Nikolas Broy
Harvard-Yenching Institute Monograph Series 148
Publication date: December 2025
Published by the Harvard University Asia Center
About the book: Flourishing Fasts is the first book in any language to explore the history of the Zhaijiao, commonly translated as “vegetarian sects,” that originated in southeastern China during the Ming and Qing dynasties and are still active in contemporary Taiwan. Combining historical analysis and ethnographic fieldwork, Nikolas Broy reveals the entangled nature of the Zhaijiao—and other Chinese sectarian groups—within their socioreligious environment. Conventionally considered nonconformist dissenters or lay Buddhists, the Zhaijiao in fact embody one intersection of the “Three Teachings” of Buddhism, Daoism, and Confucianism and manifest aspects of local religious life and universal salvationist teachings. Not limited to everyday religious rites such as worshiping local gods, conducting initiation festivals, and performing ritual services for nonmembers, the Zhaijiao also serve as institutions around which social and political life are centered—for example through mobilizing local resources for public enterprises or articulating property rights vis-à-vis the state.