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The ascetic-eremitic life typical of the elite spirituality of Buddhism and pre-Protestant Christianity was not a part of Chinese culture prior to the introduction of Buddhism, and it has been viewed askance from the standpoint of normative Chinese values to the present. On the other hand, an unusual non-ascetic eremitism has a history in China that precedes Buddhism. The equivalent of the eremitic life in China into the present, for the elite, of course, was to refuse to hold governmental office or to be forced into retirement. This was a lifestyle understood as a religious one often related to ecstatic religious experience as well as maintaining the highest ethical values. There was no asceticism involved indeed, such a life was often one devoted to aesthetic pursuits- except the poverty that may follow from being unemployed.

List of Illustrations -- Acknowledgements -- Prologue: Six Decades of Studying Chinese Religion -- 1. Chinese Religion: The Oldest Documented Religious Tradition -- 2. Five Centuries of the Western Misrepresentation of Chinese Religion -- 3. Familism: The Global Context of Chinese Religion -- 4. The Theology Implicit in the Early Confucian Tradition: The Fundamental Understanding of the Meaning of Life in Chinese Culture -- 5. The Role of Possession Trance in Chinese Culture and Religion: A Comparative Overview from the Neolithic to the Present -- 6. State and Religion in China: The District Magistrate as Priest -- 7. Freedom of Religion in China: In the Past and Under the Chinese Communist Party -- 8. Why Buddhism Succeeded and Christianity Failed in China -- 9. The Theology of the Chinese Jews: A Synthesis of Judaism and Neo-Confucianism -- Epilogue: Chinese Religion Today in China and the Chinese Diaspora -- Appendix: Chronological Chart -- Bibliography -- Notes -- Index

Introduction / Jordan Paper and Anson H. Laytner -- Part I. Past -- Radhanites, Chinese Jews, and the Silk Road of the steppes / Nigel Thomas -- Eight centuries in the Chinese diaspora : the Jews of Kaifeng / Erik Zürcher -- Kaifeng Jews : sinification and the persistence of identity and history / Irene Eber -- The Confucianization of the Chinese Jews : interpretations of the Kaifeng stelae inscriptions / Andrew H. Plaks -- The Old Testament and Biblical figures in Chinese sources / Donald Daniel Leslie -- The issue of the Jewishness of Chinese Jewish magistrates / Jordan Paper -- Zhao Yingcheng from fact to fiction : the story of "The Great Advisor" / Moshe Yehuda Bernstein -- Part II. Present -- A history of early Jewish interactions with the Kaifeng Jews / Alex Bender -- Delving into the Israelite religion of Kaifeng : the patriotic scholar Shi Jingxun and his study of the origins of the plucking the Sinews Sect of Henan / Xianyi Kong -- Identity discourse and the Chinese Jewish descendants / Mathew A. Eckstein -- Messianic Zionism, settler colonialism, and the lost Jews of Kaifeng / Mohammed Turki al-Sudairi -- Between survival and revival : the impact of contemporary Western Jewish contact on Kaifeng Jewish identity / Anson H. Laytner -- Chronology