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Book Cover
E-book
Author Walsh, Michael J. (Michael John), 1968- author.

Title Stating the sacred : religion, China, and the formation of the nation-state / Michael J. Walsh
Published New York : Columbia University Press, [2020]
©2020

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Description 1 online resource (xxvii, 237 pages)
Contents Territory -- Constitution -- Religion -- Reincarnation -- Contact -- Nativity
Summary "The nation-state is for the most part the product of a European mentalité. What happens when it is exported, along with colonialism, to other parts of the world? What happens in China when it encounters--either through force or by willing appropriation--European categories of nation and state, along with their attendant formulations concerning science, rationality, politics, and economics, and their accompanying categories such as religion, the secular, the sacred, human rights, and freedom? How does an imperium become a nation? The central tenet of this book is that nation-states are the results of mythos and sanctified violence. Using government texts including China's constitution (which describes its sovereign domain as "sacred territory") and focusing on citizenship, religion, and territory, Walsh argues that the state sacralizes the nation and that it is this notion of the sacred, the inviolate, that frames and sustains nation-state building. It is used to justify territorial integrity and state sovereignty; with its deep religious underpinnings it shapes citizens of the state and makes them members of the nation. Sacrality, therefore, is a constitutive part of modern China, manifested in its constitution and how it engages the world"-- Provided by publisher
Bibliography Includes bibliographical references and index
Notes Print version record
Subject Civil religion -- China
Religion and state -- China
Citizenship -- China
National characteristics, Chinese.
Nation-state.
Chinese.
nations.
HISTORY -- Asia -- China.
Chinese
Religion and state
Citizenship
Civil religion
Nation-state
National characteristics, Chinese
China
Form Electronic book
LC no. 2019023905
ISBN 9780231550390
0231550391