Zongjiao as a Chinese Conceptual Term for Religion? Genealogical Notes On its Development Since The Late Qing Period

Abstract:This article addresses the question of zongjiao as a modern translation for the Western term “religion.” Neither criticizing nor defending its application, it instead takes for granted the Western concept’s adoption and argues that the general acceptance of the newly coined binome and its semantics can be best understood through a genealogical approach that includes global, especially Western, as much as local Chinese roots and discourses. The article builds on recent scholarship and adds new insights from a discursive perspective with a special focus on the important transformational period of the first half of the twentieth century. In particular, it argues for the continuing hybrid character of the historically shaped semantics of zongjiao and its lasting semantic ambiguities, which allow one to understand zongjiao as a signifier that interconnects uses in local, traditional, as well as modern academic and international discourses.