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Religion in China

Buddhism Taoism and Confucianism in China


1296-1Three laughs at Tiger Brook“, ConfucianismTaoism, and Buddhism are one, a litang style painting portraying three men laughing by a river stream, 12th century, Song Dynasty.

China has long been a cradle and host to a variety of the most enduring religiophilosophical traditions of the world.  Confucianism and Taoism, plus Buddhism, constitute the “three teachings,” philosophical frameworks which historically have had a significant role in shaping Chinese culture.  Elements of these three belief systems are often incorporated into the traditional folk religions.  Chinese religions are family-oriented and do not demand exclusive adherence, allowing the practice or belief of several at the same time. Some scholars prefer not to use the term “religion” in reference to belief systems in China, and suggest “cultural practices”, “thought systems” or “philosophies” as more appropriate terms.  There is a stimulating debate over what to call religion and who should be called religious in China.  The emperors of China claimed the Mandate of Heaven and participated in Chinese religious practices. Since 1949, China has been governed by the Communist Party of China, an atheist organisation, which regulates the practice of religion in mainland China. It presently formally and institutionally recognises five religions in China: Buddhism, Taoism, Islam, Protestantism, and Catholicism (though despite historic links, the Party enforces a separation of the Chinese Catholic Church from the Roman Catholic Church).

炎帝神农大殿

Public worship ceremony at the Temple of ShennongYandi, in SuizhouHubei.

The largest group of religious traditions is the Chinese folk religion, which overlaps with Taoism, and describes the worship of the shen, a term describing local deities, heroes and ancestors, and figures from Chinese mythology.  Among the grand-scale worship cultures even officially promoted there are those of Mazu (goddess of the seas, patron of Southern China), Huangdi (divine patriarch of all the Chinese, “Volksgeist” of the Chinese nation), Caishen (god of prosperity and richness), Panguand others. China has many of the world’s tallest statues, including the tallest of all. Most of them represent buddhasdeities and religious personalities and have been built in the 2000’s. The world’s tallest statue is the Spring Temple Buddha, located in Henan. Recently built in the country are also the world’s tallest pagoda and the world’s tallest stupa.  Chinese Buddhism developed since the 1st century, and remains the most influential single religion in modern China.

Researchers have noted that in China “there is no clear boundary between Buddhism, Daoism and local folk religious practice”. According to a study by the Pew Research Center, 22% of the Chinese are “folk religionists”, and 18% are Buddhist.  However, there is overlap, as many Chinese identify themselves as followers of both Chinese folk religion and Buddhism. According to a survey conducted in 2010, hundreds of millions of people practice some kind of Chinese folk religions and Taoism; of these 754 million (56.2%) people practice Chinese ancestral veneration, only 215 million (16%) believing in the existence of ancestral shen, 173 million (13%) adopt Taoist practices on a level which is indistinguishable from Chinese folk religion.  The same survey reports that 185 million (13.8%) are Buddhists, 33 million (2.4%) are Christians, and 23 million (1.7%) are Muslims.  In addition to Han local religion, also some non-Han ethnic minorities follow their traditional autochthone religions. Christians are between 2-4% of the population according to various surveys.  Muslims are 1–2%.  Variousnew religious movements (among them: Falun GongXiantiandao, Weixinism) are scattered across the country. Confucianism as a religion is popular among intellectuals.

800px-Famen_temple_7

The imposing stupa enshrining the relic of Shakyamuni Buddha‘s finger bone, at Famen Temple, a Buddhist complex in BaojiShaanxi (2010).

Significant ethnic faith traditions include Tibetan Buddhism and the Islam in China of the Hui and Uyghur peoplesChristianity in China, although established since the 7th century, declined in China according to Ken Joseph J. of The Keikyo Institute, as a result of persecution during the 10th through 14th centuries.  It was reintroduced in the 16th century by Jesuit missionariesProtestant missions and later Catholic missionaries expanded the presence of Christianity, which influenced the Taiping Rebellion of the mid 19th century. Under Communism, foreign missionaries were expelled, most churches closed and their schools, hospitals and orphanages seized.  During the Cultural Revolution, many priests were imprisoned.  After the late 1970’s, religious freedoms for Christians improved, and state-appointed bishops have been permitted to tend to Catholic congregations.

Ancient and Pre-Historic – Wonderism and Wu (shaman)

Prior to the advent of Chinese civilization and world religions in the region generally known today as East Asia (which includes the territorial boundaries of modern-day China), tribal and animistic religious practices were the way in which prayers, sacrifices or offerings were communicated to the spiritual world by groups or mediatory individuals such as shamans.

800px-Altar_to_Zhuge_Liang_inside_the_ancestral_temple_in_his_hometown_Yinan,_Shandong,_ChinaAltar to Zhuge Liang inside an ancestral temple in his hometown YinanShandong.

Following the dawn of Chinese civilization, an early indigenous form of religious practice in Chinese history known as Taoism began to develop from the more primitive elements of animismfolk religions and shamanism.  Taoism is considered a traditional Chinese religion along with Confucianism and other Chinese folk religions. Shamanic traditions, which have the longest recorded history in China, are still practiced formally by numerous ethnic groups around China, including the Han Chinese, but historic text and literature usually neglect this religious aspect of the Han people’s history.

Modern History – Irreligion in China

401px-Ricci_Guangqi_2Matteo Ricci (left) and Xu Guangqi (right) in the Chinese edition of Euclid’s Elements published in 1607.

From the 16th century, the Jesuit China missions played a significant role in opening dialogue between China and the West. The Jesuits brought Western sciences, becoming advisers to the imperial court on astronomy, taught mathematics and mechanics, but also adapted Chinese religious ideas such as admiration for Confucius and ancestor worship into the religious doctrine they taught in China.

China entered the 20th century under the Manchu Qing Dynasty, whose rulers favoured traditional Chinese religions, and participated in public religious ceremonies, with state pomp and ceremony, as at the Temple of Heaven in Beijing, where prayers for the harvest were offered. On the empire’s fringe, Tibetan Buddhists recognised the Dalai Lamas as their spiritual and temporal leaders. The Boxer Rebellion saw nationalist resentment target Christian missionaries.

714px-thumbnailThe Temple of Heaven, Beijing, where Chinese emperors prayed for the harvest (1860).

By the mid-20th century, China had long been the home of “intensive but not triumphant Christian activity” and in 1949, wrote Blainey, “Catholic schools alone had taught five million Chinese students, Catholic hospitals and doctors served maybe 30 million people, and the Catholic orphanages alone numbered 1500.”  Sun Yat-sen, the first president of the Republic of China, and his successor Nationalist leader of China Chiang Kai-shek were both Christians. But with the triumph of Mao Zedong‘s Communists, mainland China was about to become officially atheist.

People’s Republic of China

The People’s Republic of China was established 1 October 1949. Its government is officially atheist, having viewed religion as emblematic of feudalism and foreign colonialism, and maintained separation of state and the church. This changed during the Cultural Revolution, in 1966 and 1967. The Cultural Revolution led to a policy of elimination of religions; a massive number of places of worship were destroyed.

This policy relaxed considerably in the late 1970s at the end of the Cultural Revolution and more tolerance of religious expression has been permitted since. The 1978 Constitution of the People’s Republic of China guarantees “freedom of religion” in Article 36. The policy regarding religious practice in China states that “No state organ, public organization or individual may compel citizens to believe in, or not to believe in, any religion; nor may they discriminate against citizens because they do, or do not believe in religion. The state protects normal religious activities”, and continues with the statement that: “nobody can make use of religion to engage in activities that disrupt social order, impair the health of citizens or interfere with the educational system of the state.” Since the mid-1980’s there has been a massive program to rebuild Buddhist and Taoist temples. In recent times, the government has expressed support for Buddhism and Taoism, organizing the World Buddhist Forum in 2006 and the International Forum on the Daodejing in 2007. The government sees these religions as an integral part of Chinese culture.

The Communist Party, which remains an atheist organisation, presently formally permits five religions in China: Buddhism, Taoism, Islam, Protestantism, and Catholicism (though despite historic links, for political reasons, the Chinese Catholic Church has been separated from the Roman Catholic Church).  To some degree the government also controls the institutions in the religions it recognizes.  In October 2007, the new statute of China cites religion as an important element of citizens’ life.  However, the Chinese government has also banned some religious activities or movements for public health concerns.  In late 2013, president Xi Jinping expressed hope that “traditional cultures” may fill “moral void” and fight corruption.

Temple Economy

Scholars have studied how Chinese folk religion-based society, elastic and polytheistic in spirit, provided the groundwork for the development of dynamic grassroots capitalism with Chinese characteristics in Song Dynasty China and modern capitalism in contemporary Taiwan.  The revival of Chinese folk religion with its ritual economy or temple economy, studied by on-ground researches, is also the key of the contemporary economic development in rural Mainland China.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Religion_in_China

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