The Religious Image of Modern China in the Perspective of Western Peregrinators.

Missionaries were a major force of western peregrination to China in modern times. Confucianism, Taoism, Buddhism and various folk deities, as the main competitors of Christianity, were the two perspectives from which western peregrinators (especially missionaries) observed the religious image of China, and the two dimensions from which peregrinators described the religious image of China. Missionaries in China paid more attention to "idolatry" in Chinese Confucianism, Buddhism and Taoism, while peregrinators noticed more popular phenomena of folk deities and various superstitions. The heretical religion of "idolatry" and feudal superstition were the two main cognitive sources for peregrinators to construct the religious image of modern China, and jointly shaped the religious image of modern China. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]