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THE RELIGIONS OF CHINA

Chinese culture is marked by four main religious traditions:

  • 1. The traditional folk religion
  • 2. Taoism
  • 3. Confucianism (had state patronnage)
  • 4. Buddhism

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MAJOR CHARACTERISTICS OF CHINESE RELIGIONS

  • 1. Martial Art
  • 2. Chinese Medicine and architecture
  • 3. WU-WEI (the Spirit of Tao)
  • 4. WEN (The Art of Peace)
  • 5. YIN-YANG
  • 6. Ideal Personhood: Shun-Tzu/The Man of Dao

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  • 7. Belief in the “Path of Heaven”
  • T'ien (Sky or Heaven)
  • T'ien Ming (the mandate of Heaven) and Sage King
  • Tao
  • 8. Ancestor Veneration
  • 9. Belief in Divination, Exorcism, Magical power

  • 10. Belief in simplicity and humility (no big ego);

Belief in the interconnectedness of everybody and everything;

and Quest for Balance and Harmony

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TEN KEY CONCEPTS OF CHINESE THOUGHT

1. The “San-jiao heyi” concept

2. YIN-YANG

3. TAO

4. TIEN

- TIEN MING (the Mandate of Heaven)

- REN TAO ( The path of men)

- T’IEN TAO (the path of Heaven)

5. WEN (Confucianism)

6. WU-WEI (Taoism)

7. SHUN-TZU

8. THE MAN OF DAO

9. JEN/REN

10. HSIAO

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6 KEY CONCEPTS EXPLAINED

* “San-jiao heyi”

* YIN-YANG

* TAO

* TIEN

* WEN

* WU-WEI

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1. The “San-jiao heyi” concept

  • The Chinese emphasis on harmony was also extended to “the unity of the three faiths”
  • “San-jiao heyi” is still widely used to refer to Confucianism, Taoism and Buddhism.

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  • More popular teachers such as Jiao Hong (1540-1620) taught that all three religions constitute in fact “a single teaching,” and all three should be believed because each merely uses separate language to articulate its truth.

  • Liu Mi (Active 1324):

“Although the Three Teaching are different,

in the arguments they put forward, they are One.”

  • Emperor Xiaozong (1163-1189):

“Use Buddhism to rule the mind,

Daoism to rule the body

Confucianism to rule the world.”

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  • Lin Zhaoen (1517-1598):

“if someone is a Confucian, give him Confucius;

If he is a Daoist, give him Lao Zi;

If he is a Buddhist, give him Shakyamuni;

If he isn’t any of them, give him their unity.”

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  • 2. Yin Yang

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YIN-YANG DOCTRINE

“Yin-Yang” worldview

  • is central to both Taoism and Confucianism,
  • and constitutes the soul of the Chinese character.
  • formulated during the 4th century B.C. in the form now known to us.

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The “Yin-Yang” doctrine is

  • the doctrine of “the harmony of opposites”

  • the view that everything

in the universe is composed of two different

but complementary cosmic forces.

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  • Both forces are necessary and are present in everything that exists.

  • All objects in the universe, including human beings, are made up of both.

  • Evil results from an imbalance between them.

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  • Each of us is an ever moving blend of Yin-Yang. The interaction extends beyond this world.
  • Even heaven and earth are linked together:
  • heaven is Yang and earth is Yin,
  • and the two are inseparable.

  • Yin-Yang is everything,
  • Yin-Yang is in everything.

Even the Tao is both male and female, according to Lao-Tzu.

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YANG YIN

* MALE *FEMALE

  • 1. DRAGON TIGER
  • 2. SKY EARTH
  • 3. DAY NIGHT
  • 4. SUN MOON
  • 5. SUMMER WINTER
  • 6. BRIGHT DARK
  • 7. DRY MOIST
  • 8. HOT COOL
  • 9. ACTIVE PASSIVE
  • 10. POSITIVE NEGATIVE

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3-4. TIEN and The TAO (DAO)

  • Tien
  • Tao
  • Ren Tao
  • T'ien Tao
  • T’ien Ming

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  • T'ien (Sky or Heaven)
  • T'ien Ming (the mandate of Heaven: what the sage king must follow)

  • TAO = THE WAY

= the way of Heaven

= the way of the universe

  • The path of men (Ren Tao)

must follow

  • the path of Heaven (T'ien Tao)

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T’IEN (=HEAVEN)

For Confucians, generally, Heaven is

  • “a supreme spiritual presence,
  • a great moral power,
  • and the source of all.”
  • It is an exalted sacred reality

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To follow the Tao means

to be in harmony

  • with the ancestors and the spirits,
  • with the forces of yin and yang and the five elements.

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5. WEN (in Confucianism)

  • = The Arts of Peace ( > < the arts of war)
  • = the sum of culture in its aesthetic and spiritual mode ( = poetry, music, and art)
  • Confucius valued the arts tremendously, and considered people who are indifferent to art only half human.
  • He was not interested in art for art’s sake,
  • But rather in art’s power to transform human nature in the direction of virtues, its capacity to ennoble the heart, to soften people by leading them to be sensitive to the needs of others.

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  • For Confucius the superior nation is not the one that has military might and uses physical or military force to solve problems,
  • but rather the one that develops the highest wen, the most exalted culture,
  • the nation that has the finest art,
  • the noblest philosophy,
  • the grandest poetry,

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  • the superior nation is that one that gives evidence of realizing that
  • “it is the moral character

of a neighborhood

that constitutes its excellence.”

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6. WU-WEI (in Taoism)

  • The soft overcomes the hard;
  • The gentle overcomes the rigid.
  • Everyone knows this is true,
  • But few can put it into practice.

(Tao Te Ching, chap.78)

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  • WU-WEI
  • WEI= Action
  • WU = not

  • = “inactive action,”
  • = “creative quietude.”
  • = “the way to do is to be.”
  • The man of wu wei “works without working.”
  • Does not mean “do-nothingness” or “inaction.”

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  • The supreme good is like water,
  • Which nourishes all things without trying to.
  • It is content with the low places that people disdain.
  • Thus it is like the Tao
  • (chap.8).

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  • “Nothing in the world
  • Is as soft and yielding as water:
  • Yet for dissolving he hard and inflexible,
  • Nothing can surpass it.

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PACIFISM (inTaoism)

  • Taoism is radically averse to violence and militarism.
  • In China the scholar ranked at the top of the social scale, and Taoism is responsible for placing the soldier at the bottom.

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  • For Taoism,

“the way for a vital person to go

is not the way of a soldier.”

  • Lao-Tzu taught that

“Only one who recognizes all people

as members of his or his own body

is qualified to guard them…

Heaven arms with compassion

those whom she would not see destroyed.”

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  • “One who would guide a leader of men
  • in the uses of life
  • will warn him against
  • the use of arms for conquest.
  • Even the finest arms are an instrument of evil:
  • an army’s harvest is a waste of thorns.”

(Tao Te Ching, chap. 30)

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  • “Weapons are the tools of violence;
  • All decent men detest them.
  • Weapons are the tool of fear;
  • A decent man will avoid them
  • Except with the utmost restraint…

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  • Peace is the highest value…
  • He enters a battle gravely,
  • With sorrow and with great compassion,
  • As if he were attending a funeral.”

(Tao Te Ching, chap. 31).

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