The Taizhou movement : being mindful in sixteenth century China

In this thesis Johanna Lidén defines, analyses and contextualizes the important Taizhou movement, which originated with a salt merchant named Wang Gen (1483–1541) in the Ming dynasty. Wang Gen’s views wer e a continuation of the ideas of Wang Yangming (1472– 1529), who was a well known Neo-Confucian philosopher. However Wang Gen’s teachings about self-respect and self protection were new.
Compared with earlier Neo-Confucianism the Taizhou practitioners did not only have a social background as literati scholars, but could also be commoners, like Wang Gen himself.
The Taizhou practitioners engaged in religious activities such as ethical and philosophical discussions, meditation retreats, and singing and recitation. They organized themselves at the local level and developed systems for mutual aid and protection. Officials in the imperial administration and literati scholars perceived their ideas and praxis as a threat. In 1579, the learning discussions in the free academies were banned, which was a heavy blow both to the movement inaugurated by Wang Yangming as well as to the Taizhou movement. Around this time some of the Taizhou leaders wereimprisoned and killed for their activities.

Johanna Lidén is a researcher in the History of Religions, particularly premodern
Chinese religious movements. She has studied History of Chinese Philosophy in Nanjing,
and taught Chinese at Uppsala University and East Asian Religions at Stockholm University.

Doctoral Thesis in History of Religion at Stockholm University, Sweden 2018