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