民初思想界关于孔教是否宗教的争论

Intellectuals’ Debates on Whether Confucianism is a Religion in the Early Period of the Republic of China

自清末起,儒学面临着严重危机。民国建立后,儒学丧失其官方哲学地位,失去政治权力的保护,同时,因为缺乏系统的宗教神学以及制度化的宗教组织与仪式,儒学并未成为一般社会大众的宗教信仰,缺乏与西方宗教的竞争力。为存续儒学,以康有为、陈焕章等为代表的一批尊孔人士乃以基督教为模板,欲将儒学改造为制度化的宗教,并要求定孔教为国教。由此引发了孔教是否宗教的争论。争论发生于国教派与非国教派之间,论争双方都以基督教为模板定义宗教,并以此定义裁定孔教是否宗教。不过,孔教是否宗教的问题,并非尊孔与反尊孔的分界线,不少主张尊孔的人士也认为,以孔教为宗教,有违孔教的基本性质。

Starting from late years of the Qing Dynasty,Confucianism faced with a devastating crisis.When the Republic of China was founded,Confucianism was deprived of its former status as the official philosophy and it also lost political protection.In the meantime,thanks to its lack of systematic religious theology,institutionalized religious organizations and rituals,Confucianism failed to become the dominating religious belief of the general public.For the same reason,it’s hard for Confucianism to compete with Western religions.In order to protect and ensure the survival of Confucianism,a group of Confucianists,led by Kang Youwei and Chen Huanzhang who drew inspirations from Christianity,pushed for the transformation of Confucianism into an institutionalized religion.They also petitioned to the congress to recognize Confucianism as China’s state religion,which resulted in a series of fierce debates among intellectuals about whether Confucianism is a religion.The dispute took place between those supported the petition and those who were against it.Both parties defined religion according to the standards of Christianity,and hence cited this definition to determine whether Confucianism is a religion.However,the question of whether Confucianism is religious is not the dividing line between people who cherished Confucianism and those who opposed it.Even quite a lot people who advocated respecting Confucianism also believed that treating Confucianism as a religion violates basic natures of Confucianism.