Negotiating Religion in Modern China: State and Common People in Guangzhou, 1900–1937

2. Religion and State-making in the Early 1920s

Introduction The mutually constitutive relationship between popular religion and the political regime was undermined as a result of the collapse of the Qing dynasty in 1911 because the new regime no longer derived its political legitimacy from supernatural forces, such as the Mandate of Heaven. In Guangzhou, the political assaults on temples following the 1911 Revolution came to a temporary halt after the revolutionaries fled the city in 1913. This chapter examines the socio-political changes brought about by the return of Sun Yat-sen and his son Sun Ke (1891–1973) to Guangzhou in 1920. Among these changes was the extensive exploitation of temples and temple property to finance both public works in the city and the unification of the country. This chapter is divided into three parts. The first examines the re-emergence and expansion of the governing apparatus in Guangzhou under the Nationalist Party. The government’s unceasing extraction of resources for the dual tasks of city- and state-building finally resulted in the confiscation of temples and temple property after it had exhausted many other sources of revenue. The second part analyzes the Guangzhou people’s resistance to the government’s sale of their temples, culminating in a military confrontation between the government and the Merchant Corps (shangtuan 商團), one of the most influential social forces and the strongest unofficial military force in the city. The third and final part is an evaluation of the impact of the sale of temples on the religious landscape of Guangzhou. The process outlined above will show the drastic shrinking of religious space as a result of the state-building enterprise of the Nationalist Party in the 1920s. Yet, it is obvious that the extent and nature of the challenge posed by the state to religion varied in different periods. The chapter two Religion and State-making in the Early 1920s Negotiating Religion.indd 41 2010/11/30 4:41:00 PM 42 Negotiating Religion in Modern China blow that popular religion faced in Guangzhou in the early 1920s was basically financial in nature, and its ideological foundations were left largely free from political assault. As the primary concern of the political authority in Guangzhou at this stage was financial rather than ideological, the people were able to preserve their religious worship as long as they could purchase their temples back from the government. Moreover, with the disbanding of the Merchant Corps in late 1924, the Nationalist Party successfully eliminated one of the dominant social forces in Guangzhou and began to monopolize the means of coercion in the city. Conversely, as the losers in the military confrontation with the government, merchant organizations were no longer significant patrons for temples. Thereafter, the survival of the temples depended heavily on the favor of the political authorities. State-building, Urban Planning, and the Expropriation of Temples After several years of chaos following the collapse of the Qing dynasty, the governing apparatus of Guangzhou was gradually reconstructed with the formation of a new municipal structure. Municipal administration in the city formally began in 1918, when a municipal office, known as shizheng gongsuo 市政公所, was established under the rule of the Guangxi warlord Mo Rongxin. The greatest achievement of this municipal institution was the pulling down of the city walls, although it failed to have the debris removed. In November 1920, Chen Jiongming, Sun Yatsen ’s colleague and the commander-in-chief of the Guangdong Army, recaptured Guangzhou from the Guangxi militarists. A local newspaper reported that local people considered Chen to be a “liberator” who had freed the city from the Guangxi “bandits.”1 Guangzhou eventually became the power base and foothold of the Nationalists in their quest to unify China. It also served as a testing ground for their experiments in governance and as a showcase of modern China. Their first step was to found a new municipal government. Sun Ke, Sun Yat-sen’s son, was appointed mayor in 1921, and a municipal government modeled on that of the United States was established .2 At the age of five, Sun Ke had gone to Hawaii with his mother. He was educated at the University of California and at Columbia and did not return to China until 1916, when he was twenty-seven. He drew Negotiating Religion.indd 42 2010/11/30 4:41:01 PM Religion and State-making in the Early 1920s 43 2 | upon his U.S. education to develop...