From Trustworthiness to Secular Beliefs

Philip Clart, Ph.D. (1997), University of British Columbia, is Professor of Chinese Culture and History at Leipzig University, Germany, and editor of the Journal of Chinese Religions.Christian Meyer, Dr. phil. (2003), Universität Erlangen-Nürnberg, is Professor of Chinese Culture and History with a focus on religions at Freie Universität Berlin, Germany. He has published on modern debates on religion and the history of religious studies in China.

• AcknowledgementsContributorsIntroductory Part: Western, Chinese, and Global Genealogies of Faith and xin1 IntroductionChristian Meyer and Philip Clart2 An Overview: a Short Genealogy of Faith in the Western History of Philosophy and Theology and a Chinese PerspectiveJiang MankePart 1: Setting the Stage: Traditional Uses in Confucian, Buddhist, and Daoist Contexts3 A Trustworthy Companion: xin 信 as Component Term in Early Chinese TextsJoachim Gentz4 A Linguistic Analysis of the Different Functions of xin and Their Historical Development from Late Archaic to Middle ChineseBarbara Meisterernst5 An Inquiry into Conceptions of xin 信 in Early Medieval DaoismFriederike Assandri6 The Concept of Faith in Chinese Buddhist ScripturesTam Wai Lun7 Japanese Buddhist Concepts of Faith (shin 信): the Postmodern Narrative of the Conceptual Hegemony of Western Modernity ReconsideredChristoph Kleine8 Convinced by Amazement—Creating Buddhist xin 信 (Belief/Trust) in the Biographies of Thaumaturge Monks (T. 2064)Esther-Maria Guggenmos9 Xin in Morality Books: An OverviewVincent GoossaertPart 2: Early Channels of Transfer: Monotheistic Uses of the Term xin from the Seventh to the Seventeenth Century10 From Trust in the Buddha to the Belief in the One God—xin as a Buddhist, Manichaean and Christian Concept in Early Medieval ChinaMax Deeg11 Xin 信 in the Early Seventeenth-Century Chinese Christian CommunityNicolas Standaert12 Theology, Ethics and Textual Sensitivity: the Multiple Notions of xin 信 in Chinese-Islamic TextsDror WeilPart 3: From the Christian Milieu to the Entry into the General Lexicon of Modern Chinese: Late-Qing to Republican Uses and the Role of Japan13 Negotiating between Chinese Religious Beliefs and Christian Faith: Timothy Richard’s (1845–1919) Understanding of “Faith”/xin 信 and Approach to Comparative ReligionThomas Jansen14 From Missionary Doctrine to Chinese Theology: Developing xin 信 in the Protestant Church and the Creeds of Zhao ZichenChloë Starr15 Shin 信 as a Marker of Identity in Modern Japanese BuddhismHans Martin Krämer16 The (New) Buddhist Semantics of xin 信 in the First Half of the Twentieth Century: Arguments from China and TaiwanStefania Travagnin17 Religious Concepts and Evolutionary Theory in the Early Thought of Liang Qichao: from “Religion” via “Faith” to the “View of Death and Life”Thomas Fröhlich18 From Universal Faith to Religious Experience: Usages of xin in Early Chinese Religious Studies (zongjiaoxue)Christian Meyer19 “Our Believing in the Three People’s Principles Requires a Religious Spirit”: xin (yang) and the Political Religion of the Guomindang, 1925–1949Thoralf Klein20 Belief in the Dao, or Knowledge of the Truth? Contested Interpretations of “Xin/Xinyang” in Yiguandao DiscoursesNikolas BroyPart 4: Contemporary Usages in Special and Everyday Language Discourses in Mainland China and Taiwan21 Xin in the Discourse on Conversion among Tzuchians in ShanghaiHuang Weishan22 The Role of “Confidence” in the Gender Discourse of Buddhist Nuns* in Contemporary Mainland China: Learning xinxin 信心 to Become a Masculine HeroJohanna Lüdde23 Giving Credit Where Its Due: Thanksgiving as Performance of Belief in Chinese Popular ReligionAdam Yuet Chau24 What China Is Missing—Faith in Political DiscourseGerda Wielander25 Epilogue: Reflections and Theses on the Semantic History of xin and FaithChristian Meyer