Quanzhen Daoism in Modern Chinese Society and Culture: An International Symposium

A conference discussing the influence of Quanzhen Daoism on modern Chinese society and culture.

As a very influential and distinct Chinese religious institution in both late imperial and modern China, Quanzhen Daoism has long attracted scholarly and public interest. However, the scholarship on the subject has dealt primarily with the early formative period of Quanzhen Daoism in the twelfth and thirteenth centuries, and concerned mainly with its doctrinal teachings, self-cultivation techniques, and other internal issues of the religious sect.

Recently, scholars of modern China and Daoism have begun to focus on the Quanzhen Daoism’s close ties with and influences on modern Chinese society and culture for the past several centuries. Adopting new interpretative frameworks and strategies of social and cultural history, anthropology, and sociology, and using fresh data culled from archives, local and temple gazetteers, newly discovered epigraphic materials, literary writings, art works, and contemporary fieldwork, scholars in the field of Daoist studies and modern China have in the last decade or so produced a rich body of new research and writings focused on both the tradition and transformation of Quanzhen Daoism in modern Chinese society and culture.

It is our shared belief that these recent scholarly works are not only representative of the new directions and approaches to the studies of Quanzhen Daoism, but they are also closely engaged with the most debated issues of religious studies, social history, and anthropological studies of modern China. For that reason, we are convinced that a small symposium involving the major scholars from the field will be best venue to showcase and consolidate the recent innovative research and writings, and further contribute to the field of modern Daoism and modern Chinese studies at large through close and intensive intellectual exchange and discussions among the leading scholars in the field.