Political Religion: The Case of the Cultural Revolution in China

Abstract

This article focuses on Chinese ritual activities during the Cultural Revolution, when all the traditional religions were abolished by the Chinese Communist Party. It shows that China has never been an atheist country and explores the similarities of Chinese communist rituals to Western religious rituals; it spells out the differences between Chinese and Western civil religion. The analysis is based primarily on the personal experiences and observations of the author during that period. Throughout Chinese history, the legitimacy of the regime was built upon the charismatic authority of the emperor, an authority strengthened by hereditary successorship (Weber, 1964). This style of leadership did not change when the Chinese Communist party came to power. Because of the agrarian nature of the Chinese economy and the lack of differentiation, the new regime still relied on the charisma of the national leader. After the 1949 revolution, the exercise of charismatic authority reached a peak during the Cultural Revolution in the People's Republic of China (1966-1976), characterized by the near deification of Chairman Mao Ze-dong. Although China delcared itself an atheist country, this deification, combined with Mao's interpretation of Marxism, created a form of political religion that affected millions of people and profoundly transformed Chinese society (see Murvar, 1985).