This multi-contributor volume examines the evolving relationship between fear, heterodoxy and crime in traditional China. It throws light on how these three variously interwoven elements shaped local policies and people’s perceptions of the religious, ethnic, and cultural “other.” Authors depart from the assumption that “otherness” is constructed, stereotyped and formalized within the moral, political and legal institutions of Chinese society. The capacity of their findings to address questions about the emotional dimension of mass mobilization, the socio-political implications of heterodoxy, and attributions of crime is the result of integrating multiple sources of knowledge from history, religious studies and social science. Contributors are Ágnes Birtalan, Ayumu Doi, Fabian Graham, Hung Tak Wai, Jing Li, Hang Lin, Tommaso Previato, and Noriko Unno.

This edited volume integrates multiple sources of knowledge (most notably from history, religious studies and social science) to address questions about the emotional dimension of mass mobilization, the socio-political implications of heterodoxy, and attributions of crime in traditional China.

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. ‘This book goes beyond the assumption of a homogeneous Han society and pays attention to the religious groups that emerged after the seventeenth century, which differed from, or even contradicted, Confucianism and other Chinese religions, and it is concerned with how such alien communities influenced the development of Confucianism itself.’ —Wang Fan-sen, Academia Sinica ‘This book significantly enriches our comprehension of how early modern Confucians, as adherents of a state/public religion, engaged with Abrahamic religions. By delving into the dynamics of interreligious interaction, Redefining Heresy and Tolerance sheds new light on the encounters between Confucianism and the Abrahamic faiths, offering fresh insights into the complex religious landscape of Asian culture.’ —Huang Chin-shing, Academia Sinica

In Chinese Character Manipulation in Literature and Divination, Anne Schmiedl analyses the historical development and linguistic properties of Chinese character manipulation, focusing on a late imperial work on this subject, the Zichu by Zhou Lianggong (1612–1672).

"Extraordinarily timely and useful. As China emerges as an economic and political world power that seems to have done away with religion, in fact it is witnessing a religious revival. The thoughtful essays in this book show both the historical conflicts between state authorities and religious movements and the contemporary encounters that are shaping China's future. I am aware of no other book that covers so much ground and can be used so well as an introduction to this important field." —Peter van der Veer, University of Utrecht

In 1644, the Manchus, a relatively unknown people inhabiting China's northeastern frontier, overthrew the Ming, Asia's mightiest rulers, and established the Qing dynasty, This book supplies a radically new perspective on the formative period of the modern Chinese nation.