Religions In China

Classical China was a breeding ground for new ideas, inventions, and most importantly, religions. Although Classical China was littered with different religions and beliefs, Confucianism was the most prominent. Confucianism is based on the teachings of a philosophical

China has been the home to various religions. At different times different dynasties endorsed certain religions while repressing others. While Buddhism flourished during the Sui and Tang dynasty, it faced opposition from the government during the Song dynasty. Confucianism lost government endorsement during the Sui and Tang but gained momentum during the Song as Neo-Confucianism. Yuan dynasty promoted Islam and Tibet Buddhism but ignored Confucianism. Different rulers sponsored and protected different religions but Confucianism and some form of Buddhism have always been alive in Chinese society from 600 to 1450.

Most businesses in China are run by man. China has many religions like Taoism, Confucianism, but mainly Buddhism. Recently, China has excelled in having many more religions including Christian. Chinese philosophy comes from Confucianism, which is a collection of teachings from ancient history. Many other philosophies were later taught like Daoism, Legalism, Mohism and many more. China still uses many of these philosophies today.

The main Chinese religions have many key features. The main religions include shamanism/ancestor reverence, Confucianism, Daoism, Mahayana Buddhism, and idol worship. These 5 religions share some features in common. For example, Chinese popular religion focuses on the human being’s pursuit of health, wealth, and happiness in their lives (quote the textbook). Chinese popular religions want the human to be doing well and succeeding in their day-to-day activities of their lives. Another key component of the main Chinese religions is respecting one’s elders. The religions teach the importance of obeying the commands of the elders and honoring the family name. The Chinese allow place a strong emphasis on the temple. The temple is a place where the people could communicate, understand, and learn about their gods (quote the textbook). The next subsections will be describing the key religious practices of each of the 5 Chinese religions.

The religion of Confucianism begins, of course, with Confucius whose Chinese name was Kong Qui and who lived from 551 B.C. to 479 B.C. Surprisingly Confucius was merely a low level government worker. He did not exactly view himself as the founder of a school of thought. Regardless, Confucianism is the most influential belief system in Chinese culture. It provides the rules which govern the social behavior of the individual. The basic teachings of Confucius are grounded in the Five Constant Virtues: humanity, righteousness, propriety, wisdom, and faithfulness. Confucius went on to define five basic human relations and

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.

Their philosophy was derived from their religious beliefs. Their God was not a removed entity that controlled the world but did not have a role in the life of the individual. Their God was everything and without him, there was nothing. God was salvation and eternal life. Their main reference was the Bible. It was studied extensively by Catholic theologians and, from it, created a central ethical system was developed. The Chinese on the other hand had an ethical system based on the individual. Confucianism was not a religion. It was not based on a deity and strict codes of conduct found in Catholic tradition did not exist. However, an overall sense of order was decidedly central to its philosophy. Virtue here was found introspectively, through thought and study. Another interesting facet of Confucianism was it’s veneration of ancestors, an extension of honoring one’s parents.


Taoism is China’s oldest religion. At one time, the land called China was the home of numerous peoples with different racial origins. All these ethnic groups probably had their own special gods and religious beliefs. Over time, kingdoms and empires grew in various areas and started incorporating more and more people into them. One common theme in these kingdoms and empires was a belief in life after death as can be seen in ancient tombs all over China. So people had to pay homage to and care for the dead. Some Chinese have fear of the dead, and they try to obey the dead or appease them. Another idea that is very strong in Chinese philosophy is as Chinese

Confucianism stands hand in hand with Daoism, as one of the two great philosophical religions of China, but is considered one of the Three Teachings; Daoism and Buddhism are the other two. Derived from the Chinese teachings of the philosopher Confucius, Confucianism focuses more on ethical living and moral conduct; emphasizing earthly and not heavenly. Even though it is referred to as a religion, Confucianism is often considered to be an ethical system. There are four common aspects when compared to Christianity. These four being; the founders, Ren and Agape, The Golden Rule, and Religious Beliefs (God/Gods).

The belief systems that have been given rise to in China are religions thought out for thousands of years. All of them are different from each other, but also interlaced. Many scholars and thinkers spent a whole life devoted to further developing a way of thinking. Certain religions a take small part from others, and in the case of Neo- Confucianism, it takes whole parts and fuses them together. Chinese people in history have shown their devotion to religion. They have also shown their lack of interest in corresponding with other nations. There are many reasons why they have chosen not to be influenced by the west, especially when it comes to religion. Even though Chinese people

Confucianism is a philosophy that developed into a religion in northern China, yet when comparing it to other religions many similarities can be found. Confucianism, Christianity, and Buddhism all have written teachings for their followers. All three of these religions originated in parts of Asia, and they all have a form of the golden rule. Despite these similarities they have many distinctions between them. Since Confucianism began as a philosophy and not a religion, it makes it fundamentally different from Christianity and Buddhism. Confucianism doesn’t believe in any gods while Christianity and, partially, Buddhism are monotheistic. They’re views on what occurs after death also vary.

Most of us know that the world is made of multiple religions. Even though we know that the world is made up of multiple religions have you ever wondered how those religions you know about here in United States change through out the world. Lets just focusing on Judaism, Christianity and Islam in the Asian culture. Let’s see how these religions are viewed in Asian culture and what practices they share. However, even though this religion does have some presence in Asian cultural when speaking to someone from that particular culture they didn’t fall into any of these religions. They were actually of Shamanism religion but her husband’s family believes in Christianity. Taking a look at Judaism, Christianity and Islam in Asian culture will allow us to learn more about how religions can change or stay the same in different parts of the world.

From Buddhism to Christianity, China has experienced a wide variety of religions. As of the year 1964, China has been mainly populated by the religion of Confucianism and also the religion of Taoism. Even though these religions differ greatly from Christianity they thrive in China because the communists rule in china suppresses Christian beliefs. The book “The Religion of China” states how the book is set up. It states “The three parts into which the book is divided show a clear logical unity in Weber’s argument. In part I, Weber examined the economic political and social aspects of Chinese society, and presented a mixture of structural or material characteristics, some of which were favorable, and some unfavorable to the development of capitalism; in other words, comparison of ‘material’ conditions yielded no decisive distinction between Chinese and Western societies in terms of propensity for capitalistic development. In part II, Weber presented a decisive contrast between Confucian values and the ascetic protestant ethic in the sense that the former lacked the dynamic motivation which the latter had for capitalistic development. Part III contains Weber’s characterization of Taoism as a system of negative and conservative values incapable of developing a dynamic social orientation toward capitalism. Weber thus located the decisive differentiating element in the passive and traditionalist character in Confucian and Taoist values, explaining why capitalism developed in the

Confucianism, also known as "The School of the Scholars", is an ethical and philosophical institution in East Asia and developed from the teachings of the early Chinese sage Confucius (Wertz, 1998). Indeed, it is a complicated institution that including moral, social, political, and religious thoughts. Up to the 21st century, most of them had enormous impacts on the history of Chinese enlightenment.Confucianism is viewed as "state religion" of empire China (Wertz, 1998). The countries and various territories, where ethnic Chinese are the majority, are extremely influenced by Confucianism such as China, Hong Kong, Taiwan and Singapore .The thoughts from Confucianism has formulated the customs in those community and people comply with these.

China is a multi-religious country. Buddhism, Taoism, Islamism, Catholicism, and Protestantism have all formed quite a following in this country. Freedom of belief is a government policy, and standard religious activities are shielded by the constitution. No religion has ever assumed a predominant position in China. Foreign religions, influenced and assimilated by time-honored Chinese tradition and culture have slowly become religions with Chinese characteristic. Religious believers make up only a small percentage of the 1.3 billion Chinese people (Wu, 2015).