Build Education with Temple Property: Miàochǎn xīngxué 廟產興學
Also known by the slogan "Destroy Temples, Establish Schools 毀廟辦學", this was a late Qing movement that began in 1898. The aim of this movement was the confiscation of temple property for the purpose of building modern schools. This movement is associated with three documents:
- 1) "Quànxué piān 勸學篇 (Essay on the Exhortation to Build Schools)" written by Zhāng Zhīdòng 張之洞 in the 3rd lunar month of 1898.
- 2) "Yù miào 鬻廟 (Sell the Temples)", written by Zhāng Tàiyán 章太炎 in the spring of 1898.
- 3) "Qǐng chì gèshěng gǎi shūyuàn yíncí wéi xuétáng zhé 請飭各省改書院淫祠為學堂摺 (Memorial Requesting that the Private Academies and Heteredox Temples in all the Provinces be Ordered to be Converted into Schools)", written by Kāng Yǒuwéi 康有為 on July 10, 1898.
Although such confiscations were only carried out on a piecemeal basis in China, and often only at the discretion of local officials, this movement allowed for the channeling of the traditional anti-clericalism of China's elite into a modern ideological discourse of education reform.
Erik Hammerstrom
Notes:
References:
- Goossaert, Vincent. "1898: The Beginning of the End for Chinese Religion?" Journal of Asian Studies, no 65, vol. 2 (May 2006): 307-336.
- Huáng Yùnxǐ 黃運喜. Zhōngguó Fójiào jìndài fǎnán yánjiù 中國佛教近代法難研究 (Research on the Early Modern Persecution of Chinese Buddhism). Taipei: Fajie, 2006. Pp. 75-132.