The Origins, Spread, and Social Role of Religion in Southeast Asia

When studying the politics, economy, culture, military affairs, and diplomacy of Southeast Asian countries, one cannot avoid the issue of religion in those countries. Complex religious phenomena exist in Southeast Asian countries. In addition to primitive religions, Buddhism, Islam, Catholicism, Protestantism, Hinduism, Judaism, as well as Daoism and Sikhism all have adherents in Southeast Asia. Marxism is the scientific theory for understanding and analyzing Southeast Asian religious issues. As General Secretary Xi Jinping has pointed out: “In the history of human thought, no other ideology or theory has had such a broad and profound impact on humanity as Marxism.” “This theory, like a magnificent sunrise, illuminated the path for humanity to explore the laws of history and seek its own liberation.” The Marxist view of religion reveals the essence of religion and the objective laws of its emergence and development, the social role of religion, the relationship between religion and politics, and the relationship between religion and culture. Therefore, how to use historical materialism as a guide to expound the historical development and social role of religion in Southeast Asia is a research topic rich in theoretical and practical value. This article, guided by the Marxist view of religion, will study the origins, spread, social impact of religion in Southeast Asian countries, and the struggles surrounding religion.

研究东南亚国家的政治、经济、文化、军事和外交，无法回避东南亚国家的宗教问题。东南亚国家里存在着复杂的宗教现象，除了原始宗教外，佛教、伊斯兰教、天主教、基督新教、印度教、犹太教以及道教、锡克教在东南亚都有信奉者。马克思主义是认识和分析东南亚宗教问题的科学理论，正如习近平总书记所指出的：“在人类思想史上，没有一种思想理论像马克思主义那样对人类产生了如此广泛而深刻的影响。”“这一理论犹如壮丽的日出，照亮了人类探索历史规律和寻求自身解放的道路。”马克思主义宗教观揭示了宗教的本质及其产生与发展的客观规律、宗教的社会作用、宗教与政治的关系、宗教与文化的关系等。因此，如何以唯物史观为指导阐述东南亚宗教的历史发展及其社会作用，是一项富有理论与实践价值的研究课题。本文将以马克思主义宗教观为指导，研究东南亚国家的宗教起源、传播、社会影响以及围绕宗教展开的斗争。

I. The Origins of Religion in Southeast Asia from the Perspective of Historical Materialism

一、唯物史观视野中的东南亚宗教起源

Marx pointed out: “In judging such a period of social transformation, we cannot base our judgment on its consciousness; on the contrary, this consciousness must be explained from the contradictions of material life, from the existing conflict between the social productive forces and the relations of production.” This passage lays the methodological foundation for our understanding of the origins and development of religion in Southeast Asia. To understand religious phenomena in Southeast Asian countries, one should start from the level of social production. What is the relationship between the origin and development of religion and the level of development of social productive forces? The young Engels had already recognized people’s dependence on nature under conditions of backward productive forces. The ancient Greeks, living in a beautiful and harmonious natural environment, developed a religious consciousness of harmony between humans and nature. “Ancient Greece was a pantheistic country. Its entire landscape was set, or at least could be said to have once been set, in a harmonious frame… Every perfect and complete individual part of nature demanded its own god; every river had its naiad, every grove its dryad. The religion of the ancient Greeks was founded in this way.” [1]1 This quotation is from Engels’s early work “The Condition of England: The Eighteenth Century” (1844), not from a later, more systematic text. However, the inhabitants of most early regions of Southeast Asia were not as fortunate as the Greeks in taking the landscape as the basis for religious belief. They had to face attacks from drought, floods, earthquakes, wildfires, and storms, struggling to survive in harsh environments while fighting against wild beasts. Nevertheless, Engels’ Marxist research approach of studying religious phenomena starting from production conditions still points the way for people to understand religious phenomena in Southeast Asia.

马克思指出：“我们判断这样一个变革时代也不能以它的意识为根据；相反，这个意识必须从物质生活的矛盾中，从社会生产力和生产关系之间的现存冲突中去解释。”这段话奠定了我们认识东南亚宗教起源和发展的方法论基础。认识东南亚国家的宗教现象，应该从社会生产层面入手。宗教起源和发展与社会生产力发展水平是什么关系?青年恩格斯已经意识到落后生产力条件下人们对自然的依附性。身居环境优美和谐的自然环境的古希腊人，产生人与自然和谐的宗教意识，“古希腊是一个泛神论的国家。它的全部风景镶在，至少可以说曾经镶在和谐的框子里……大自然的每一个完美无缺的单独部分都要求有自己的神，每一条河有自己的河泽女神，每一片树林有自己的森林女神，古希腊人的宗教就是这样创立起来的”。而东南亚早期的大部分地区的居民，没有像希腊人那样幸运地将风景当作宗教信仰的基础，而不得不面临干旱、洪涝、地震、山火、暴风骤雨的袭击，在艰难的环境中与猛兽斗争求生存，但恩格斯从生产状况入手研究宗教现象的马克思主义研究思路，依然给人们认识东南亚宗教现象指明了方向。

Early humans in Southeast Asia used crude stone, bone, and wooden tools. The efficiency of production activities such as digging ditches, building houses, constructing roads, planting crops, and hunting was extremely low, and they could not effectively transform nature. Due to low social productive forces, early humans in Southeast Asia were forced to submit to nature. While struggling against nature with collective strength and crude tools, early Southeast Asian humans gradually recognized the connection between their production activities and certain natural phenomena on the one hand; on the other hand, they were severely constrained by nature and could not understand its myriad forms. At that time, there was even less in the way of medical technology, and food for sustenance was limited. Floods raged, turning people into fish and turtles; life appeared so fragile in the face of a merciless nature. Destructive natural phenomena such as rainstorms and lightning were dangerous, unpredictable, and terrifying to humans. Marx and Engels wrote in *The German Ideology*: “Nature, at first, confronts people as a completely alien, all-powerful, and unassailable force, with which people’s relationship is purely animal-like; they are cowed by it like cattle, and hence this is a purely animal consciousness of nature (natural religion).” [2]2 This passage is from *The German Ideology* (1845-1846), Marx and Engels’s first joint work elaborating the materialist conception of history. Engels pointed out in *Ludwig Feuerbach and the End of Classical German Philosophy*: “If the soul, at the death of the body, leaves it and continues to live, there is no reason to suppose that it itself will die.” “For very similar reasons, through the personification of natural forces, the first gods arose. With the further development of various religions, these gods increasingly took on a supermundane form.” [3]3 This passage is from Engels’s 1886 work *Ludwig Feuerbach and the End of Classical German Philosophy*, which summarizes the Marxist view of religion and its critique of Feuerbach. Under conditions of low-level productive forces, the ancient people of Southeast Asia produced distorted and inverted reflections of many natural phenomena, deifying them, and thus primitive religion emerged.

东南亚的早期人类使用简陋的石器、骨器、木器，挖沟渠、建房屋、修道路、稼穑狩猎等生产活动的效率极其低下，无法有效地改造自然。由于社会生产力低下，东南亚的早期人类被迫臣服于自然。东南亚早期人类以集体的力量和简陋的工具在与自然界作斗争时，一方面逐步认识到人们的生产活动与某些自然现象的联系；另一方面又受着自然界的严重束缚，无法理解自然界的千姿百态。那时更谈不上医疗科技水平，果腹的食物有限。洪水泛滥，人为鱼鳖，生命在冷酷的自然界面前显得是那样的脆弱。暴雨雷电等毁灭性很强的自然现象，对人类来说是充满危险、捉摸不定的，令人惊恐不安。马克思恩格斯在《德意志意识形态》中讲道：“自然界起初是作为一种完全异己的、有无限威力的和不可制服的力量与人们对立的，人们同自然界的关系完全像动物同自然界的关系一样，人们就像牲畜一样慑服于自然界，因而，这是对自然界的一种纯粹动物式的意识(自然宗教)。”恩格斯在《路德维希·费尔巴哈和德国古典哲学的终结》中指出：“如果灵魂在人死时离开而继续活着，那就没有理由去设想它本身还会死亡”,“由于十分相似的原因，通过自然力的人格化，产生了最初的神。随着各种宗教的进一步发展，这些神越来越具有了超世界的形象。”在低水平生产力的条件下，东南亚的古人对许多自然现象作出歪曲和颠倒的反映，把自然现象神化，从而产生了原始宗教。

Nature worship in Southeast Asian countries was closely linked to production. Human survival is greatly related to the sun, moon, and stars; people worked at sunrise and rested at sunset, submitting to the cycles of the sun and moon. Early Southeast Asian humans could not change the state of existence of the sun, moon, and stars, but changes in these celestial bodies could directly affect the living conditions of Southeast Asians, whose productive forces were extremely backward. Like many countries and regions in the world, ancient Southeast Asian countries worshipped the sun, moon, and stars. According to *History of Indonesia* by the Indonesian Sanusi Pane, [4]4 Sanusi Pane (1905-1968) was an Indonesian historian, poet, and playwright, a key figure in the Indonesian national awakening. ancient Indonesians worshipped the sun, calling it “Suria,” believing that human ancestors were descendants of immortals and were related to the sun. On the surface of ancient bronze drums discovered in Vietnam, there are patterns representing the sun and stars, which are considered a reflection of the nature worship of ancient Vietnamese people.

东南亚国家的自然崇拜与生产息息相关。人类生存与日月星辰有着很大关系，日出而作，日落而息，服从于太阳月亮的运行周期。早期东南亚人类，无法改变日月星辰的存在状态，但日月星辰的变化却能够直接影响生产力十分落后的东南亚人的生存状态。像世界上不少国家和地区一样，远古时期的东南亚国家崇拜太阳、月亮和星星。根据印尼人萨奴西·巴尼写的《印度尼西亚史》,远古的印尼人崇拜太阳，称太阳为“苏里阿(suria)”,认为人类的祖先是神仙的后裔，并和太阳有关系。在越南发现的古代铜鼓的鼓面上，有表示太阳星象的图案，被认为是古代越南人对自然崇拜的反映。

Animals in nature, in the eyes of ancient people, also possessed magical powers that humans found difficult to achieve. Southeast Asian countries such as Thailand, Malaysia, and Bangladesh worshipped large animals like elephants, tigers, and lions. The indigenous people of Vietnam engaged in the productive labor of rice cultivation, and their earliest totem worship was often associated with smaller animals related to rice production, such as cattle, birds, snakes, and fish. During their gathering activities, Paleolithic Vietnamese people envied birds, which could easily pluck any desired fruit from high trees with their wings; during fishing, the ancestors observed that some birds could skim the water’s surface and quickly catch fish and shrimp with their beaks. During hunting, the ancestors could catch small animals and even collectively hunt large animals, but they found it very difficult to catch agile and petite birds. Some scholars believe: “The primitive ancestors of Vietnam developed a sense of envy and reverence for the agility of birds living in the same environment as themselves, thus giving rise to the nature worship of birds. The myths and legends concerning the origin of ancestors in the Vietnamese nation also contain many stories related to birds.” [5]5 The source of this quotation is not provided in the original text. It appears that nature worship in Vietnam was related to their production activities.

自然界的动物，在古代人眼里也具有人类难以达到的神奇力量。泰国、马来西亚、孟加拉国等东南亚国家崇拜大型动物如象、虎、狮子等。越南土著从事种植水稻的生产劳动，最早的图腾崇拜往往是与水稻生产相关的体型较小的动物，如牛、鸟、蛇和鱼等。旧石器时代的越南人在采集活动中，羡慕鸟类可以借助双翅轻易摘取任何一颗想得到的高树上的果实；在捕鱼过程中，先民们观察到一些鸟类可以掠过水面用喙迅速从水中捕获鱼虾。狩猎过程中，先民们可以捉到小型动物，甚至可以集体围猎大型动物，但是却很难捕捉到动作敏捷、体态娇小的鸟类。有学者认为：“越南原始先民对与自己生活在同一环境中的鸟类的灵活性产生了一种羡慕与敬仰，从而产生对鸟的自然崇拜。越南民族有关祖先起源的神话传说中也流传着不少与鸟有关的故事。”看来，越南的自然崇拜与他们的生产活动相关。

Southeast Asian countries and regions have a strong tradition of ancestor worship. Some have pointed out that ancient Indonesians worshipped the souls of their ancestors, especially the souls of tribal founders who, though deceased, had enjoyed high prestige during their lifetimes. “They believed that the souls of their ancestors resided in a fairyland on the peaks of high mountains. When major events occurred, people would pray for the revelation and blessing of the ancestral spirits. This revelation and prophecy were obtained through female shamans. This is a manifestation of ancestor worship in primitive religion.” [6]6 The source of this quotation is not provided in the original text.

东南亚国家和地区具有很强的祖先崇拜传统。有人指出，古代印度尼西亚人崇拜先祖的灵魂，尤其崇拜虽然去世但生前享有崇高威信的部落建立者的灵魂，“他们认为祖宗的灵魂住在高山之巅的仙境，遇到发生重大事件时，人们就祈求祖宗之灵的启示和保佑，这种启示和预言乃是通过女巫得知的。这是原始宗教中祖先崇拜的表现形式”。

Ancestor worship easily develops into spirit worship. The Malay scholar Za’ba put forward a view: ancient Malays believed in “animism” (kepercayaan animisme), which can be called the animistic faith of religion. Modern Malays still retain a large number of ancient beliefs and superstitious customs, proving the animistic faith of ancient Malays. Ancient Malays believed that inanimate objects and nature usually have souls or spirits dwelling within them; the rice in the paddy field has a soul just like a child (in Sabah there is a harvest festival tradition of worshipping the rice spirit); evil spirits bring disease, and they believed that the Malay shaman (bomoh) could summon mountain and water spirits to help cure illness. Although contemporary Malays mostly believe in Islam, animistic beliefs of this kind are found everywhere among Malays. Walter William Skeat’s magnum opus *Malay Magic* and Sir Richard Winstedt’s *The Shaman, Saiva and Sufi* are both famous works studying the primitive beliefs and superstitions of the Malays. Many ancient Southeast Asians believed that the world was filled with spirits, present everywhere at all times, exercising a powerful dominance over living humans and easily coming into contact with them. “These ghosts and spirits were called ‘nats’ in ancient Burma and ‘phi’ in Thailand. In Burma it is generally believed that there are 37 nats.” [7]7 The term “nats” refers to a class of spirits or deities in Burmese folk religion, traditionally numbered at 37 major nats, often placated with offerings. “Phi” are spirits in Thai folk belief, ranging from ancestral ghosts to nature spirits. These phenomena are essentially the view that “because natural forces are personified, the first gods arise.” [8]8 This is a paraphrase of a passage from Friedrich Engels, *Ludwig Feuerbach and the End of Classical German Philosophy*, where Engels discusses the origin of religious ideas through the personification of natural forces.

祖先崇拜很容易发展到神灵崇拜。马来学者扎巴有一个观点：古代马来人相信“万物有灵(kepercayaan animisme)”,可以称之为宗教的泛灵信仰。现代马来人仍保留着大量古老信仰和迷信遗俗，证明古代马来人的泛灵信仰。古代马来人认为，无生命的物体和自然通常有灵魂或精神安居其中，稻田中的水稻和孩子一样有灵魂(在沙巴州有丰收节祭拜稻神的传统);恶灵会带来疾病，相信马来巫医(bomoh)可以召唤山水精灵协助治病。尽管当代马来人较多地信仰伊斯兰教，但是诸如此类的泛灵信仰在马来人中俯拾皆是。斯基特先生的巨著《马来巫术》和理查德·温斯迪特爵士的《萨满、湿婆和苏菲》,都是研究马来人原始信仰和迷信的名著。不少古代东南亚人认为，世界充满了神灵，无时无处不在，发挥着对现世人类的强大支配力，容易与人类发生联系。“这些鬼神在古代缅甸被称之为‘乃’(nats),泰国称为菲(phi)。在缅甸一般认为泰国称为‘非’(Phi)。在缅甸一般认为有37位‘乃’。”这些现象，本质上就是“由于自然力被人格化，最初的神产生了”的观点。

II. The Spread of Buddhism and Islam in Southeast Asia along with Human Productive Activity

二、东南亚佛教和伊斯兰教随着人类的生产活动而传播

Engels pointed out in *Socialism: Utopian and Scientific* that “production and, with production, the exchange of its products, is the basis of every social order” and that “the ultimate causes of all social changes and political revolutions are to be sought, not in the minds of men, in their increasing insight into eternal truth and justice, but in changes in the mode of production and exchange.” Marx and Engels have a famous saying in *The German Ideology*: “The relations of different nations among themselves depend upon the extent to which each has developed its productive forces, the division of labour and internal intercourse.” “The more the original isolation of separate nationalities is destroyed by the developed mode of production and intercourse and the division of labour between various nations naturally brought forth by these, the more history becomes world history.” The development of productive forces expands the scope of human activity and deepens the degree of human intercourse. The spread of religion in Southeast Asia is closely related to the productive and intercourse activities of the people of Southeast Asian countries. The enhancement of productive capacity, the improvement of vehicles, boats and means of transport, and the expansion of the scope of human activity strengthened the capacity of Southeast Asian countries to spread religious culture. Historically there were specialized missionaries who spread religion, but commercial exchanges were the main channel for the spread of Buddhism and Islam in Southeast Asia.

恩格斯在《社会主义从空想到科学的发展》中指出，“生产以及随生产而来的产品交换是一切社会制度的基础”,“一切社会变迁和政治变革的终极原因，不应当到人们的头脑中，到人们对永恒的真理和正义的日益增进的认识中去寻找，而应当到生产方式和交换方式的变更中去寻找”。马克思、恩格斯在《德意志意识形态》里有句名言：“各民族之间的相互关系取决于每一个民族的生产力、分工和内部交往的发展程度。”“各个相互影响的活动范围在这个发展进程中越是扩大，各民族的原始封闭状态由于日益完善的生产方式、交往以及因交往而自然形成的不同民族之间的分工消灭得越是彻底，历史也就越是成为世界历史。”生产力的发展，拓展着人类活动的范围，加深着人类交往的程度。东南亚宗教的传播，与东南亚国家的人们的生产交往活动密切相关。生产能力的增强，车船交通工具的改进，人类活动范围扩大，增强了东南亚国家传播宗教文化的能力。历史上有专门的传教士传播宗教，但是，商贸往来是佛教和伊斯兰教在东南亚传播的主要途径。

The economic and trade exchanges between Southeast Asian countries and India and China promoted the spread of Buddhism in Southeast Asia. Buddhism in Southeast Asian countries was influenced by the two ancient civilizations of China and India. The flourishing cultures of ancient China and India exerted a profound and lasting influence on the spread of religious culture in the Southeast Asian region. It is generally believed that around the beginning of the Common Era, large numbers of Indian merchants and monks, from the Indian state of Odisha, the Coromandel Coast, and the western coast of Gujarat, entered Southeast Asia by three sea routes: one reached the Pegu region of Burma, another reached the central part of the Malay Peninsula, and a third reached the coast of Sumatra and the shores of the Strait of Malacca. There were also two land routes: one from Bengal and northeastern India into the middle reaches of the Irrawaddy River in Burma; the other from southern China into northern Vietnam. Monks and priests who followed the merchants by sea and land brought Brahmanism and Buddhism into Southeast Asia. Archaeological finds and records in Chinese historical texts show that Brahmanism and Buddhism were already spreading in Southeast Asia at least by the second century CE.

东南亚国家与印度、中国经贸的交往，促进了东南亚佛教的传播。东南亚国家的佛教受到中国和印度这两个文明古国的影响。繁荣的古代中国和印度文化对东南亚地区宗教文化的传播产生了深刻、持久的影响，一般认为，大致在公元初年前后，大量的印度商人、僧侣，从印度奥萨里邦和曼德海岸以及西部古吉拉特邦沿海，分为三路进入东南亚：一路到达缅甸勃固一带，另一路到达马来西亚半岛中部地带，再一路到达苏门答腊海岸和马六甲海峡沿岸。陆路则是有两条：一条由孟加拉、印度东北部传入缅甸伊洛瓦底江中游地带；另一条由中国南部传入越南北部。跟随商人从海路和陆路来的僧侣和教士，将婆罗门教和佛教带入东南亚。考古发现的文物和中国历史典籍记载表明，至少在公元二世纪时，婆罗门教和佛教已经在东南亚地区传播开来。

The Vietnamese scholar Van Tan specifically studied the initial spread of Buddhism in Vietnam, holding that Buddhism was introduced into Vietnam around the second century BCE. “During this period, whenever Indian merchant ships sailed for Guangzhou, they would dock at Jiaozhi to buy and sell goods. According to ancient Indian custom, almost every merchant ship had monks on board. Chinese old histories call them ‘Hu monks.’ These Hu monks presided over maritime rituals and treated the sick along the way. When Indian merchant ships anchored at Jiaozhi, the Hu monks would go ashore to treat the local people and preach.” [9]9 “Jiaozhi” (交州) was a historical region and administrative division of China, covering parts of what is now northern Vietnam and southern China. “Hu monks” (胡僧) was a Chinese term for non-Chinese, especially Central Asian or Indian, Buddhist monks. The ancient Jiaozhi mentioned here refers to parts of present-day northern Vietnam, central Vietnam, and a portion of China’s Guangxi region. Van Tan also held: “Thus it can be seen that Buddhism was introduced in the second century BCE by Hu monks who came to Jiaozhi on Indian merchant ships. By the end of the second century, due to the activities of Mahākāla, Kang Senghui, Zhi Jiangliang, and Mou Rong, Buddhism had already spread systematically and widely in ancient Vietnam.” By the Tang dynasty, when the imperial court and the elite revered Buddhism, Buddhism gained even wider dissemination in Vietnam.

越南学者文新专门研究了佛教在越南的最初传播情况，认为佛教于公元前二年前后传入越南，“这段期间，每当印度商船开往广州都要在交州靠岸，买卖货物。根据古印度的习俗，每只商船几乎都有僧侣。中国旧史称其为胡僧。这些胡僧主持海上祭祀活动和沿途为人看病。当印度商船在交州停泊时，胡僧就上岸为当地人看病并传教”。这里提到的古代交州，指的是现在越南北部、中部和中国广西的一部分区域。文新先生还认为：“可见佛教是在公元前随着印度商船来交州的胡僧传入的。到了二世纪末期，由于摩诃耆域、康僧会、支疆梁和牟融所进行的活动，佛教在古代越南已经有系统、广泛地进行传播。”到了唐代，朝廷上下推崇佛教，佛教在越南获得更加广泛的传播。

The economic and trade exchanges between Southeast Asia and Arab merchants promoted the spread of Islam in Southeast Asia. The academic community generally believes that Islam in Southeast Asia was introduced by Arab merchants around the end of the thirteenth century. Southeast Asia was rich in spices, attracting some Arab Muslim merchants, via the Indian state of Gujarat, to come to Southeast Asia for spice trade. Therefore, Islam was first spread to Southeast Asia by merchants passing through India. The northern part of Sumatra, located at the throat of the communication between the Indian Ocean and the Pacific Ocean, naturally became a prosperous trade center. Marco Polo recorded in his travels that in 1292 the state of Perlak (negeri perlak) in Sumatra had already converted to Islam. The academic community generally considers the Samudera-Pasai Sultanate in northern Sumatra to be the earliest Islamic state in Indonesia. In 1297, the first king of the Samudera-Pasai Sultanate died, and on his tombstone were carved the Islamic calendar and the Islamic name “Sultan Malik al-Saleh” (sultan mansur shah) and other words.

东南亚与阿拉伯商人的经贸往来，促进了伊斯兰教在东南亚的传播。学界普遍认为，东南亚的伊斯兰教大概是十三世纪末由阿拉伯商人传入的。东南亚盛产香料，吸引一些阿拉伯穆斯林商人经由印度古吉拉特邦，前来东南亚经营香料商贸活动。因此，伊斯兰教首先由途径印度的商人传到东南亚。居于连接印度洋、太平洋交通咽喉地位的苏门答腊岛的北部，自然形成繁华的贸易中心。马可·波罗在游记中说，1292年苏门答腊的八儿刺国(negeri perlak)已经皈依伊斯兰教。学界一般认为，苏门答腊岛的北部的须文答那-巴赛(samudera-pasai)苏丹国，是印度尼西亚最早的伊斯兰教国家。1297年，须文答那-巴赛苏丹国的第一个国王去世，在坟墓的墓碑上，刻有伊斯兰教历和伊斯兰教名“苏丹·马立克沙(sultan mansur shah)”等字。

Malacca, near Sumatra, was an important entrepôt trading port in Southeast Asia, with merchant ships gathering and merchants from Eastern countries assembling. Many Muslim merchants came here to trade, and Islam gradually spread from Pasai to Malacca. Some believe: “With the spread of Islam in India and Muslim merchants taking control of trade with Indonesia, the spread of Islam to Southeast Asia became an inevitable trend.” The first king of Malacca married an Arab princess, converted to Islam, and took the Islamic name Iskandar Shah. Subsequent generations of Malacca kings all believed in Islam. By the time of the fourth Malacca ruler, the Muslim monarch’s title “Sultan” was adopted, and Islam was established as the state religion, making Malacca a center for the spread of Islam in Southeast Asia. Malacca entered its heyday under the fifth king, becoming one of the most powerful states in Southeast Asia, and promoted the spread of Islam in the region. Some scholars believe: “In the latter half of the fifteenth century, Sumatra and the coast of Java were Islamized. In the sixteenth century, Islam had achieved a dominant position in northern Kalimantan, the Maluku Islands, the Sulu Archipelago, Mindanao, and other places; the Islamization of most of the maritime regions of Southeast Asia was by then basically complete.”

苏门答腊附近的马六甲，是东南亚重要的转口贸易商港，商船云集、东方各国商人汇集，许多穆斯林商人到此经商，伊斯兰教就从巴赛逐渐传入马六甲。有人认为：“随着伊斯兰教在印度的传播和穆斯林商人掌握了与印尼的贸易，伊斯兰教向东南亚的传播为大势所趋。”马六甲首任国王娶一位阿拉伯公主为妻，改信伊斯兰教，取伊斯兰教的名字为伊斯坎达·沙。以后的多代马六甲国王皆信奉伊斯兰教。到第四代马六甲君主时，开始采用穆斯林君主“苏丹”尊号，定伊斯兰教为国教，使得马六甲成了东南亚伊斯兰教的传播中心。马六甲在第五世国王时代进入鼎盛时期，成为东南亚最强大的国家之一，推动了伊斯兰教在东南亚的传播。有学者认为：“十五世纪后半期，苏门答腊、爪哇岛沿岸实现了伊斯兰化。十六世纪，伊斯兰教已在加里曼丹北部，摩六甲群岛、苏禄群岛、棉兰老等地占有统治地位，东南亚海岛大部分地区伊斯兰化此时已基本完成。”

III. Religion Was Used by Colonizers as a Tool to Maintain Colonial Rule

三、宗教被殖民者利用成为维护殖民统治的工具

Marx pointed out: “Religion is the sigh of the oppressed creature, the heart of a heartless world, just as it is the spirit of a spiritless situation. It is the opium of the people.” In the era when Southeast Asian countries were colonized, religion was used by the colonialists as a tool to maintain colonial rule.

马克思指出：“宗教是被压迫生灵的叹息，是无情世界的情感，正像它是无精神活力的制度的精神一样。宗教是人民的鸦片。”东南亚国家被殖民的时代，宗教被殖民主义者当作维护殖民统治的工具。

In ancient Vietnam, Buddhism became a tool for the ruling class to maintain its rule and a "tranquilizing" or "sleep-inducing" drug for the common people to endure suffering. Throughout the French colonial period, the French colonizers in Vietnam were initially unwelcoming toward the unfamiliar Buddhism. However, when they discovered that increasing numbers of the masses believed in Buddhism, they promptly shifted their strategy, intending to use Buddhist doctrines such as "destiny can be changed through compassion, the accumulation of merit, and the practice of repentance," "bearing as letting go," and "the practice of selflessness" to anesthetize the people's fighting spirit. Especially after the Indochinese Communist Party entered the historical stage in 1930, the Vietnamese people's struggle against colonial rule entered a new high tide. While brutally and ruthlessly suppressing the people's resistance, the French colonizers increasingly felt that Buddhism could be exploited to wear down and anesthetize the people's will to resist. In 1931, with the support of the French colonizers, the Cochinchina Buddhist Studies Association was established in Saigon. In 1932, a Buddhist Studies Association was established in Hue. In Tonkin, the General Buddhist Association was established in Hanoi in 1931, along with provincial Buddhist branches. Buddhist institutions ran schools, explained Buddhist scriptures, and spread Buddhism. Hue published the *Garden Sound News* (园音报), the Hanoi General Buddhist Association published the *Wisdom Fire News* (慧火报), and the Thien Mu Pagoda published the *Morning Bell Sound News* (晨钟声报), providing a platform for spreading Buddhist scriptures and for believers to study them. The French colonizers used Buddhism as a spiritual weapon to rule the Vietnamese people, teaching them to obey and endure, urging them to place their hopes in the afterlife, and many less politically conscious people were deceived by this.

在古代越南，佛教成为统治阶级维护统治的工具，成为百姓忍受苦难的“安神”药或“安眠”药。在整个法属时期，越南的法国殖民者本来对陌生的佛教持不欢迎态度，但是，他们发现越来越多的群众信仰佛教，随即转换策略，要用佛教的“命运既然可以因为行慈悲、培福德、修忏悔而加以改变”“担当为放下”“无我之实践”等教义，来麻醉人民的斗志。尤其是1930年印度支那共产党登上历史舞台后，越南人民反抗殖民统治的斗争进入新高潮，法国殖民者在野蛮、残酷镇压人民反抗时，越发感到佛教可资利用以消磨和麻痹人民的反抗斗志。1931年，在法国殖民者扶持下，在西贡成立了南圻佛学研究会。1932年，在顺化成立佛学会。北圻于1931年在河内成立佛教总会及各省的佛教支会。佛教机构兴办学校，讲解佛经，传播佛教。顺化出版《园音报》,河内佛都教总会出版了《慧火报》,石婆寺院出版《晨钟声报》,为传播佛经，为教徒们研究佛经提供园地。法国殖民者把佛教当作统治越南人民的精神武器，教导民众学会顺从和忍耐，劝他们把希望寄托在来世，许多觉悟低的民众被其所迷惑。

Spanish colonial expansion played an important role in promoting the overseas spread of Catholicism, and Catholicism also became a tool to assist Spanish colonial expansion and maintain colonial rule in the Philippines. Before Western colonizers arrived in Southeast Asia, Catholicism was not prevalent among the inhabitants of Southeast Asia. To this day, Buddhism and Islam prevail in most Southeast Asian countries, with only the vast majority of inhabitants in the Philippines adhering to Catholicism. The initial acceptance of Catholicism in the Philippines was accompanied by bloody national oppression. When Magellan led sailors to reach Samar Island in the Philippines in March 1521, he also brought several priests. These colonizers induced local chiefs and inhabitants to accept Catholic baptism and demanded loyalty to the King of Spain. In 1571, the first Catholic church built by Spanish colonizers appeared in Manila. In 1578, Pope Gregory XIII designated the Philippine region controlled by the Spanish as the independent Manila Catholic Diocese.

西班牙殖民扩张在推动天主教的海外传播方面起了重要的作用，天主教也成为辅助西班牙在菲律宾殖民扩张与维护殖民统治的工具。在西方殖民者来到东南亚之前，东南亚居民中原本不流行天主教，至今，东南亚的大部分国家里盛行的是佛教、伊斯兰教，只有菲律宾的绝大部分居民信奉天主教。菲律宾最初接受天主教，伴随着血腥的民族压迫。麦哲伦率领水手于1521年3月到达菲律宾萨马岛时，同时带来的还有若干名神父。这些殖民者诱使当地首领和居民接受天主教洗礼，要求效忠西班牙国王。1571年，马尼拉出现了西班牙殖民者建的第一个天主教教堂，1578年，教皇格利十三世把西班牙人控制的菲律宾区域划为独立的马尼拉天主教监管区。

Engels once spoke about the British bourgeoisie using religion to strengthen its rule, saying that the British bourgeoisie "soon discovered that this same religion could be used to manipulate the souls of their natural subordinates, making them obey the commands of the masters placed over them by God. In short, the British bourgeoisie at this time also participated in suppressing the 'lower orders,' the vast mass of producers throughout the country, and one of the means used for this purpose was the influence of religion." Just as the British bourgeoisie regarded religion as a means of maintaining rule, the Spanish colonizers used Catholicism to rule the Filipino people. When the Spanish first arrived in the Philippines, they were a minority, while Filipinos were the majority. In a situation of such a disparity in strength, in order to gain a foothold in the Philippines and achieve colonial rule, one of the most effective tricks the Spanish colonizers racked their brains to devise was to use religion, which Marx called "the opium of the people," to poison and anesthetize the Filipino people's will to resist, causing them to lose the confidence and courage to win through armed struggle against the colonialists. No wonder some say: the Spanish colony in the Philippines was occupied by missionaries. In fact, the entry of Spanish colonizers into the Philippines was the result of the combined action of Catholicism and the military. In 1586, seven Spanish bandit leaders reported to the King of Spain that with the protection of the army, Catholic "clergy could safely carry out the preaching of the Gospel, and the acceptance and conversion [of the natives]." The Spanish colonizers used guns and cannons to uphold the faith of Jesus Christ while plunging the Filipino people into a sea of suffering. On the one hand, the Spanish colonizers suppressed the resistance of local governments and inhabitants in the Philippines; on the other hand, they suppressed the activities of Islam. When Catholicism first spread to the Philippines, Islam had also just spread to Luzon and the central regions of the Philippines. Catholicism, taking advantage of Islam's unstable foothold and weak influence, used military force to eliminate the local native princes who believed in Islam, forcing the local inhabitants to convert to Catholicism.

恩格斯曾经谈到英国资产阶级利用宗教加强自己的统治时说，英国资产阶级“不久他发现可以用这同样的宗教来操纵他的天然下属的灵魂，使他们服从由上帝安置在他们头上的那些主人的命令。简言之，英国资产阶级这时也参与镇压‘下层等级’,镇压全国广大的生产者大众了，为此所用的手段之一就是宗教的影响”。如同英国资产阶级把宗教当作维护统治的手段一样，西班牙殖民者利用天主教统治菲律宾人民。西班牙人初到菲律宾时，属于少数，而菲律宾人占大多数。在力量对比悬殊的情况下，为了能够在菲律宾站稳脚跟，实现殖民统治，西班牙殖民者绞尽脑汁地想到的最有效的诡计之一，就是利用被马克思说成“麻醉人民的鸦片”的宗教，毒害并麻醉菲律宾人民的反抗意志，失去与殖民主义者做武装斗争取得胜利的信心和勇气。难怪有人说：西班牙在菲律宾的殖民地是用传教士来占领的。其实，西班牙殖民者进入菲律宾，是天主教和军队共同起作用的结果。1586年，七个西班牙强盗头目向西班牙国王报告说，有了军队的保护，天主教“神职人员传播福音和接受和皈依，才能安全进行”。西班牙殖民者用枪炮维护耶稣基督的信仰，而把菲律宾人民投入到苦难苦海里。西班牙殖民者一方面镇压菲律宾当地政府和居民的反抗，一方面镇压伊斯兰教的活动。天主教刚传到菲律宾时，伊斯兰教也刚传到菲律宾吕宋岛和菲律宾中部地区。天主教力图利用伊斯兰教在菲律宾立足未稳，势力不强之际，用武力消灭了菲律宾当地信仰伊斯兰教的土著王公，迫使当地居民改信天主教。

Catholicism implemented a theocratic mode of governance in the Philippines. Marx, speaking about the ruling characteristics of Catholicism and its rule in Byzantium and Turkey, said: "The main feature that distinguishes Orthodoxy from other branches of Christianity is the dual unity of state and church, of secular and religious life." Marx, speaking about the rule of Christianity in Turkey, said: "This all-embracing, tyrannical guardianship, control, and interference of the church could penetrate into all spheres of social life." The situation of Catholic rule in Byzantium and Turkey described by Marx is very suitable for describing the scene of Spanish colonial rule in the Philippines. When Catholicism came to the Philippines, it gradually shed its benevolent, ornate packaging and became a means of rule for the colonizers to coerce the Filipino lower classes into submission. The Catholic Church in the Philippines not only managed religious affairs but also enjoyed extensive powers in politics, judiciary, culture, education, finance, economy, and other aspects, becoming the most important component of the colonial ruling apparatus and the spiritual and political pillar of Spanish colonial rule in the Philippines. Archbishops had the power to intervene in the transfer and appointment of governors and senior officials, and bishops obtained the right to act as governor when the post was vacant. At the provincial, city, and town levels of government, parish priests also held most of the power. Parish priests controlled local educational and cultural affairs and held managerial authority over matters ranging from health and charity to local taxation, signing identity cards or poll tax documents, local statistics, reviewing municipal budgets, supervising the food supply of prisons and prisoners, distributing royal lands, and supervising local police and militias. Engels, in *The Frankish Period*, exposed how "deception, magic, and the apparitions of the dead, especially saints, were used by the church as means of extorting money. Last but not least was the forgery of documents." "Thus, church estates acquired through donations, extortion, deception, fraud, forgery, and other acts of a criminal nature reached an enormous size within just a few centuries." Having gained political power in the Philippines, the Catholic Church also acquired economic rights, using its privileges to seize land and unscrupulously apply in the Philippines the same set of methods it had used to plunder property in Europe. Those who groaned in suffering were the oppressed non-Catholics within the Philippines, whose rights and freedoms were brutally trampled by the theocratic colonial rulers. Their rights to residence, education, and employment were not guaranteed. After the Spanish-American War, the United States expelled Spanish rule from the Philippines and occupied it. The United States vigorously supported the church forces, and Catholicism once again became a tool of American colonial rule.

天主教在菲律宾实行政教合一的治理方式。马克思在讲到天主教的统治特征以及在拜占庭和土耳其的统治情形时说：“正教不同于基督教其他教派的主要特征，也就是国家和教会、世俗生活和宗教生活的两位一体。”马克思讲到基督教在土耳其的统治，“教会的这种无所不包的暴虐的监护、控制和干涉竟然可以渗透到了社会生活的一切领域”。马克思讲的天主教在拜占庭和土耳其统治的情形，很适合于叙述西班牙殖民统治菲律宾的情景。天主教来到菲律宾，逐渐脱去仁慈的华丽的包装，成为殖民者胁迫菲律宾下层阶级就范的统治手段。菲律宾的天主教会不仅掌管宗教事务，而且享有广泛的政治、司法、文化、教育、财政、经济等多方面的权力，成为殖民统治机构最重要的组成部分，成为西班牙在菲律宾殖民统治的精神的和政治的支柱。大主教有权干预总督和高级官吏的调动和任免，主教获得总督空缺时代行总督之责的权利。在省、市、镇一级政权里，教区教士也掌握了大部分的权力。教区教士控制当地教育文化事业，拥有从卫生、慈善事业到地方税收、签署身份证或人头税证件、地方统计、审查市镇预算、监督监狱和囚犯的粮食供应、皇家土地的分配、监督地方警察和民兵等等方面的管理权力。恩格斯在《法兰克时代》里揭露过“欺骗、魔术、死人特别是圣徒的显灵，都被教会用作骗取财物的手段。最后但也是最重要的方法是假造证件”。“因此采用捐赠、勒索、欺骗、诈骗、造假以及其他带有刑事犯罪性质的勾当而巧取豪夺来的教会地产，在短短几世纪间竟然达到了极其庞大的数目。”天主教会在菲律宾获得政治权力，也获得了经济权利，凭借特权霸占地产，将在欧洲抢占财物的一套做法肆无忌惮地在菲律宾施展出来。呻吟叫苦的是被压迫的菲律宾境内的异教徒，他们的权利和自由都被政教合一的殖民统治者蛮横地践踏了。他们的居住权利、就学权利、供职权利等等得不到保障。美西战争后，美国驱逐了西班牙在菲律宾的统治，占领菲律宾。美国大力扶持教会势力，天主教又成为美国殖民统治的工具。

IV. Religious Figures Launch National Liberation Struggles Against Colonial Oppression

四、宗教界人士开展反对殖民压迫的民族解放斗争

In *Ludwig Feuerbach and the End of Classical German Philosophy*, Engels, when criticising Feuerbach’s view that “the various periods of humanity are distinguished from one another solely by changes in religion,” put forward a thesis: “That great historical turning-points are accompanied by changes in religion only so far as the three world religions which have up to the present existed — Buddhism, Christianity, and Islam — are concerned. The old spontaneous tribal and national religions had no propagandist character and lost all power of resistance as soon as the independence of the tribe or nation was broken; among the Germans, this happened even when they came into contact with the collapsing Roman world empire and its newly adopted world religion, Christianity, which was adapted to its economic, political, and ideological conditions. Only in these more or less artificial world religions, especially Christianity and Islam, do we find that more general historical movements take on a religious colouring.” The historical changes in Southeast Asian countries are closely related to religion. When Southeast Asian countries suffered colonial aggression, the colonialists used religion as a tool of colonisation, while the Southeast Asian people, including local religious figures, took religion as their banner to rally popular sentiment against colonial rule and to wage national liberation movements against colonialism.

恩格斯在《路德维希·费尔巴哈与德国古典哲学的终结》里批评费尔巴哈关于“人类的各个时期仅仅由于宗教的变迁而彼此区别开来”的观点时，提出一个论点：“重大的历史转折点有宗教变迁相伴随，只是就迄今存在的三种世界宗教——佛教、基督教和伊斯兰教而言。古老的自发产生的部落宗教和民族宗教是不传布的，一旦部落或民族的独立遭到破坏，它们便失掉任何抵抗力；拿日耳曼人来说，甚至他们一接触正在崩溃的罗马世界帝国以及它刚刚采用的，适应于它的经济、政治、精神状态的世界基督教，这种情形就发生了。仅仅在这些多少是人工造成的世界宗教，特别是基督教和伊斯兰教那里，我们才发现比较一般的历史运动带有宗教的色彩。”东南亚国家的历史变迁，与宗教有着密切关系。东南亚国家遭到殖民侵略时，殖民主义者把宗教当作殖民的工具，而东南亚人民包括当地宗教界人士，以宗教为旗帜，聚合反抗殖民统治的人心，开展反对殖民主义的民族解放运动。

Christians, during the Roman Empire before 1600 CE, had long engaged in underground secret activities, were regarded as subversives, and were suppressed by the Roman emperors: “The subversives were forbidden to hold assemblies; their meeting places were closed or even destroyed; the Christian symbol — the cross, etc. — was completely banned, just as the red handkerchief was banned in Saxony. Christians were not allowed to hold public office, nor could they even become non-commissioned officers.” Christians in Southeast Asian countries did not appear as the persecuted, but rather in the posture of new rulers, oppressing the Southeast Asian people and persecuting those who followed other religions in Southeast Asia. After Western colonialists invaded Southeast Asian countries, they reduced a large number of the original indigenous high-ranking rulers to lower-level officials; the indigenous ethnic religions were belittled, treated with hostility, and suppressed; the political and economic privileges of the clergy were stripped away. The schools established by the colonialists deprived the original indigenous clergy of their monopoly on cultural education. Therefore, colonial rule naturally met with powerful resistance from the oppressed Southeast Asian people, including religious figures. The leaders of peasant uprisings against colonial rule were often indigenous clergy. This was because the impoverished Southeast Asian peasants, as Marx put it, “cannot represent themselves; they must be represented,” and longed for a saviour, while the indigenous clergy, who were also oppressed relative to the colonialists and enjoyed high prestige in the vast countryside, took religion as their banner to call for peasant uprisings against colonial rule. Some rebel leaders declared themselves “saviours,” claiming that justice would descend upon the world. Others said they were sent by the gods, as messengers of the “saviour,” commissioned to overthrow colonial rule, drive out the white men, and equalise land rights.

基督教徒在1600年前的罗马帝国时期曾经长期从事地下秘密活动，被认为是颠覆者，遭到罗马皇帝的镇压：“颠覆者被禁止举行集会，他们的集会场所被封闭甚至被捣毁了，基督教的标志——十字架等等———一概被禁止，正像在萨克森禁止红手帕一样。基督徒不得担任公职，甚至不能当上等兵。”基督徒在东南亚国家不是以被迫害者的身份出现，而是以新的统治者的姿态出现，压迫东南亚人民，迫害东南亚信奉其他宗教的人士。西方殖民者入侵东南亚国家后，将东南亚国家的大量原著民的高级统治者置于下级官吏的地位，原著民的民族宗教被轻视被敌视被压抑，神职人员的政治和经济特权被剥夺。殖民者兴办的学校，使得东南亚国家的原神职人员失去了垄断文化教育的特权。所以，殖民统治理所应当地遭到被压迫的东南亚人民包括宗教界人士的有力反抗。反抗殖民统治的农民起义领导人往往是原著民的神职人员，这是因生活困顿的东南亚农民如马克思所言“他们不能代表自己，一定要别人来代表他们”,渴望救世主，而原著民的神职人员相对于殖民者来说也是被压迫者，又在广大的农村享有较高的威望，就以宗教为旗帜，号召农民起义，反抗殖民者的统治。有的起义领袖说自己是“救世主”,正义将降临人间。有的起义领袖说自己受到神的指派，是“救世主”的使者，受命推翻殖民统治，赶走白人，平均地权。

Buddhist figures in Vietnam heroically resisted French colonial rule. In the 19th century, France invaded Vietnam, forcing the weak and incompetent Hue government to sign the Treaty of Nham Tuat on 5 June 1862, ceding the three provinces of Bien Hoa, Gia Dinh, and Dinh Tuong, along with Con Son Island, to France, and allowing Christian missionaries to proselytise freely within Vietnamese territory. In 1867, France seized the three provinces of Chau Doc (called An Giang Province in Vietnam), Ha Tien, and Vinh Long. Through three Franco-Vietnamese wars, employing military offensives and political deception, France finally swallowed all of Vietnam, turning it into a colony. However, Vietnamese Buddhists and people of other strata unwilling to be enslaved by colonialism united to jointly wage the anti-French struggle. From 1890 to 1891, a “Monk Rebel Army” formed by Buddhists was active in Vietnam, supporting the anti-French struggle organised by Tran Cao Van, a member of the Vietnam Restoration League. In May 1916, when French troops pursued Tran Cao Van, he hid in a temple south of Hue city. This “Monk Rebel Army” caused the French colonialists great headaches, and it took enormous effort and resources to suppress it. The Southern Uprising (Nam Ky uprising) of the southern Vietnamese people against the French, which broke out in November 1940 with the support and guidance of the Indochinese Communist Party, saw the participation of many Buddhists and believers. The Vietnamese scholar Van Tan, in his article “Buddhism in Vietnamese History,” noted that during the French colonial period in Vietnam, “(In Gia Dinh) the monk Ai Ma Thong of Thai Son Temple, because he participated in the uprising, was arrested and killed by the French colonialists at Ma Diem. (In Rach Gia) the monk Dong of Tam Bao Temple turned the temple over to revolutionary cadres as a factory for making explosives and bullets, while he himself was exiled to Con Son Island and died there. Thich Thien An of Tam Bao Temple was also executed.” After Japan invaded Vietnam in 1940, Vietnamese religious figures waged an anti-Japanese struggle. According to Van Tan, after the Japanese invasion, “Buddhists and monks at the Yen Tu Mountain temple all participated in the anti-Japanese uprising. After the August Revolution of 1945, a unit in the Dong Trieu forces was entirely composed of monks and nuns. This unit followed Comrade Nguyen Binh (later a Lieutenant General) south to fight the French. The monks and nuns fought bravely and made tremendous contributions on the southern battlefield.” It can be seen that Vietnamese Buddhists made significant contributions and great sacrifices to the cause of Vietnam’s national liberation.

越南的佛教界人士，英勇地抗击了法国的殖民统治。19世纪法国入侵越南，逼迫软弱无能的越南顺化政府于1862年6月5日签订《壬戌和约》,将边和、嘉定、定祥三省和昆仑岛割让给法国，允许基督教传教士在越南境内自由传教。1867年，法国夺得昭笃(越南称安江省)、河仙和永隆三省。经过三次法越战争，通过军事进攻和政治欺骗，法国终于把越南全部吞并，变成其殖民地。但是，越南的佛教徒和不甘心被殖民奴役的其他各阶层人民，联合起来，共同开展抗法斗争。1890年至1891年，越南活跃着一支佛教徒组建的“和尚起义军”,支持越南光复会成员陈高云组织的抗法斗争。1916年5月，法军追捕陈高云，陈就躲藏至顺化城南的寺院里。这支“和尚起义军”,让法国殖民者深感头痛，耗费巨大精力财力，才将其镇压下去。1940年11月爆发的由印度支那共产党支持和指导的越南南部人民的反法的南圻武装起义，有许多佛教人士和信徒参加。越南学者文新在《越南历史上的佛教》一文里提到，法国殖民越南时期，“(嘉定)太尚寺庙僧蔼麻通因参加起义，在麻点被法殖民者逮捕杀害。(迪石)三宝寺的和尚童把寺庙让给革命干部制造炸药、子弹的工厂，而他本人却被流放到昆仑岛并死于该岛。三宝寺的释善恩也被毙亡”。1940年日本入侵越南后，越南宗教界人士开展了抗日斗争。据文新介绍，日军侵越后，“在安子山寺庙的佛教徒及和尚都参加了抗日起义。1945年八月革命之后，在东潮部队某单位全是僧尼。这个单位跟随阮平同志(后为中将)南下抗法。僧尼们英勇战斗，在南部战场上作出巨大的贡献”。可见，越南的佛教人士为越南的民族解放事业做出了重大贡献和重大牺牲。

Like Vietnam, Muslim religious figures in Malaysia actively participated in the struggle against a series of colonial aggressions. In 1511, Portuguese colonialists occupied Malacca. In 1641, as Dutch hegemony declined, Portuguese colonialists were replaced by the Dutch in Malacca. In 1786, after the British occupied Penang, they took control of Singapore in 1819. During the Second World War, Malaya was again ravaged by Japanese imperialism. The long-suffering Muslims and non-Muslims of Malaya united and fought, putting up resolute resistance against the different colonialists of different periods. The Federation of Malaya was established in 1948. In 1957, Malaya gained independence within the British Commonwealth. The history of Malaysia’s nation-building is marked by the heroic deeds of religious figures who participated in the struggle against colonial rule.

与越南一样，马来西亚穆斯林宗教人士积极投身于反对一系列的殖民侵略的斗争中。1511年，葡萄牙殖民者侵占马六甲(原译满刺加)。1641年，荷兰霸权衰落，葡萄牙殖民者在马六甲取代荷兰。1786年，英国占领槟榔屿后，于1819年控制新加坡。第二次世界大战期间，马来亚又遭日本帝国主义的蹂躏。久经殖民者蹂躏的马来亚穆斯林和非穆斯林，团结战斗，对不同时期的不同的殖民者进行了坚决的抵抗。1948年成立了马来亚联合邦。1957年，马来亚在英联邦内独立。马来西亚的建国史上留下了宗教界人士参加反抗殖民统治的英勇事迹。

From the sixteenth century, when the Spanish launched their invasion of the Philippines, the struggle of Filipino Muslims against colonial oppression lasted for several centuries. In 1596, the Spanish occupied Mindanao. Muslims took Islam as their spiritual weapon in a tenacious struggle against the Spanish colonizers; to defend the customs of Islamic faith and their traditional way of life, they fought the colonizers, and Muslim armed forces repeatedly attacked the Spanish. While waging military campaigns against the Sulu and Mindanao regions, the Spanish colonizers actively supported the activities of the Catholic Church, attempting to convert the local inhabitants to Catholicism, but met with stubborn resistance and achieved little. The Spanish colonizers’ guns and Bibles did not make the Muslims abandon Islam; on the contrary, they stirred up hatred between Muslims and Christians, intertwining religious contradictions with ethnic contradictions. The Spanish envisioned large-scale migration to the southern Philippines so that Christians would hold an absolute numerical advantage, but soon the Spanish-American War broke out and this plan was never carried out. In the struggle against the Spanish colonizers, Muslims once hoped for help from the United States, but after the United States replaced Spain as the new colonizer, it continued to pursue Spanish colonial policy, imposing political, economic, and cultural oppression and exploitation on the Filipino people, rekindling Muslim hatred for the American colonizers. Filipino Muslims waged armed resistance, and many Muslims were cruelly killed; for example, in the two anti-American uprisings that broke out in Jolo in 1900 and 1913, approximately 1,500 Muslims were killed. One scholar points out: “During more than three hundred years of colonial rule, the Spanish and American colonial authorities continuously migrated people to the south, so that the Christian population greatly exceeded the Muslim population. But this not only failed to make the Muslims abandon their struggle, it instead intensified the contradictions between them and the Christians.” Professor Liang Yingming also points out the economic roots of the unceasing struggle between Catholics and Christians: Muslims do not recognize private land ownership and oppose the government’s distribution of their communal lands to immigrant cultivators. They also regard taxation as contrary to the teachings of the Quran. Therefore, land disputes often became the direct cause of armed conflict. Schools that taught Western languages were seen as part of the Christian assimilation policy and were boycotted by Muslims. The Catholic Church’s pursuit of economic interests in the Philippines, its seizure of wealth by trickery, conforms to Marx’s statement that “the English Puritan and the Dutch heretic both made money their god” [16]16 This is a paraphrase of a remark by Marx in *Capital*, Volume I, Chapter 24: “The English Puritan and the Dutch heretic both made money their god.” — a characteristic of European religion.

从十六世纪西班牙人向菲律宾发动侵略时算起，菲律宾穆斯林反对殖民主义的斗争长达几个世纪。1596年，西班牙人侵占棉兰老。穆斯林将伊斯兰教当作他们同西班牙殖民者进行顽强斗争的精神武器，为维护伊斯兰教的信仰习俗和传统的生活方式，与殖民者斗争，穆斯林武装多次袭击西班牙人。西班牙殖民者在对苏禄和棉兰老地区武力征伐的同时，积极扶持天主教教会的活动，企图使当地居民皈依天主教，但遭到了顽强的抗拒，收效甚微。西班牙殖民者的枪炮和圣经没有能使穆斯林放弃伊斯兰教，反而激起了穆斯林和基督教徒之间的仇恨，使宗教矛盾和民族矛盾交织在一起。西班牙设想向菲律宾南方大量移民，使基督教徒在人数上占绝对优势，但不久美西战争爆发，这一计划没能付诸实施。在反对西班牙殖民者的斗争中，穆斯林曾经幻想获得美国的帮助，但美国代替西班牙成为新殖民者后，继续推行西班牙的殖民政策，对菲律宾人民实行政治、经济和文化的压迫和剥削，重新激起穆斯林对美国殖民者的仇恨。菲律宾穆斯林开展武装对抗，不少穆斯林惨遭杀害，如1900年和1913年在和乐爆发的两次反美起义中，被杀害的穆斯林就有约一千五百人。有学者指出：“在三百多年的殖民统治时期，西班牙和美国殖民当局不断地向南方移民，使基督教徒人口大大超过穆斯林人口。但是这不仅没有能使穆斯林放弃斗争，反而激化了他们同基督教徒之间的矛盾。”梁英明教授还指出天主教与基督教间不间断斗争的经济根源，即穆斯林不承认土地私有制，反对政府把他们的公用土地分配给移民耕种。他们还认为，征税是违背古兰经教义的。因此，土地纠纷往往成为武装冲突的直接原因。教授西方语言的学校，被认为是基督教同化政策的一部分而遭到穆斯林的抵制。天主教在菲律宾追求经济利益，巧取豪夺，符合马克思说的“英国的清教和荷兰的新教都离不开搞钱”的欧洲宗教的特征。

V. Remaining Issues and Prospects

五、余论与展望

Religious problems are widespread in Southeast Asian countries and will continue to exist and spread over a broad scope. Marx said: “Religion is only the illusory sun which revolves around man as long as he does not revolve around himself.” [17]17 Karl Marx, “Contribution to the Critique of Hegel’s Philosophy of Right: Introduction” (1843). Over time, with the development of social production, new and old immigrants from many countries around the world have come to Southeast Asia, forming a multi-ethnic, multi-religious, and multicultural society. The Malaysian constitution stipulates that Islam is the state religion of the federation, but permits other religions to carry out peaceful religious activities. Islam is taught as a subject at every grade level in schools, and corresponding facilities are provided for other religions. In Malaysia’s public education, religious courses often occupy nearly half of instructional time; students are segregated by religious affiliation to attend these courses, and the number of Islamic religious schools has grown exponentially. The progress of modern productive forces and high technology is not yet sufficient to eliminate the religious culture that has already been integrated into Southeast Asian culture; Southeast Asian religious culture will not exit the stage in a short time. The religious culture that has already been integrated into Southeast Asian mainstream culture and folk culture will continue to exist for a considerable period. Against the backdrop of multiple ethnic groups, multiple levels of productive forces, and multiculturalism, Southeast Asia has gathered many religions together, forming a religiously pluralistic culture that will continue to manifest a pluralistic state. The peoples of Southeast Asia, wearing different costumes according to their different ethnicities, beliefs, and languages, seek their own spiritual belonging (归宿) in different religions.

宗教问题在东南亚国家普遍存在，将继续在广大范围内存在和传播。马克思说：“宗教只是虚幻的太阳，当人没有围绕自身转动的时候，它总是围绕着人转动。”随着时间的推移，随着社会生产的发展，世界多国的新老移民来到东南亚，形成了多民族、多宗教的多元文化。马来西亚宪法规定了伊斯兰教是联邦的国教，但允许其他宗教进行和平的宗教活动。伊斯兰教作为一门课程在学校的每个年级教授，对于其他宗教也提供了相应的设施。在马来西亚的公共教育中，宗教课程往往占据几乎一半的教学时间，学生因宗教信仰参加这些课程而被隔离，伊斯兰宗教学校的数量呈指数级增长。现代生产力和高科技的进步，还不足以消除已经融入东南亚文化的宗教文化，东南亚宗教文化不会在短时间里退场。已经融入东南亚主流文化和民间文化里的宗教文化，会在相当长时间里继续存在。由于多民族、多层次生产力、多元文化的背景，东南亚将多种宗教汇集于此，形成了宗教多元的文化，还将继续呈现多元化状态。不同民族、信仰、语言的穿着不同服装的东南亚人民，在不同的宗教里找寻自己的心灵寄托。

Southeast Asian religion will continue to influence politics. Marx held that social forms of consciousness such as politics, law, philosophy, and religion, besides being determined by the economic base, also interact among their various internal forms. For a long time, religion in Southeast Asia has had considerable influence on politics. The politicization of religion and the religionization of politics are characteristics of many Southeast Asian countries. In Malaysia, besides religious belief, the national ideology also emphasizes the importance of religion. The Malaysian constitution stipulates that the ruler or sultan is the leader of each state and at the same time the leader of the corresponding Islamic faith; the supreme ruler is chosen from among the hereditary rulers of the states, who possess the status of Islamic leaders; therefore, the Supreme Head of Malaysia must necessarily be a Muslim. “Although the Supreme Head of Malaysia is not a national religious leader, he may, with the authorization of the state rulers, exercise authority over Islamic religious affairs at the federal level, and in the two West Malaysian states without rulers, he holds the status of Islamic leader of those states.” [18]18 The source of this quotation is not identified in the original text. It can be predicted that religion will continue to maintain this influence in Southeast Asia, and will continue to affect the domestic and foreign policy trends, party competition in elections, choices of political systems, and evolution of cultural ecology in contemporary Southeast Asian countries. The Marxist view of religion provides a guide for contemporary people to understand religious phenomena in Southeast Asian countries, and provides the basic standpoints, viewpoints, and methods for analyzing these phenomena. Applying the scientific method of Marxism is conducive to revealing the origins and development of religion in Southeast Asian countries and to scientifically understanding religious phenomena in Southeast Asia.

东南亚宗教将继续影响政治。马克思认为，社会意识形式如政治、法、哲学、宗教等，除了受到经济基础的决定作用外，其内部的各种形式之间也相互作用。长期以来，东南亚的宗教对政治有相当大的影响力。政治宗教化、宗教政治化是许多东南亚国家的特征。马来西亚人除了信仰宗教外，国家意识形态也强调宗教的重要性。马来西亚宪法规定，统治者或苏丹是各州的领导者同时也是相应伊斯兰教的领导者，最高统治者从具有伊斯兰教领袖身份的各州的世袭统治者中产生，所以，马来西亚最高元首必然信仰伊斯兰教。“马来西亚最高元首虽然并非全国性的宗教领袖，但在各州统治者授权的情况下可以在联邦层面上拥有执行伊斯兰宗教事务的职权，并且在无统治者的西马两州具有该州伊斯兰教领袖的地位。”可以预料，宗教在东南亚将持续地保持这个影响力，将继续影响着当代东南亚国家的国内外政策走势、政党竞争选情、政治体制的选择、文化生态的演化。马克思主义宗教观为当代人们认识东南亚国家的宗教现象提供了指南，提供了分析东南亚国家宗教现象的基本立场、观点和方法。运用马克思主义的科学方法，有利于揭示东南亚国家宗教的来龙去脉，科学地认识东南亚的宗教现象。

We must pay attention to the future “religious risks” that may trigger complex political, economic, and social risks in Southeast Asia. In Malaysia, there exists a division between Islamists and secularists. Islamism has continuously shaped a unique Malaysian political environment, intensifying divisions over political Islam and ethnic polarization. Since nearly all Malays are Muslims, Islamic groups fuse their religious demands with Malay nationalism. Ethnicity and religion are increasingly fused; the majority (though not all) of Malays adopt Islamist views, while minority groups are more secular. All major religions have strengthened their religious organizations, including through political mobilization of believers; more and more children are isolated from peers of different faiths through religious schools or home education. These transformations have deepened social divisions; the expansion of the state Islamic bureaucracy since the 1980s has further exacerbated sectarian divisions and widened the gap between Islamism and secularism. Religious identity seems to have replaced ethnicity as the core element of identity. The federal Islamic religious department has an annual budget of approximately 300 million US dollars and employs thousands of staff responsible for monitoring social behavior and regulating the economy. State management of Islam infringes on the rights of non-Muslims and many Muslims, especially Muslim minority sects targeted by the ruling authorities. The religious bureaucracy has created a constituency with vested interests in religion, particularly the conservative interpretation of faith that dominates among state clergy; it exploits the nearly complete symbiosis between Malay and Muslim identity as a point of expression, allowing religious nationalism to become a code for nationalism, which is less tolerant of ethnic minorities than traditional Malay nationalism, thereby sharpening the acute division between Islamists and secularists. In short, we need to pay attention to the origins and development of Southeast Asian religion and conduct specialized, in-depth research on Southeast Asian religion.

我们要关注未来的“宗教风险”可能引发东南亚复杂的政治、经济、社会等方面的风险。在马来西亚，存在着伊斯兰主义者和世俗主义者之间的分歧。伊斯兰主义持续推动塑造了独特的马来西亚政治环境，加剧了政治伊斯兰教方面的分歧和种族两极分化。由于几乎所有马来人都是穆斯林，因此伊斯兰团体将其宗教诉求与马来民族主义融合在一起。民族和宗教日益融合，大多数(尽管不是全部)马来人采用伊斯兰主义观点，而少数群体则更加世俗。所有主要宗教都加强了宗教组织，包括通过政治动员信徒，越来越多的儿童通过宗教学校或家庭教育与不同信仰的同龄人隔离。这些转变加深了社会分歧，20世纪80年代以来国家伊斯兰官僚机构的扩张进一步加剧了宗派分歧，并扩大伊斯兰主义与世俗主义的分歧。宗教身份似乎取代了种族，成为认同的核心要素。联邦伊斯兰宗教部门每年的预算约为3亿美元，并有数千名工作人员负责监督社会行为和调节经济。国家对伊斯兰教的管理侵犯了非穆斯林和许多穆斯林的权利，特别是受到执政当局打击的穆斯林少数教派。宗教官僚机构创造了宗教方面拥有既得利益的选民，特别是在国家神职人员中占主导地位的对信仰的保守解释，利用马来人和穆斯林身份之间几乎完全的共生作为表达点，允许宗教民族主义成为民族主义的密码，比传统的马来民族主义更不容纳少数民族，从而加剧了伊斯兰主义者和世俗主义者之间的尖锐分歧。总之，我们需要关注东南亚宗教的来龙去脉，对东南亚宗教进行专业性的深入研究。

(Author’s bio: Wang Xiaofeng, doctoral candidate, School of Social Sciences, Tsinghua University)

（作者简介：王晓峰，清华大学社会科学学院博士研究生）

Online editor: Tongxin

网络编辑：同心