The Study On The Red Swastika And It's Social Redemptive Enterprise (1922-1949)

The Red Swastika, whose full name is the World Red Swastika Society, was a nation-scale religious social redemptive organization in the Republic of China. It originated from the folk religion, Daoyuan which was popular in the 1920s'. As a matter of fact, the relationship between Daoyuan and The Red Swastika could be summarized as"external-internal"relation, i.e., Daoyuan was the base of the Red Swastika, while the Red Swastika was an agency of Daoyuan for its philanthropic activities and meanwhile offered space for its seclusion.Since the gentry and merchants formed the principal base of the Red Swastika, therefore, from this sense, the Red Swastika actually was the organization of the gentry and merchants who held the belief in Daoism. The economic and social status of the gentry and merchants helped to realize the long-term social redemptive work of the Red Swastika on the one hand, but on the other hand, also determined the conservativeness of those redemptive activities, i.e., to maintain rather than change social relations. The influence of the Red Swastika was widely spread, both at home and abroad. A social redemptive network was established through various methods based on the common belief shared by general headquarters and branches of the Red Swastika. The formation of the network and its function in the process of social redemptive activities highlighted the ability and advantages of the gentry and merchants in personnel organization and resource mobilization.The social redemptive work of the Red Swastika inherited and developed the concepts and methods from the Red Cross, Chinese traditional social redemptive enterprise and voluntary relief since the Late Qing Dynasty. Besides, the Red Swastika integrated a set of operating mechanisms, including donation collection, policy dissemination, transportation, checking, awards and punishments, which eventually formed its permanent and temporary philanthropic enterprise.The permanent philanthropic enterprise of the Red Swastika included establishing hospitals, schools and factories for the poor, Daosheng Bank, foundling hospital, and institutions for the disabled, etc. It inherited the characteristics of completeness in variety and broadness in distribution from the traditional folk social redemptive enterprise. As compared with traditional folk social redemptive enterprise, the permanent philanthropic enterprise of the Red Swastika not only possessed the traditional characteristics of modern social redemptive enterprise but also showed religious beliefs in its contents. The temporary philanthropic enterprise of the Red Swastika included redemptive activities in the time of war and famine. Although its redemptive work in war imitated the work of the Red Cross, the accomplishments it achieved were not inferior to that of the Red Cross at all. Its redemptive work in famine had gone beyond the scope of the voluntary relief since the Late Qing Dynasty, and meanwhile the motivation of disseminating Daoism through the form of philanthropic work was deeply rooted in the work. The temporary philanthropic enterprise also set a model for social redemptive enterprise, in which the nonofficial and transregional redemption was its tradition, the social network composed of the local regular redemption and mobile redemption was its method, and the dissemination of Daoism was its motivation.The embracing spirit of the Red Swastika displayed in its social redemptive enterprise was in accordance with the essence of Daoism. Although disseminating Daoism through the form of philanthropic work was its original motivation and ultimate aim, the social redemptive enterprise of the Red Swastika played an active role in helping those in distress and in peril, and in healing the wounded and rescuing the dying, and to some extent, filled in the blankness due to the vacancy of the governmental functions. At the same time, the Red Swastika also paid a lot in manpower, materials and finance for its social redemptive enterprise.The Red Swastika was a public organization, and it was founded on the principle of non-interference with politics, pursuing the legitimacy of Daoyuan as its objective. However, when faced with complicated social reality, the Red Swastika usually was in the passive position. All kinds of political powers were trying to control it according to their own desires. Except for some particular times, most of the efforts for seeking the religious freedom and sticking to the principle of non-interference with politics made by the Red Swastika ended up with failures.