Religion: Chinese Traditional Religion, Daoism, Confucianism
Most worship of the Shén in the World is something you do, rather than something you are. Families venerate tutelary and ancestor spirits with offerings and consult spiritualists from various traditions, many of them idiosyncratic to a location, if they need direct contact or advice. That said, it is easiest for the newcomer to understand Chinese religion as an array of different ingredients which can be ingested individually, or combined in potentially infinite permutations to create religious traditions passed down like an herbalist’s or chef’s traditional recipes. For any given combination of indigenous Chinese religion, Confucianism, Buddhism, and Daoism, there exists some place and time in Chinese history when it was popular.
Textual canons provide many of these recipes’ main ingredient. Each canon contains a series of texts associated by philosophy or reference, delineating a school of thought. There is a Daoist canon inspired by the early Laozi, Zhuangzi, and Liezi which starts with politics, meanders into naturalism and mysticism, returns to politics with Legalism, and ties it all together with a cosmic model based on balance and no wasted effort. The Confucian canon contains the Analects as well as certain important classics: the Classic of Poetry, Book of Documents, and the Spring and Autumn. The Confucian canon focuses on living as a productive and positive member of society, especially where the family is concerned. The Classic of Changes appears in most canons.
Various Daoist monastic associations exist in the northern China of the World, combining philosophy and cosmology from the Daoist scriptural canon with traditional shamanic practices in myriad combinations. While these monasteries adhere to celibacy and vegetarianism like their Buddhist counterparts, many more Daoist priests study the canon and perform shamanic services without them. A formal tradition, the Academic School (Rujia), also appeared around Confucianism, eventually morphing into a system of religion that deified poor Confucius and incorporated traditional practices much like Daoism.
Buddhism, though, really introduced the idea of a religious tradition with membership to China. The old-school Indian Theravada Buddhism changed when it arrived in China, becoming the more populist Great Vehicle Buddhism and bringing bodhisattva-hood, rather than arhat-hood, into primacy as a goal state. However, while Buddhism always advertised the quest for nirvana and the freedom of all mankind from the cycle of suffering as the supreme goal, it never truly rejected any other religion with which it coexisted. Indian Devá and Chinese Shén were invited to study the Buddha’s Law alongside humans. Many of them accepted wholeheartedly, including Sun Wukong, the least likely of converts to the Middle Way.
Textual canons provide many of these recipes’ main ingredient. Each canon contains a series of texts associated by philosophy or reference, delineating a school of thought. There is a Daoist canon inspired by the early Laozi, Zhuangzi, and Liezi which starts with politics, meanders into naturalism and mysticism, returns to politics with Legalism, and ties it all together with a cosmic model based on balance and no wasted effort. The Confucian canon contains the Analects as well as certain important classics: the Classic of Poetry, Book of Documents, and the Spring and Autumn. The Confucian canon focuses on living as a productive and positive member of society, especially where the family is concerned. The Classic of Changes appears in most canons.
Various Daoist monastic associations exist in the northern China of the World, combining philosophy and cosmology from the Daoist scriptural canon with traditional shamanic practices in myriad combinations. While these monasteries adhere to celibacy and vegetarianism like their Buddhist counterparts, many more Daoist priests study the canon and perform shamanic services without them. A formal tradition, the Academic School (Rujia), also appeared around Confucianism, eventually morphing into a system of religion that deified poor Confucius and incorporated traditional practices much like Daoism.
Buddhism, though, really introduced the idea of a religious tradition with membership to China. The old-school Indian Theravada Buddhism changed when it arrived in China, becoming the more populist Great Vehicle Buddhism and bringing bodhisattva-hood, rather than arhat-hood, into primacy as a goal state. However, while Buddhism always advertised the quest for nirvana and the freedom of all mankind from the cycle of suffering as the supreme goal, it never truly rejected any other religion with which it coexisted. Indian Devá and Chinese Shén were invited to study the Buddha’s Law alongside humans. Many of them accepted wholeheartedly, including Sun Wukong, the least likely of converts to the Middle Way.
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