From Trustworthiness to Secular Beliefs: Changing Concepts of Xin 信 From Traditional to Modern Chinese

Description

What does the Chinese term xin 信 mean? How does it relate to the concept of faith in a Western sense? How far does it still denote "being trustworthy" in its ancient Confucian sense? When did major shifts occur in its long history of semantics that allowed later Christian missionaries to use the term regularly as a translation for the concept of believing in gods or God? This volume offers a broad picture of the semantic history of this Chinese term, throwing light on its semantic multi-layeredness shaped by changing discursive contexts, interactions between various ideological milieus, and transcultural encounters. Contents Acknowledgements Contributors Introductory Part Introductory Part: Western, Chinese, and Global Genealogies of Faith and xin 信 1 Introduction 2 An Overview: a Short Genealogy of Faith in the Western History of Philosophy and Theology and a Chinese Perspective Part 1 Setting the Stage: Traditional Uses in Confucian, Buddhist, and Daoist Contexts 3 A Trustworthy Companion: xin 信 as Component Term in Early Chinese Texts 4 A Linguistic Analysis of the Different Functions of xin 信 and Their Historical Development from Late Archaic to Middle Chinese 5 An Inquiry into Conceptions of xin 信 in Early Medieval Daoism 6 The Concept of Faith in Chinese Buddhist Scriptures 7 Japanese Buddhist Concepts of Faith (shin 信): the Postmodern Narrative of the Conceptual Hegemony of Western Modernity Reconsidered 8 Convinced by Amazement—Creating Buddhist xin 信 (Belief/Trust) in the Biographies of Thaumaturge Monks (T. 2064) 9 Xin 信 in Morality Books: an Overview Part 2 Early Channels of Transfer: Monotheistic Uses of the Term xin 信 from the Seventh to the Seventeenth Century 10 From Trust in the Buddha to the Belief in the One God—xin 信 as a Buddhist, Manichaean and Christian Concept in Early Medieval China 11 Xin 信 in the Early Seventeenth-Century Chinese Christian Community 12 Theology, Ethics and Textual Sensitivity: the Multiple Notions of xin 信 in Chinese-Islamic Texts Part 3 From the Christian Milieu to the Entry into the General Lexicon of Modern Chinese: Late-Qing to Republican Uses and the Role of Japan 13 Negotiating between Chinese Religious Beliefs and Christian Faith: Timothy Richard’s (1845–1919) Understanding of “Faith”/xin 信 and Approach to Comparative Religion 14 From Missionary Doctrine to Chinese Theology: Developing xin 信 in the Protestant Church and the Creeds of Zhao Zichen 15 Shin 信 as a Marker of Identity in Modern Japanese Buddhism 16 The (New) Buddhist Semantics of xin 信 in the First Half of the Twentieth Century: Arguments from China and Taiwan 17 Religious Concepts and Evolutionary Theory in the Early Thought of Liang Qichao: from “Religion” via “Faith” to the “View of Death and Life” 18 From Universal Faith to Religious Experience: Usages of xin 信 in Early Chinese Religious Studies (zongjiaoxue 宗教學) 19 “Our Believing in the Three People’s Principles Requires a Religious Spirit”: xin(yang) 信仰 and the Political Religion of the Guomindang, 1925–1949 20 Belief in the Dao, or Knowledge of the Truth? Contested Interpretations of xin 信/xinyang 信仰 in Yiguandao Discourses Part 4 Contemporary Usages in Special and Everyday Language Discourses in Mainland China and Taiwan 21 Xin 信 in the Discourse on Conversion among Tzuchians in Shanghai 22 The Role of “Confidence” in the Gender Discourse of Buddhist Nuns* in Contemporary Mainland China: Learning xinxin 信心 to Become a Masculine Hero 23 Giving Credit Where It’s Due: Thanksgiving as Performance of Belief in Chinese Popular Religion 24 What China Is Missing—Faith in Political Discourse 25 Epilogue: Reflections and Theses on the Semantic History of xin 信 and Faith Index