尽管国家宗教、国教等已成了宗教学中的习用术语,但是,学术界对于国家宗教的研究,一直处于一个较为薄弱的状态。这种薄弱主要体现在理论的滞后,这其中的一个关键的原因就在于对“国家宗教”的内涵、外延、功能、结构,更主要的是对其本质特征缺乏明晰的、系统化的理论阐释。在《汉朝的本土宗教与神话》一书中,尽管汉朝国家宗教形成的历史过程与背景是我讨论的一个重要内容,但我并没有对这一概念作系统的梳理与界定,就很难对国家宗教本身作深入的研究。在这种背景下,张荣明先牛的近作《中国的国教》出版了,说这本著作是国家宗教研究中的一大突破,毫不为过 Although national religions, state religions, etc. have become the nouns used in religious studies, the academic research on state religion has been in a weaker state. This weakness is mainly reflected in the lag of theory. One of the key reasons for this is that the connotation, denotation, function and structure of the “national religion” and, most importantly, the lack of a clear and systematic explanation of its essential features . In the book “Local Religion and Myths in the Han Dynasty”, although the historical process and background of the religious formation in the Han dynasty were an important part of my discussion, I did not systematically sort out and define the concept. It is difficult to conduct an in-depth study of the religion of the country itself. Against this background, Zhang Rongming’s recent work, “The State Church of China,” was published. It is no surprise that this book is a major breakthrough in the religious studies of the country