Chapter Nine. From Grassroots Association To Civil Society Organization: A Case Study Of The Hebei Province Dragon Tablet Fair

Abstract

[ The participation of religion in social services is a critical issue within contemporary Chinese society, involving the interests of tens of millions of people and, thus, cannot be ignored. Unless this issue is resolved, any additional appeals for religion to play an active role in advancing social and economic development will be futile. This chapter addresses the question of how religion can contribute to the social services sector by examining the fundamental factors that impact religious participation in social services and the mechanisms through which such participation might be advanced. These issues are primarily the result of the negative position that religion has held in Chinese society during the past several decades, which for some time, has prevented religious organizations from even entering the social services sector, much less conducting charitable and public welfare ventures or playing an active role in the country's economic and social development. Keywords:contemporary Chinese society; religion; social services sector , The term san jiao (literally the of Confucianism, Buddhism, and Daoism) contains many notions similar to those denoted by the Western word religion. The body of traditional Chinese writings may be further subdivided into the following three general categories such as expositions and commentaries of the theories and doctrines of one of the three teachings, critiques of or attacks on other religions from the perspective of one of the three teachings and comprehensive analyses of the san jiao , utilizing the terminology of one of the three. Two major changes occurred within the Chinese field of religious studies as a result of the Western invasion of China. First, the small stream of Enlightenment thought that had arisen with such thinkers as Huang Zongxi and Gu Yanwu. Second, the small window into Western learning that was opened by such Jesuits as Matteo Ricci and J. A. Schall von Bell. Keywords:Buddhism; Chinese writings; Confucianism; Daoism; Religious Studies; san jiao ; Western invasion ]