Thread: WHAT is the religion of China?

Mainly, the Chinese don't even know they have a religion. What they believe is so old that they just regard it as being Chinese. There is no word in Chinese for religion.

But they do have a religion. Scholars like to say it is Buddhism, Taoism and Confusianism. This is a common mistake. The main religion is ancestor worhip and every home has a family religious shrine. Scholars are largely unaware of this because few see these shrines. Chinese do not invite you into their homes. They entertain you in resturants because their homes are shrines to their ancestors. Liondancing, burning paper money, Chinese opera are all ways to playcate the ancestor spirits they believe hover around periodically.

They also have some gods which they have idols they burn joss sticks for and bow to. I have seen many of these idols and some have many arms and heads. Their god panthion is always in a state of flux.

The Chinese do not know what they believe is a religion. To them it is just "being Chinese."

charles, http://humanpurpose.simplenet.com

Very interesting, heres a link with pictures and some more information about the practise.

http://www.asia.si.edu/exhibitions/o...en/default.htm

this is what the cia site has on it

Daoist (Taoist), Buddhist, Christian 3%-4%, Muslim 1%-2%
note: officially atheist (2002 est.)

This is sometimes refered to as Chinese folk religion and is sometimes refered to as Taoism because even though Taosim is not exactly the same, Taoism is native and often considered to have its routes in this folk religion. The same can be said of Confucianism but Confucianism has had more the character of a philosophy than a religion, while Taoism had temples and monastic orders all over China before the revolution.

You find this same "ancestor worship" in Japan and Korea under different names. Shinto in Japan and Shamanism in Korea. It is not really ancestor worship, any more than our making of tombstones, mausoleums and even memorials is ancestor worship. It seems to me to be more of an continuation of filial piety and devotion to loved ones beyond the limits of death. We too make our shrines to the dead for those we particularly want remembered.

Nevertheless, the seriousness and devotion to this family duty elevates it to the status of a religion from the western perspective. I also tend to group this "religion" of the far east with all the oldest "shamanistic" (or "pagan") religions throughout the world, for if you look carefully I think you will find that this reverence is not just for ones ancestors but also for the spirits of nature, giving them all a strong element of reverence for nature that Christianity, Judaism and Islam lack.

Mitchell, you added considerably to my post. Your interest and ed. in history and social science is vivid even though your main interest is in physics. I wish I could say for myself as much about astronomy. Yet, I believe that the future of the human race lies in spreading out and colonizing the universe and that we need to focus on that much more than we are.

charles, http://humanpurpose.simplenet.com