Acknowledgements
This book is one of the results of a research project funded by the Chiang Ching-Kuo Foundation and titled, The Confucian Revival in China, Forms and Meanings of Confucian Piety Today. Most of the contributors participated in the project and are thankful to the Foundation for its generous grant that made fieldwork possible. In addition, three workshops provided the participants with the opportunity to exchange before, during and at the end of the project. The first two workshops took place at the University of Tokyo Center for Philosophy (UTCP) and the third one in Fuzhou. We are grateful to the University of Tokyo, the French Center for Research on Contemporary China (Hong Kong) and Renmin University of China. Special thanks are also due to Professor Gan Chunsong (Peking University) for his support throughout the project.
The chapters gathered in this volume were originally written in English, Chinese and French. Chinese chapters were often difficult to translate due to numerous quotes in classical Chinese and a complex historical background. We thank Stacy Mosher for the time and efforts that she spent translating texts and crosschecking references. Our gratitude also goes to the two anonymous reviewers of the manuscript, to the Brill team for the careful preparation of the volume, to Chen Sih-jie as well as to Professor David A. Palmer for his encouragement to submit our manuscript to the Religion in Chinese Societies series.
This volume is dedicated to the memory of Joël Thoraval, participant in this project, who passed away in March 2016.