Denigrating Taoism in the West: A typology of Late Qing Chinese scholars’ discourse in Western languages

Abstract

The purpose of this short article is to offer a typology of the speech acts deployed by Chinese scholars who wrote in Western languages in the late Qing era. By identifying passages dealing with Taoism in their writings, and classifying them into five types of arguments – 1) using the orthodox-heterodox dichotomy; 2) ignoring it; 3) presenting it as an already defeated rival to Confucianism; 4) describing it as a superstition; 5) claiming that it is a form of extremism – the present paper argues that the denigration of Taoism by these Chinese scholars writing in Western languages was profoundly affected by transcultural writing practices, and that in the end Taoism was often but a pawn in the intellectual and political projects of these intellectuals. It served as an awful counterpoint when one tried to project a positive light on Confucianism.