Special Issue: Beyond the Market: Exploring the Religious Field in Modern China
Author affiliations: a Asian Studies , 8 Buccleuch Place, Edinburgh, EH8 9LW, United Kingdom
Author biographies Joachim Gentz is Reader in Chinese and Head of Chinese Studies at the University of Edinburgh. His research interests include Chinese early philosophy (text and commentary) and historiography, literary forms of argumentation, Chinese religions and theories of cultural and religious studies.
關鍵詞
rational-choice theory; Chinese religions; Three Teachings (sanjiao)
摘要
One of the major hypotheses of the religious-economy model is that the more unregulated the religious market is, the more diversity and pluralism will be found, the more competition there will be, and the higher the level of participation is to be expected. The article discusses this hypothesis in light of the pre-modern Chinese discourse on the Unity of the Three Religions (sanjiao heyi 三教合一). Since the rational-choice-based model is not able to provide an explanation for this specific concept, this article proposes the definition of a new case of a regulated pluralism defined by its claim to give up competition, and suggests a new kind of threefold monopoly independent from coercive measures by the state. Some explanations for this new case are provided and the usability of rational-choice theory in analysing the data gained outside of the European frame of the model is discussed. As the author will show, the religious-economy model appears only to be able to follow historical analysis and adapt its propositions accordingly; the model itself seems to be far too narrow and too undifferentiated to reliably include analyses of Chinese religions.
