Liang Cai is an associate professor of history at the University of Notre Dame and a faculty fellow with the Ansari Institute for Global Engagement with Religion and the Liu Institute for Asia and Asian Studies. She specializes in Chinese political and intellectual history, focusing on the Qin-Han dynasties (221 BCE - 23 CE).
Professor Cai’s first book Witchcraft and the Rise of the First Confucian Empire contests long-standing claims that Confucianism came to prominence with the promotion of Emperor Wu in the Han dynasty. It was a witchcraft scandal in 91–87 BCE, she argues, that created a political vacuum and permitted Confucians to rise to power and transform China into a Confucian regime. Her book won the 2014 Academic Award for Excellence presented by Chinese Historians in the United States and was a finalist of 2015 Best First Book in the History of Religions presented by the American Academy of Religion.
Over zoom, Professor Cai sat down with Rebekah Go, the Ansari Institute’s Program and Communication Manager, to talk about her research and scholarship. The following has been edited and abridged for clarity.
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Can you provide a brief overview of Confucianism and explain why some people consider it a religion, but other people say it is not a religion?
Thank you for the question. Many people ask me, "Is Confucianism a religion?" I think we can understand and answer this question from two perspectives.
First, how do we understand the term “religion”? The concept of religion originates from the West. Often when people think about religion, their experiences are with Christianity, Judaism, or Islam. In both the academic world and daily life, people's perception of religion is primarily based on their Western experiences. It's very difficult to say that Confucianism resembles religions in the West. If evaluated by conventional criteria, Confucianism could never be counted as a religion. Confucians don't worship a god, nor do they have an organized church. The Confucian community is relatively informal. People generally self-identify as Confucians. There is no organization such as a church to sanction your membership, nor is there a ritual ceremony like baptism to symbolize regeneration and admission to Confucianism. So, Confucianism is not a religion in the Western sense.
On the other hand, Confucianism promotes specific doctrines and moral values similar to those found in Western religions. It is a long-established spiritual tradition with a sophisticated, ritualized way of living. Confucianism shapes the beliefs and behaviors of people across East Asia—not only in China but also in Japan, Korea, and Vietnam. It is undoubtedly the most prominent spiritual tradition in the East, where people immerse themselves in its doctrines, promote its values, and model themselves after Confucian sages. In that sense, Confucianism is a major religion in the world.
Tell me about your first book Witchcraft and the Rise of the First Confucian Empire.
The Chinese empire was often identified as a Confucian Empire. The established paradigm holds that it was one man, Emperor Wu, who loved Confucianism and entrusted Confucians with high positions, training official candidates in the Confucian curriculum. Thereafter, the Chinese empire became a Confucian regime. This is an outdated yet still dominant narrative that you might find in textbooks on world or Chinese history.
In my book, I revise this conventional narrative and argue that the rise of Confucians to power was not due to one powerful individual’s efforts. Instead, the Confucians' opportunity arose after a five-year-long witchcraft scandal created a power vacuum in the upper echelons of the bureaucracy, allowing them to emerge as a force on the political stage.
Benefiting from digital humanities, I have systematically documented the recorded Confucian officials in the sources. In fact, Confucian officials were a minority during Emperor Wu’s 54-year reign. The majority of Confucians came from humble backgrounds in the Western Han. They lacked powerful family background and were not experts in administration. Some famous Confucians even explicitly despised the trivialities of daily administration. They were not adept at paperwork, compiling reports, collecting taxes, or prosecuting criminals. Like us, they were historians or philosophers—good scholars, but not necessarily effective officials involved in administration. So, how could they become major candidates for official posts? Why would they be endowed with power, especially political power? In modern times, even though we admire philosophers, we generally do not elect them as officials or governors. However, in early imperial China, Confucians eventually became the ones who wielded political power.
My book demonstrates the historical process through which the Confucians rose to power. A several-year-long witch hunt at the end of Emperor Wu's reign resulted in the slaughter of a large number of high officials and their families. We saw that entire families of high officials, who had occupied the upper levels of the bureaucracy since the beginning of the dynasty, disappeared after being prosecuted and executed because there were accusations of practicing black magic. This bloodshed created a power vacuum and the Confucians strategically seized the opportunity and became the new political force.
Of course, the Confucians emerged as winners during the crisis not only because Confucianism was useful, but because Confucians were ambitious! Confucianism provided a moral and cosmological discourse that could legitimize a reign under crisis. Confucians always believed they were the best candidates for high positions and should occupy decision-making roles in the bureaucracy. Unlike Christian priests, who aimed to build a paradise alongside the secular regime, Confucians sought to appropriate the political apparatus and use political power to realize their philosophical dreams. Without their ambition for political power, a Confucian empire could not have come into being.
You and I have talked a bit about the field of Utopian studies, which I didn't even know existed. For those reading this for the first time, can you explain what Utopian studies is and how it might intersect a little bit with your work?
Utopian studies is a very broad field. We can find Utopianism in literature and art, political theory, and intentional communities. Utopia research often focuses on literature, especially novels. Religions, especially the major ones in the world, all have their utopian dreams.
I'm more interested in how philosophical thoughts of Utopia play out in history. Confucianism is a utopia-oriented philosophy and religion, and Confucians strive for a perfect society. They want to create a world where people pursue virtue as their primary life goal. If everybody is virtuous, then, they believe, everything, including the universe, would be in harmony. Not only do Confucians elaborate on their utopian thoughts on paper, but once they entrenched their position in the political realm, they also integrated their doctrines into the imperial legal system and crafted their philosophy into imperial policies. My research examines how the real-world - society and individuals who are always imperfect - responded to or were shaped by those perfect visions of society.
Morality is often associated with religion. How is morality being developed and understood in China, where religious traditions have not historically held a significant role as they have in other cultures? What cultural, philosophical, or institutional factors shape moral development and practice in Chinese society?
That's a very interesting question. Yes, Confucianism is not an organized religion like Christianity. Confucians do not have their own churches as Christians do. However, the main Confucian doctrines discuss morality, considering virtue the essence of becoming a human and the foundation of a society. Confucians’ dream is to “Cultivate yourself, harmonize your family, order the state, and pacify the world.” We can say that Confucianism is an intellectual tradition that prioritizes morality, with pursuing virtue as its primary goal.
Confucian teachings had been institutionalized in pre-modern China for a millennium. Let's start with the Civil Service Exam, which was the major avenue toward political power since the Song dynasty (960 to 1279 CE). To join the ranks of the elite, men had to participate in the civil service exam. The primary curriculum of the Civil Service Exam was based on Confucian classics. Before 1911, the Chinese educated class was primarily defined by their participation in civil service exams, which meant that they had to immerse themselves in Confucian classics. Not only did those aspiring to join the elite class need to learn Confucianism, but their servants and family members often could recite the Analects by Confucius.
[Editor’s Note: in October of 1911, a group of revolutionaries in southern China led a successful revolt against the Qing Dynasty, establishing in its place the Republic of China and ending the imperial civil exam system.]
Western power rapidly encroached China after the British defeated China in the Opium War in 1842. China become a semi colony of various European countries. It fell behind in economic and technological development as compared to the West in the early twentieth century. Some radical intellectuals advocated to abandon Confucianism, thinking it as an obstacle preventing China from being modernized. The Civil Service exam was abolished. Instead, the Western knowledge system was introduced to China, and became the major curriculum for the education.
Without organizational institutions like churches, and without the civil service exam, Confucianism declined as the empire collapsed. After 1911, learning from the West was the main intellectual trend. The elite redefined their education system. In the modern-day Chinese school system, students learn mathematics, chemistry, physics, history and literature etc., but there is no such a discipline called “Confucianism.” It was not until recently, after trying to catch up with the West economically, that the government started to revive Confucianism. However, I think those efforts are very limited because, as I mentioned, Confucianism does not have any organized institution to interpret and spread its teachings, or recruit followers. Professors teach courses on Confucian teachings, but professors are not like priests who preach doctrines.
You might ask how many people still believe in Confucian doctrines and practice Confucianism in modern-day China or East Asia. I don’t have a good answer. Confucianism has complex doctrines focused on community-based morality. It encourages people to become virtuous, which might involve individuals voluntarily choosing to sacrifice themselves for the benefit of others and the interests of the community. It could stand in opposition to individualism. Rights are not a major concern for Confucianism either. Sometimes, being virtuous might compel us to give up our individual rights for the benefits of others or the common good. We have seen a revival of Confucianism, but how it can be reinterpreted in light of modern Western values such as individualism is a challenge for both scholars and East Asian society.
Given the growing interest in East Asian studies globally, what contributions do you think your research offers - especially within the digital humanities which is a newly developing field?
We generally understand primary sources in history as records, stories, and narratives. However, we can also extract rich data from these traditional sources. This data allows us to provide a new perspective or present a more comprehensive picture of history, allowing us to reflect our conventional wisdom and create new knowledge. That's my approach in my first book on the Western Han dynasty. I helped to revise the standard historical narrative on the rise of the Confucian empire by carefully collecting data and statistically examining all available high officials' education, career patterns, and family backgrounds.
With artificial intelligence and visualization tools, we can transform our traditional sources into various datasets, such as social network data and geographical mobility data for all recorded historical figures. With this new data, we can ask new questions. Currently, I teach a digital empire class where I guide students in extracting data from biographies and analyzing the social networks, geographic mobility, and career patterns of high officials in the Qin and Han empires. We explore how historical actors built their social networks and how these networks contributed to their success or downfall. We also consider how the geographic mobility of elites contributed to the building of an empire, especially one that integrated vast regions with diverse cultures and languages.
Ideally, we could create a comprehensive dataset that includes social networks, geographic mobility, career patterns, and criminal records of all recorded men and women in early China. That would be truly exciting; this data could serve as an infrastructure for early Chinese studies. Of course, building such a large dataset requires collective efforts.
Why do I pay attention to the criminal records of historical actors? In traditional Chinese thought, followers of both Confucianism and Legalism were perfectionists; both schools talked about a utopia, holding that a perfect society is achievable and should be achieved. If we apply perfect standards to legal statutes, we can easily criminalize people. This is what happened in the Qin-Han empires. They had a system of administrative law oriented towards high standards with absolute liability. It helped to secure the efficiency and accountability of officials. However, at the same time, the empires saw a large number of officials accused of violating the law, as their job performance could not meet the legal statutes defined by perfectionism. My data shows that almost 40% of the high officials in the Western Han dynasty were accused of violating the law, being dismissed from their positions, or being convicted as hard laborers or receiving the death penalty. To some extent, the Qin-Han empires were empires of criminals. This is a new discovery, a discovery based on the data that digital humanities provides.
My last question is: as a scholar from China working in the US Academic context, what frustrations and opportunities have you encountered? Is there one thing you wish people knew about your experience navigating the cross-cultural dynamic? What do you wish people understood?
That's a great question. I went to Cornell in 2000 to pursue my Ph.D. When I received the offer and applied for my student visa at the US Embassy, the customs officer remarked, "You've received a wonderful offer. I couldn't possibly reject your visa. But tell me, why do you want to study Chinese history in the United States?" This was a question I encountered repeatedly throughout my Ph.D. studies. People often asked, "Why, as a Chinese, are you pursuing a Ph.D. in Chinese history at an American university?" My choice, like that of many of my peers, was influenced by the modern Chinese mindset. During the 1990s, there was a prevailing belief in China that we needed to catch up with the West not only in technology but also in fields like philosophical thought and research methodologies. Learning from the West was viewed as the path to modernity. For my generation, going to America for higher education was a dream.
My intellectual development has been enriched by education in both the East and the West. After spending 20 years in the USA, I've come to appreciate that Chinese history offers alternative perspectives that can deepen our understanding of fundamental Western values. Chinese classical thought could introduce new paradigms for living and innovative solutions to social crises. Western values have shaped modernity, and I came here seeking freedom and individual rights. Certainly, freedom should be cherished, and human rights should be vigorously defended. However, we are in an era where individual rights are fiercely guarded and everyone is fighting for their own freedom, and society is deeply divided, and experiences unprecedented polarization. Responding to this reality, Confucian principles emphasizing virtue and community-based morality could offer valuable insights. An exchange of value systems and perspectives between the East and the West could be mutually beneficial. The Chinese experience and philosophical tradition could enhance our theoretical frameworks and methodologies, offering a unique approach to understanding human civilizations - just as Western insights could enrich the East.
I encourage all my American students to travel to the East and immerse themselves in cultures they know little about. This experience will help them not only understand other cultures but also gain deeper insights into themselves. It is my role to serve as a bridge between Western and Eastern academic traditions.
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Dr. Cai is finishing her second book entitled Save the Empire from Serfdom?: Confucian Virtue, Emperor’s Law, and Convict Politics in Early Chinese Empires (221 BCE -23 CE). In the light of great divergence between East and West, this book attempts to answer a fundamental question in the formative age of Chinese bureaucratic empires (221 BCE -23 CE): could law or morality be sources of power independent from the government and thereby compete with political authority? Be on the lookout for this book in the future.
Originally published by at ansari.nd.edu on June 13, 2024.