Redefining Heresy and Tolerance

Insight into the Qing dynasty’s policies towards Muslims and Christians traveling to East Asia.

Redefining Heresy and Tolerance demonstrates how the political philosophies of toleration developed in the context of late Imperial China were different from the theories that emerged in the West during their time. Focusing on religious policy in the Qing Empire, Hung attempts to clarify the Qing toleration policies and the reasoning behind them. He also demonstrates how the Qing government prevented Confucian bureaucrats from interfering in the religious life of Christians and Muslims, and how the Confucians’ understanding of “religion” was reshaped in the period.