A Study On The Reports Of Monks In The Shun Pao In The Late Qing Dynasty(1872-1881)

When Shenbao was founded,there were very rich religious elements in the news reports,and monks were an important object of it.However,the monks were not the traditional appearance of religious activities,but often appeared in the murder,pornography and other social news.This phenomenon is very special.This paper takes ten years’ reports of Shenbao as samples and comes to a conclusion that this kind of report has high frequency and various forms.The social news about the monks can be summarized as four kinds—adultery,theft and other crimes,mysterious ghost stories or myths,religious fundraising ceremonies and funerals.In terms of comments,Shenbao mainly criticizes the monks,but there are also civil letters for the monks and arouse weak public opinions.On the political front,Shenbao mostly reprints official news and continuously reports on major religious political events.This paper combines the symbolic theory and infers that there is also a symbolic process on the reports of monks.The writer links the monks with negative words and emotions so that people would have a moral fear.Its authenticity is low and usually lacks of necessary elements of news,which is the feature of this kind of mysterious stories.As for the fact that there are a large number of the monk reports which are mostly negative,the writer analyzes that it’s connected with the reporting style and historical origins of Shenbao.Besides,the ethos,characteristics of the audience,government’s religious policies and social changes of late Qing Dynasty all have an important impact on the reports.Combined with contemporary religious development and journalism theory,the experience and lessons of Shenbao can be reference for the role of the press and religious guidance.It mainly includes three aspects.First,a report should be objective and true and pay attention to the norms of news language.Second,making religion something symbolic should be avoided,including no exaggeration and expansion.Third,the press should adhere to the official perspective and national policy.