Dbq Confucianism

As stated in “Document 19”, five religions that are legally protected and allowed to practice in China are Buddhism, Daoism, Catholicism, Protestantism and Islam (Overmyer, 2003). China, the origin of Confucianism has never questioned to recognize it as a religion throughout the Chinese history until late sixteenth century. Kang Youwei as one of the representatives of the Hundred Day’s Reform movement in the late Qing dynasty first proposed that Confucianism should be a state religion (Chan, 1954). However, his intention was only to counteract the influence of western culture and protect their Chinese cultural identity. Approximately 100 years later, the controversy was started again proposed by Ren Jiyu who has emphasized the significance

World religion such as Christianity and Buddhism contain a figure respectively that is spiritually supernatural and greater than human. Comparing Confucianism to Daoism, Daoism did not go through so much controversy as there are Daoist priest and Shaman stated explicitly in the doctrine of Daoism. Moreover, Kang Youwei who started this controversy advocated the worshipping of Confucius and he believed that the Confucian teachings are based on the Mandate of Heaven (Chen, 2012). Ren Jiyu recognized Confucius as its religious founder and proposed that Song-Ming Neo-Confucianism which is the transformed form of Confucianism worshipped tian (天), di (地), jun (君), qin (亲), shi (师) which are heaven, earth, emperors, ancestors and teachers (Chen, 2012). They both realized that the transcendent elements are preliminary for defining religious and reinterpreted the history in order to suit in the border that defines religion. However, Confucius did not claim to be the teacher of ultimate truth but merely a transmitter of ancient culture. His disciples did not regard him as divine after his death and had never worshiped Confucius upon his death. The only form of worshipping, ancestor worships are stated clearly and explicitly in the context of Confucian teaching. Feng Youlan claimed that the worshiped emperors, ancestors and teachers in the argument of Ren Jiyu are not supernatural

Many scholars who argued that Confucianism is a religion had ignored to fulfill this aspect in religion as they mainly focus on the transcendental element of religion. Confucianism could hardly fulfill this requirement as it is more likely parallel to other religions. One could believe in Christianity, Buddhism or Islam and still follow Confucius teaching in Confucianism. Worshipping god and ancestor worship could be practiced by same individual as they are discussed in different context. The former is about spiritual belongingness and the latter is about a ritual of paying respect and remembering to one’s ancestor. However, one could not worship God and Buddha at the same time as doctrine in Christianity and Buddhism are not parallel with each other in the sense that both of them discussed spiritual belongingness. Hence, the requirement of unity is not fulfilled in the context of