms of
culture. In these areas, a remarkably large number of articles, papers, reports,
translations, treatises, and monographs appeared. From 1978 to 1997, the
IWR alone produced nearly 1,000 scholarly articles, 180 monographs, 70
translations of books, 15 dictionaries, and 132 issues of periodicals, besides
scores of popular publications, investigative reports, and compilations of
scriptures and other materials.^2
From 1949 to 1966, nearly all publications in religious studies in China
were on Buddhism, but their total number was no greater than in the single
year 1992, that is 1,125. By contrast, each year from 1996 to 1998 about 300
books and scores of magazines or anthologies were published on religious
studies in China. Furthermore, this period witnessed the publication of a series
of encyclopedias, dictionaries, more popular reading material, and even
cartoons, which offered Chinese readers knowledge about religions which was
much more objective and balanced than previously.
1111
2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9
1011
1
2
3111
4 5 6 7 8 9
20111
1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9
30111
1
2
3
4
35
6
7
8
9
40111
42222
3
411
CONTINENTAL EAST ASIA
167
