Confucian Revival and the Emergence of “Jiaohua Organizations”: A Case Study of the Yidan Xuetang

This article analyzes the sources of inspiration of the Beijing-based Yidan xuetang, a nonprofit association engaged in the promotion of self-cultivation teachings based on traditional culture and Confucianism, and its relation to religion and politics. It discusses the difficulty of characterizing its activities according to prevailing categories and proposes to define it as a jiaohua (transformation of the self and others through teaching) organization, a category with potential relevance beyond this specific case.