(Question from East and West) Zheng Xiaojun: Why do you say that adhering to the direction of sinicization of religion in our country combines historical inevitability and cultural innovation?
China News Service, Beijing, December 5th, title: Why do we say that we adhere to the direction of sinicization of religion in China, which combines historical inevitability and cultural innovation?
Author Zheng Xiaoyun, Director of the Institute of World Religions, Chinese Academy of Social Sciences, President of the Chinese Society of Religions
After five years, the National Religious Work Conference was held again in recent days. Xi Jinping, General Secretary of the CPC Central Committee, President of the State, and Chairman of the Central Military Commission, further emphasized that we should adhere to the sinicization of religions in China and actively guide religions to adapt to socialist society.
Adhering to the direction of the sinicization of religion in our country is General Secretary Xi Jinping’s major innovative thesis on religious work, and is an important content of the party’s new ideas, new ideas and strategies for religious work.
Socialism with Chinese characteristics has entered a new era, starting a new journey of building a modern socialist country in an all-round way.
Adhering to the direction of the sinicization of religion in our country, and actively guiding religion to adapt to the socialist society, why is it said that it is both historical inevitability and cultural innovation?
Religious localization is not unique to China
From the perspective of the development history of world religions, the localization of religions is a historical process of the spread and development of religions. This is in progress, not in completion. This is the law of the development of world religions.
On the other hand, the issue of the localization of religion is not a unique phenomenon in China, but a phenomenon that is currently occurring and ongoing in many parts of the world.
From the perspective of the historical evolution of Chinese religions, there are not only indigenous religions such as Taoism, but also foreign religions such as Buddhism, Christianity, and Islam.
These foreign religions were introduced to mainland China by various people in different ways, and took root in China.
No matter when and where it started, when it is not as a culture of diaspora, but as a carrier of local believers, they have already begun the process of localization, that is, they have begun to interact and interact with other elements of Chinese culture as a cultural element. .
This process is the unity of diachronicity and synchronicity. Not only are these religions in the process of historical evolution, but Chinese society is constantly evolving and developing.
As an integral part of Chinese culture, religious culture is always in a dialectical interaction, no matter from a historical perspective or a realistic perspective.
Therefore, adhering to the direction of the sinicization of religion in our country is not only a historical necessity, but also an ongoing reality.
The Buddhist statues of the Tang Dynasty, the Lucena Buddha in the Longmen Grottoes in Luoyang (left one), are a typical oriental face.
Photo by China News Agency reporter Liu Peng
Chinese civilization provides a platform for dialogue, communication, and integration for the development of religious culture
Throughout the ages, various religions have had both successful experiences and profound lessons in the historical process of integrating into the mainstream Chinese culture and taking root in China's fertile soil.
Chinese civilization has provided rich cultural fertile ground for the evolution of different religions, and has provided a solid platform for adhering to the direction of the sinicization of religions in our country.
In the long-term historical development, the major religions in China have formed their own distinctive development patterns in the course of their spreading and development, and have also formed an overall pattern of interrelated religions.
The emergence of major Buddhist sects in the Sui and Tang Dynasties is an important milestone in the sinicization of Buddhism.
The earliest Buddhist sects originated in the Chen and Sui dynasties, and most of the Buddhist sects were formed in the Sui and Tang dynasties.
For example, Faxiangzong, one of the eight major sects of the Tang Dynasty, was a new sect formed by the Buddhist master Xuanzang of the Tang Dynasty after returning from a study tour in India, using the theories and practical models of Indian Buddhism, and then spreading and inheriting it, becoming a typical representative of the sinicization of Buddhism in the Tang Dynasty.
On January 1, 2013, the ancestral home of the Master of Faxiangzong, Xi'an Dacien Temple held a New Year's Eve tolling the bell to pray for blessing.
China News Agency reporter Zhang Yuanshe
China’s Southern Buddhism is also an example.
Once Southern Buddhism in Southeast Asia was introduced into Yunnan, China, it has been undergoing a process of localization.
While maintaining the basic traditions of Southern Buddhism, it adapts to the cultures of various ethnic groups in Yunnan. It struggles and merges with the local primitive religions and ethnic minority cultures, and gradually penetrates into all aspects of the secular life of local ethnic minorities, and has also formed It is very different from the characteristics of the times of Southern Buddhism in Southeast Asia.
It is also the same with the problem of the sinicization of Christianity.
The issue of "sinicization of Christianity" is old and often new. Because of the intermittent, ups and downs of the spread of Christianity in China, its sinicization process is also complicated and changeable. It has been introduced to China four times.
Nestorianism entered China as early as the Tang Dynasty, and after repeated intermittent introduction, it eventually became an important part of Chinese religion.
The dissemination of Christianity shows that the dissemination and development of religion in China is a process of staged and continuous deepening. It has its unique development context and theoretical logic in different historical stages.
In May 2015, the Fujian Museum exhibited refrigerator stickers for cultural and creative products based on the Nestorian bronze plates of the Yuan Dynasty (second from left in the bottom row).
Photo by China News Agency reporter Zhang Bin
The historical process of the sinicization of religion presents a wave-like development. Each wave of development makes religious culture add new cultural elements and cultural accumulation to the overall Chinese social culture, and at the same time provides a background for the next wave of sinicization of religion , Soil and experience.
Cultural innovation is the endogenous power of practice in adhering to the direction of the sinicization of religions in our country
There is a concept of cultural "acculturation" in Western cultural anthropology.
This theory helps to understand why we must adhere to the direction of sinicization of religion in our country, but we can't just copy it mechanically.
From the perspective of subject culture, a society has not only cultural acculturation, but also cultural integration.
The sublation of integration is indispensable for innovation, that is, the realization of integration in a new form.
The theoretical analysis from cultural assimilation to cultural integration can enable us to have a more comprehensive understanding and grasp of how to perceive and how to practice the direction of the sinicization of religion in our country.
It is also necessary to emphasize an important mechanism of Chinese traditional culture in cultural integration-cultural infiltration.
Although the influence and absorption of traditional Chinese culture on different cultural systems is culturally opposed, it is more often imperceptible and silent like a spring rain.
Take the Guanyin belief as an example. The reasons for its popularity are complicated. There are reasons within the Buddhist system, and more importantly, because it conforms to the traditional Chinese social and cultural propositions with Confucian and Taoist culture as the main pillars.
Compared with the belief system of Guanyin in the Han Dynasty, the belief in Guanyin in Dali, Yunnan also incorporates the belief in Guanyin in Indian Buddhism, Tibetan Buddhism, and Han Buddhism. In the process of dissemination, it is a cultural innovation that integrates with local culture.
The theoretical logic of the development of the sinicization of religions shows that adhering to the direction of the sinicization of religions in our country is also a process of cultural innovation, which requires continuous exploration of new methods and new ways of practice.
A white jade Guanyin statue standing deep in the virgin forest of Dali, Yunnan.
Photo by Ren Dong, China News Agency reporter
In the process of adhering to the sinicization of China's religions, the major religions in my country have shown distinct common features as well as differences.
In the process of practice, various religions gradually formed new models and practice paths, which were mainly manifested in the aspects of strengthening the foundation and cultivating the originality and maintaining integrity and innovation.
The first is to consolidate the foundation.
If religions want to achieve the goal of Sinicization in a wider scope and at a deeper level, the Sinicization of religious thought must be in a dominant and basic position.
In recent years, various religions have carried out lectures and exchanges in the three major language families of Buddhism, Taoist Xuanmen lectures, Islamic new edition Woerz speech contest, the construction of Catholic localization, and the discussion of the sinicization of Christianity. The new era connotation of doctrines and rules has already formed a batch of new achievements in ideological construction.
In June 2015, the 10th National Wallzi Speech Competition and the 11th National Quran Recitation Competition with the theme of "Medium, Harmony, and Chinese Dream" were held in Xinjiang Islamic School of Islam in Urumqi, Xinjiang.
Photo by China News Agency reporter Wang Xiaojun
The second is to maintain integrity and innovation.
Adhering to the direction of sinicization of religion in our country is not only a complicated and arduous systematic project, but also a historical process of continuous development and deepening. It requires continuous exploration of new methods and new ways of practicing. Establish an in-depth and extensive cultural exchange mechanism, publicize various guidelines and policies that adhere to the direction of sinicization of religion, prescribe the right medicine, "implement policies based on education," and establish models and exchange experience simultaneously, promote exchanges between all ethnic groups, strengthen cultural self-confidence, and build a solid Chinese nation The sense of community of shared destiny requires in-depth exploration of the philosophical thoughts, humanistic spirit, values, and ethics behind Chinese religious culture and historical relics, to promote the creative transformation and innovative development of Chinese excellent traditional culture, and more importantly, to reveal the Chinese nation’s embeddedness in it. Cultural spirit, cultural aspirations and cultural self-confidence provide spiritual support for the adherence and development of socialism with Chinese characteristics in the new era. At the same time, efforts are made to consolidate the cultural cornerstone of exchanges and mutual learning with world civilizations, deepen exchanges and mutual learning between civilizations, and jointly build a community with a shared future for mankind.
In October 2019, the Chinese Buddhist Fanbai Concert was performed at Lincoln Center in New York, USA, and the David Finger Concert Hall was full.
Fanbai refers to the singing and praise of Buddhist rituals, and is the original origin of Chinese Buddhist music.
Famous Chinese Buddhist monastery art teams such as Hangzhou Lingyin Temple, Kaifeng Daxiangguo Temple, Zhengzhou Shaolin Temple Martial Arts Group, Yunnan Zongfo Temple, Beijing Lama Temple, etc. are all on the list.
Photo by China News Agency reporter Liao Pan
At this National Conference on Religious Work, the Party Central Committee with Comrade Xi Jinping at the core put forward a series of new concepts and measures on religious work in the new era, and scientifically answered how to understand religion in the new era, how to deal with religious issues, and how to do a good job in the party. On major theoretical and practical issues such as the religious work of the People’s Republic of China, the "nine must" for doing a good job in religious work in the new era have been put forward, providing a fundamental basis for religious theories in the new era.
Therefore, to do a good job of religion in the new era and adhere to the direction of sinicization of religion in our country, we must consciously identify politically, consciously integrate culturally, and consciously adapt to society, keep pace with social development, and keep pace with the progress of the times, so that religions Become a harmonious factor and a positive force in the construction of socialist modernization, and unitely strive for the comprehensive construction of a modern socialist country and the realization of the Chinese dream of the great rejuvenation of the Chinese nation.
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Expert profile:
Zheng Xiaoyun, Director of the Institute of World Religions, Chinese Academy of Social Sciences, researcher, doctoral supervisor, President of the Chinese Society of Religious Studies, director of the Chinese United Front Theoretical Research Association, deputy director of the Chinese Academy of Social Sciences Religious Studies Think Tank and director of the Academic Committee; once suspended Member and Deputy Secretary of the Standing Committee of Linxia Hui Autonomous Prefecture, Gansu (March 2017-March 2018); won the title of "Young and Middle-aged Experts with Outstanding Contributions" by the country, and enjoy the special post of the State Council.
He has presided over the completion of more than 40 major projects of the National Social Science Fund, major projects of the Chinese Academy of Social Sciences, and commissioned projects of the central ministries and commissions and local governments. The research results have won many national, provincial and ministerial awards.