dc.description.abstract | A Study on Characters of Folk Secret Religious Sects in Qing Dynasty
Abstract
Based on the whole period of Qing Dynasty (AD1644-1911), this paper observes the characters of folk secret religious sects in the society of Qing Dynasty and the roles they play, sums up the characteristics they possess and illustrates the society and culture of common people in Qing Dynasty they reflect.
Regarding the chapter structure, in order to keep a coherent structure as a whole and focus on the theme, the study firstly depicts the background of the history and features of folk secret religious sects in Qing Dynasty as well as the official policies and attitudes, and then analyzes the characters of secret religious sets in official record and folk records. To facilitate the writing and have a clear and coherent structure, the Qing Dynasty period is divided into five parts for discussion, namely, the early Qing Dynsty (the reigns of Chóngdé Emperor and Shunzhi Emperor, the reign of Kangxi Emperor, the reign of Yongzheng Emperor), the reign of Qianlong Emperor, the reign of Jiaqing Emperor, the reign of Daoguang Emperor and the late Qing Dynasty (the reign of Xianfeng Emperor, the reign of Tongzhi Emperor, the reigns of Guangxu Emperor and Xuantong Emperor). Finally, the study summarizes the abovementioned chapters and illustrates the functions and effects of characters in folk secret religious sects on the local society in Qing Dynasty.
Apart from the introduction chapter and the ninth chapter of conclusion, there are seven chapters in this paper. The second chapter “the folk secret religious sects and official policies and laws in Qing Dynasty” depicts the background of the study in three parts. Focusing on the characters, the first part “the history and features of folk secret religious sects in Qing Dynasty” is discussed from the following three aspects: founders of folk secret religious sects in Qing Dynasty, their way to develop the religion by passing on to the next generation and the geographical relationship or blood relations among believers in terms of the inheritance of religion. The second part “A folk secret religious sect in the official policy of Qing Dynasty” begins with the cultural policy of Qing Dynasty, and then analyzes the views of emperors and officials towards folk secret religious sects. The third part “the folk secret religious sects in laws and regulations of Qing Dynasty” analyzes related laws on folk secret religious sects stipulated in Da Qing Hui Dian (Record of laws and systems of the Qing Dynasty). Moreover, the three parts are summed up to expound on official policies and attitudes. The third chapter is “the analysis of characters in folk secret religious sects in the early Qing Dynasty”. The fourth chapter is “the analysis of characters in folk secret religious sects during the reign of Qianlong Emperor”. And the next three chapters are respectively “the analysis of characters in folk secret religious sects during the reign of Jiaqing Emperor”, “the analysis of characters in folk secret religious sects during the reign of Daoguang Emperor” and “the analysis of characters in folk secret religious sects in the late Qing Dynasty”. The characters analyzed are mainly those recorded in official documents and folk records. The eighth chapter “Qing society and characters in folk secret religious sects” summarizes the abovementioned sections and has a cross-discussion on the characters in folk secret religious sects under the local society (space) and historical context (time) in the following three parts. In the first part “qualitative analysis of characters in folk secret religious sects in Qing Dynasty”, it analyzes the data like nationalities, professions, ages and genders of characters in folk secret religious sects. The second part “the conflicts of characters in folk secret religious sects in local society in Qing Dynasty” analyzes the factors giving rise to the conflicts in local society caused by characters in folk secret religious sects, such as the negative effects of accumulating wealth by unfair means, violence and the idea of restoration of reactionary rule on local society. As for the third part “the function of characters in folk secret religious sects in local society in Qing Dynasty”, it depicts the functions and the roles they played in Qing local society, such as the positive impacts of the social education function in subculture, the common customs and moral norms included in folk secret religious sects, the living environment they created, the life pattern they pursued, the life meaning they anticipated as well as their settlement after death on local society.
Keywords: folk secret religious sects; character analysis; subculture | en_US |