What is "superstition"? According to the authoritative definition of contemporary Chinese dictionaries, the term "superstition" includes two meanings: the first refers to the belief in gods and ghosts, and the second refers to blind faith worship. Although the two meanings are broad and different, they basically point to a critique of the people's belief forms in the world and their ritual behavior. The word "superstition" is not well known in the traditional Chinese vocabulary system, and it appeared in the historical process of the birth of the Chinese nation-state in the early 20th century. During these decades, the Enlightenment, which created new people and used it as the basis for the construction of a new state, became the most popular and widely discussed proposition of its time. The use of the term "superstition" in intellectual circles to refer to Chen's criticism of folk beliefs and their ritual behavior, and the "anti-superstitious" discourse that opposes "superstition" and transforms the world of people's beliefs to completely change their way of life and way of thinking is one of the core propositions of Enlightenment in this period.
Why did the term "superstition" appear so much in the historical context at the turn of the 19th and 20th centuries and become a conceptual tool for expressing the Age of Enlightenment? In what way and how did it affect the world of life and the world of their beliefs Chinese of that era? Where China's modern nation-state began, how did the anti-"superstitious" attitudes merge with this grand historical narrative, and how did they change from the origin of a discourse to an unthinking attitude of identity? Perhaps it is a rather long and mysterious history; or perhaps it appeared very smoothly and in a very abrupt manner in the initial historical process of modern China. This is the first series of questions that pop up in my head when I'm about to enter the "anti-superstition" problem. What I am trying to trace is the origin of a kind of "inconceivability": when history becomes today's routine and a kind of unthinking affirmation and habit, if returning to the original historical scene, how does the question begin?
My search for the modern origins of the "superstitious" discourse is not motivated by some curiosity or entanglement with a fascination with the myth of origins. In the face of the vast sea of historical records, any attempt to find some kind of "first", "first" and so on, the right to invent may eventually become a futile effort. So all I want to do is describe a process—the process of modern origins of "against superstition" and the formation of its full meaning. Clarifying this historical context will help explain a series of questions: What role does anti-superstitious discourse play in the intellectual genealogy that makes up the discourse system of modernity? To what extent does the rise of anti-superstition and understanding modern China relate to the history of the creation of the nation-state at the beginning of the century? Is there a tense and intrinsic correlation between anti-superstitious discourse and the traditional Chinese world's discourse on folk beliefs? Combing through the historical context of the initial formation of the "anti-superstitious" discourse will be a rather interesting experience, because the attitude of Chinese intellectuals against "superstition" is itself a product of modernity, produced in the turbulent process of the creation of the nation-state in modern China, and its fate is as full of mysteries as modern China.
Myths about the origins of anti-superstitious discourse
Whether the word "superstition" is a native vocabulary of Chinese may be difficult to draw conclusions about because of the length of traditional Chinese history and the sheer volume of writings. The earliest use of the word "superstition" that I have ever seen was in a Tang Dynasty epitaph: "When I get off the bus, I smell that the monks and monks are on fire at the top, and they are clamped on the neck, and they confuse the people with asceticism, and the people's hearts are superstitious." The meaning of "superstition" here refers to an irrational state of mind, not specifically to the folk form of belief. This is the earliest and only text I have ever seen before the end of the 19th century in which the word "superstition" appears. Curiously, in the thousands of years since, the use of the term "superstition" has been hardly seen in the extensive discussions on the form of belief in orthodox religious circles, from the imperial government to the Confucian intellectual elite and the Shi and Tao. Therefore, I will limit the source of the word "superstition" here to the emergence of its modern meaning, that is, whether the word "superstition" exists before it acquires its modern meaning is not the point. For it is certain that, by the end of the 19th century at least, "superstition", even if it had appeared in the Chinese language, did not point to the criticism of folk beliefs by the upper culture and its rulers, which this article is concerned with, and this term has hardly had any important influence on the history of previous ideas and society. Therefore, if, in terms of the "ideal type" of research, I am not too attached to the existence or non-existence of the word "superstition" in the traditional era, but I am concerned with the way in which it appears in the knowledge genealogy of the discourse system of modernity, what kind of modern meaning it carries and acquires, and how this process is linked to the history of the birth of modern China.
In the vernacular vocabulary of folk beliefs, as late as the end of the 19th century, traditional words such as "obscenity", "foolishness", "ignorance", "confusion", and "delusion" were still limited to the use of traditional words. The earliest Chinese expression of the word "superstition" that I have seen is found in the "New Edition of the Imperial Dynasty Scriptures" edited by Mai Zhonghua and the "Three Compilations of the Imperial Dynasty Classics and World Texts" edited by Chen Zhongyi. Both of these sutras were written in the twenty-fourth year of Guangxu (1898). In volume 16 of the "Foreign History" category of the New Edition of the Imperial Scriptures, the article "On the Present Situation in Europe" by a famous Japanese author is included, which uses the word "superstition": "He Zeying's ambassador to Turkey said that the rich people of Alminyya did not like to sing the idea of independence in a vain way, and were afraid of being violent and unscrupulous, and they were excited about the religious heart of the natives, so they used the tranquility of the chaotic situation." This should be a current political article written by the Japanese in Chinese, which was introduced to China in the Penghu Restoration.
Also in the "Imperial Dynasty Classics and Shiwen III Edition" volume 74 "Foreign Commerce" category, there is the article "Foreign Commerce", which is almost exactly the same as the above-quoted "On the Present Situation in Europe" from the content to the words, but the author's source is not listed when the article is compiled. Considering that the two books of the New Edition of the Imperial Scriptures and the Three Editions of the Imperial Scriptures are written in similar years, it is certain that although the titles of the two articles are different, they should be derived from the same Japanese article discussing European commerce. The combination of "superstition" and "religion" here refers to the world of faith corresponding to rationalism or, more generally, to a very psychological state, basically a neutral word used to refer to a worldview, rather than directly to a critique of the form of mass belief. This is the expression of "superstition" that I have seen earlier in Chinese in modern times.
On July 21, 1899 , Guangxu published in Japan , the Qinghui Bao , which featured the "Treatise on the State" by the German political scientist Bolun Zhili, mentioned:
The people of Fang andday, those who promise themselves to civilization, do not take Shinto politics as a trick, and those who have a slight smell of politics will be denounced as despicable and harmful to the people who were not civilized in the past, and will test the joy and anger of the gods with the thunder of the clouds; with the coming of the birds, the symbols of divine money, the auspiciousness of divination, or the vain party of witch blessings as the trust of the gods, such gods are shallow and ugly, and people in this world will not believe in them. The monarchs of the modern world, who want to be good at their prestige, who take advantage of the superstitious religion of the people, who depend on the gods, who know their delusions, know that God has endowed man with intellect, that he has made people dependent on his own strength, in order to try to survive, and to decide on state affairs with his unknowable divine will, so as not to deal with it if he does not come out of my heavenly thoughts.
On the question of who was first translated and through what means to intervene in the Chinese-speaking world of Burren Zhili's "Theory of the State", many scholars have done detailed research. It is now generally accepted that The Theory of the State, published in the Yokohama Kiyomiya Newspaper from April 10 to October 25, 1899, was compiled by Liang Qichao based on the Japanese scholar Higashisuke Hirata's Treatise on the State and the Azuma Toji's "National Studies". The word "superstition", first appeared in the Qinghui Bao, once again proved the possibility that the word could be translated into Japanese. In the above quotation, Burren Zhili uses modern rationalism as a weapon and refutes medieval Shinto politics as a "trickery", which is actually a symbol of absolutism used by modern monarchs to fool the people. The reference to "superstition" here is still used in conjunction with "religion" and refers to Shinto beliefs in general, rather than elitist representations of folk beliefs. This shows that when the word "superstition" was first used in the Chinese world, "superstition" and religion belonged to the same domain, and both pointed to the field of belief contrary to modern rationalism and scientism, and did not specifically point to the criticism of the world of folk belief.
The above two examples preliminarily show that the word "superstition" was translated into the modern Chinese system by the Reform thinkers, which is the possibility of being translated through Japanese. In the last few years of the 19th century, although it was not uncommon to discuss Shinto politics and folk beliefs, there were even monographs on the harm of ghost belief in democracy and progress, with obvious Enlightenment characteristics, but the use of the word "superstition" still seemed to be quite limited to my eyes. In the 20th century, the use of the word "superstition" gradually became popular. In 1902, Liang Qichao signed "China's New People" and used the word "superstition" many times in several treatises published in the "Xinmin Cong Bao" published in Tokyo, such as "On the Influence of Academic Forces" and "The Theory of Defending the Religion and Not Respecting The Kong", and for the first time made a clear definition of what "superstition" meant. At that time, Liang Qichao was traveling to Japan, and his thoughts and ideas were greatly influenced by the Japanese intellectual circles, and it was quite possible that the vocabulary used in his writings was directly derived from Japanese. The research results of many scholars also show that many key words in modern China were transmitted through the Japanese language, and Liang Qichao accepted a large number of new Japanese terms around 1899, which is also an early consensus in the academic community. Although this cannot be directly used as proof of the japanese origin of the word "superstition", it at least provides a specific context for us to sort out the above-mentioned fragments of historical legacies and make inferences.
In addition, the use of the term "superstition" began to appear in other Chinese periodicals published in Japan during the same period. In the 11th issue of the 1903 "Youxue Translation", there was an article entitled "Social Education", which pointed out that "if the religious scholars in history say that if the Buddha is like a return, there are many people who have used superstition to cover the consciousness of the living." The "superstition" used here is still synonymous with "religion", placing the world of religion and belief as a whole in opposition to nationalism with the theme of salvation. Youxue Translation is a Chinese periodical run by students studying in Japan, and most of the new terms used in the writings are derived from Japanese vocabulary. From 1903 to the Xinhai period, the term "superstition" also began to appear in large numbers in new periodicals published in China. The authors of these journals are mainly international students who accept new ideas, especially those who study in Japan, and the use of new terms and the introduction of new ideas must be influenced by many japanese academic circles.
On December 15, 1905, the 24th issue of the Shinmin Cong Bao, the thirty-first year of Guangxu (1905), published an article entitled "On Faith" by Fujikawa Yu, the chief writer of the Japanese magazine "Human Nature", which was translated by the Chinese signatory Tsui Snow. In the article, the author uses the epistemology of German philosophy to define the concept of "faith" and distinguishes between "rational belief" and "superstition":
There are many believers in religious magazines, because religious beliefs are also religious beliefs, and academic beliefs are completely different. However, the world's belief is only a religious belief, which is very wrong. The believer who now explains the whole of faith, i.e., the German translation of which means the meaning of faith (Glauben), is divided into natural and unnatural. ...... This believer, who encounters knowledge (science) in his daily life, is an indispensable element of faith. If the hypothese arise from the understanding of causes, metaphysiscbe Glauben assumes common causes and explains the phenomena associated with them, and Theorie makes this assumption and theoretician is intellectually necessary. If one believes in this, the epistemology (science) is not complete. He who has spoken above is a belief in nature. I would like to ask you to describe the intellectual faith (Wisenschaftlicbe Glauben). The concepts used in the description of various religious phenomena are called faith in the narrow sense, religiose Glauben (Religiose Glauben) of this religion. Extraordinarily religious beliefs (ü bernat ü rliche Glauben) and prefaces to academic beliefs. There are obvious differences in the principles, and the religious believers, Hezhier, are called the beliefs of gods and monsters (Wunderglaube). Faith is out of reason, contradictory in our reason, and believers in nature misuse Ueberglaube. The believer outside the reason is nothing more than superstition (Aberglaube), the fundamental form is the power and phenomenon outside nature (outside the reason), but is recognized and recognized by epistemology (science) as a fact. The superstitious people who often believe in religion arise from the errors of knowledge and the errors of imagination, and we recognize that there are many people who deviate from the laws of nature, so the superstitious people are irrational. The doctrine of religion is the mystery of existence, and the explanation of the reason of our people will not be explained in the way outside nature, but will define doctrines or creeds as the law of God, and the whole ethics and life will be universal to religion. Its faith has been said before, and the belief outside the reason is recognized by our reason on the basis of empirical truth, and there is much resistance, and the families such as Heizhier are called superstitions. The one who is the most righteous, the rest of the unbelief. Cover the understanding of the senses of the five senses, stubbornly do not conform to the utopian imagination of natural laws, believe in the physical unseemly falsehood of life in dreams. In the dreamer, the higher spiritual effect is hidden and has no discernment. The five senses are closed and cannot know the outside world, the role of correction is lacking, and thus become superstitious, is it with the madman, etc., this is not a mental consciousness disorder and why?
This article seems to be the earliest monograph translated by Chinese to analyze the concepts of religion, belief, and superstition using the conceptual tools of German philosophical rationalism. The author divides beliefs into two categories: religious beliefs and academic beliefs, both of which are rooted in the inadequacy of human sensory experience in understanding nature, that is, the product of the underdevelopment of human reason. In addition to human reason, if this "belief" is out of reason, and "contradicts the rationality of our people", it is called "superstition", that is, the text clearly states: "Superstitious, irrational also"! Here the author accepts Hegel's rationalist theory of religion, believing that religion is also the product of human reason, and has the function of whole ethics and fixed life; and the existence of superstition is rooted in the inadequacy of human reason, and the empiric understanding of the world by the senses can easily fall into the utopian imagination that is not in line with the laws of nature, resulting in a distorted understanding of the real world, that is, the formation of "superstition". This is the earliest article I have seen to discuss the roots of "superstition" in a local vocabulary system, and according to the deep influence of xinmin Congbao on The Chinese intellectual circles in the first decade of Xinhai, it is at least certain that this monograph on "faith" translated from Japanese has been widely read by China's new intellectual groups. As for the impact of reading and the degree of reduction of its original knowledge base and habits of thought, although it has not been directly proved, from the results of the rapid occurrence of the word "superstition" in various discourses in the following years, the introduction and dissemination of new terms have undoubtedly played an important role.
The term "superstition" appears in the historical narratives of modern China, and in addition to the source of Japan in the east, Western translation is also a possible source. However, the historical books that the author has read, from the Chinese writings of early missionaries to China, to the Western studies books widely disseminated in China in the second half of the 19th century, and the newspapers and periodicals run by missionaries, including the "Bulletin of the Nations" and Chinese "Church New Paper", have a large number of discussions on Chinese folk beliefs, most of which use words such as "obscenity and charm" and "grotesque and unscripted", and there are also accusations such as "delusional faith" and "foolishness", but there is no use of "superstition". In the early Chinese revival thinkers who were deeply influenced by the West, such as Wang Tao, Zheng Guanying, Chen Qiu, He Qi, and others, there was no mention of "superstition" in their writings on the improvement of customs and beliefs. Yan Fu did not begin to use the term "superstition" until 1904 during the translation of Western masterpieces. Based on the above reasons, and supported by the examples given above, it is almost certain that the word "superstition" was translated from Japanese at the end of the 19th century and gradually became common in Chinese through the writings of students studying in Japan and the thought of restoration and the wide dissemination of their treatises. The term "superstition" was used in the original Chinese vernacular, often used in conjunction with "religion", generally referring to the world of faith and psychological state contrary to rationalism, not the later special reference to popular religious belief and its ritual practice, and the meaning it pointed to was not similar to the later elitist discourse tradition that specifically targeted the people's spiritual world.
Liang Qichao and the modern meaning of "superstition"
From 1898 to 1905, Liang Qichao served as the chief writer of the Qinghui Bao and the Xinmin Cong Bao during his exile in Japan, using his "Liang Qichao-style input" of "pen edge often with emotion" to promote his reformism to the Chinese people. Liang Qichao's significance in the ideological history of modern China is beyond words. His extensive absorption and timely dissemination of extraterritorial ideas has played a very important role in the historical process of the creation of the nation-state in modern China. In terms of the emergence of the word "superstition" in Chinese vernacular and the widespread spread of its modern meaning, Liang Qichao's intermediary role is decisive.
In 1902, Liang Qichao successively published in the Xinmin Cong Bao successively "On the Influence of Academic Forces on the World", "On the Theory of Defending Religion and Not Respecting Confucius", "On the General Trend of Changes in Chinese Academic Thought", "On the Gains and Losses of the Length and Shortcoming of Religious Scholars and Philosophers", "On the Relationship between Buddhism and Mass Governance", etc., systematically expounding his religious thoughts, and initially beginning a comprehensive clean-up of the traditional era with "superstition" as a conceptual tool.
"Superstition" and "True Faith"
"Superstition", as a remnant of the old era, lies first of all in its opposition to modern rational and scientific concepts. This is very obviously reflected in Liang Qichao's attitude toward "religion." First of all, he argues that although religious existence is a product of history, it is "not the instrument of human progress, and although it has great merit in the first period of the evolution of the population, after the second period, it may not be enough to compensate for its shortcomings." Therefore, religion does not conform to the ultimate meaning of human evolution, and should fundamentally be attributed to the irrational sequence, so religion is to be eliminated when human society develops to perfection, but when society has not yet reached the realm of complete civilization, Liang Qichao believes that religion still has its rationality of existence. Therefore, also based on reason and science as the criterion, religion is originally an irrational sequence, but if there is a boundary in the internal world of faith, there is a difference between "true faith" and "superstition". Beliefs are divided in both positive and negative directions, the former corresponding to "religion" and the latter corresponding to "superstition". So what is the criterion for judging? Liang Qichao said:
Today's apologists, who have heard the Westerners say that there is no religion in China, are angry and angry, thinking that they are insulting me by slandering me. This is not known what religion is also. The so-called religious people of the West refer specifically to the superstitious sects, and their scope of power is outside the shell realm, based on the soul, with worship as the ritual, with the purpose of breaking away from the world, with the nirvana heavenly kingdom as the end, and the misfortunes and blessings of the world as the method, although the religions have different coarse and fine sizes, and their general principles are the same. Therefore those who follow his teachings must not begin with faith, and when the Religion of Jehovah is baptized, he must recite the Ten Creeds, that is, those who believe in the miracles of Jesus. Buddhism has a doctrine of faith. Don't rush to Voldemort. Believers, forbidden doubts, suffocated people also free of thought; Voldemort, holding the portal to xenophobia also.
The so-called "superstition" is an irrational "religion" that is a blind belief that is attached to some kind of power or divorced from reality. Here, Liang Qichao does not make a clear distinction between "superstition" and "religion", but also points to the opposite side of the present world, and all the "sects" who look at the other world, have worship services, and do not think about it can be called "superstition". Putting faith in opposition to this shore world reflects Liang Qichao's rather obvious rationalist position.
The world of faith is largely illusory because it lacks empirical support, and this unrealistic imagination of the real world constitutes an unquestionable conception of the sacred, reduced to people's daily practice. "Superstition", as a thought habit and way of acting without thinking, has created obstacles to academic freedom and freedom of thought in reality. Further, Liang Qichao used China as an example to discuss the harm of "superstition":
Our people eat the blessings of the philosophers, and do not cloud our brains with the stench of religion, so the development of academic thought is often superior. If Buddhism is not seen in India, in Tibet, in Mongolia, in Burma, and Siam, it holds its Hinayana superstitions, and if it enters China alone, it expands its Mahayana theory. It is rare that the fujing religion has been in China for hundreds of years and the upper class people follow it, so those who are here today seek the progress of my scholarship and the unity of thought (the unification is the spirit of the whole country is not to rebuke heresy), and there is no need to bind themselves with the last law of religion.
In traditional China, the development of ethics made Chinese never under the same theological domination as in the European Middle Ages. Therefore, although religious ideas such as Buddhism are also widely spread in China, China is not addicted to religious "superstitions" like Burma and Siam. China is not without the influence of religious thought, "but its ideas are particularly early and often dependent on reality, so the sum of superstitions is not very strong and there are few victims." (The upper echelons of Chinese scholars, on the other hand, have been able to maintain academic progress and ideological unity because they have adhered to the position of Confucianism.) In Liang Qichao's concept, Confucianism, as a rational belief, is unparalleled in its norms for Chinese habits of thought and the order of life, because compared with other religious figures in the world, Confucius's teachings are "dedicated to the affairs of the world's countries, the origin of ethics and morality, no superstition, no worship, no doubt, no xenophobia, and Confucianism is different from the group religions." In essence, Confucius, philosophers, scholars, educators, and non-religious people also. Westerners often refer to Confucius and Legrates together, rather than with Shakya, Jesus, and Mahavir. If the husband is not a religious, why harm Confucius! Confucius said: "Fail to do things to people, but be able to do things to ghosts', 'Unknown birth, ignorance of death', 'The son is silent, strange power is chaotic'. The roots of Confucius's founding are all different from those of Western sect leaders. I do not want to suppress the group religion in order to promote Confucius, but although Confucianism cannot have the power of other religions, it will not have the evils of other religions. ”
The superiority of Confucianism over other religions in the world lies in its foothold in the present world, "not speaking strangely and chaotically", and taking ethics as the basis not only realizes the care of ordinary religions for human nature, but also embodies the maintenance of social order in practice. Opposing irrational "superstition" from the standpoint of Confucian ethics is a basic foothold for Liang Qichao to distinguish between "religion" and "superstition". In his view, whether it is religion or superstition, it is "to take faith as the first righteousness", and the crux of the problem is that "faith has good faith and superstition". It is precisely because there is a difference between "true faith" and "superstition" that religion is often associated with superstition:
As soon as there is superstition, the truth will be hidden in half, and if there is a superstition continuum, then the human intellect will not be able to advance, and the fortunes of the world will not be able to advance. Therefore, the scholar has to fight superstition, and the enemy superstition has to be the enemy of the religion to which he is related, so in a country, there can be no one who believes in religion, nor can there be no one who destroys religion.
Therefore, although religion still has a reason for existence, it is all in its position of contemplating reality, and if it is free from the constraints of reason, legitimate belief will also flow into "superstition". In contrasting the relationship between religion and superstition, Liang Qichao, in addition to refuting the ethical basis of Confucianism, also used Buddhism as an example to distinguish the difference between "wisdom belief" and "superstition":
As for those who teach, faith is the first righteousness. It is self-deception to believe in the husband who knows what he knows, and to believe in what he does not know. I have tasted the stream of superstitious people, and I have tapped on the subtle and supreme truth, saying that it is the knowledge of the Creator that is beyond my reach. It is the law of the despotic monarch that it is not allowed to meet with the people. Not in Buddhism. The greatest program of Buddhism is the "Double Cultivation of Compassion and Wisdom", which has been a major undertaking from the very beginning of the heart to becoming a Buddha, and has always taken the transformation of confusion into enlightenment. His so-called enlightened one is not a vain person who knows that there is a Buddha and blindly believes in it. ...... In other words, he also believed that the wisdom of the Master was beyond the reach of the believers, so he took strong faith as the end. In Buddhism, it is believed that the wisdom of believers must be equal to that of the master, so faith is the method. The reason why Buddhism is believed and not confused is that sitting is also.
What is "Zhixin"? That is, faith that is not suppressed by any external force and is completely born of the original heart. Obedience to the original mind is a choice made under the control of human beings' own rational thoughts. In other words, the key to "believing and not being lost" lies in the role of reason in the choice of faith. When Liang Qichao defined "superstition", he had a rather obvious rationalist color, and the connection between rationalism and faith criticism arose in the discourse of the times in which the Enlightenment trend of modern China flourished. In the discourse strategies of the early Enlightenment thinkers represented by Liang Qichao, they often carried a tendency to be anti-superstitious rather than anti-religious. Although most of them acknowledge the contradiction between religion and reason, they also point out that religion cannot be easily abandoned in the era when reason is not yet developed. Simply put, faith or superstition, retention of religion or the eventual demise of religion, depends on the only important factor, reason. Highlighting the concept of rationality can be said to be an important reminder of the modern transformation of Chinese thought. Restoration thinkers used the "rationalism" of Bo Laipin as a conceptual tool to criticize the legacy of the old era, including irrational cosmological concepts, mindsets, attitudes to life, and the authoritarian regimes associated with it.
The discourse of "anti-superstition" has become a way of displaying many extremely modern enlightenment ideals such as rationality, free choice, and xinmin, thus opposing superstition and even showing the ideal of modernity Chinese the Enlightenment era as a complete objective knowledge system. Liang Qichao's distinction between "zhengxin" ("zhixin") and "superstition" is directly related to the main theme of his enlightenment in this trend of the times, and has evolved into a modern theme of rationalism.
"Superstition" as a social mobilization force
In the atmosphere of Chinese thought from the late Qing Dynasty to the fall, scientism constituted an just and rational worldview. Science and reason have not only become the instrumental objective basis for social and cultural reform, but also the symbol and call for enlightenment and liberation. Obviously, the attitude against "superstition" as a way of showing modernity provides goals and models for social reform, and constitutes an important part of the axiomatic worldview of modern scientism. Yet even in an era when scientism became the dominant discourse, the instrumental rationality represented by science still showed a lack of intrinsic value and a lack of moral mobilization. It is generally believed that reflection on scientism did not flourish in Chinese intellectual circles until after World War I, but looking back at Liang Qichao's reform ideas in the early 20th century, he already contained a considerable degree of reflection in advocating rationalist cultural concepts. For example, the moral normative role that faith can play is particularly evident in his anti-superstitious thinking.
Liang Qichao's exposition of the complex interaction between faith and morality is epitomized in the article "On the Gains and Losses of Religious Scholars and Philosophers". In the beginning, Liang Qichao took the pioneering actions of many historical figures in modern European history as an example to clarify the irreplaceable historical role of faith in moral mobilization and then in the process of nation-state construction:
In history, the hero Haojie was able to become a great cause and bombard the world, and there were many people with religious ideas and few people with philosophical ideas. It is also in Tessie, Inc. Clinker, and the re-creation of England, so that it has committed great injustice and has no way to avoid it, and it has endured thousands of difficulties and has not been shaken, and religious thought has also done it. Joan of Arc, the one who recreated France, her people have no strength, but they destroy their enemies by touching their countrymen with their enthusiasm with superstition, and religious thought is also for it. Vilianbin, the one who opened up the Americas, so he regards freedom as his life, regards the shell as a sacrifice, and religious thought also does it. Washington and Lincoln in the United States are all great sages, and they are all rich in religious ideas. Mazzini and Gaful both gave birth to Italy, And Mazzini wanted to build a new country, and the first to advocate a new religion, its "young Italy" was based on the religious land to build the people, so it was united but not sluggish, patient and not shabby, religious thought was also; the rule of the country of Gaful, the first to suppress the right to worship, but the enemy church is not the enemy of the religious will, its superstitious power is also quite strong, so it does not rule the property but the country as the property, does not marry the wife but the country as the wife, religious thought is also for it. Granston, the masterpiece of nineteenth-century Britain, is also deep in its superstition, so it can adhere to the monolithism, move public opinion to reform the country, and religious thought is also for it.
Liang Qichao directly used the word "superstition" to describe the enthusiasm of Joan of Arc, Gaful and others for the pioneering work of the nation and the country, and "superstition" is not only not a manifestation of ignorance and backwardness, but constitutes an indispensable moral mobilization force for the founding of great deeds. The implication is that the world of faith, though opposed to the nature of science and progress, also has its own inviolability. Liang Qichao even believes that in the past, when reading European history, "I saw that its free and bloody people were connected back and forth for hundreds of years, and its characters were all out of religious superstition, and it was suspected that it was not the power of superstition that could not take away people's lives and deaths." Here, the meaning of the word "superstition" is clearly different from that of the previous paragraph, and is a positive factor with moral norms and the ability to mobilize. "Whoever believes in a religion must be sincere", the supreme power of faith comes from its accumulation of enthusiasm for the heart, and although there is a difference between good and evil in sincerity, "but if it is sincere, it is good or evil, and its power is often multiplied by ordinary numbers." Therefore, Liang Qichao opposes a completely negative view of religion and "superstition", but should recognize the moral concern for human nature and the positive role played by the sincere spiritual force triggered by "superstition" for human nature and the positive role played by historical development.
Here, the connotation of spiritual mobilization given by Liang Qichao to "superstition" seems to have some contradiction with his Enlightenment stance. But it is also at this point that the difference between Liang Qichao's Enlightenment thought and the grand narrative is reflected. The power of faith and its value connotation as a moral origin have become the indispensable spiritual motivation for Chinese to destroy the broken imperial tradition and build a modern state. When expounding his "new people" theory, Liang Qichao once said, "Where a country can stand in the world, it must have its own unique characteristics of the people." From morality and law to customs and customs, writing and art, there is an independent spirit, which is passed down from grandfather to generation, followed by descendants, and then to the end, and to the country. The root of Sti nationalism also comes from. The power of so-called "superstition" is rooted in the mass cultural tradition of the world in which the vast majority of Chinese people live and in the spiritual world. It is rather interesting to find that Liang Qichao, a modernist, praised the power of "superstition" in his early Enlightenment thought. Although this praise is somewhat hidden and does not directly point to the affirmation of the mass spiritual world; and Liang Qichao has also clearly expressed that although religion has its moral connotations, it is impossible to destroy the morality of religion, and the view that "destroying the superstition of religion can also be destroyed", it is undeniable that in Liang Qichao's enlightenment genealogy, the moral connotation carried by "superstition" has reached a certain implicit agreement with the enlightenment ideal of creating a new people and creating a nation-state.
Liang Qichao's understanding of "superstition" includes a rejection of scientific monism and its determinism, because the moral concern and social mobilization that faith can bring are characteristics that materialistic scientism cannot have. Liang Qichao, who is usually familiar with the humanistic spirit of reflecting on scientism and advocating orientalism, was inspired by traveling through Europe after world war I. However, from the analysis of his religious thought, we can see that as early as the end of the Qing Dynasty and the beginning of the People's Republic, when Liang Qichao did his best to spread his enlightenment ideas, this vigilance against absolute scientism was already revealed. In contrast to the later full granting of the negative meaning of the word "superstition", "superstition" was not completely placed in the context of its original use as the antithesis of the Enlightenment, and even it had the moral mobilization power of the same value as the Enlightenment through the affirmation of the commentator. The application of words must, consciously or unconsciously, to varying degrees, include photographs of the values projected by the author. In the early intellectual atmosphere against superstition, due to the pluralistic and inclusive attitude of the commentators to the world of religion and belief, most of them did not distinguish between religion and superstition in a categorical manner; although reason and science undoubtedly occupied the mainstream of the thinking of that era, they did not yet acquire the role of "legislator" in the future, which was clear and did not allow heterogeneous components. Taking the connotation of the word "superstition" as an example, the atmosphere of knowledge contains a fairly obvious layering process, and with the infiltration and shaping of various ideologies, this term has gained the stereotypes that we later become accustomed to in the history of continuous use.
The reason why the word "superstition" shows a certain positive meaning in Liang Qichao's religious thought is that the word "superstition" did not carry a strong elitist color in the early days of use, and on many occasions, it was used with words such as "religion" and "zongyang", and even equivalent. The intellectual genealogy of "superstition" did not from the outset absolutely subordinate to an elitist, relentless scientific position; on the contrary, the word "superstition" was even given a moral connotation, thus acquiring, in the other direction, a certain implicit correspondence with the modern proposition of the construction of the nation-state. This is a noteworthy detail in the process of clarifying the intellectual genealogy against superstition. In this sense, the genealogy of knowledge has undergone a transformation of meaning in the process of the continuous reinforcement of the discourse of the times to save the country, and in this sense, examining the source of anti-superstitious discourse helps us to further clean up how elitism and scientism have expanded infinitely and how modern China has been brought into its predetermined role step by step.
The multi-dimensionality of anti-superstitious discourse refers to Chen
The formation of "superstitious" discourse and the changes in its ideological base are inseparable from the process of continuous giving and producing new connotations, thus constituting a changing intellectual genealogy. Judging from the above analysis, the birth of "superstitious" discourse is not straight and one-dimensional, and in the early days of its creation, it experienced a process of multi-directional development. The attitude against superstition and its practice are mixed with the history of the rise of modern China, and the concept of "superstition" itself should be regarded as a subject of practice constructed through history. Different entities of power, different groups of thinkers, although they are in the same social context, have different conceptions of the individual, the state, reason, and nature, and these differences determine the different use of the same discourse resources. In the anti-superstitious remarks of the late Qing Dynasty and the late Qing Dynasty, the word "superstition" has undergone a considerable number of references, from the elitist tradition's denunciation of the world in which the people live, to the reflection on the theocratic politics and irrational thinking habits, in fact, the criticism of "superstition" has always been a divisive concept at the beginning of its birth, and these differences also constitute the reflection of the modern Chinese on the political and cultural conflicts it faces, as well as the implicit opposition between the attitude of modernity and the inherent difference. In the era when "superstitious" expressions began, the divergence at the epistemological level directly reflected the framework of a new set of political, cultural, and moral discourses facing China in the early 20th century.
Oppose "superstition" and academic progress
As an unscientific and irrational habit of thinking, "superstition" poses a great obstacle to the development of scholarship. The relationship between "superstition" and scholarship has long been valued by commentators. On May 28, 1905, the Oriental Magazine reprinted an article by the Sino-Foreign Daily entitled "On the Law of Eliminating Superstitious Ghosts and Gods", pointing out that "the reasons for their superstitions are now considered by politicians and scholars." The author believes that the Chinese people in the traditional era, precisely because they worship ghosts and gods and develop the habit of resigning themselves to fate, there are countless people who do not learn and have no skills, because of their short-sighted intellect, which has caused difficulties in their livelihood, and because of their shallow morality, they have led to social stagnation, in order to "make scholarship insurmountable." (24) Superstition hinders intellect, scholarship is related to the national plan, and early anti-superstitious speech is already in this series of correlations, with multiple goals and meanings such as academic and political.
In the article "On the Abuse of Religion in China", published in 1907, the author began by pointing out that the reason why religion is incompatible with scholarship lies in the fact that learning is expensive and religion is noble and superstition, and learning is expensive and religion is false. Therefore, whoever is deeply superstitious about nothingness such as ghosts and gods in a country will have a poor knowledge of its people. The author further analyzes the obstacles to academic progress of traditional Chinese superstitions on ghosts and gods from the aspects of astronomy, physics, and medicine:
The reason why our country has not advanced in learning for thousands of years is due to superstition of ghosts and gods. Why? The nine words of Qu Dafu and the system of Zhang Pingzi's instrument are original astronomy in China. Since the heavens are the dwelling place of God, there are rituals for the heavens, and all Shinto is flourished from this, and astronomy is absurd. Zhou Jie's words and the right side of the earth moving corpse are also the original chinese geological studies. Since the mountains and rivers have gods living in them, the god of thunder has sneaked in and is wreaking havoc, and the geology is desolate. Huainan Ziyan excitation is electricity, yin and yang phase excitation is electricity, which is china's original electricity. Since electricity is the mother of electricity, electricity is absurd. Lu Shizuka spread the rumor that the pecking wood is more and more carious, the tang lang is on fire, and the earthworm fogs up, which is china's original physics, and even the worship of snakes and foxes and the worship of grass and trees is absurd. Not hereby, life can not be free of disease, is to pay attention to the principle of hygiene to prevent infection, read the "Book of Han Yiwen Zhi" contains seven kinds of ancient medical classics, china has not tasted no medicine also, from the ignorance of the view of the ghost god, ask for a sign and ask for a blessing and medicine does not talk about it. The use of soldiers cannot be invincible, but it is to judge the situation in the masters of their affairs to win the hearts and minds of the army, and to read the books of Rang Tho and Sun Wu is that China has not tasted the study of war law, and from the perspective of the ignorant, they think that things have a predetermined decision and pray for a skill, while the wind and horn are a skill, and the divination of the divination is another skill, and the study of war does not talk about it. As mentioned above, things are probably heard, and the academic circles in our country have been harmed by superstitions and ghosts and gods, so if we do not establish a new religion, the intellectual circles will be humble and ugly for a long time!
Engels once pointed out that in ancient times people thought that their thoughts and feelings were not the activities of their bodies, but a unique activity of the soul that resided in this body and left the body at the moment of death. This belief in the soul, in supernatural forces, is a common habit of human thought in the traditional era. And this kind of belief thinking often links the real social life with the world of ghosts and gods, and then produces many worship rituals and evolves into various customs. However, in modern society, the rise of scientism and its gradual becoming a symbol of universal civilization, the mystical concept of faith has not only become an obstacle to material progress, but even led to the decline of humanistic scholarship. In the article "The Theory of Continuing No Ghosts" serialized in the 2nd and 3rd issues of "Zhejiang Chao" in 1903, the author not only detailed the resistance of superstition to machines, agriculture, and medicine, but also believed that the worship of the god of wealth was based on the study of No merchants in China; the belief in Wenchang and Kuixing made China, although encouraged by the imperial examination, advocated by hundreds of generations of literati, "and the ghosts and gods still died of their gaps, so there was no literature in China." "Superstitious belief in ghosts and gods, thereby believing in false reason, and not learning in reality." This illusory habit of thinking does not only exist in the world of the people, but is also a holistic social habit of the traditional Chinese era, hindering social progress and causing the country to decline:
alack! The whole country is secretly walking in the middle of the night, foolishness and foolishness, it can be said that it is also foolish, and foolishness is foolish, and the wisdom is around it, and the kingdom is dead, and the seed is dead, and it cannot be said. Otherwise, with forty million compatriots to salute, do not replace the ghosts and gods who depend on their fate, but stand up alone and discern them, and do not hesitate to fight with all their might, the townsman doctor, who is criticized for his words of exile and release. Although its aspirations are mournful, its heart is also visible.
Wisdom and foolishness due to superstition, the death of the country because of wisdom and stupidity, and the theme of nation and state by scholarship are probably the logical sequences that cannot be separated from any form of discourse in modern China, and are inevitably linked to the theme of the era of strength. The academic orientation against superstition also shows that in the early days of the birth of "superstitious" discourse, it was not a single reference to the world of popular belief, and it even included a critique of the thinking habits of the elite in the traditional era. In modern China, where Chinese and Western cultures violently collide, along with the process of modernization of Chinese society and the infiltration of Western scientism into Chinese culture, the field of knowledge has also begun to change accordingly. Anti-superstitious discourse can be seen as a link in the process of the "subjective turn" of modern Chinese thought, which is directly related to the transformation of Chinese society from tradition to modern nation-state. Rationalists, deeply influenced by Western thought, sought to divide faith and knowledge into different fields, and thus the discourse that hindered the progress of knowledge because of faith came into being.
"Superstition" and authoritarianism
The relationship between "superstition" and theocracy is one of the most important ways to unfold the anti-superstitious discourse of modern nationalists. In this regard, Liang Qichao is still very representative of the early anti-superstitious ideas, and he is very firm in his basic attitude towards the issue of faith. In Liang Qichao's view, political democracy, freedom of thought, and separation of church and state are important reasons for the progress of European civilization and an important symbol of human civilization. He argues that:
After the crusade, Western Europe and the Greek and Aquipian states came and went, but they were greatly engaged in the study of Greek language and writing, without translation, but could read the books of Aristotle's sages, and their minds were wide open, and for a time scholars were no longer bound by religious superstitions, and there was a rise of Ruth Protestantism, and the spirit of the whole Europe changed.
Freedom of thought is first and foremost manifested in the freedom that people gain the freedom to choose their personal beliefs. In the Middle Ages, authoritarianism used religion as a sacred talisman for its tyranny, which in turn reduced faith to a "superstition", that is, a blind and forced acceptance of faith. So faith as soul care turns against the bondage of the human soul. Here, Liang Qichao uses "religion" and "superstition" in conjunction with the yoke of academic and intellectual freedom imposed by medieval European theocracy. "Superstition" refers to irrational repression and bondage, with the development of history, the separation of church and state, believers strive for the freedom of belief, and then obtain the freedom of thought and scholarship, society can enter the era of civilization. Since the Renaissance in Europe, "the revival of ancient learning has been freed from the cage of the church, and the servility of the mind has been washed away", and social progress has "been incomprehensible". Liang Qichao associates "superstition" with theocracy, arguing that the reason why religion has become a "superstition" and an authoritarian symbol that restricts human freedom of thought is largely rooted in its disregard for human reason and freedom of choice. Liang Qichao said: If we want to maintain the freedom of thought of the Chinese people, it is extremely important to ensure the freedom of religious belief:
The principle of freedom of religious belief is to make the character of the people tend to be noble, (if the state religion is established, those who do not follow it cannot enjoy full rights, think or have the heart to believe in other religions, and those who are forced by the situation to deceive themselves and obey each other are the state who guide the people to abandon their faith. The theory of religious freedom is the most important. (In the past, the law of freedom of religious belief has not been established, and those who have more than two religious disciplines in the country have been perpetually compatible with each other.) And it is especially important to draw political and religious authority, so as not to invade each other. Politics is the law of the world, religion is the law of birth, the Church cannot use its power to invade the government, it is not a good thing, and the government cannot abuse its power to interfere with the hearts and souls of the people. (In the doctrine of liberty, the government shall not interfere with anyone who acts in a way that does not harm the right to liberty of others.) Whatever religion I want to believe, I will bear the benefits of it, and it will not harm others, so no one else under the government shall interfere. Therefore, the Law is practiced and the Great Advance is made.
It can be seen from this that Liang Qichao's criticism of "superstition" is closely related to the ultimate purpose of establishing a free political system and thus enabling the people to enjoy the soul of freedom. Seeing "superstition" as a sacred talisman of authoritarianism embodies Liang Qichao's political liberal concept of building a modern nation-state. Thus, the use of the term "superstition" goes beyond the traditional critique of "obscenity" and has a modern meaning associated with the construction of the nation-state.
After Liang Qichao, the critical way of linking "superstition" with the absolutism of the feudal era began to prevail. The new noun hermeneutic dictionary "Xin'erya", compiled in 1902, opened with a chapter on "Interpretation of Government", which explained the essence of the traditional divine state based on "Zongyang": "With God as the form of domination, with the powerful as the representative of God, the ruler as the divine, or the son of Heaven, it is called the divine government." In the commentary, the editor further explains that the origin of the so-called divine government state is "based on the belief of religion, covering the religious believers at that time, taking advantage of the ignorance of the religious hearts of the barbarians, pretending to represent the people of heaven, in order to gain power, so the chief of the divine government, many witches and monks." "The so-called obscurantism of the barbarian age is an unthinking belief in supernatural forces. In traditional times, faith often existed in the form of a national religion. The theocratic state not only hints at the religious dimension of the traditional state, but also the belief itself is closely related to the use of power and the continuous change of social order. Faith provides a basis for the sacralization of rulers to exercise their rule. Thus faith, as the source and symbol of state power, reveals the ultimate nature and destiny of political power, and the desire and application of ruling power is given sacred reasons.
The theocracy existed and continued because the people accepted the idea of "mandate of heaven" instilled in them by their rulers, so that they were ignorant of the reality of their own domination and foolishness. Popular superstitions about the idea of the Mandate of Heaven provide a sacred talisman for the source of power in authoritarian politics. In traditional China, "heaven" was not only a natural existence, but also a philosophical belief system. Due to the continuous shaping and strengthening of the "Mandate of Heaven" by the authoritarian politics of successive generations, "Heaven" has become the supreme master and a sacred concept of the universe. Modern nationalists have first implemented their critique of authoritarian politics at the practical level of the abolition of the idea of "Mandate of Heaven":
For thousands of years, chinese students have not taken the sky as the biggest finger to return to, so as to make it a place for words. Whenever there is something inconceivable and unexplainable, the heavens and the earth are known, and the people believe in it. Inherent in this superstition, there are mistakes. One mistakenly thinks that the matter becomes the destiny of heaven, and the one who vainly desires to gain the heavens will pretend to steal in order to disturb the peace of the world; the one who mistakenly takes the defeat of the matter as the death of heaven, and the one who loses power, will lose his will, and put it down together, so as to defeat the progress of the crowd.
Some people have more clearly pointed out that the so-called "heaven" is the tool used by the rulers to fool the people, and "the Chinese monarchy and theocracy are mixed, and there is a tendency to be unsolvable." The rulers of the Empire commanded the people in the name of "Heaven", "Punish heaven, ask for heavenly calculations, and take the throne to heaven." In the name of the false heavens, in order to commit violence and wanton truth. And the so-called Shinto religion, "the saint wants to call the heavens to rule the king, and the king turns to the false heaven to fool the people, and the benefits are temporarily harmful to all the worlds, which is not expected by the saints at the beginning." Not only this, where the population evolves at the first level, there is no use of theocratic regime, but it will soon be abolished, as for China, the monarchy and theocracy are mixed, and there is a tendency to be glued and unsolvable. For example, if the gods are worshipped, the little snake who sees the river stem thinks that the river god is worshipped only carefully; when he sees the eclipse of the sun and the moon, he does not push the reason for it and sings gold to rescue him. All kinds of rituals for thousands of years have not dared to be abolished. The example of scientific wisdom is ridiculous, and our country is doing the great court and writing the ceremony; and the next person is also convinced of the saying of the ghost god, he knows nothing, and if he wants to open a mine, he is afraid of breaking the feng shui, and if he wants to build a railway, he is afraid of hurting the earth's veins, one person advocates it, the people are harmonious, and the reason for the corruption of the political system is also confused. ”
In the Confucian tradition, the classical theory of the sages using Shinto to educate the people has evolved into a sacred symbol of authoritarian rule in the long historical years, "the monarch wants to consolidate his own power, and repeats the techniques of the hundred ends to reward the people's respect." "Superstition" as a talisman for absolutism has completely deviated from the moral goals set by the sages of the core era for the existence of Shinto. The "superstition" of theocratic rule not only constitutes the religious basis of authoritarian rule, but also penetrates into the daily life of the people in various forms, and evolves into many specific customs and ritual practices, "the so-called incense offering lamp, entering the sky lamp, worshiping the gods, worshiping the heavenly lord, everything, thinking that the heavens will bless me." This kind of mystic ritual behavior not only fails to bring any substantial or moral help to his daily life, but rather "helps others to do their wrongful deeds", "falls into the duty of the depraved", "depraved humane practice, and long-term false habits of nothingness". In this sense, the ancient ideal of Shinto establishment has instead become a political aid to despotism in the political practice of the long historical years, and its moral connotation has also been dissolved by the policy of despotism and ignorance. The important goal of opposing "superstition", that is, to eliminate the doctrine of providence in the minds of the people and to dismantle the sacred ruling basis of authoritarian politics, is precisely in this goal that the opposition to superstition is realistically linked to the modern ideal of building a democratic state.
"Superstition" is a kind of thinking training achieved by the traditional theocratic state for the people, and under the control of this habit of thinking, authoritarianism has acquired a sacred and unquestionable legitimacy. Therefore, to oppose superstition means to eliminate the ideological basis of authoritarianism, which is the original historical origin of the connection between "feudalism" and "superstition". In constructing their political ideals, the founders of modern China found a reasonable and fairly accurate entry point for their opposition to the old world. The fight against superstition not only provided a way for social mobilization for the realization of political ideals in the new era, but also fundamentally shook the foundations of traditionalism's rule. In this sense, the "anti-superstition" movement gave the enlightened and revolutionaries of modern China a powerful weapon of political mobilization. The former Soviet psycholinguistic Vygotsky once said that thought is not embodied in words, but is done in words. I think it should be more precise that this should be a two-way process: the new noun carries with it the information of new scholarship and thought in the process of being used, and it is in the process of the new noun that it creates and enriches itself. As a sacred talisman of authoritarian politics, opposition to "superstition" should not only be seen as a triumph of reason, but also as a source of legitimacy for the establishment of modern democratic politics. This is "superstition" as a new term, given a new meaning of the times.
Anti-superstitious moral reconstruction connotations
In addition to the above academic and political significance, the anti-superstitious expression of the era of origin also touches on the core content of this later discourse form--the improvement of customs and popular enlightenment. On December 31, 1904, the 11th issue of the "Oriental Magazine" reprinted the article "On the Superstitious Theocracy of the Frontier Subjects" in the "Lingdong Daily", and for the first time used the word "superstition" in the title of the article, which commented on the fact that the inspector of Anhui Province, Chengxun, asked the imperial court to give the local city god a title, and issued a lament of "superstition" of "not being happy in real learning, advocating falsehood, suffocating the wisdom of the people, and hindering the progress of civilization", and concluded that the main harm of superstition was that "poison overthrew the country". The article "Venerable Bodhisattva" of the Three Loves also discusses the criticism of the ritual behavior of the people such as burning incense and beating:
We Chinese, we like to burn incense to honor the bodhisattvas, the bodhisattvas do not bless, we Chinese, or everyone is unlucky, the country is weak, and we are humiliated by the Westerners. The Westerner did not believe in any bodhisattva, like the one who burned incense, beat incense, did the meeting, did the fasting, and did nothing, but he came to the country to be rich and powerful, and he was specially responsible for those of us who worshiped the bodhisattva, and as it seemed, the bodhisattva could not be disrespected.
The ritual practice of the people runs counter to the ideal of enlightenment, which is the core direction of the criticism of modern anti-superstitious theorists, and the enlightenment ideal is also in line with the salvation trend of building a modern nation-state. The article "On the Law of Eradicating Superstitions of Ghosts and Gods" mentioned above directly regards "the superstitions of the inferior society" as the root cause of the country's poverty and weakness, and therefore puts forward the propositions of "opening up the lower society," "cultivating future talents," and "popularizing the monastic schools," and regards popularizing education and eliminating superstition as a major task of enlightenment:
The reason why China is increasingly poor and weak is not the end, and the superstition of the lower society is actually a major influence. This matter originated in religion and became a society, and its origin is complex and far-reaching. It has been since ancient times, and it is especially true today. Try to visit the whole land of China, whether it is ten rooms of the country, a land of one, and the years will have the act of welcoming the gods and setting up a lot of money, and they will not hesitate to change after great chaos, and they will not change it in the interior, and the overseas ports but there are places where Chinese businessmen and overseas Chinese live, and they will also because of the wind of the homeland, which has been the same for thousands of years. Recently, Hu Junzichun, especially at the Pirathan Luobu Conference, made a speech on the altar, and first proposed to stop the discussion of welcoming the gods, and published the words of his speech, sending them to all places to observe the words they performed, saying that they wanted to remove the root nature of slavery and get rid of the habit of dependence first. Exploring the source of the poor, picking up the evils, and seeing the faith is far away. Although the deeds of one thing and the success of one custom will initially have the fruit of close harmony with society, and they will be believed in by the first life, and the fundamentals of all things must not be gone, so that they will continue to practice to the present, and if the world evolves and the degree of its people does not progress, it will be a great harm and a great prejudice, which is enough to hinder the path of evolution for the hearts of the people of politics and religion. This is also the phenomenon of Superstition of Ghosts and Gods in China.
"Superstition" is the culprit for the cultivation of slave roots, and the end of the argument is to turn to the focus on "political and religious hearts" and "the way of evolution". It can be seen that the anti-superstition to the people's living world and the spiritual world, its ultimate attribution always serves the theme of the era of salvation and survival. From the "obscenity" criticism of the traditional era to the opposition to "superstition" in the late Qing Dynasty, the process of pursuing this process from the path of intellectual history can clearly see the strong political color behind this discourse. If the criticism of "obscenity" remains more in the elitist tradition's moral norms for the world in which people live, then the opposition to "superstition" is more explicitly given a political meaning. The life and beliefs of the people are not only the last part of morality and customs, but also a serious question of the evolution of the nation, and the moral significance of opposing "superstition" here points to a grander proposition of the times. The radical modern reformers, convinced that they had the truth, their anti-superstitious movements, attitudes, and wording unabashedly pointed from the outset to the rationalist "end of history" rhetoric. The opposition to "superstition" has gained the connotation of re-establishing the identity of the new people in the grand context of the institutional construction of the modern nation-state system. Morality, customs, and values are inherited from past lives, but when they come into contact with new discourses of modernity such as "history" and "nation" and "nation", they link knowledge with the interests of building a modern nation-state, and are given new meanings and values.
Like the meaning of phrases such as "revolution" and "enlightenment" in the context of modernism, the anti-superstitious discourse symbolizes the political consciousness of modern China's demand to break with the past in order to realize the political consciousness of saving the world and trying to survive. In the original meaning of the term "superstition", "the decline of scholarly thought", "the weakness of national thought" and "the death of moral thought" were the main directions of chen. Like many other new terms rich in Enlightenment significance, the birth of the word "superstition" carried out these theories closely related to the rise of modern China, creating a new unity. As the British new cultural historian Peter Burke has pointed out: "All concepts are not neutral 'tools'." "They not only have obvious value tendencies, but also often have corresponding ideological and social powers. In the Chinese intellectual circles of the late Qing Dynasty and the early Ming Dynasty, the treatises on "opposing superstition" almost invariably pointed to the goal of improving customs and purifying folk customs in order to win the victory against extraterritorial colonialism. The core values of reform, revolution, enlightenment, and nationalism have given the anti-superstitious discourse system a very distinct color of the times. It can be argued that the meaning conveyed by "opposing superstition" represents a new set of belief systems in the historical years of modern Chinese creation, which integrates values and norms of different scopes and levels, and increasingly achieves its own legitimacy in the process of social development. Opposition to "superstition" has become a cut-and-drop modern attitude to define reality and give meaning to the world in which Chinese people live. The discourse of "anti-superstition" shows the history of China in the fierce turmoil of the late 19th and early 20th centuries.
What is more complicated is that the meaning expressed by "superstition" as a new term actually goes far beyond the above points and cores and presents a series of rather diverse hierarchical levels. For example, in addition to being regarded as a kind of folk belief related to scholarship, politics, and morality, "superstition" was also used as a general term that deviated from orthodox beliefs or habits of thought in the initial context of its creation, reflected in the part of speech, and there were also different uses of nouns and adjectives. Mr. Wang Guowei once said, "The language of the husband represents the thinking of the people, and the thought is coarse and narrow, and the coarse and narrow of the language is based on the coarseness and narrowness of the language, and the thinking of the people can be known,...... The speaker is also the representative of thought, so the input of new thought, that is, the meaning of the input of new speech. It is safe to say that "superstition" is a linguistic symbol with a powerful realistic effect, which carries new ideas and new value goals into the modern Chinese vocabulary. As a form of discourse with political goals, its meaning structure has not been achieved overnight, nor has it ever stabilized to the point of reflecting only a transparent reality. Rather, we are searching for the original history of its birth, tracing how it was constantly entangled with other goals and other powers, in order to reveal this complex history and its complete meaning. Further, clarifying the history of the entry of the term "superstition" into modern China, looking at the way it is used in different discourses, and the different meanings it is given, this multi-faceted appearance actually reflects to a certain extent the hierarchical nature of modern identity in Chinese society in the context of time. Chinese's identification with modernity and civilization does not show the determination of integration from the beginning, as the attitude does, but gradually becomes unified and clear in the process of practicing and shaping itself.
In addition to the universal connection with the context of the times, the origin of "superstitious" discourse in modern China also has its particularity, and the opposition to "superstition" and the "obscenity" criticism of the traditional era do not appear to be completely broken, on the contrary, in many cases, "superstition" essentially expresses the elitist position that is consistent with the "obscenity" discourse. In this vein, the people's living world and its spiritual world are always under the situation of being reprimanded and transformed by the upper culture. The moralistic orientation of the term "superstition" largely reflects the relevance of this new term to the traditional era. It can be said that the exposition and transformation of folk beliefs is not entirely the product of modern nationalism, before the prevalence of the knowledge genealogy of modernity, the Confucian countries as the dominant culture have already begun to the theory and transformation of the world of people's faith, but this transformation does not point to the history of "traditional-modern" one-way evolution under the guidance of nationalist discourse, and its fundamental purpose is still the systematic transformation of the elite tradition to the thinking and behavior of the lower people. Here, the way history exists is manifested as a rather complex and pluralistic form, where "rupture" is realized in "continuity", while the tradition of "continuity" is given a new connotation because of the "rupture" of history. The anti-superstition movement's moral critique of folk beliefs and their ritualistic behavior demonstrates a tense and intrinsic correlation between modern Chinese language and the traditional Chinese world.
In modern China, the emergence of a new term does not only mean the renewal of a vocabulary or expression, but also the ideological connotation carried by the new term is even enough to string together a history of ideas for the rise of modern China. From "obscenity" to "foolishness", from "common belief" to "superstition", the trajectory of this series of name changes reflects the changes in the way of thinking and basic values of Chinese. Thus, under the surface of the change of words, it reflects a history of ideological changes, or this can be called the history of "discourse". As a new symbolic "conceptual tool", the word "superstition" provides a new "ideological resource" for intellectuals to discuss and criticize the way of life of the masses. As the Taiwanese scholar Mr. Wang Fansen pointed out, new vocabulary, new conceptual tools, when they gradually become part of people's daily language, so that people in the understanding and interpretation of their empirical world, changed the old category of thinking, which in many ways caused deep changes, "almost re-regulated the Chinese's views on society and politics, but also widely affected academic research." In this sense, the history of language is closely related to culture, society, everyday life, as well as the history of ideology and power change. "Superstition" as a form of discourse became popular in China at the turn of the century, relying in large part on the background of rapid political and social change. In the genealogy of knowledge that makes up the discourse system of modernity, the discourse against "superstition" provides a rather interesting detailed footnote to the interpretation of "modernity". "Discourse" conveys a genealogy of knowledge and at the same time a dynamic process of practice that is closely related to power. In the process of conceptual transformation from ancient Chinese "obscenity" discourse to modern "superstitious" criticism, what kind of ideological force or new ideology is behind the realization of this transformation? In the process of re-examining and tracing this discursive change, the truths of history that have been obscured by time and "familiarity" (or not called obscured truths, but the process of change in time and space and the different faces they have taken), especially the process of how the teleology, which represents the "ultimate of history", established its legitimacy at the beginning of the creation of the Chinese nation-state, will become clear. The exploration of such a etymology of the word "superstition" is a way to deal with the history of ideas, and clarifying the information carried by such thought, the conditions it produces, its formation, its dissemination and even becoming an unthinking habit of thought, etc., may provide a more subtle viewing position for the creation and transformation of modern China.