'God' is back in China
By Mark Vernon on Monday, November 14 2011, 16:57 - General - Permalink
For the first time in nearly 900 years, the Chinese government has asked Daoists scholars for advice in how to manage the country, Martin Palmer was telling me. This follows the previous destruction or reappropriation of 98% of Daoist temples and 97% of Daoist texts and other paraphernalia. The last time this happened was in 1219 when Genghis Khan summoned Daoist Master Qiu Chuji to come to his war camp in the Himalayas and advise him on his plans to conquer China.
Speaking of the revival of religion in China, three recent BBC World Service programmes were fantastic. A couple of factoids that surprised me.
- The Chinese have been speaking with the Alpha Marriage Course, as in the Alpha Course of Christian evangelicalism. Apparently, the authorities were so impressed by it, and are so worried about the rise of divorce in China, that they are considering adopting a version of it for nationwide roll-out.
- The Hui Muslims of China, numbering about 10 million, have women imams and women mosques. It's an ancient tradition, though being threatened now by globalisation, which means that Hui go on the Hajj, sometimes to return with more conservative codes of dress and gender.
Comments
I wish the Daoists every success in teaching their state that the government of a great country "is like cooking a very small fish", and that the best way for rulers to accomplish much is to do little. The Chinese government have a reputation for being somewhat heavy-handed....
Let's hope that the Hui Muslims contribute something to the Middle-Eastern Hajjis they meet.
On the existence and rights of Chinese Muslims in general, I sometimes wonder if the USA is busy fomenting trouble and secessionism among them. Arming them, even.....?
I hope the Daoist scholars advise them to stop persecuting Tibetan Buddhist monks. That would be kinda cool.
Maybe we should ask Daoist scholars for tips on how to manage our own country....But I'm not sure they could take on the giant corporations.
As someone else said, let's hope the Daoist Priests advise the Chinese government to stop persecuting the Tibetan people and the elimination of Tibetan Buddhism (and, hopefully, the Dalai Lama will be able to walk once more in his Homeland).
I'm not sure what impact the Daoists will have. If I remember right, in one of the radio programmes, there's a business leader who argues Daoism and Communism fit perfectly together - again if I remember right, because both can see the individual in the service of the collective, or something like that...