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418 China Review International: Vol. 2, No. 2, Fall 1995© 1995 by University ofHawai'i Press farm while in retirement in New Jersey. Since he is in his nineties and still in good health, he indulges himself a little by talking about the secrets of his long life. This is a credible memoir. Chen was at the center ofmany turbulent events. Yet despite the bitter experiences he suffered at times, he does not write with bitterness about them. While he writes with candor and clarity, he is restrained and could have said more about the inner politics of the GMD. Students ofmodern China will find his memoir interesting reading. The book will be particularly useful to graduate students because ofthe introduction and the extensive notes based on exhaustive research, drawing on primary and secondary sources, by the editors , who have also provided a select bibliography and a substantial glossary. Edmund S. K. Fung University ofWestern Sydney, Nepean Julia Ching. Chinese Religions. Maryknoll, New York: Orbis Books, 1993. XV, 275 pp. Paperback $18.95. This is a comprehensive history of Chinese religions that covers everything from prehistory and antiquity to foreign religions and prospects for the present and future . At every major point it compares the Chinese tradition with the Hebrew and Christian, and discusses as well Chinese influence on the religions of Korea and Japan. Its terms are carefully defined, and it includes a good bibliography. It is very much a book written by a fine research scholar who is also an experienced teacher. Professor Ching is best known for her work on the history of Chinese philosophy and on comparisons of Chinese and Christian thought, and both of these topics are emphasized in the present book. Indeed, the strongest chapters are those that deal with the religious dimensions of Chinese philosophy (chapters 3, 4, 5, and 9) and with Zoroastrianism, Manichaeism, Judaism, Islam (chapter 10), and Christianity (chapter 11) in China. These chapters in particular are worth review by China specialists who may not be aware ofrecent research on these topics . Professor Ching's training in the Christian tradition is particularly helpful in her discussions ofwhether Confucius was a "prophet" (pp. 65-67) and ofparallels between Mencius' positive view ofhuman nature and the views of Greek Christian theologians such as Gregory ofNyssa (p. 77). Professor Ching concludes that the insistence within Confucianism on "the priority ofthe way of Heaven" Reviews 419 and on "self-transcendence" indicates that this tradition remains "religious at its core" (p. 84). Another strong point ofthis book is the discussion of the role ofwomen and female deities in antiquity (pp. 46-48), Daoism (pp. 95-96), Buddhism (pp. 147148 ), popular religion (pp. 219), and in connection with other topics as well. Nonetheless, as is inevitable in a book with such a wide scope, there are a few problems as well. The otherwise admirable discussion ofChinese philosophy is marred at one point by the use of the outdated term "Neo-Taoism" (pp. 96-101) to refer to such third- and fourth-century a.d. philosophers as Wang Bi and Guo Xiang. Since the new Daoist religion, the teaching of "the newly appeared Lord Lao," was developing at that same time, it is confusing to use "Neo-Taoism" to refer to contemporary philosophy. In any case, the philosophers ofthis period wrote commentaries on the I-jingand Lun-yu as well as the Lao-zi and Zhuang-zi, so it is difficult and perhaps not necessary to try to encompass their thought in a single term. The larger problem here is the extent to which Chinese Religions is a review of the history of Chinese philosophy, including Neo-Confucianism, a story often told elsewhere, though usually without the same focus on religious dimensions. Despite its valiant attempt to discuss a wide variety of topics, the discussion in this book remains weighted toward intellectual history. Thus, for example, there is no discussion reflecting the recent research ofAnna Seidel and of Donald Harper on exorcism and views ofthe afterlife in the Warring States and Han periods , research important for our understanding ofboth early common religious traditions and antecedents ofDaoist religion.1 Wang Chong's valuable testimony about the state ofreligious...

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