This article outlines a template for sustained experiential learning designed to provide a context for learning the affective and performative as well as intellectual power of religion. This approach was developed for a traditional academic framework, adapting pedagogies developed for experiential learning, aesthetic training, and study abroad, and draws on personal experiences of teaching East Asian religions. The approach integrates intellectual learning with out of class experience to stimulate and enrich the highly personal and often significant questions that may arise upon studying religion and encountering religious practices both in and out of the classroom.

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In the Republican era, Confucianism proved to be an adaptable, relevant resource for projects of state building and modernization. Discussions in twentieth-century China concerning Confucianism varied greatly: it was sometimes seen as complementary, sometimes as contradictory to science, nationalism, and other perceived essentials for the new nation. Whether valorized or despised, in this period Confucianism continued to be regarded as a repository of morals, ethics, and metaphysical insights. This chapter surveys the impact of the New Culture and May Fourth Movements that despised Confucianism as an impediment to a modern China; the impact of “New Confucians” like Liang Shuming, Zhang Junmai, and Xiong Shili; and Chiang Kai-shek’s reinterpretation of Confucian ritual as a resource to transform apathetic, slovenly, and weak subjects into strong, hygienic, and loyal citizens. A novel form of Confucianism, a “muscular Confucianism,” emerged in the 1930s, applying Confucian practice and ideas to produce robust physical bodies to “save the nation.”

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