Flourishing Fasts: Vegetarian Sects in Late Imperial and Modern Chinese Societies

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Nikolas Broy

Flourishing Fasts

Vegetarian Sects in Late Imperial and Modern Chinese Societies

Nikolas Broy

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English

Harvard University Press
09 December 2025

Oriental religions; Religious life & practice; Religious & theocratic ideologies; Vegetarian cookery

Series: Harvard-Yenching Institute Monograph Series

Flourishing Fasts is the first book in any language to explore the history of the Zhaijiao, commonly translated as ""vegetarian sects,"" that originated in southeastern China during the Ming and Qing dynasties and are still active in contemporary Taiwan. Combining historical analysis and ethnographic fieldwork, Nikolas Broy reveals the entangled nature of the Zhaijiao-and other Chinese sectarian groups-within their socioreligious environment. Conventionally considered nonconformist dissenters or lay Buddhists, the Zhaijiao in fact embody one intersection of the ""Three Teachings"" of Buddhism, Daoism, and Confucianism and manifest aspects of local religious life and universal salvationist teachings. Not limited to everyday religious rites such as worshiping local gods, conducting initiation festivals, and performing ritual services for nonmembers, the Zhaijiao also serve as institutions around which social and political life are centered-for example through mobilizing local resources for public enterprises or articulating property rights vis-à-vis the state.

In this wide-ranging discussion that covers practices, religious symbols and teachings, mythological narratives, moral values, architecture, and material culture over more than four hundred years, Broy situates the Zhaijiao at the very core of local societies and shows how they actively engage in political, economic, legal, and cultural affairs.

By: Nikolas Broy
Imprint: Harvard University Press
Country of Publication: United States
Dimensions: Height: 229mm, Width: 152mm,
ISBN: 9780674302532
ISBN 10: 0674302532
Series: Harvard-Yenching Institute Monograph Series
Pages: 486
Publication Date: 09 December 2025
Audience: Professional and scholarly , College/higher education , Undergraduate , Further / Higher Education
Format: Hardback
Publisher's Status: Active

Nikolas Broy is a specially appointed associate professor in the Global Liberal Arts Program (GLAP) at Rikkyo University, Tokyo.