‘This book goes beyond the assumption of a homogeneous Han society and pays attention to the religious groups that emerged after the seventeenth century, which differed from, or even contradicted, Confucianism and other Chinese religions, and it is concerned with how such alien communities influenced the development of Confucianism itself.’

—Wang Fan-sen, Academia Sinica 

List of Figures xiii

List of Tables xiv

Acknowledgements xv

Introduction 1

Research Aim 4

Qing Empire: A Contradictory Unity 11

Confucian Scholar-Bureaucrats and Heresies 13

Religion as Worldview 18

State: To Preach or to Govern? 22

Religion-State Relationships: How Do Religion and State Work

Together? 27

Chapter 1: State Religions, Islam, and Christianity in Late Imperial China 34

Religion-State Relationships in Late Imperial China 35

Islam and Christianity in Late Imperial China 48

Chapter 2: Emperor Yongzheng and Redefined Heterodoxy 58

Tradition of the Way and Tradition of Governance 59

Regulation Instead of Persecution 65

Incoherent Policies in the Governance of Islam and Christianity 73

Emperor and Bureaucracy on Heresy 77

Chapter 3: Governance of Religions in the Five Castle-Cities of Ili 89

Sources and Background Information 93

The Construction and Transformation of Religious Sites in Ili:

1764–1864 100

To Conquer without Forcing Conversion? 114

Reasons for Toleration and Its Implications 118

Chapter 4: Marginalisation of Islam in Imperial Politics 123

Connections to the Islamic World and the Muslims’ War against

the Qing Empire 124

Contents

xii Contents

Muslim Local Collaborators and Marginalisation of Religion in the

Qing Governance of Muslim Subjects 135

The Marginalisation of Religious Identity in Politics 138

After the Administrative Absorption of Politics 144

Chapter 5: Marginalised Christianity in Imperial Politics 152

The Cage for Christianity 156

The Huangchao Jingshi Wenbian and Its Significance 161

Christianity and Western Knowledge in the Discourses of the Scholar-

Bureaucrats 166

The Marginalisation of Christianity and Western Knowledge in the

Early Nineteenth Century 175

Chapter 6: A Different Kind of Religious Toleration 180

What Is Tolerance? 181

Religious Tolerance in Political Liberalism and Its Limitations and

Critics 184

Beyond Liberalism: The Historical Approach 188

The Tolerance Experience of the Nomadic Empires 191

Confucian Theologies of Religions and Religious Tolerance 197

Religious Toleration and Confucian Views on Religion 198

Same Toleration, Different Foundations 210

Appendix I: Incidents of Islam and Christianity in the Yongzheng Era 213

Appendix II: Translations of Official Titles 222

Bibliography 224

Index 257