Official Confucian Cult example essay topic

Chinese Religious and Ethical Systems It has often been said that the Chinese are not deeply religious. It is true that they have shown a comparative indifference to metaphysical speculation; Chinese culture was perhaps the first to develop an intellectual skepticism concerning the gods. Confucianism Confucius (Kong Zi) lived from 551 to 479 BC in the state of Lu (in modem Shandong province). He came from a family of officials and his concern was with the restoration of the Way (Dao) of the ancient sages. His teaching was therefore related mainly to society and its government. He advocated strict conformity, and thought that fostering correct behavior, within the context of the family, would produce an ordered society.

He was not particularly interested in religion, except insofar as it related to social life. However, in 59 AD during the Han dynasty, it was decreed that sacrifice should be made to Confucius and this began a process that was to make Confucian philosophy into the foundation of the Chinese political order. Confucius himself had only accepted the legitimacy of sacrifice to one's own ancestors, but from now on an official Confucian cult emerged, with its own temples. It gradually became linked with the state cult of the Emperor. From the fifth century AD Confucian orthodoxy retreated before the popularity of Buddhism and Daoism. But a renaissance came during the Sung dynasty when Confucianism responded to the challenge and developed its own metaphysics.

This new trend is known as Neo-Confucianism, and its main exponent was Zhu Xi (1130-1200). It subsequently became the main orthodoxy of the scholar officials until the demise of the imperial system in 1912. In contemporary China, the Confucian cult has disappeared, but the Confucian approach to government and society retains a powerful hold on many people. Daoism (Taoism) The origins of Daoism are obscure, but it is first seen as a rival to Confucianism.

The teachings of early Taoism are ascribed to Lao Zi in the fifth century BC who is the reputed author of the most influential Taoist text, the Dao De Jing (The Way and its Power). Where the Confucian stressed ethical action, the Taoist spoke of the virtue of Wu Wei (non-action), going with the flow of things. Like the Confucians, Daoist looked back to a golden age. The good ruler, they thought, guided his people with humility, not seeking to interfere with the rhythms of social life conducted within the larger patterns of the natural world and the whole cosmos. The Daoist adept was concerned to achieve 'immortality', seen as transmuted earthly existence.

This led to the development of alchemy and to methods of meditation aimed at reaching material immortality. As time passed Daoism found itself in direct competition with the foreign teachings of Buddhism. It borrowed Buddhist practices and also drew on folk religious traditions to create its own religious form and ethos. It secured an essential place in popular religious life, but in this form it has ceased to bear much resemblance to the philosophical precepts of the early teachers. The earlier, more philosophical Daoism has continued to inspire Chinese painters and poets through the ages and its teachings appealed to many a scholar official who adhered to a strictly Confucian ethic in public life. Buddhism Buddhism is the only foreign religion that has been widely accepted in China.

It first entered China in the second century AD and by the Tang Dynasty was the most dynamic and influential of all religions. However, its very success led to a severe curtailment of its activities in the late Tang, since officials began to see its power as a threat, both to their own power and to the order and prosperity of society. After this it remained an important element in Chinese life, but took its place alongside Daoism and a revitalized Confucianism. Both Confucian and Daoist teaching were 'non-dualistic' - matter and spirit formed a continuum within a cosmos that was self-generating and impersonal. Buddhism, however, taught a radical dualism.

Through a long process of adaptation, various Chinese schools emerged such as Chan and the Pure Land School, which were far more congenial to traditional Chinese thought. Zen, with its meditative techniques, and Pure Land with its stress on faith in the Amitabh a Buddha as the way to salvation, became the dominant forms of Chinese Buddhism. These teachings with their focus on sudden enlightenment and on salvation through grace rather than through ascetic practices appealed to many ordinary Chinese. Buddhism today continues as an important force in some parts of the country.

The extent of its influence is unclear, but it remains a key component in village religion. Temples and monasteries are reopening in many places and new monks and nuns are in training. The importance of religion in the history of China is greater than it appears at first sight. At the same time, it is true that Chinese people have not tended to express their awareness of the spiritual through the formulation of dogmas and through metaphysical speculations. To this extent at least the view of China as a society uninterested in religion contains a degree of truth. But this perspective is based on a 'narrow understanding of religion'.

Chinese people are no less concerned with ultimate questions of human life and destiny than any other people, but because their mode of expression has been so different from that of European culture, their way of asking these questions has not easily been subsumed under western definitions of 'religion'.