The Ming state and neo-confucian thinking behind Kaifeng Jewry’s biculturalism

Based on a fresh reading of the 1489 and 1512 kehillah stelae, this article contextualizes Kaifeng Jewry’s acculturation in the political agendas and intellectual climate of fifteenth- and sixteenth-century China. It argues that the Ming court, Neo-Confucian discourses of beliefs and Ming administra...

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1. VerfasserIn: Dai, Lianbin 1970- (Verfasst von)
Medienart: Elektronisch Aufsatz
Sprache:Englisch
Verfügbarkeit prüfen: HBZ Gateway
Fernleihe:Fernleihe für die Fachinformationsdienste
Veröffentlicht: 2024
In: Studies in Chinese Religions
Jahr: 2024, Band: 10, Heft: 2, Seiten: 151-180
weitere Schlagwörter:B Qiu Jun (1421–1495)
B religion-state relationship
B Ming China (1368–1644)
B Jews
B Sino-Muslim
B state cult
B Neo-confucianism
B Kaifeng
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Zusammenfassung:Based on a fresh reading of the 1489 and 1512 kehillah stelae, this article contextualizes Kaifeng Jewry’s acculturation in the political agendas and intellectual climate of fifteenth- and sixteenth-century China. It argues that the Ming court, Neo-Confucian discourses of beliefs and Ming administration of religions and ethnic minorities drove Kaifeng Jewry towards biculturalism – adopting Confucian cultural norms while maintaining their sectarian identity. With the religious tolerance led by Neo-Confucian orthodoxy, the Ming state administered Judaists, Muslims and other religious practitioners not as religious groups but as ethnic groups who needed to settle down in a highly secular and centralized sociopolitical order dominated by the Confucian elite. Without the state’s intervention in their beliefs, Kaifeng Jewry’s religious integrity and survival had heavily relied on Jewish elite reproduction; when the Jewish elite declined, the kehillah began to disintegrate.
ISSN:2372-9996
Enthält:Enthalten in: Studies in Chinese Religions
Persistent identifiers:DOI: 10.1080/23729988.2024.2379693