Chinese Confucianism, Buddhism And Daoism In The Times Before 1912

Newspaper plays a crucial role in shaping the image of a country. The Times is a British comprehensive national issue of the daily newspaper, and it exercises significant influence on the world's political, economic, cultural, social and other aspects. In this paper, the images of Confucianism, Buddhism and Daoism in China depicted by The Times from 1785 to 1912, are taken as the research object, The author uses the methodologies and theories of Comparative Literature to study and analyze the reports on Confucianism, Buddhism and Daoism in The Times. The study discovers that the newspaper speaks of and tells the other, Confucianism, Buddhism and Daoism on the surface, but actually it speaks of the image of self, Christianity instead. For China's Confucianism, Buddhism and Daoism, their attitudes are not single-minded and immutable. The reports on Confucianism of China begin with criticism, and then become fiercer reproach, and turn into re-advocacy in the end. For Buddhism and Daoism, most of reports are critical and disapproving without much alternation. Whether reports change or not, criticism or advocacy, in fact, it consists in the enhancement of national power and progression of missionary services, and does not lie in the real modification of virtual and essential understanding of China's religion. For British missionaries,and a part of journalists and diplomats who mainly have unshakable faith in the Protestantism, the omniscient, omnipotent and omnipresent God is their unique faith, and any belief or any reverence for any other gods is treated as a blasphemy against God. In addition, Protestantism does not allow the existence of statues, and thus, Chinese idolatry is another important aspect that they cannot tolerate and put up with. For reporters who do not believe in Protestantism, they also hold a condemnatory and negative attitude to Chinese religions due to various reasons. For the study of Confucianism, Buddhism and Daoism in China in The Times, for one thing, in the process of cultural exchange between China and the West, the beneficial aspects of cultural communication are exploited and developed. The disadvantageous aspects are avoided and corrected,which is helpful to achieve the share of the world's outstanding cultures. For another thing, taking the images of China's Confucianism, Buddhism and Daoism in the eyes of Western people as a mirror, they can be useful to observe the existence of our own cultural deficiencies and shortcomings, and consequently be helpful to take the essence of traditional culture and forsake its dross,which is favorable to inherit and develop our national heritage.The first chapter of this paper briefly summarizes the current research situation and some other basic content. The second chapter analyzes the image of Confucianism in The Times. It finds out that the understanding of Confucianism varies from the past utopian to a reference to the ideology, and to the tool for self-expression.The third chapter analyzes the image of Chinese Buddhism in The Times,which discovers that the newspaper as a whole is shaping a negative and adverse image of China's Buddhism. The specific criticism of Buddhism are that Buddhism does not have the only faith, belief theory of Buddhism is not reliable, and the believers are not respected and have no social status. The fourth chapter analyzes the Daoist image embodied in The Times. It discovers that the news reporters of Chinese Daoism also hold a critical attitude. Mixed with Daoism as a kind of thought and Daoism as a religion, and changing from Daoism as a thought to Daoism as a sort of corrupt and depraved religion are two specific points. The last chapter concludes by combing the preceding chapters, and naturally draws the conclusion that The Times is constantly criticizing and reproaching the other (Chinese Confucianism, Buddhism and Daoism )for the purpose of highlighting the self (Christianity).