Redefining Heresy and Tolerance : Governance of Muslims and Christians in the Qing Empire before 1864

Hung Tak Wai

ISBN 10: 9888842838 / ISBN 13: 9789888842834

Published by Hong Kong University Press Aug 2024, 2024

About this Item

Neuware - In Redefining Heresy and Tolerance, Hung Tak Wai examines how the Qing empire governed Muslims and Christians under its rule with a non-interventionist policy. Manchu emperors adopted a tolerant attitude towards Islam and Christianity as long as political stability and loyalty remained unthreatened. However, Hung argues that such tolerance had its limitations. Since the mid-eighteenth century, the Qing court intentionally minimised the importance of the Islamic identity. Restrictions were imposed on the Muslims' external connections with Western Asia. The Christian minority was kept distant from politics and the Han majority. At the same time, Confucian scholars began to acquire a new understanding of religion, but they were not encouraged to get in touch with the Muslims and Christians. This book demonstrates how, from the late eighteenth to the early nineteenth century, the Qing government prevented Confucian scholar-bureaucrats from interfering in the religious life of Christians and Muslims, and how the Confucians' understanding of 'religion' was reshaped during the implementation of such policy in the period. This book reveals that a different kind of 'religious tolerance' had already emerged among Sinophone intellectuals before their contact with the West.

Seller Inventory # 9789888842834

Bibliographic Details

• Title: Redefining Heresy and Tolerance : Governance of Muslims and Christians in the Qing Empire before 1864
• Publisher: Hong Kong University Press Aug 2024
• Publication Date: 2024
• Language: English
• ISBN 10: 9888842838
• ISBN 13: 9789888842834
• Binding: Buch
• Condition: Neu
• Dimensions: 229W x 152H x 18D millimeters 229 millimeters width by 152 millimeters height by 18 millimeters depth
• Weight: 545 grams

About this title

Synopsis

In Redefining Heresy and Tolerance, Hung Tak Wai examines how the Qing empire governed Muslims and Christians under its rule with a non-interventionist policy. Manchu emperors adopted a tolerant attitude towards Islam and Christianity as long as political stability and loyalty remained unthreatened. However, Hung argues that such tolerance had its limitations. Since the mid-eighteenth century, the Qing court intentionally minimised the importance of the Islamic identity. Restrictions were imposed on the Muslims' external connections with Western Asia. The Christian minority was kept distant from politics and the Han majority. At the same time, Confucian scholars began to acquire a new understanding of religion, but they were not encouraged to get in touch with the Muslims and Christians. This book demonstrates how, from the late eighteenth to the early nineteenth century, the Qing government prevented Confucian scholar-bureaucrats from interfering in the religious life of Christians and Muslims, and how the Confucians’ understanding of ‘religion’ was reshaped during the implementation of such policy in the period. This book reveals that a different kind of ‘religious tolerance’ had already emerged among Sinophone intellectuals before their contact with the West.

About the Author

Hung Tak Wai is an assistant professor at The Waseda Institute for Advanced Study, Waseda University.