Zhang Xinying: Guided by Xi Jinping’s Thinking on Culture, Strengthening Cultural Confidence in the Practice of Sinicizing Religion
[Editor's Note] On June 21, 2023, a symposium on General Secretary Xi Jinping’s important expositions on religious work was held in Beijing. Wang Huning, Member of the Standing Committee of the Political Bureau of the CPC Central Committee and Chairman of the National Committee of the Chinese People's Political Consultative Conference (CPPCC), attended and delivered a speech. He stated that General Secretary Xi Jinping’s important expositions on religious work profoundly answer major theoretical and practical questions such as how to understand religion, how to handle religious issues, and how to carry out the Party's religious work in the New Era. These expositions constitute the essential ideological guidance and operational framework that must be mastered for the Party's religious work in the New Era. The study and implementation of General Secretary Xi Jinping’s important expositions on religious work must be understood and grasped within the entire scientific system of Xi Jinping Thought on Socialism with Chinese Characteristics for a New Era, consciously adhering to the "Six Must-Persists." From October 7 to 8, the National Conference on Public Communications and Cultural Work was held in Beijing. The most significant achievement of the meeting was the inaugural proposal of Xi Jinping Thought on Culture. To study and implement the spirit of General Secretary Xi Jinping’s important expositions on religious work and Xi Jinping Thought on Culture, the editorial department of this journal invited three experts to provide written contributions to exchange their learning experiences.
I
The National Conference on Public Communications and Cultural Work held in October 2023 explicitly proposed "Xi Jinping Thought on Culture." Xi Jinping Thought on Culture constitutes the "cultural chapter" of Xi Jinping Thought on Socialism with Chinese Characteristics for a New Era and represents the latest achievement of the cultural theory of twenty-first-century Sinicized Marxism.
General Secretary Xi Jinping’s speech at the Symposium on Cultural Inheritance and Development on June 2, 2023, provided a highly pioneering and leading incisive exposition on the "Two Combinations"—namely, combining the basic tenets of Marxism with China’s specific realities and with the fine traditional Chinese culture—and particularly on the status and role of the "Second Combination" in undertaking and fulfilling the new cultural mission of the New Era. This fully reflects the profound reflection and precise grasp within Xi Jinping Thought on Culture regarding the creative transformation and innovative development of fine traditional Chinese culture in the New Era, serving as a landmark milestone that centrally represents the strategic, systemic, and forward-looking theoretical character of Xi Jinping Thought on Culture. Consequently, the idea of the "Second Combination" has become a core component of the treasury of Xi Jinping Thought on Culture, or rather, it provided the finishing touch [1] for the grand emergence of "Xi Jinping Thought on Culture."
The theory of the "Second Combination" also possesses significant guiding significance for work in the religious field in our country. This is fully demonstrated in the proposal and practice of the concept of "religious Sinicization" since the 18th CPC National Congress. Within this, the extent to which fine traditional Chinese culture—having undergone creative transformation and innovative development—exerts its function serves as an irreplaceable metric for the success or failure of religious Sinicization in our country. In other words, the continuous advancement of religious Sinicization in China must rely on the "Second Combination" to blaze a trail; the ultimate realization of religious Sinicization in China will necessarily be a historical achievement of the "Second Combination." Therefore, viewed from the height of the "Second Combination" as "another liberation of the mind" [2] in the history of contemporary Chinese Marxist political and spiritual-cultural thought, and from the status of the "Second Combination" and fine traditional Chinese culture within the theoretical framework and total substance of "religious Sinicization" in the New Era, the innovative launch of the "religious Sinicization" concept is not only a breakthrough development in the Party’s theory of religious work in the New Era but also—by refining and upgrading the new pattern of work in the religious field—vividly manifests the broad coverage and profound constructive power of Xi Jinping Thought on Culture over various undertakings of the Party and the state. That is to say, Xi Jinping Thought on Culture is not only the program for public communications and cultural work in the New Era but also serves as the guide for religious work in the New Era. The process of "religious Sinicization" under the correct guidance of the Communist Party of China and the ideological orientation of the "Second Combination" is the process by which religions in our country follow the theoretical, prescriptive, and open logic of Xi Jinping Thought on Culture, beginning to exert effort in sharing "the new cultural mission of continuing to promote cultural prosperity, building a leading country in culture, and building the modern civilization of the Chinese nation at a new historical starting point." As such, the "Second Combination" endows today’s "religious Sinicization" with a deep and stable value of cultural subjectivity. The contemporary proposition of "religious Sinicization" has found, within Xi Jinping Thought on Culture, a solution connecting to the modern civilization of the Chinese nation—that is, a new form of human civilization.
II
The CPC Central Committee with Comrade Xi Jinping at its core has established a direction of effort for deeply advancing religious Sinicization in our country: "to guide and support the religions of our country to take the core socialist values as a guide, and to enhance the recognition of the great motherland, the Chinese nation, Chinese culture, the Communist Party of China, and socialism with Chinese characteristics among religious figures and religious believers." The author believes that from the dimension of the behavioral attributes of social beings in reality, these "Five Recognitions" are political institutional recognitions, but even more so, they are cultural recognitions. General Secretary Xi Jinping pointed out: "Cultural recognition is the deepest level of recognition." If we say that "recognition of Chinese culture" among the "Five Recognitions" most directly belongs to the deepest level of cultural recognition, then under the historical conditions of contemporary China, recognition of Chinese culture inherently includes recognition of the great motherland, the Chinese nation, the Communist Party of China, and socialism with Chinese characteristics. These recognitions do not exist in a fixed hierarchical progression with the recognition of Chinese culture; rather, they are a synchronized chemical reaction [3] of mutual stimulation, promotion, and integration. The result of this reaction will be unified in the shaping of the grand material and spiritual forms of the modern civilization of the Chinese nation. This is precisely the fundamental starting point and ultimate goal of General Secretary Xi Jinping’s emphasis that cultural recognition is the deepest level of recognition. To this end, General Secretary Xi Jinping has made a series of visionary, meticulous, and comprehensive arrangements and deployments for exerting the pivotal role of fine traditional Chinese culture in the process of religious Sinicization, opening up specific paths and methods for the "Second Combination" to guide the practice of religious Sinicization. Among these, the most critical path is to saturate the various religions of our country with fine traditional Chinese culture, and the primary method is subtle influence and categorized advancement.
The well-known "Five Great Religions" all have long histories in our country. Except for Taoism, the other "Four Great Religions" are foreign religions, yet they have all undergone a long history of "localization" and "contextualization." Under the political and cultural conditions of China's feudal society, they formed what could be termed a "pre-modern state of religious Sinicization" relative to the current "religious Sinicization." However, it must be admitted that the degree of "Sinicization" of these foreign religions still varies greatly. Phenomena of "reverse Sinicization" and "de-Sinicization" have not been uncommon in their history of dissemination in China; they remain as undercurrents in today’s international and domestic environment, moreover carrying a strong political color. By contrast, represented by the overall solidification of Han Buddhism, the historical achievements of the "Sinicization" of Buddhism are the most significant. Using the resources of epistemological theory and methodology that accord with the psychological state of belief and way of thinking of the Huaxia [4] people, Buddhism enriched and expanded the structure and scale of traditional Chinese philosophical thought, to the point that it finally transformed itself into a component of traditional Chinese culture and a member of traditional Chinese religion. Therefore, for Buddhism in our country—especially Han Buddhism—the current task of "Sinicization" is better described as a requirement for "re-Sinicization" in the face of the new situation and pattern in the religious field. If we simultaneously believe that the indigenous Taoism is the traditional religion with the highest maturity of "Sinicization" in ancient Chinese society, and that it currently faces the requirement of "re-Sinicization" just like Buddhism, then it means that when both must further extract the essence of fine traditional Chinese culture to saturate themselves, they must draw more experience and inspiration from their successful historical establishment of a primary-subsidiary relationship with the state political system and orthodox ideology. They must creatively apply this to borrowing core socialist values and advanced socialist culture to enrich their own belief systems with more contemporary connotations. For Tibetan Buddhism and Theravada Buddhism, adhering to the direction of Sinicization is more focused on continuously approaching and aligning with the mainstream Chinese cultural tradition, strengthening the "interpretation of religious doctrines and rules in a way that meets the requirements of contemporary China’s development and progress and conforms to fine traditional Chinese culture," strengthening the promotion and use of the standard national spoken and written language, enhancing the understanding of and resonance with the idea of "Humanistic Buddhism," and promoting the improvement of the quality and level of faith among religious circles and believers to vibrate in synchronization [5] with the forging of a sense of community for the Chinese nation, complementing one another while firmly safeguarding national unity, national security, ethnic solidarity and progress, and the dignity of the Constitution and laws.
Catholicism, Protestantism, and Islam in our country have also reached a certain depth in accepting the influence of traditional Chinese ideological culture historically. However, measured by the characteristics of Chinese culture, it cannot yet be said that they have transformed from "religions in China" into "Chinese religions" in the full sense. Restricted by certain artificial and habitual constraints of religious dogmas, and compounded by the use of Christianity by Western powers to promote political and cultural hegemony since modern times—reaching down to the current strategies of "ideological penetration" and "peaceful evolution" [6]—as well as the "Arabization," "Saudization," and even extremist tendencies emerging in the field of Islam in China following the expansion of contemporary global Islamic fundamentalism, these foreign religions on Chinese soil are inevitably facing unavoidable involutional self-challenges today as the Chinese nation marches toward Chinese-path modernization. To meet such vital challenges, patriotic forces within China’s Protestant, Catholic, and Islamic circles need a sense of urgency for autonomous reform, and the determination and action to persist in reform. Determination comes from a sense of responsibility toward the country and nation and an emotional attachment to the healthy transmission of their own religion; action involves consciously plunging into the "great embrace of Chinese culture," actively seeking and continuously accepting the saturation of fine traditional Chinese culture—including traditional values, virtues, and wisdom—learning and increasing the ability to live in harmony and resonate closely with the mainstream politics and dominant ideology of Chinese society, and achieving a kind of acculturation and co-construction with existing traditional Chinese religions in terms of religious concepts and forms, finally evolving into thoroughly Sinicized religions in terms of cultural characteristics, modes of expression, and social functions.
In view of this, if one observes the traditional Chinese polytheistic beliefs that carry the people’s aspirations for secular fulfillment through the lens of "comparative religion," it is not difficult to find that the so-called "utilitarian" polytheistic worship model—with its secularized origins and functions—is vastly different from the illusory and alienated "theo-centrism" and exclusionary spiritual reliance of Western monotheism. This is actually the manifestation of the "humanistic" and "humanist" characteristics of fine traditional Chinese culture within traditional Chinese beliefs. When connecting "religious Sinicization" with the long-term design of consolidating cultural subjectivity, a comprehensive re-evaluation of the existential value of the polytheistic tradition as an important component of traditional Chinese culture in the process of the modern civilization of the Chinese nation—including its unique significance in neutralizing the cultural tension of monotheism—should help to enhance our cultural confidence from the perspective of traditional Chinese religious culture while providing strong theoretical support for religious Sinicization.
III
A history of religion in China is, to a large extent, a history of foreign religions insisting on "fundamentalism" and being forced to gradually "Sinicize" or withdraw from the social stage under the influence and intervention of traditional Chinese political culture and ideology. People of insight in various religions should profoundly review and learn from the process and lessons of the contradictory struggles between "fundamentalism" or "heterogeneous cultural conservatism" and "Sinicization" in history. This includes looking at the gap between the internal religious status of certain religious figures and their historical positioning in "religious Sinicization" by seeking truth from facts. They should not remain immersed in self-congratulatory "historical memory," being overly biased toward highlighting the "Sinicization" achievements of a certain religion in ancient feudal society to the point of obscuring the understanding of its limitations and regressions. They should not avoid the distinction between "non-Sinicization" or "reverse Sinicization" and the true "direction of Sinicization" that also existed in their history, or even describe historical phenomena that did not originally belong to "Sinicization" as a landscape of "Sinicization." Instead, this shifts and dilutes the discussion and cognition of focal issues such as what kind of "Sinicization" should be realized under the conditions of socialism with Chinese characteristics in the New Era and how to realize such "Sinicization."
Sinicization of religion in the New Era of socialism with Chinese characteristics is a specific "Sinicization" aimed at building a great modern socialist country and achieving the great rejuvenation of the Chinese nation. It possesses a political orientation, value guidance, and cultural standards that are incomparable to any previous era, while also facing unprecedentedly complex socio-political dynamics and ideological-cultural environments both domestically and internationally. On this path, even fine traditional Chinese culture cannot automatically develop into a cultural form for Chinese-path modernization if it is not integrated with the basic tenets of Marxism and twenty-first-century Sinicized Marxism, and if it does not undergo creative transformation and innovative development [7]. All the more so for the various existing religions, including traditional Chinese religions: if they cannot further immerse themselves in fine traditional Chinese culture and gain the fresh vitality that comes from integrating into the "Second Combination" [8], they will be unable to complete the mission of "Sinicization" or "re-Sinicization" entrusted to them by the New Era. Therefore, the "Sinicization of religion" to be carried out in today's great era is likewise part of the "great struggle with many new historical features" [9]; it is a magnificent undertaking that both connects with our ancestors and is unprecedented in history. The various religions on Chinese soil—including indigenous Chinese religions and foreign religions that have previously written historical chapters of "indigenization" and "contextualization"—all need to set comprehensive innovative goals for "Sinicization." They must gradually promote endogenous transformations that meet the requirements of Chinese-path modernization and exert a direct influence on the broad masses of religious believers, making "Sinicization of religion" increasingly a conscious action of the believing masses.
As we welcome the upsurge of Sinicizing religion in the New Era, it is also necessary to reach a sober realization: just as "freedom of religious belief" is not intended to encourage people to blindly believe in religion, adhering to the direction of the Sinicization of religion is not intended to attract more Chinese people to pursue religious faith. The subjects who practice Sinicization and the subjects who receive it are basically the same—primarily the existing members of the various religions in our country. We must prevent individuals from seizing the slogan of "Sinicizing religion" to use the name of traditional Chinese culture to Expand proselytization channels and the scale of missionary work in society in a disguised manner. We must also prevent attempts to implement a new round of joint operations where "religion provides the stage for economy to perform" or "culture provides the stage for religion to perform" [10]. Furthermore, some foreign religions are practiced by the majority of the population of certain ethnic minorities in our country and have exhibited certain ethnic characteristics throughout history; however, this does not mean they have already achieved "Sinicization" naturally. We must prevent the emergence of tendencies that regard the forms of religious belief among some ethnic minorities as "historical paradigms of religious Sinicization" without modification, which would hinder their progress in merging their spiritual home into the mainstream of fine traditional Chinese culture and contemporary fine Chinese culture. This is also a crucial link in forging a sense of community for the Chinese nation [11].
Finally, we should keep in mind that adhering to the direction of the Sinicization of religion is a gradual process; it is more a matter of doing than of talking. It should be promoted according to local conditions, timing, and specific circumstances (yīndì-zhìyí) [12], rather than by shouting slogans everywhere or turning it into "vanity projects" [13]. As the "third force" in religious work [14], the academic community should constantly remind itself to strictly avoid a flighty style of study, extensively promote field investigations, gather innovative thinking, and conduct coordinated key research on the historical process, typical experiences, theoretical basis, goals, tasks, and implementation paths of the Sinicization of religion in our country. Under the guidance of Xi Jinping Thought on Culture and the Party’s theory on religious work in the New Era, we must continuously provide solid intellectual support for the Sinicization of religion as it advances against difficulties.