China

""China: A Religious State is a pathbreaking overview of Chinese religious traditions that represents the fruition of three decades of research. It is also noteworthy for its solid interdisciplinary approach, with the author convincingly demonstrating the importance of ethnography in the study of Chinese communal religions." -- Paul Katz, Academia Sinica. Taiwan" ""China: A Religious State is in its fundamental ideas no less than brilliant. It constitutes a redefinition of the intellectual boundaries artificially drawn around the official vision of history that has so long dominated Chinese studies. Professor Lagerwey offers a much needed integral vision of Chinese society and religion." -- Mark Meulenbeld. University of Wisconsin-Madison" "Over the last forty years. our vision of Chinese culture and history has been transformed by the discovery of the role of religion in Chinese state-making and in local society. The Daoist religion, in particular, long despised as "superstitious," has recovered its place as "the native higher religion." But while the Chinese state tried from the fifth century on to construct an orthodoxy based on Confucianism. Daoism, and Buddhism, local society