From Confucian Piety to Communist Loyalty
The Confucian Classics
Daoism
Islam in China
Falun Gong
Religious Freedom in China
Religious and Magical Beliefs in Daily Life
Religion Today in China
Appendices
About the Author
The Guides to Religion and Culture at present include Buddhism, Confucianism and Daoism, Christianity, Hinduism, Judaism, and Islam. The purpose of this series is to provide education and understanding of the religious traditions in our increasingly linked world.
These volumes are written as an anthropology of religion, and I have attempted to state the beliefs, practices, and histories in words that are consistent with each religious tradition. I have provided historical, social, and cultural information to define the context within which each religion has come into being and developed as a living society today. To the extent possible, I have discussed and reviewed these materials with religious scholars and believers from each tradition although I recognize that there are internal differences in belief and practice within religions, and I have tried to reflect those in a correct manner.
Belief and behavior are at the heart of our self-definition as human individuals and the emotional core of our identity. Our religious and/or ideological identity is so important that
it shapes major life decisions. This series is published recognizing the powerful importance of religious belief and practice among us as humans, respecting and honoring the uniqueness
of the spiritual nature that defines us.
Confucianism, Daoism are key elements in the complex of religions in China. In contrast to the Indian religions which are inward oriented, the Confucianism and Daoism are more socially oriented, turning outward toward relationships within the family and the larger group.
The family has long been the center of Chinese society and by extension the rulers were afforded the status of elders to also be respected. In contrast to the monotheistic religions which require obedience to the high God, Confucianism requires obedience to the parents, elders, and rulers. It is the power of the group that is being re-enforced, not the power of a god.
The multiple religions of East Asia fit together in a complementary way because each specializes in different aspects of human life. In contrast, the monotheistic religions compete with each other because each provides a direct path to God, giving the same, but competing, spiritual guidelines to the believer, including salvation, ritual, community, and promise of the afterlife among others. Confucianism is a rational religious ideology that deals primarily with human relationships, the family, and the state. Confucianism was traditionally important for state functions, and it was associated with the wealthy educated class of officials. On the other hand, Daoism is a mystical religion that is associated with nature and the power of nature, including its healing powers in herbs. So, Daoism provides information about folk medicine, herbs, and spirits that can affect a person’s health. If you are sick, a Daoist may be able to help provide a cure. Then, Buddhism teaches about the afterlife, a subject missing from Confucian and Daoist beliefs. So, at death, a person has Buddhist rituals which explain the passage into the next life. Buddhism also protects travelers going on trips and can help in other ways. This complex of religions takes on a slightly different shape in Japan, where Shintoism is the traditional religion that relates to nature. These religions fit together like pieces in a puzzle, and a person from China, Japan, or Korea feels more comfortable with the puzzle having all the pieces.
In China, loyalty to the family and state has traditionally been the ideological core of culture and ethical behavior. Among Han people, who are the dominant nationality in China, it is common for people to draw from more than one religious tradition. In recent decades, the Han have become increasingly secular, but their moral culture is still predominantly Confucian with lesser influences from Daoism and Buddhism. The Tibetans and Mongols are almost exclusively Buddhists in their religious practice and culture, and the Turkish nationalities in the far west are predominantly Muslim. Since the Han dominate China, Confucian values are the most important in the country, but profound differences between them and the Buddhist Tibetans and Mongols and the Muslim Uygurs lead to conflicts. China has the problem within its own borders that affects the budding global world order: the conflict between religious cultures in the effort to build a seamless society.
According to an early Chinese myth, the universe originally existed in the shape of an egg. When the egg broke open, the first man, a giant named P'an-Ku, came out of it along with two basic elements: yin and yang. The yin was the feminine principle, and it coalesced into the earth. Yang, on the contrary, was the masculine principle, and it became the sky. P'an-Ku was four times larger than men today, and he grew even larger as he worked. He had a hammer and chisel, and he carved the earth, the sun, moon, and stars out of the heavens. Then, he carved out the face of the earth, including cliffs, valleys, and mountains. P'an Ku worked for 18,000 years shaping the earth, and then he died. The value of work and discipline in Chinese can be seen dramatically in this story of origins.
When he died the parts of P'an-Ku's body became the Five Sacred Mountains in China. His head became Taishan Mountain in the east between the Yellow River and the Yellow Sea. His thorax became Songshan Mountain which lies in central China to the west of Kaifeng. His right arm became Hengshan Mountain in the north near Beijing, and his left arm became Hengshan Mountain in the south. His feet became Huashan Mountain in the west near Xian.
These five mountains define the heartland of traditional China, the "Middle Kingdom", the center of the world. P'an Ku's breath became the winds, his voice thunder, and his beard the stars. His flesh became the soil that farmers could till for their livelihood, and his bones turned into metal deposits. His blood became the water of the rivers and seas. His dripping sweat became the
rain, and the fleas on his body were turned into people.1 So, China and the Chinese people are directly descended from the original human P'an Ku. According to traditional beliefs, the two million years between P'an Ku and present times were divided into ten epochs when humans, half-humans, and human-like animals shared the world.
Tradition also says that five thousand years ago those people were formed into the Chinese society by a series of rulers who taught the beginnings of culture to people, Yao, Shun, and Yu.2 Yu showed people how to make the first houses, another taught people how to make fire by rubbing one dry stick on another. According to this history the first ruler was Fu Hsi who taught about family life which was to become the basis of Chinese society. He also taught the basic technology for hunting and fishing, and he showed the people how to domesticate animals which guaranteed food for their survival. The second ruler was Shen Nung who brought the knowledge of agriculture to the people, and he showed them how to make plows. The third ruler was Huang Di, called the Yellow Emperor, who introduced the use of the bow and arrow and created writing.3 The legendary heroes who brought the earliest cultural skills to the Chinese people were rulers, showing the importance of the state in society.
The Chinese creation story of P'an Ku is an essentially secular one with no pre-existing supernatural figure as a creator. The ideology of life, the cosmos, and existence itself are given secular rather than supernatural explanations. Belief in something higher than life itself is about loyalty to the family, state, and spirit presence of ancestors who deserve our affection and devotion. The Confucian beliefs specifically emphasize family respect and loyalty along with respect and devotion to the state. Daoism respects nature and sees spiritual power in nature, and there are also animists in China who see spirit presences in all of life.
Systematic Religious and Philosophical Traditions
Like people in other early civilizations, the Chinese transformed their tribal cosmologies into broader statements of religious belief after the state was established although the common people retained their beliefs in animistic spirits. By the time of the Zhou Dynasty, the supernatural had become a more abstract concept, and religious philosophy became concerned more with ethical and moral behavior.4 In Confucianism and some versions of Buddhism, ritual became the primary expression of religion. Tribal explanations of the cosmos and family influence on behavior were no longer sufficient guides for people, and systematic religious/philosophical statements about the universe and ethical/moral systems for behavior in the larger society were required. Explanations were needed for the new evils of civilization, ranging from famine to devastating warfare and loss of freedom. This demand for systematic statements for the behavioral systems of urban civil society led to the emergence of schools of thought to answer these questions.
In China a "hundred schools" of thought emerged during the Zhou Dynasty to formulate understandings of the universe, society, and the nature of humans.5 In the Shang Dynasty there had been the belief in an anthropomorphic god, Ti or Di, who controlled nature. However, by
the time of the Zhou that belief had evolved into an abstract concept of cosmic order referred to as Heaven (or Tian). An early belief in the polar opposites of yin (moon, feminine, darkness) and yang (sun, male, light) was incorporated into the idea of cosmic order to explain how natural forces shape people's lives. Divination was used to read these cosmic forces and understand how they would affect people, events, and governments.
The Mandate of Heaven (or the cosmic order) gave the emperor the right to rule and the signs of Heaven (astronomic events) were interpreted as portents of the pleasure or displeasure of the cosmic order. The emperor led the ceremonies celebrating Heaven. Describing the role of the emperor, Stephen Sharot says,
"The emperor was not only the highest human participant in the official religion; he was also held to be superior over most deities, and he used his authority to grant honorific titles to deities, promoting some and demoting others. He had the exclusive right to sacrifice to Heaven, a ritual that was allowed to take place only in the imperial capital...the government claimed a monopoly on the interpretation of heavenly portents; any unusual phenomenon of nature could be interpreted as Heaven's anger over the misconduct of an important individual or group."6
The role of the emperor as the religious leader to the cult of Heaven can be seen as early as the Shang Dynasty, and it was practiced in differing degrees until the Qing Dynasty.
During the Zhou Dynasty, both Confucianism and Daoism appeared, and they have shaped Chinese life and behavior from that time to the present. The Chinese people are accustomed to practicing two or three religions simultaneously, and traditionally that has meant some combination of Confucianism, Daoism, Buddhism, and popular religious beliefs. A person may practice Confucianism for its teachings on civic morality and Buddhism for its teachings on the spiritual growth of the individual, and Daoism for the mystical essence of nature. Each of these three main streams of religious thought in China has made a unique contribution to its culture.
Confucius was born in 551 B.C.E. in the north of China in the modern state of Shandong.7 His family name was K'ung, and he was called K'ung Fu-tzu or Master Kung, later Westernized to Confucius. In the Chinese tradition, the family name is placed first. Loyalty to the family and state are at the core of Confucian teaching, and this loyalty is central to Han beliefs and ethical behavior. His teachings have been preserved in the Analects and other writings attributed to him. In Western terms, Confucius was an agnostic about the spiritual world. He did not deny it, but he did not understand it, so he advised that it was not useful to spend time on metaphysical questions which we cannot answer. He taught that what we can do as humans is to bring order to our behavior and the events surrounding us, and that should be the focus of our belief systems.
Confucian Teachings. Confucius taught that hierarchy was an inherent aspect of propriety (or Li), and that we as humans should understand our position in the social hierarchy and behave accordingly. Confucius also thought that the organization of human society should reflect the harmony to be found in nature. Ritual combined with the social rules of behavior are the two mechanisms that are important to establish social order. People are not born knowing how to behave, but they must be taught the social rules for correct behavior. Confucius taught that a person learns how to behave through education. The purpose of government is to serve the people, and governmental officials must earn their authority through just and honest decisions. If the rulers act justly and benevolently, they will have the respect and loyalty of the people they govern.
This led to the concept of officials governing by merit rather than by the right of noble birth. Eventually, in later dynasties, this concept became a keystone of Chinese government as the civil service examination was established to determine who had the education and knowledge to be government officials. In 124 B.C.E. during the Han Dynasty Confucianism was adopted as the official state ideology in China, and for the next two thousand years it was a primary influence on the concept of the state and of personal behavior.
Confucius assumed that there was a rational, knowable order to the universe, and that correct behavior would conform to this existing universal order, or Dao (path or way),8 a concept similar to dharma in India. Not only is Dao universal, but each individual has a particular Dao, or life path, based on the circumstances of their lives, and they have a moral obligation to live it out. The good moral life is to fulfill one's obligations to family and community, subordinating one's individual aspirations to the good of the whole. If each individual works to fulfill their familial and communal responsibilities, social order will be strong, and everyone will prosper.
The central concept in this belief is filial piety which means that the children and younger people should respect and obey their parents and elders, which includes government officials. Classical Confucianism taught that the ideal social order was based on a firm social structure based on respect for familial and state authority.
Confucius also taught that if we follow the Dao, we will understand other people and be tolerant of them. This is the humanistic dimension of his teachings. The Confucian scholar Mencius (370 to 290 B.C.E.)9 emphasized this aspect of Confucian thought in his own writings, and he argued that people are inherently good. He said that people learn their familial and communal responsibilities by following the model of behavior set by their elders and rulers. So, the ruler has the obligation to rule with compassion and to lead the people by example.
Five books of the teachings and writings of Confucius were collected by his followers and became required reading for people who wished to be educated and knowledgeable.10 Those
who took the civil service examinations prepared by reading these books.
The I Ching. This is called the "Book of Changes" in English, and it is a manual used by court scholars to divine the future. It is based on the assumption of yin-yang complementarity in the forces of nature. Originally, a small handful of bamboo sticks (some broken in half) were dropped to form random patterns, which were then interpreted, based on the arrangement of broken and unbroken sticks. Later, tables were prepared of all of the possible combinations, and the interpretations were assigned to them. The I Ching provided a guide to predict the outcomes of certain decisions which could then be abandoned or changed to obtain favorable results.
The Shu Ching. This is called the "Book of Documents" in English, and it discusses the ideals of statecraft for the wise king and his officials. Comparable to the Arthasastra in India, and Machiavelli's The Prince in Europe, this is a statement of political behavior in Chinese cultural terms.
The Shih Ching. This is the classic of Confucian poetry, called the "Book of Songs" in English. Knowledge of poetry has historically been an important mark of an educated person in China. A scholar and official should know the work of important poets in the past and should be able to compose poetry themselves.
The Li Ching. The Li Ching is called the "Book of Rites (or Rituals)" in English, and it describes the formal duties and rituals in relationships between people of different social statuses and roles. It defines the formal duties between husbands and wives, children and parents, relatives, and ruler and ruled among others. The Li Ching specifies details of dress, diet, ritual, and social interaction between people. The Li Ching also defines such details as the type of horse that was appropriate to pull the royal carriage, the number of bells permitted on a carriage according to social rank, the color of banners that could be used, the color of the emperor's clothes, and the type of jade ornaments to be used. It defined the protocol for the imperial court, including everything from how people should dress to how they should stand. It defines the correct procedure for doing the kowtow before the emperor (kneeling and touching one's forehead to the floor). These "Confucian" rituals are actually a description of those used in the court of the Zhou Dynasty. Once institutionalized through Confucian teachings, they were continued by later dynasties.
The Ch'un-ch'iu. These are the "Spring and Autumn Annals", and they are a record of the dynastic struggles and state events of the region of China from which Confucius came. History is important in Chinese culture, and the inclusion of this book in the classics is a statement of the importance of knowing history to be a good governmental official.
Knowledge of the five Confucian Classics was not only the definition of an educated person, but it was also the gateway to the rewards of power and wealth in traditional China. Paper was invented during the Han Dynasty which meant that the classics, as well as other books, became more widely available. Important passages from the classics were carved into large (three feet by six feet) flat stones which were placed in public places. Students could bring
paper and make rubbings off of these stones to make their own copies of the classics. Confucianism taught social and political order to the Chinese people, and the model was so successful that it was borrowed by many of the countries surrounding China including Korea and Japan.
Neo-Confucianism. New interpretations of the teachings of Confucius have appeared at various times in Chinese history, and in recent decades some young Chinese scholars have again turned to China's cultural roots in Confucianism looking for new directions. During his rule, Mao tried to suppress the traditional teaching of Confucian loyalty to the family by re-directing it to loyalty to the state. Resistence emerged to Mao's policies in the form of a Neo-Confucianist movement. This movement is described by Wan Ke-Wen.
"In 1958...a group of New Confucianists...issued >A Manifesto to the World' on Chinese culture...in Hong Kong. It reaffirmed the vitality of the humanist tradition of Chinese culture, i.e., Confucianism, but admitted the need of this tradition to incorporate Western science and democracy in order to continue its development in the modern world.
Implicitly anti-Communist, the manifesto represented the view of a new generation of New Confucianists."11
Although Communist has been the official ideology of the People's Republic of China since 1949, Confucianism has continued as an important cultural norm. During the early twenty-first century Communist ideology and Neo-Confucianism seem to be accommodating to each other in a uniquely Chinese cultural solution.
Daoism is based on the teachings of Lao Tzu who lived about the same time as Confucius. In contrast to Confucius who emphasized rational behavior, ritual, and the governing elites, Lao Tzu taught about the Dao, or path, of nature in a more mystical way which appealed to the common people. Whereas in the West we see nature as something to control and exploit for human purposes, the Daoist approach to nature is as a source of harmony from which we can learn.12 The Dao is "ultimately transcendent, it is also immanent...it is the way of the universe, the norm, the rhythm, the driving power in all nature, the ordering principle behind all life."13
In contrast to Confucianism which emphasizes society and correct social behavior, Daoism has a more individual focus and emphasizes the "salvation" or spiritual growth of the individual through harmonizing their spiritual being with nature. Daoism is mystical in its emphasis on spirituality, and it has incorporated the popular magical beliefs of the people in China.14 Daoism is a reaction against the rigid constraints of society and the civic morality of Confucius, and it provides the emphasis on intuition and the interior life that Confucianism lacks.
The ch'i is one of the two most important mystical concepts in Daoism.15 Technically, it means breath, but the real meaning is vital energy or life force. Daoists perform rituals to allow
the ch'i to flow through them and maintain spiritual and physical health. They have also identified foods and medicinal herbs that produce a positive level of energy or life force. Programs of physical exercise and breathing, such as Tai Chi or Chi Gong, have been developed to draw the ch'i from the world around us and make sure that the body is open and that this vital energy can flow through it. Meditation is the third practice that strengthens the life force in the person.
The other important concept is yin/yang, which says that values are relative and that opposites are identical.16 Yin and yang are the summation of life's opposites: good/evil, day/night, summer/winter, female/male, passive/active. The two opposites are equally required to form the whole. They simultaneously complement each other and provide balance. In their oneness they are surrounded by the Dao, creating a wholeness. Daoism rejects absolutes and looks for the other meanings in life. For example, death may be tragic, but it allows the one who died to rejoin the forces of the cosmos. The Daoist seeks balance in all things in life, and understanding the yin/yang principle guides one to that balance.
Although the Daoists have a sacred text, the Dao-de Ching (also written Tao Te Ching), truth is not learned through reading or education, rather it is perceived through solitary meditation and self discipline which are supposed to lead intuitively to understanding the nature of life and the cosmos. The Dao-de Ching is a short book whose statements about the mystical reality of life are more enigmatic than explanatory, and the teachings of Daoism are more of an oral tradition than a written one.
Daoists are adverse to violence, and Lao Tzu taught pacificism similar to the Sermon on the Mount. In the Dao-de-Ching he says the path to truth and correct living eschews violence and the tools of violence.
"Weapons are instruments of fear; they are not a wise man's tools. He uses them only when he has no choice.
Peace and quiet are dear to his heart, And victory no cause for rejoicing.
If you rejoice in victory, then you delight in killing;
If you delight in killing, you cannot fulfill yourself."17
Daoism does not search for an underlying meaning in the universe, rather it focuses more on how to live life on this earth. It teaches that one must accept the world as it is with its disorder. With an attitude bordering on passivity, one should deny ambition and content oneself with the simple joys in life. Rather than the Confucian ideal of gaining harmony with the cosmos by working to fulfill one's obligations on this earth, Daoism says that harmony with the cosmos comes from being spontaneous and submitting to nature.18 People are basically good, and they have the right answers inside of themselves. Intuition will lead to what is right.
Daoism is expressed in pilgrimages to nature areas, and among these the five sacred mountains are most important. Pilgrims climb to the top of Taishan, Songshan, Hengshan North,
Hengshan South, and Huashan Mountains in their symbolic search for the Dao, the sacred path or truth that can be discovered in the forces of nature. People have climbed these mountains since prehistory, including emperors, religious leaders (Confucianists and Daoists), and common people.
Legalism
Along with Confucianism and Daoism, Legalism also emerged from the ferment of thought during the "Hundred Flowers" period of thought during the Chou Dynasty. The Legalists did not accept the Confucian idea that humans are basically good. Instead, they argued that human beings are essentially bad and have to be forced by the punishment of law to act in a way that is acceptable to society. A strong state was required to force people to be good citizens and morally correct, and by extension a strong leader was required to control the inherent corruption of state officials. The threat of harsh punishment (jail or the death penalty) was the only way to control people. Chin Shi Huangdi was a believer in Legalism, but his harsh rule led to a peasant revolt which overthrew the short-lived Chin Dynasty (221 to 206 B.C.E.). Although Legalism has continued as a line of thought in China, it did not again achieve the state prominence that it had during the Chin period.
Islam arrived to the Turkish peoples in Central Asia in the late seventh century, and it spread into China along the Silk Route with the Turkish caravan people. Han Chinese who adopted the new religion became known as the Xue, and over the centuries they have become known as a separate ethnic group identifiable by the white skull cap worn by men. They are located throughout the western province of Xinjiang and along the old Silk Route to Xian, the capital of the Tang Dynasty, and Kaifeng, the capital of the Sung Dynasty. Today the Xue are mostly shopkeepers, and they continue to practice Islam regularly.
In Xinjiang there are other Muslim populations of Turkic language origin from Central Asia, and the most important are the Uygur people.19 They are the majority population in Xinjiang, and this western-most province of China has a distinct Central Asian feel to it. Islam is more of a culture than a metaphysical system for many Uygurs. There is a saying among Uygurs in Xinjiang that "It takes three Uygurs to make one Muslim" because they are lax in their practice of the faith. Although a Muslim should not drink alcoholic drinks, many Uygurs do.
Few Uygurs pray five times a day as required in Islam even though the Imams faithfully make the call to prayer from the mosques for each prayer time. Being Muslim is an integral part of the ethnic identity of being Uygur although people may not practice Muslim ritual on a daily basis.
In 1992 a new religious movement appeared in China when Li Hongzhi began the public teaching of a set of exercises and meditation called Falun Gong (also known as Falun Dafa). It draws from Buddhist and Daoist meditation and the Chinese traditions of physical exercise, and it emphasizes physical and spiritual health along with morality. Word of the new religion began to spread quickly by word-of-mouth in China, and the number of followers increased by the millions. By the late 1990's Mr. Li had moved to the United States, and the movement continued to spread internationally, especially through the Chinese immigrant communities. Mr. Li is normally referred to as the master or teacher of Falun Gong.
The word "Fa" means laws or principles of the universe, and "Lun" means wheel. "Gong" is a form of energy that the person develops from exercising his or her self. So, "Falun Gong" refers to the wheel of universal principles that leads to the harmonious energy of mind, body, and spirit. It is a movement that does not narrowly focus itself on spirituality but rather on a broader spectrum of physical, psychological, and spiritual integration of the experience of the person.
The Falun Gong is a populist religion open to all people, and it is described by its followers as a practice of cultivating the well-being of the body and mind through a set of five exercises. The purpose of Falun Gong is to become a better person by cultivating the heart according to the principles of truth, compassion, and tolerance. This leads to wisdom and understanding of life, humanity, and the universe. The consistent practice of the exercises is expected to lead to health, peace, and harmony with life. Falun Gong teaches that its practitioners will have reduced levels of stress and increased levels of energy, and that it can solve some of the important social ills of China. The Chinese authorities have felt that the latter claim is a direct challenge to them.
The practice of Falun Gong builds off traditional exercise systems such as Tai Chi and Chi Gong. Tai Chi is also a program of exercises which intends to improve one's heart, mind, and body through movement. However, the followers of Falun Gong believe that over the years spiritual cultivation has been lost in Tai Chi, and it is now only a system of exercises for the body. In its meditative practices Falun Gong also has some similarities to Daoism, but Daoism has become ritualistic over time and has lost the vision of the correct path for the total being.
Over the first seven years of its existence, the Falun Gong grew rapidly as a self-help movement, claiming no political agenda or affiliation. By 1999 the Falun Gong claimed to have 70 million followers in China and 100 million world-wide. The followers of the movement are drawn from a broad spectrum of the society including the governmental bureaucracy itself. That same year the movement claimed the right of official recognition as a group, but the Chinese authorities were threatened by this group, and in July 1999, the government banned it and initiated a crack down. Subsequently, thousands of practitioners have been arrested, and many have lost their jobs and been sent to labor camps. There have been reports of death and physical abuse to some jailed Falun Gong followers.
Religious movements and quasi-religious ideologies have long been a vehicle of mounting serious challenges to the state in China, a fact that was not lost on the leaders in the face of the Falun Gong. The White Lotus movement, put down in 1804, was one such religious movement, but the more famous one was the Taiping Rebellion in the mid-1800's which grew from being an obscure religious movement to a political one that almost destroyed the Ching Dynasty. Since Chinese leaders have traditionally validated their rule with the concept of "The Mandate of Heaven", they are vulnerable to religious challenges to their authority. A religious movement that claims its own mandate from Heaven invalidates the authority of the established government. The Falun Gong challenges the essentially materialist view of life on which current Chinese politics are based, so it is a challenge that the leaders of the People's Republic have not been willing to ignore.
In the early years after the Revolution of 1949, the government opposed religion in China, and temples, shrines, monasteries, mosques, and churches were closed. During the Cultural Revolution starting in 1965, Red Guards smashed religious images including historic architecture and works of art. Buddhism was especially affected because of its rich artistic tradition, and Tibet was the area most affected because of the importance of Buddhism there. After the end of the Cultural Revolution and the death of Mao in 1976 the pragmatic faction of the Communist Party, led by Deng Xiaopeng, took control of the government and eased the restrictions on religious groups.
Under Deng a policy of freedom for all major religions was adopted, but the government retained the right to approve the leaders of religious groups to guarantee that they did not become politicized or engage in anti-governmental activities. That has led to a conflict with Christian religious groups, both Roman Catholics and Protestants. The Roman Catholic hierarchy refused to accept those terms because it would give the government the right to determine who could be named as church officials within the country. Although "Patriotic Catholic" churches have been reopened in China, the Church hierarchy in Rome does not recognize the Chinese organization as official Catholicism. Protestants have also been opposed because they have not been able to set up denominationally distinctive churches, such as Baptist, Methodist, or Lutheran. As a result there is an underground network of churches operating in private homes in various parts of China. The underground movement is illegal, but as long as it remains non-political, the government largely looks the other way.
To partially offset the excesses of the Red Guards during the Cultural Revolution, the government has financed the repair and reconstruction of Buddhist and Daoist temples and shrines throughout China. Significant investments have been made in Xizang Zizhiqu (Tibet) to repair the infrastructure of temples and monasteries, and the monastic orders have been permitted
to organize themselves again. As with Catholicism, the Tibetan Buddhist hierarchy under the Dalai Lama does not accept the authority of the Chinese to approve their officials. So, the Dalai Lama and the Tibetan Buddhist officials around him are in exile in India, but the monasteries and temples are functioning once again in their homeland.
In addition to the major institutionalized religions in China, daily life is diffused with physical and metaphysical practices to achieve long life, sexual prowess, health, financial well- being, and other desired goals. Popular versions of Daoism emphasize these daily practices.
Herbal and natural substances are mixed according to yin/yang principles based on universal harmony. Mind and body training exercises are also practiced to achieve spiritual balance and personal well-being. For the populace survival in everyday life has been more important than the explanation of the ultimate meaning of life, so they practice the daily rituals that help them survive.
In all civilizations the "Great Religious Traditions" (Judaism, Christianity, Islam, Hinduism, Buddhism, Confucianism) have been accompanied by popular religions followed by the common people. In China, as in the West, popular religion has grown out of the belief in nature spirits, such as trees, rock formations, bodies of water, mountains, and heavenly bodies. Although the Great Religious Traditions usually turn the basic experiences of nature into abstract concepts, in popular thought they remain inhabited by gods and spirits. So, in popular religion in China people turn to nature spirits to help them live their daily lives, retain their health, have children, have success with the crops, and live a long life with the respect of their children and grandchildren.
Most people in China see themselves as non-religious today. In the early years of the Revolution, Communist ideology was the dominant belief system supported by the state, but as the country experienced economic and religious liberalization during the 1980's and 1990's evidences of the old religions have proliferated again. Confucianism no longer exists as a state ideology in China, but the cultural assumptions of that thought system pervade the everyday life of the educated classes. People are very attentive to their obligation to behave correctly in social relationships. Chinese Communism has also absorbed the Confucian concept of educated, meritorious officials who progress in their positions by civil service examinations. This synthesis between the Communist ideology of working for the collective and the Confucian ideology of civic morality has produced something distinctive to China, Confucian Communism.
Daoist practice has seen a revival in the traditional heartland of the Han in the central and eastern Huang Ho River Valley. Pilgrimages to the Sacred Mountains and to other natural landmarks are as popular as ever, and people fill the parks in large cities in the early morning hours, evenings, and weekends to practice popular versions of Daoist communion with nature.
In the southern provinces of China the practice of Buddhism has experienced a resurgence, and monasteries and temples are active again. Buddhist art has become popular, and Buddhist shrines such as the caves of Longmen at Luoyang have become attractions for Chinese and foreign tourists. Friends, who are technically non-believers, may exchange Buddhist amulets before a journey.
As discussed earlier, the practice of Christianity is also frequent in China now, particularly in the "Patriotic" Christian churches which can be found in every city and many large towns. The underground Christian movement is also strong, but there are no valid estimates as to its size. Christianity and democracy are frequently associated with each other as Western ideologies. Han people who have become disillusioned with the state ideology and the collapse of the democracy movement in China have turned to Christianity with increasing frequency to explore what many see as the root of Western culture. Adopting Christianity has become for many an expression of social change and a channel of exploring the Western values of capitalism and democracy.
Many different religious systems have been acquired by the Chinese over their five thousand year history, and many people will follow the teachings of two or three of them simultaneously. Islam and Christianity are unique in China in their requirement of the exclusive practice of one religion. In contrast to other world regions, no one religion defines Chinese culture today. China has one of the most complex mosaics of religious practice of any of the traditional civilizations in the world, which may be expected, since this is the world's largest country and has one of the world's oldest cultural traditions.
Confucianism, Respect for Peers, and Loss of Face.
In Confucianism, it is critically important that each person be respected by his or her subordinates, peers, and authority figures. No one should criticize or put another person down so that they lose face (or respect) in front of others. This came home to me in a dramatic and unfortunate way in the cultural exchange program that I led to China. There were ten students on the trip, and they were paired with thirty Chinese students of English who would be their teaching partners. We exchange names and addresses well before the visit so that each could write to their counterparts in the other country, telling something about themselves. We had semester long preparatory sessions discussing the history and culture of China, as well as
TESOL (Teaching of English as a Second Language) techniques.
In the letters of exchange one of the Chinese students asked for an audio tape of current rock music in the U.S. English language students in China commonly choose an English name to use, and this student had chosen the name "Elton John" because he liked the music of that performer. One of the American students had noticed Elton's request and had bought a tape that he thought would be good, and he took it on the trip. He had not mentioned to anyone else that he was bringing the tape. At the first meeting of the two groups of students after we had arrived in China, the American student sought out Elton and gave him the tape, but in the view of several others he also presented Elton with the bill for it which approximately $15.00. In the Chinese tradition, gifts are exchanged between visiting groups, but to the American student it seemed like a business transaction. The fact that the tape was not a gift but that had to be paid for suggested that Elton was not worthy of a gift. It was an embarrassing experience for him in front of all of his classmates. To add insult to injury, the cost of the tape would have taken most of his limited spending money for the summer, leaving him penniless. After months of preparation to avoid this kind of cultural conflict the stealth delivery of a tape at the first meeting made glaringly clear how different the two cultures were. Working with one of the local directors of the exchange program, we decided try to smooth over the cultural gaffe by recommending that rather than Elton paying for the tape that he give a Chinese tape to the American student. The Chinese tape would cost about $1.00 and would not represent a financial hardship, and we hoped that this would allow him to save face in front of his fellow students.
While we hoped that the cultural band-aid would work, three days into the classes Elton
John announced that he was leaving temporarily to go home because of a supposed illness in his family. He never returned that summer. His embarrassment in front his classmates was more than he could bear. He had been made to lose face and ultimately the only solution for him was to leave the group. The post hoc exchange of tapes had not cured the insult he had received.
Daoism in the Park.
In Beijing my wife, daughter,and I went to a nearby park at 6:00 am to participate in a Tai Chi group. The park was alive at this time of the morning with many activities. The street leading up to the park entrance was already lined with venders who had spread out their goods on a cloth which marked their space. Shoes, clothes, jewelry, music tapes, and more were for sale. As we walked through the gate into the park, the various activity groups were immediately visible. The Tai Chi group was on our left in a paved area, and a group doing ballroom dancing with a portable CD play was on our right. The dancing group had a wooden dance floor. The Tai Chi master leading the group which also had music. Participants came over and showed us the proper way to do the movements, kindly trying to communicate across the language barrier.
There were many other groups in the park doing spiritual and physical exercises. Some people raced along the paved paths on their bicycles, but most were in groups doing Daoist
exercises. One group standing in a clump of trees was communing with trees. Each person stood as close to a tree as they could, and they stretched their arms around the tree as if to hug it without ever touching it. They stood in this reverent, communicating pose with the tree, meditating on their unity with nature. A soft murmur could be heard as some of them said the prayers or meditative mantras for the beginning of the day. Passing a lake and crossing a small bridge led into a large open grassy area where one hundred or more people were standing in straight lines facing the east and the rising sun. Each person held a small tree limb in their raised hand, in front of and above their face. Again, they maintained this meditative pose for a prolonged time and again we could hear a soft voices as people repeated their meditative murmurs.
As we traveled to other parts of China, we became accustomed to seeing people, alone or in groups, communing with nature in the parks in the early mornings and evenings. An elderly lady might be standing beside a small bush in a meditative pose in an otherwise paved plaza with several hundred people milling around her and talking. She seemed to be shutting out the distractions of the outside world to focus on her moment of spiritual contemplation. A man and his wife went to a group of trees around the lake on the University of Xinjiang, and they stayed in spiritual quietness among the trees for most of the next hour. They repeated Daoist truths from memory as each sought spiritual tranquility to end the day.
Shintoism: the Japanese Nature-Based Religion
Shintoism is a distinctively Japanese religion that relates to nature spirits, similar to Daoism. It is common among Japanese to practice both Shintoism and Buddhism, there being no conflict between the practice of multiple religions. The beginning of the distinctive Japanese culture rests in Shintoism, which is a belief in "the way of the kami or spirits".20 This essentially animistic belief system says that kami can live in any living being. Humans are thought to be born free of evil, and the kami spirit can guide a person to know the difference between right and wrong intuitively. Good behavior is honorable and follows the way of the kami. Dishonorable behaviors break from nature and go against the well-being of the family and the community.
Defilement is a religious problem, as it is in other Asian religions. Ritual cleansing is necessary to purify the defilement, and the water from a pure mountain stream may do the cleansing. The emphasis of Shintoism is on this life, and little attention is given to what happens after death.
Death is understood as a withdrawal into the void of the afterlife.
The Ise Shrine is the most important Shinto site in Japan, and it is the imperial shrine. It is dedicated to the Sun Goddess, Amaterasu, the ancestress of the Imperial Family. According to the Japanese creation myth, in the beginning of time Amaterasu, the Sun Goddess, was given heaven. She sent her grandson Ninigi to establish a ruling family on earth, the Imperial family of Japan. Jimmu was the first emperor, and the current Emperor is 125th. According to this
narrative, the Japanese royal family is the oldest uninterrupted imperial line in the world.
The practice of Shintoism is divided into family and state versions. Family Shintoism commonly involves visits to shrines which are in park-like surroundings, purifications, and outings to appreciate nature. These are family activities which are enjoyed in group. State Shintoism on the other hand is the official cult that surrounds the Emperor of Japan. The Emperor was traditionally thought to be the spirit embodiment of Japan, and some even considered him to be supernatural. This was greatly curtailed after World War II when the treaty of surrender required the Emperor to renounce his religious status. Shintoism is important within the cultural heritage of Japan, and its shrines are places of tranquility and respite in the crowded and hectic cities of Japan.
Muslim Hospitality Shown by a Uygur Family
The Uygurs, a Turkic speaking Muslim people from Central Asia, are the majority population in Xinjiang Province in northwestern China. During the summer that my family and I spend in Xinjiang, we worked closely with a number of Uygur students and professors. Our Uygur colleagues at the University were effusive in greeting us, and soon we were meeting each other with hugs in contrast to the more formal distant greetings common for Han Chinese people. On various occasions, Uygur families invited us to their homes for lunch, and we experienced the celebrated hospitality of the Central Asian peoples. One such lunch was with the Rashid family, and as in every Uygur home that we visited, we were warmly greeted at the door by the entire family, including the father, mother, two daughters, and a son. We were led to the sofa in the living room, and in front of the sofa was a long coffee table filled with cakes, cookies, fruits, and nuts.
The family spoke only Uygur, which we did not, but a daughter was studying English at the university, so she translated for us. While we waited on the sofa and eating the sweets laid out for us, the family completed the preparation of the meal. The sweetness of the fruits and cakes is supposed to open the appetite for the heavier meat and rice dishes that were to come, but it is also a way of welcoming visitors into the home. As we looked at the long table completely filled with sweet foods, we were a bit overwhelmed. Even this first course was a banquet which we could only sample. When the mother and daughter came back to check on us, they exclaimed that we had eaten almost nothing, and I knew that we needed to show our appreciation for all of the delicious food that they had prepared by making a more obvious dent in it. As they returned to the kitchen, we served ourselves another round of cakes and fruits.
After forty minutes or an hour of our tasting the sweet cakes, the family began arriving with the main dishes. The cakes were cleared off, but the fruits and nuts were left, and heaping bowls of rice, platters of lamb kabob, sun dried tomatoes, and Uygur flat bread were placed on the table. The father brought out drinks that ranged from the local brandy to Coca-Cola. As visitors we were to be honored with brandy, but we were also offered soft drinks. Lamb kabob and flat bread (similar to pita bread) are distinctively Uygur foods, and you can find them in stalls along the streets or in fine sit-down dinners. As Muslims, Uygurs eat no pork, and prefer lamb. We talked during the long leisurely meal, learning about their family and telling about ours. We found a close affinity between the Uygur views of family and life and those of Latin America where we had lived for twenty years.
A neighbor who is a well-known Uygur musician was there and after lunch he took out his duitar, a three-string instrument with a neck six feet long. He began to play an amazing variety of notes from those three strings. Our daughter, Vanessa, is also a professional musician and singer, and soon they found a way to collaborate. Either he or she would start a tune, and the other would pick up the melody and follow. Much to the satisfaction of the host family and ourselves we had an afternoon of music that switched back and forth between Central Asia and European musical traditions. As the duitar player strummed the familiar tunes, the daughters of the family stood to dance the subtle movements and hand gestures that completed the music. It was a long afternoon of food and talk, along with music and dance, and we loved the pleasure of being with this Uygur family. They shared with us the beauty with which they live their lives.
About the Author
Ron Duncan Hart, Ph.D., is a cultural anthropologist from Indiana University with postdoctoral work at the University of Oxford. He is the Director of the Institute for Tolerance Studies and a former University Vice-President. Hart has written books on Crypto-Jews, Jews and the Arab World, and Sephardic Jews. He has spoken widely as an invited lecturer on Jewish life and culture at universities and other venues. He is a former President of the Jewish Federation of New Mexico.
Noss, John B. 1963. Man's Religions. New York: The Macmillan Company. Page 328.
Bentley, Jerry H. and Herbert F. Ziegler. 2000. Traditions and Encounters: A Global Perspective on the Past. New York: McGraw-Hill. Pages 79-80.
Chang Chi-yun. 1962. Chinese History of Fifty Centuries. Vol. I, Ancient Times. Translated by Chu Li-hen. Taipei: Institute for Advanced Chinese Studies. Pages 15, 31, and
65.
Bentley and Ziegler, pages 94-95.
For a discussion of the one hundred schools, yin/yang, and specific thinkers from this period see Fairbank, John K., Edwin O. Reischauer, and Albert M. Craig. 1989. East Asia: Tradition and Transformation. Revised edition. Boston: Houghton Mifflin Company. Pages 49-54.
Sharot, Stephen. 2001. A Comparative Sociology of World Religions: Virtuosos, Priests, and Popular Religion. New York: New York University Press. Page 73.
For more information on Confucius and his teachings see Fairbank, Reischauer, and Craig, pages 44-46. Also Shu-hsien Liu. 1998. Understanding Confucian Philosophy: Classical and Sung-Ming. London: Praeger. Page 19.
For a discussion of the concept of dao as it evolved throughout Chinese history see Zhang Dainian. 2002. Key Concepts in Chinese Philosophy. Translated and edited by Edmund Ryden. New Haven: Yale University Press and Beijing: Foreign Language Press. Pages 11-26.
Shu-hsien Liu, page 43.
For a discussion of the Confucian classics see Fairbank, Reischauer, and Craig, pages 41-43.
Wang Ke-Wen, editor. 1998. Modern China: An Encyclopedia of History, Culture, and Nationalism. New York: Garland Publishing Company. Page 236.
For a discussion of Daoism and comparative philosophy between China and the West see Chenyang Li. 1999. The Tao Encounters the West: Explorations in Comparative Philosophy. Albany: State University of New York Press.
Smith, Huston. 1991. The World's Religions: Our Great Wisdom Traditions. New York: Harper Collins Publishers, Inc. Page 198.
For a discussion of the mystical aspect of Daoism see Fairbank, Reischauer, and Craig, pages 47-48.
See Zhang Dainian, pages 45-63 for a discussion of Chi (Qi).
Ibid., pages 83-94 for a discussion of yin/yang.
Lao Tzu. 1989. Tao Te Ching. Translated by Gia-Fu Feng and Jane English. Introduction and notes by Jacob Needleman. New York: Vintage Books. Page 33.
For a further discussion of Daoism see Brannigan, Michael C. 2000. The Pulse of Wisdom: The Philosophies of India, China, and Japan. Second edition. Belmont, California: Wadsworth/Thomson Learning. Page 27. For legalism see page 29.
See the chapter on the peoples/nationalities of China for a discussion of the Uygurs.
For a discussion of Shintoism, the kami, the myths of origin, and the Ise Shrine see Morton, pages 9-13.
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