Religion and the Transformation of Associational Life in Southern Zhejiang, 1949-2014
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Saving Deities for the Community: Religion and the Transformation of Associational Life in Southern Zhejiang, 1949-2014 The Harvard community has made this article openly available. Please share how this access benefits you. Your story matters Citation WANG, XIAOXUAN. 2015. Saving Deities for the Community: Religion and the Transformation of Associational Life in Southern Zhejiang, 1949-2014. Doctoral dissertation, Harvard University, Graduate School of Arts & Sciences. Citable link http://nrs.harvard.edu/urn-3:HUL.InstRepos:23845455 Terms of Use This article was downloaded from Harvard University’s DASH repository, and is made available under the terms and conditions applicable to Other Posted Material, as set forth at http:// nrs.harvard.edu/urn-3:HUL.InstRepos:dash.current.terms-of- use#LAA Saving Deities for the Community: Religion and the Transformation of Associational Life in Southern Zhejiang, 1949-2014 A dissertation presented by Xiaoxuan Wang to The Department of East Asian Languages and Civilizations in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy in the subject of East Asian Languages and Civilizations Harvard University Cambridge, Massachusetts August 2015 © 2015 Xiaoxuan Wang All Rights Reserved. Dissertation Advisor: Michael Szonyi Xiaoxuan Wang Saving Deities for the Community: Religion and the Transformation of Associational Life in Southern Zhejiang, 1949-2014 Abstract My dissertation examines the post-1949 transformation of religious and organizational culture in rural Ruian County of the Wenzhou region, Zhejiang. It explores the diversified adaptation patterns adopted by rural religious organizations in order to preserve, reinvent and even expand themselves in the volatile sociopolitical environment of post-1949 China. Based on hitherto unexploited government documents collected from local state archives, memoirs, historical accounts of religious organizations, as well as extensive oral interviews with Ruian residents, I demonstrate that, rather than following a linear and uniform decline that conventional wisdom suggests, religious organizations took divergent paths in Ruian during the Maoist era. The level of religious activities in Ruian and many regions of Zhejiang exhibited fluctuations over time rather than a linear downward movement. The Maoist period, I argue, was both destructive and constructive for religion. By stripping religious organizations of their traditional leadership and economic foundation, Maoist campaigns inadvertently accelerated the organizational reinvention of Chinese religions. Even more far-reaching, the Cultural Revolution dramatically stimulated a quick rise of Protestantism vis-à-vis other religions and fundamentally reshaped the religious landscape in parts of China, making China no exception to the global trend of religious resurgence, despite its isolation at the time. Religion in today’s China and related phenomena, in particular the uneven distribution of religious revival, the development patterns of rural organizations, and state-religion relations, cannot be fully explained without reference to the Maoist legacy. iii Table of Contents Introduction ......................................................................................................................... 1 Chapter One: Adaptation to Socialism: Religious Organization and Transformation of the Rural Order in China in the 1950s .................................................................................... 40 Chapter Two: Oscillating Between Campaigns: Practicing Religion under Maoism, 1949- 1978................................................................................................................................... 97 Chapter Three: Diversification and Unification—The Protestant Church at the Zenith of Maoism, 1958-1978 ........................................................................................................ 133 Chapter Four: Mixed Blessings: Flourishing and Schisms of Protestant Churches, 1978- 2014................................................................................................................................. 187 Chapter Five: Déjà Vu? Temple Reclamation Movement and the Revitalization of Rural Organizations, 1978-2014 ............................................................................................... 225 Conclusion ...................................................................................................................... 267 Bibliography ................................................................................................................... 275 iv Illustrations Maps Map I.1, Wenzhou, Google Map (2015) Map I.2, Ruian, Google Map (2015) Map 3.1, Protestant churches and gathering places in 1957 Map 3.2. Protestant gathering places in 1978 Figures Figure 3.1, The distribution of Protestant congregations in Ruian: 1957 and 1978 Figure 3.2, Regional distribution of churches and gathering places in 1957 and 1978 v Acknowledgment I thank my teachers. I owe a great debt to my Ph.D. advisor Michael Szonyi, who has been a model of scholarship and teaching. Professor Szonyi’s meticulous reading and critical insights have helped me shape my ideas into their current form in the dissertation. Robert Weller’s thoughtful comments and his broad perspective on Chinese religions constantly impress and never fail to inspire me. Peter Bol’s thought provoking questions have also contributed to my dissertation. To all my teachers at Harvard I owe my training as a historian. My teachers at the University of Colorado at Boulder, including Terry Kleeman, my advisor, and George Keyworth, introduced me to the study of Chinese Religions. I was first trained as a historian in China. I thank my advisors Chen Suzhen and Luo Xin at Peking University, Lu Xiangqian at Hangzhou University, and all my teachers in Beijing and Hangzhou. Throughout this project I have received the aid of numerous individuals. Above all, I want to thank the staff at archive catalogue room of Ruian Municipal Archive for their assistance, patience and accommodation. Special thanks go to my friend Wu Zhenqiang of Zhejiang University for a letter of introduction that I needed for my archival research. I thank Zhu Zhiwei of Longquan Municipal Archive, the staff at the local state archives in Pingyang, Taishun, Wencheng, Wenling, Wenzhou, Xinchang and Yueqing, Ruian Municipal Library, Wenzhou Municipal Library and Zhejiang Provincial Library for helping me find documents. During my fieldwork in southern Zhejiang, I have been fortunate to get help from numerous religious institutions, friends, and relatives. Among my many interviewees and local guides, I especially thank Zhang Junsun of Wenzhou Municipality, Chen Meiling, Shi Liaozheng and Ying Weixian of vi Ruian, Dai Xuefu, Ding Bingkuan, Ding Yuzhen, Pan Yiheng and Zhang Shisong of Xincheng (Ruian), Wu Zhenwei and Zhu Chenlan of Mayu (Ruian), and Xia Mingxin and Zhou Zexian of Tangxia (Ruian). My friends Zhou Gang and Qin Yong helped arrange my visits to local temples, archives and the Ruian Religious Affairs Bureau. Wu Tianyue and Zhang Jieke not only shared their own researches but also made copies of historical records of local churches in Ruian and the Wenzhou region for me. Junliang Pan of the University of Paris VII shared with me documents on southern Zhejiang that he had collected. My work has benefited from the comments of many teachers and colleagues. A preliminary version of chapter two has been published in an edited volume. My sincere thanks go to the volume’s editors Jeremy Brown and Matthew Johnson and two anonymous reviewers for their helpful comments. Neil Diamant gave me his comments when an early version of chapter one was presented in the AAS annual meeting in Philadelphia. Henrietta Harrison read early versions of chapter one and chapter three and shared her insights with me. My friend Xiaohong Xu helped me shape some ideas for chapter one. At Harvard University, I am grateful to Jamie Jungmin Yoo, Li Ruohong, Lindsay Strogatz, Max Oidtmann, Roger Shih-Chieh Lo, Victor Seow, Wen Yu and etc. for their encouragement and friendship. Many institutions have supported my studies, researches and writing. My M.A. study at University of Colorado was funded by the university’s Humanity Fellowship. My early years of Ph.D. study and summer researches were supported by Harvard Grants, the Fairbank Center for Chinese Studies and the Asian Center at Harvard University. In vii my final year of writing, I received a Harvard GSAS Dissertation Fellowship set by the M.T. Geoffrey Yeh Fund for Chinese Students. My relatives provided invaluable support during my fieldwork in Ruian and Hangzhou. In Hangzhou, my cousin Zhe and my brother-in-law Haifeng shared their apartment with me. Zhe and Aunt Chunhua also cooked meals for me. In Ruian, my brother Xuan photocopied some documents from Ruian Municipal Archive and ran many errands for my research. I used my uncle Mingxiong and aunt Caicha’s attic for writing. Aunt Caicha and my cousin Huihua cooked me meals as much as they could. My brother- in-law Dong arranged and accompanied me during my visit to his village. Finally, my wife Xuan has been by my side for the entire journey. Xuan read every version of the dissertation, helped polish my writing, and shared her thoughts with me. Her love, patience, and faith in me kept me going. Without her, this project would not have been possible. This project is dedicated to my grandparents, Wang Jinkai (汪錦楷) and