Religion And Kingship In China, India, And Egypt

People believed their ancestors controlled what went on in life and could guide them on the right paths, provided they kept them happy. Therefore, many people would use oracle bones to communicate with them, divining answers to their questions and foretelling the future using cracks fire made in the bones. This belief in all-powerful ancestors was so deeply held in Chinese society that when the Zhou dynasty began, in order to cement their legitimacy as rulers and prevent any possible revolts, they claimed they had the “Mandate of Heaven” and that the Shang had lost theirs by ruling poorly. The Mandate of Heaven was, essentially, the divine right to rule, but with ancestors in place of a single deity. This was readily accepted, for the Chinese people trusted their ancestors’ decisions (considering their omnisciency) and did not wish to go against their wishes, risking the consequences of displeasing them. The Zhou knew that this aspect of Chinese culture was ingrained and therefore took advantage of the fact that their claim was virtually

In China during 406-221 BCE, the battling states between the Zhou and the Han Dynasties? were in a state of governmental disorder. Although the era was in a disruptive state, it ushered in a cultural opening that left a long lasting imprint on the Chinese history. As a result, three major belief systems surfaced Confucianism, Daoism, and Legalism in an attempt to achieve a sense of political order in a disorder period. There are distinctions in the way each of the belief systems approached the many problems that plagued the Chinese society. First, all of the founders were contemporaries in China. As well as considered philosophies, who studied the future, and sat out to focus on the present rather than the past. In contrast, Confucianism, Daoism and Legalism established various paths in search of an optimistic future for the success of China. Second, both Legalism and Confucianism developed a social belief system, but are considered a religion. However, both Legalism and Confucianism purpose was to create an orderly society in the hopes of prosperity. In contrast, Daoism does

Hinduism, Buddhism and Shinto, while vast in differences there is much to learn about these three religions similarities as well. Some facts and history of Hinduism include, Hinduism (being the oldest of the three) is dated back in pre-history before 10000 BC even believed to predate the Indus River Valley Civilization! The Vedas (the holy text of Hinduism) is the foundation for Indian culture and also the basic belief system of Hinduism. The basic belief structure of Hinduism is as follows, the three doctrines; Samsara (1) which means “successive rebirths” indicating the belief in reincarnation started by ATMA or the spark of life given by the god Brahma. This cycle continues until the soul collects enough good Karma (2) to break from the

Both China and Egypt in the period before 600 B.C.E had religious rituals that they believed was the way to live life. In China during the Zhou Dynasty, their religion was shown to be believed that rituals were the greatest for people to live by known as li. (doc. 4) Aswell during the Shang Dynasty, oracle bones, bones from oxen and turtle shells were heated and the cracks would be used to answer questions. (doc. 3) Egyptians were also known to make sacrifices for their gods such as to Osiris, the god of death. (doc. 5) The preceding documents points of views are not biased because they are resources from the time period in question.

Religion in the ancient civilizations of Egypt and Mesopotamia played a significant role in developing and organizing the society. Based on the common belief of the world’s divine creation, both civilizations had regular rituals and ceremonies to honor the supernatural beings. In rituals and ceremonies, the cult was expressed as the manifestation of components that symbolized the divine such as the cult images, temples, and shrines. Since religion was an important aspect in the people’s daily lives, it also had an impact on the ruling system in the two civilizations. Even though Ancient Egypt and Mesopotamia have similar foundational beliefs about the cult, different cultic practices imply the difference in the structure and the scope of

When comparing their religious views, Ancient South Asia and China were very different. In Ancient South Asia, they held that trees and animals were sacred because of their associations with vital forces. In comparison, Ancient Chinese people believed in their ancestor’s presence and they believed in their continuing influence. Family heads, in Ancient China, presided over the rites of honoring their ancestor’s spirits.

Upon reading about the historical and religious background of Ancient India, one can clearly assume that the country was strongly influenced by three main religious teachings: Hinduism, Jainism and Buddhism. These three sects in religious thinking have many similarities as all recognize the life-cycle and the need of liberation, they worship one central deity that used to be a human who gained enlightenment and they all recognize the existence of the eternal soul and after-death re-incarnation. However, they also share a lot of differences that mark the underlying principles of practicing them. I will identify the scope of differences and similarities in these ancient religions in an attempt to understand why each attracted followers, why

As we can see, religion in India and Egypt became a factor of importance, but in clearly different ways and yielding different structures and interactions. The religious and political structures of both ancient civilizations can be related to the Japanese mandate of heaven. This comparison can be made because in India and

Ancient China and ancient Egypt were both two sophisticated civilizations that created a religion as a way to explain the natural phenomena they encountered and the unknown. Although different in many ways, their religions do share many similarities with each other. One of these similarities is that both of the religions are polytheistic. In both Chinese and Egyptian religion, there are many different gods, and each god rules in their own domain. However, not only do both religions have more than one god in them, but also many of the gods from both religions are very similar to each other in the sense that they rule over the exact same thing. For example in ancient Chinese religion there is a sky god, just like the sky god in ancient Egyptian religion. Another similarity that both religions have in common with each other is that each religion has it’s own “high god” that rules above all of the other gods. For the Chinese it is Shang-Ti, the supreme god who rules above

Hinduism, Buddhism, and Daoism are all religions that connect in more than one way. One major way that these religions connect is through the afterlife, otherwise known as the unconditioned reality. Hinduism and Buddhism have very similar views on the afterlife while Daoism has a slightly different view. In the end, they all have the same goal which is to achieve the final state that lasts forever. Even though this is true, that does not mean they do not differ in more than one way. Hinduism, Buddhism, and Daoism rely strongly on theoretical, practical, and sociological standpoints. A large part of the theoretical standpoints, are myths about the gods and how things are. A large part of sociological standpoints are festivals, and temples. Lastly, practical is practiced through mediation, yoga, and payers. In Hinduism, there are various sects that worship a total of roughly 360,000,000 different gods. As you could imagine, this would be difficult to generalize in just one essay, so the branch of Hinduism I will go over just includes the basic trinity and Vedic gods. Along with this, this essay will include information on the two major types of Buddhism and how one attains enlightenment. Finally, we will go over how one is to attain immortality through Daoism, along with the beliefs of the traditional Chinese Folk religions.

The core beliefs of Hinduism is Kharma, reincarnation, and Dharma. Kharma is the idea that whatever one does during their life will translate back onto themselves, similar to when Jesus says do onto others as you would have them do onto you. Or in other words treat others the way you would want to be treated. Reincarnation is basically the rebirth of someone’s soul in a new form or body. Christianity does not seem to have something similar to this but one could argue that Jesus reincarnated because he became a new version of himself compared to his past. Jesus could have also been reincarnated as God himself so that the divine could be made visible in human form for all to see, according to the Gospel of John. Dharma is the idea that there is an order that makes life and the universe possible, which includes ones duties, rights, laws, conduct, virtues and the right way of living. I believe this could be similar to Christianity in the sense of the Ten Commandments. These commandments are rules and laws that Christianity uses to judge right from wrong.

Hinduism which had developed in India as one of the most followed, was and still is polytheistic which meant the belief in many gods. Furthermore, the followers of Hinduism believed in what was called reincarnation; the rebirth of your soul in a new body after death. Also, the caste system was the division of social

There are many different religions in both China and India. The most popular religions in China are ancient Confucianism and Taoism, Buddhism, Islam, Protestant, Catholic, and a new form of religion Falun Gong. India has many religions that are different or the same as the Chinese. Indian religions include: Hinduism, Islam, Christianity, Sikhism, Buddhism, and Jainism. There are also many people from China that do not follow a religion because of its communist background.

Chinese Philosophy has been dominated by Humanistic ideology since the dawn of documented Chinese history. Chinese Humanistic philosophy aimed to profess the unity of man and Heaven as well as man and nature, unlike humanism that amines to discredit or deny a supreme power. This philosophic idea developed over time through the development of social and historical change. Following the conquest of Shang dynasty by the Chou in 1111 B.C., the Mandate of Heaven produced by the Chou, held a doctrine to justify right to rule outside of birth or blood right. (TSait wing.) The doctrine created in the Mandate of Heaven, states “man’s destiny mortal and immortal—depended not on the existence of a soul before birth or death nor upon the whim of a spiritual force, but upon his own good words and good deed during is present life”(Tsit-Chan

One of the largest, and oldest religion in the world is Hinduism. There are many Gods and many divinities in Hinduism. It's hard to define is it one religion or more religions, because of so many beliefs. The main focus of Hindus is on their life, reincarnation, and karma. Hindus believe that after death you start a new life in a new body, and it depends on how was your life before death. However, they have lower and upper life. If they lived a good life, they will be in upper life, which is closer to one of their biggest Gods Braham. On the other hand, if they weren't so good in their life they will be placed in lower life wich is more distant from Braham. They all want to be as close to Braham as they can, so that's why they are all trying