The Concept and Practice of "Five Religions" in Early 20th Century China The Works and Views of Feng Bingnan (1888-1956)

Conférence de Peng Guoxiang (彭國翔), Qiu Shi Distinguished Professor of Chinese philosophy, intellectual history and religions, Zhejiang University
La conférence sera donnée en anglais

Résumé : The so-called “sanjiao三教 tradition (three teachings/religions)” including Confucianism, Daoism, and Buddhism has conventionally been considered as the “Chinese religion” in Chinese history. In addition to the “sanjiao,” however, Christianity and Islam were introduced to China pretty early and also became integral parts of the Chinese religious tradition. In the early 20th century, the concept and practice of “wujiao五教” rather than “sanjiao” had already been widely accepted by Chinese people, much beyond intellectual circles. By introducing the concept and practice of “wujiao” exemplified by Feng Bingnan, a successful lawyer and businessman renowned in the 1940s but totally forgotten later on, this talk intends to demonstrate that “wujiao” offers a better perspective than “sanjiao” to understand the Chinese religious tradition.
 
PENG Guoxiang 彭國翔 is Qiu Shi Distinguished Professor of Chinese philosophy, intellectual history and religions at Zhejiang University, China and now a fellow at the Wissenschaftskolleg zu Berlin. Before moving to Zhejiang University in 2014, he was Professor at Peking University and Tsinghua University. He is the 2016 Kluge Chair in Countries and Cultures of the North (Library of Congress, USA) and 2009 Awardee of the Friedrich Wilhelm Bessel Research Award (Humboldt Foundation, Germany). He has been a visiting Professor or research fellow in various institutions including University of Hawaii, Harvard-Yenching Institute, National Taiwan University, Ruhr University, Chinese University of Hong Kong, Max Planck Institute for the Study of Religious and Ethnic Diversity, National University of Singapore and University of Frankfurt am Main in Germany. His publications include The Unfolding of the Innate Good Knowing: Wang Ji and the Yangming Learning in Mid-Late Ming (2003, 2005, 2015), Confucian Tradition: Between Religion and Humanism (2007, 2017), Confucian Tradition and Chinese Philosophy: Retrospect and Prospect in a New Century (2009), Confucian Tradition from Classical Period to Its Contemporary Transformation: Speculation and Interpretation (2012), Revision and New Discovery: Historical Study of Pre-Modern Confucianism from Northern Song till Early Qing Dynasty (2013, 2015), Reconstruction of This Culture of Ours: Confucianism and Contemporary World (2013, 2017), This-worldly Concern of the Wise: The Political and Social Thought of Mou Zongsan (1909-1995) (2016) as well as numerous articles.