China in the Anthroposophical Imaginary

Abstract Rudolf Steiner (1861–1925) joined the Theosophical Society in 1902 and founded a schismatic movement, the Anthroposophical Society, at the end of 1912. The history of humanity is a central theme in the vast corpus of writings and lectures he produced from 1902 to shortly before his death in 1925. By presenting his survey of history as the result of a nearly infallible clairvoyant investigation of the past, Steiner created a historical narrative that was rooted in the evolutionary and racist ideas of his time. The ancient Chinese play a minor role in this panorama and are consistently singled out as representing a backward and stagnant stage in human spiritual evolution. The details Steiner provide tend to have little to do with the China of mainstream history and focus instead on the ultimate origins of the “yellow race,” the ancestors of the Chinese people on Atlantis, and the way an Atlantean “Tao religion” was corrupted by the Chinese. This article surveys and contextualises his pronouncements on China and proceeds to analyse the very diverse ways in which Steiner’s views have been used as a raw material by later Anthroposophical writers who have discussed Chinese culture in their works.