A Study Of Legislation On The Religions In The Western China During Qing Dynasty

The legislation on religions includes national policies and legal norms on religions. Tibetan Buddhism and Islam were major religions in western China during the Qing Dynasty,and also were the major objection of the legislation on the religions in the western China during Qing Dynasty. This article studies systematically the basic principles of the legislation on the religions, legal forms and other legal issues. This article is divided into six chapters apart from criterion analysis.The first chapter studies the basic principles and legal forms of the legislation on the religions. Safeguarding political unity of the nation is the basic policy of the Qing Dynasty. In order to achieves he unity of the west and solve ethnic issues Qing government attached great importance to Tibetan Buddhism and Islam and established gradually the principles of Safeguarding political unity of the nation, YinShiLiDao,XunXuJianJin. The legislation had many legal forms such as Law, Case,Yuzhi,Ling, Zhangcheng, Huidian.The second chapter studies the process of the legislation on the religions in the western China during Qing Dynasty. The legislation on Tibetan Buddhism was expanded gradually according to different political events and Lama Case was born as a symbol of a more comprehensive system of core texts and norms at last. At the same time the management systems, such as the systems of Lama Canonization, Lama Tributary, Lama Monk official and so on, were established. The legislation on Islam began very late. Yuzhi was the governing legal form and customary law was also very important before 1781. The Qing government’s policy to Islam was easy. But statute law had become important legal form and the legislation had become very critical to Islam since 1781. The management of Akhonds took shape. And the legislation on Islam had never developed from 1781 to 1911.The third chapter discusses how the Qing government regulated the management system of the religions in the western China. The Qing government’s management system of Tibetan Buddhism was perfecter than the system of Islam. Li-fan Yuan was in charge of Tibetan Buddhism. Imperial Commissioners and other local officials supervised different related religious affairs. Their responsibilities were very clear. The central government not only divided the power of religious management into two parts and gave the one to lama officials through the systems of Lama Canonization, but also tried to establish stable contacts with the authorized persons through Lama Tributary and Lama Nianban. These made the religious management have autonomy and organization. On the contrary, Islam’s management was lack of full-time officials. The systems of Xiangyue and burke were not given great importance to.The fourth chapter studies the process of the Qing government’s adjusting the relation between politics and religion. The legislation on the religions in the western China during Qing Dynasty had the characters of strengthening state management, limiting religious organizations’power and flexibility when it adjusted the relation between politics and religion. The central government continuously heightened Imperial Commissioners’ power and decreased Dalai Lama’s power in order to safeguard Tibetan stability. These were considered as very important principles. In Mongolia the central government tried to make religion separate from politics and prohibited the religion from intervening in administration and justice. The central government gave different powers to religions organization according to their different political attitudes in Gansu, Qinghai, and Xinjiang. The Qing government had tried to administrate Muslim through Islam religion organization and made Islam religion organization become one of state’s primary organizations in Shan Gan areas and founded GuanSi Xiangyue(管寺乡约)and GuanHui Xiangyue(管会乡约)in order to make religion separate from politics. The Qing government transform gradually from the principle that tried to eliminate the Protestants to the new one that permitted the Protestants’existence when they didn’t fight against the government. Since then, there was no more change in the legislation on Islam in Shan Gan areas. The legislation on Islam in Xinjiang was not different.The fifth chapter discusses the legislation’s adjusting the religious behaviors and property in the western China during Qing Dynasty. The range of the legislation’s adjustment of the behavior was so comprehensive that a system of conduct norm was born. The legislation had the characters of strengthening the national management, protecting legitimate religious behaviors and being secularity. The Qing government adjusted systematically Living Buddha Reincarnation, cross-regional religious behaviors, the act of becoming a Lama and so on. The scope of the legislation was designated legitimately. The structure of legislation’s norms was tight. The content of the norms was stable. The adjustments’patterns were mainly administration and criminal property, which complied with the principles of Safeguarding National Political unity, YinShiLiDao ,XunXuJianJin. The Qing government restricted strictly the Muslim’s religious behaviors in religious texts, religious rituals, the acts of worship, and so on. The adjustments’patterns were mainly criminal. The scope of the legislation on Islam was designated irrationally,which was fought against naturally. The Qing government had certain financial legal system in adjusting Tibetan Buddhism’s property. But the Islam’s property was adjusted mainly by customary law. Of course the legislation also protected law-abiding believers’properties and gave them preferential treatment.The sixth chapter discusses the characters of the legislation on the religions and its inspiration at present. The legislation on the religions generally complied with the first principle of safeguarding national political unity in the method of strengthening the national management. And its contents were secular. YinShiLiDao and XunXuJianJin were also important methods of the legislation on the religions whose adjustment objects were foremost Tibetan Buddhism and Islam. The legislation on the religions had the characters for strengthening the national management, YinShiLiDao, secularity, imbalance and so on. It also has some reference value in legislative principles, legislative body, management system and so on.