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Characteristics Of Chinese Popular Religion

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The Chinese religion have 394 million adherents, and 150,000 are in North America. Although they are unsure about what their religion is because, it is a connection of “separate elements: traditional religion, Buddhism, Confucianism, and Daoism (Taoism)” (Corduan, 2012, p. 388). These elements are significant to the Chinese Popular Religion. This essay aims to summarize the key features of Chinese Popular Religion, describe key religious practices for an adherent of Chinese Popular Religion, describe the role of traditional Chinese religion in contemporary Chinese society, describe how the growth of Christianity and other religions have impacted contemporary Chinese society, and offer an example of how you think Christians might enhance their interactions within Chinese society.
Buddhism, Confucianism and Daoism are the key features of the Chinese Popular Religion, and the base of the Chinese Popular Religion. These teachings are the reflection that a person in the Chinese society might experience today. With these three teachings, there must be, a fair outlook of the opposing concepts of all three schools on thoughts (Buddhism, Taoism, and Confucianism in China, 2011). For example, “Buddhism”, focuses on the nature of the mind and psychology; “Daoism” educates regarding the human body and health, and “Confucianism”, teaches on political concepts in communal peacefulness (Buddhism, Taoism, and Confucianism in China, 2011). The “two distinctive traits that characterized early
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When China was being invaded by steppe nomads, Zhi Dun praised the religion but did not feel the need to mention other religions showing that he did support Buddhism, but faced difficulties to follow the religion in given circumstances. “...and who furthermore make a vow to be reborn without ever abandoning his sincere intention, will at the end of his life, when his sould passesaway,be miraculously transported thirhter. ”(Doc. 2) show his great belief in the promise of a better afterlife but he does not mention any other religion to compare Buddhism to. Furthermore, the Anonymous Chinese scholar face difficulties in answering questions who greatly were against Buddhist practices and the scholar had to develop a way to positively answer those question while favoring Buddhism as a religion that should be worshipped.

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The perception of Buddhism varied greatly from the collapse of the Han Dynasty to the formation of the Tang Dynasty in China. At the same time, the perception towards Christianity in the Roman Empire was undergoing similar changes. Emperors saw the religion as a threat, lower classmen saw it as a path to salvation, while scholars, as a whole, were indecisive. Those in power perceived Buddhism as a strain on China’s society and economy as well as a threat to their rule.

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Following the fall of the Han dynasty came the decline of practicers of the Confucian philosophy because of the downfall of the elite class and a centralized government. Buddhism, a religion with it’s roots from north India, has found its presence in China during the time when trade, along the silk roads, was crucial in all parts of Eurasia. Although the spread of Buddhism in China was greeted with devotion from new converts who supported the religion by spreading it and combining their cultures with the religion, it also was rejected by the ruling elite who opposed the spread of the religion that impacted China for the next following centuries.

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In the first document the Buddha puts importance on the steps to talking about the ending of suffering. This is why so many people decided to join the religion of the Buddha, many people who were poor were struggling because many lives were lost as the nation of China had unstable governmental leaders. Then again, this is why a lot of the wealthy people could not relate to Buddhism, they were not struggling and have an extravagant lifestyle (Document 6). Zhi Dun, who was pro Buddhist spoke about how the understanding and the acceptance of the Buddhist is important in China because the people in China who are wealthy don’t understand what it means to be a Buddha because they are lost in their wealthy life style. During upsetting eras, for example the time period after the Han yu’s fall, people would join Buddhism to be able to believe that they had the potential of a release from the physical world and escape to a better place where they could find enlighten (Document 4).

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The authors purpose is to show that Confucius is the a real teaching in China while Buddhism was not and just an idea. Finally, many people did not believe that Buddha had any affiliation with China and the dynasties. Buddha did not speak Chinese nor wear Chinese cultural clothes and he came from India which leads many scholars to believe he did not have an effect. For example, “...to say that Buddha is no more than a cult… did not exist here in ancient time.(Document 4)” The point of view of the author is against Buddhism and does not believe that Buddhism had any correlation with China.

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