The Chinese Cultural Context
---- From Perspectives of Philosophy and Religion Author Unknown
History of Thought in China
The spiritual tradition of China has resulted in a rich and unique civilization admired by the world and has contributed to the sense of national pride which the Chinese have for their heritage. To understand this tradition one must focus on the history of thought in China, for it is this which is the nucleus of the history of the nation.
Throughout much of China’s long and fascinating history, two rival approaches to life competed for dominance. One was Confucianism, with its emphases on reason, traditional morality, and rigid order. The other was Taoism, with its stress on intuition, mystical identification with nature, and endless change and flux.
The two most important figures in China’s history of thought are Confucius and Lao -tzu. Their teachings may be said to sum up the past and forecast the future. Although their teachings were not original since it is possible to find almost every important tenet of their philosophies before their time, nevertheless their great influence on subsequent Chinese culture places them in the period which succeeded them rather than in that which came before.
Before Confucius and Lao-tzu were long centuries of nature-and ancestor-oriented responses to the sacred. The ancient Chinese had polytheistic ideas of God and worshipped their many gods among whom there was the supreme God (Di) represented as a remote and imperial creator, the nature deities such as earth itself and its products, such as grain, rivers and mountains. There were also the spirits of deceased kings and high ministers who had passed away Pacifying these spirits kept the population busy and fearful. Sacrifices of fowl and cooked food were frequent rituals practiced by the majority of people as a means of protection from the spirits and for the asking of favors. Shamans (wu shi) were consulted frequently for supernatural guidance in even the smallest matters.
These were long centuries of superstitious beliefs in spirits and ghosts who were believed to constantly appear to men in dreams or simply as day-light apparitions and to communicate freely with men without the aid of a shaman.
Then in BC 551, Confucius came. His teaching readjusted the moral and spiritual fibre of the people, especially that of the intellectuals. He taught the people to keep spirits at a distance and to focus their energies instead on the cultivation of a good character as well as virtues such as human-heartedness and love for others. He gave the people a higher vision of themselves as human beings capable of perfection in character and morals. As a result, the shamanistic hold on the people receded gradually into the background. By the late Chou period (1122 BC -- 256 BC), the teachings of Confucius had become a major influence, and by the time of the Han dynasty (206 BC -- 220 AD), it was adopted as the state orthodoxy. By then, the ruling class and the educated in society looked down on shamans as impostors who traded on the credulity of the masses. Five hundred years later, in 32--31 BC, when shamanistic performances at the Chinese court were abolished, the sayings of Confucius about keeping spirits at a distance were quoted by a minister who sponsored this reform. Although shamanistic divination, sacrifices and seances did not entirely disappear from Chinese society, shamanism no longer had a stranglehold on the vast majority and especially the intellectuals and the educated. Its role had become marginal with the withdrawal of the support of the court. In its place was an increased emphasis on rational thought. The mastery of Confucian literature became the basis for the civil service examination system (imperial examination system, ke ju)and this survived until the waning years of the Ch'ing dynasty in the first decade of the 20th century.
In the place of gods, spirits and ghosts, Confucius revived the concept of one Supreme Being -- that of “Heaven” (Tian) or “Supreme Lord”(Shang Di). These were not new concepts, but they were concepts that had been forgotten with the political and social and spiritual deterioration of China after the last Golden Age, believed to be that of Kings Wen and Wu during the time of the early Chou (around 1100 BC). For the Chinese of that Golden Age, “Heaven” referred to the supreme being and the personal god who has absolute power and who rules over the universe. At the same time, it also referred to an impersonal cosmic power or nature.
Another remarkable Chinese sage, Lao-tzu, who lived during the same period as Confucius. Lao-tzu popularized the idea of Tao (Dao, Way ) a concept which in time became just as important, if not more so, than “Heaven” in Chinese thought. With the coming of Lao-tzu and his important work, the Tao-te Ching (Dao De Jing), often called “the Chinese Bible”, the idea of a personal and supreme god was denied and instead, an “unknowable” Tao was introduced which was regarded as the essence and the Ultimate reality of the universe.
From the 6th century AD onwards, Confucian and Taoist ethics and metaphysics began to play a bigger and bigger part in the Chinese consciousness. They formed a system of social values, and fulfilled various spiritual and ethical functions very much like those of a religion. Thus, although they were historically speaking “philosophies”, they functioned like religions and became in all senses and purposes the Chinese religion. It is useful to view these two religions as one whole. They are two halves, irretrievably linked in the cultural thought of the Chinese people, originating in the same century. While Confucianism manifests its influence predominantly in the ethical and political spheres, Taoism manifests its influence mainly in the literary, the artistic and the spiritual.
Taoism, however, was gradually overshadowed by Confucianism which was officially recognized by the Han emperor towards the end of the 2nd century BC and was declared the orthodox philosophy of the state, with a government university set up in the capital to teach its doctrines to prospective officials. This did not mean that Taoism was in any way suppressed. People were still free to read and study its literature, and it is certain that educated men of the Han continued to savor the literary genius of Chuang-tzu and Lao-tzu as they had in the past. It simply meant that Taoist writings were not accorded any official recognition as the basis for decisions of state and public affairs.
Thus it was Confucianism rather than Taoism which was the more dominant force in Chinese culture as it laid down the structural principles and supplied the key operational values for the basic Chinese institutions from the family to the state. The Confucianists -- the scholars trained in the Confucian doctrine -- staffed the offices of the government and constituted the elite of the society. Through them, the influence of Confucianism permeated every aspect of Chinese society for more than two thousand years.
A word must be added here on Buddhism, the subsequent “third” party of the Chinese religion. Although the Buddha lived in approximately the same period as Confucius and Lao-tzu (563-483BC), his teachings were brought into China by Buddhist devotees through the Silk Route only around the 1st century AD. Buddhism was propagated among the people in the southwestern region and gradually penetrated central China and flourished. It was very popular with the court in the time of the Divided dynasties (around 420--590AD) and during the T'ang dynasty (618--907 AD).
By then, however, Confucianism had entrenched itself as the state ideology and Buddhism was not able to take over its preeminent position. Nevertheless, some aspects of Buddhism were absorbed into the Chinese culture and, through the centuries, it was so interwoven with Confucianism and Taoism that it became quite indistinguishable from the two. At the height of its popularity in the T'ang dynasty, Buddhism was neither inseparable from nor in conflict with native Chinese religious and cultural beliefs and practices. It became a part of the Chinese religion. This phenomenon has been referred to as the Chinese conquest of Buddhism rather than the Buddhist conquest of China. Like Taoism, Buddhism Played the role of a supporting structure essentially filling in certain metaphysical “gaps” which Confucianism did not Provide.
In view of these developments and in terms of the intention to understand the spiritt, culture and psyche of the Chinese people, the focus of this paper will necessarily be on Confucianism and Taoism since they are the undisputed core of the Chinese culture and religion.
The Significance of Confucius
Although it is difficult to measure the influence of religious or philosophical systems, it is possible to assert that Confucius was the greatest and most significant unifying force of the Chinese people and of civilization in Chinese history. In fact, Confucianism is synonymous with what is known as the “Chinese Great Tradition”. An originator of one of the greatest spiritual traditions in human history, Confucius set the pattern for later thinkers in China.
Taoism, of course, has exercised tremendous influence on Chinese art, religion, government and philosophy of life, while Buddhism has contributed substantially to Chinese religion, philosophy and art, especially sculpture. There is no question, however, that Confucianism has been the controlling influence so far as government, education, literature, society, ethics and non-institutional religion in China are concerned whereas in all these both Buddhism and Taoism have played a secondary role. Confucianism was the official philosophy of China for about two thousand years until the birth of the Republic of China in 1911. It went through many phases and had various aspects, but its fundamental tenets have generally remained constant throughout the centuries. Furthermore, the metaphysics, epistemology and psychology of medieval Buddhism and Taoism were assimilated into Confucianism to constitute Neo-Confucianism in the 11th and 12th centuries.
Confucianism has left an indelible mark on the social and political structure of the nation. Through the educational system, teachers succeeded in inculcating Confucian values into the minds of young people. Thus, the Chinese outlook on life has been immensely colored by Confucian ideas which have been formulated since his day into a governing code of etiquette and morality for all the Chinese. Just as the sayings of Chairman Mao were reference points for policy decisions when he was alive, so in Imperial China, for over two thousand years, the sayings of Confucius were often the ultimate authority in all spheres of social and political life.
Dynasties have risen and fallen but Confucianism, although increasingly stereotyped and formalized through the centuries, abided, despite such changes. Because of Confucius, the large family system, with its special emphasis on filial and fraternal obedience, continues to be a dominant factor in society. In almost everything from their national to private life, in their culture, in their manners and behavior, in their customs and traditions, in their mode of expression in speaking and writing, the Chinese are indebted to Confucius. Through centuries of enforcement and practice as a social doctrine, Confucianism won uncritical acceptance by the people and became an emotional attitude as well as a body of rational thinking.
In addition, Confucian teachings were brought to Korea, Japan and Vietnam in varying degrees and became a part of their national heritages. Each of these countries owe to it the best features of their social life and public institutions.
Confucius, the Man
Confucius is the latinized rendering of the Chinese K'ung Fu-tzu. K'ung is the surname. Fu-tzu means "the Master". Confucius and his most well-known disciple, Mencius, are the only Chinese with latinized names. This can be explained by the fact that Chinese books were translated first into Latin by the Jesuit missionaries of the 16th and 17th centuries who saw in Confucianism a religion somewhat like the Greek philosophy of Plato and Aristotle and did much to publicize it. Having been made famous in Europe as Confucius and Mencius, it was impossible thereafter to call them K'ung-tzu and Meng-tzu.
An attempt to understand Confucius is made difficult by the large mass of legend and tradition that has accumulated so thickly about him that over the centuries it has become very difficult to discern fact from fiction. These elaborations about Confucius stem from two different motives. On the one hand, his admirers wanted to exalt him and therefore built up an elaborate genealogy that traced his ancestry back to emperors. On the other hand, those whose interests were menaced by this revolutionary thinker sought to nullify his attacks on their entrenched privilege by distorting and misrepresenting what he had to say. The safest course therefore is to completely disregard the elaborate traditional story of his life and rely only on the documents that can be proved to be early and reliable.
Confucius was born in 551 BC in the state of Lu, in Shantung Province. We cannot be certain about his ancestry but there might have been aristocrats among his forebears. As a young man, however, he was without rank and lived in humble circumstances. He had to make his own living and was self taught. His father died when he was a child, and Confucius grew up under the care of his mother. Being fatherless and born into a society without the benefit of a well-organized social welfare system, Confucius learned poverty and hardship of life from an early age. This experience was probably one of the chief reasons for his strong desire and search for an ideal life and world. These experiences gave him a close view of the sufferings of the common people, about whom he became deeply concerned. He grew up convinced that the world was in a sorry state and that it was vital for drastic changes to be made.
Confucius lived during the time called the Period of the Warring States (8th--3rd century BC). China was not yet unified but divided into many states which were ambitiously warring among themselves. The splendid Chou dynasty, established by the end of the 12th century BC, had reached its zenith in the 11th. By the 10th century, it had begun to decline. The feudal system had steadily disintegrated. As the consequence of the war, China experienced social, political, economic and moral chaos. The major question of the time was how people could live in peace.
Murders, intrigues, assassinations, rebellions and notorious immoralities were the order of the day. The poor and down-trodden were the greatest victims of the social disorder. Confucius witnessed glaring discrepancies between name and reality. The king was not like a king, the ministers not like ministers, fathers not like fathers, brothers not like brothers and friends not like friends. Men seemed to have lost their humanity, as evidenced in the unscrupulous behavior and hypocrisies of the local princes and the ministers, the corruption of the royal house and the immoral behavior of the nobility. Of the aristocrats Confucius had a poor opinion. He saw that men who were born with every hereditary claim to rank and nobility often behaved like beasts while others without those advantages often conducted themselves in a manner far more worthy of respect. “It is difficult to expect anything from men who stuff themselves with food the whole day, while never using their minds in any way at all. Even gamblers do something and to that degree are better than these idlers.” The aristocrats used considerable ingenuity to devise ever more expensive adjuncts to their luxurious living, for which the people paid with taxes and forced labor. Above all, the aristocrats practiced the art of war. As the nobility was of military origin, most felt that the arts of war were the only occupation worthy of the attention of gentlemen and made fun of those who concerned themselves with the need for good government and orderly administration.
Confucius spent about ten years of his life travelling from state to state in China seeking a ruler who would use his philosophy in government. Like the great spiritual leaders, he never found one in his lifetime. In some places he was treated with scant courtesy; at least once an attempt was made on his life. In only one case did a noble who wielded the chief power in a state treat Confucius with great deference and frequently ask his advice; but this man was so corrupt that, when an invitation came to return to his own state, Confucius did so gladly.
In the Analects, Confucius said “In the morning hear the Way (Dao); in the evening die content”, exclaiming that if he could hear the Way in the morning, he would be happy to die in the evening of the same day. The Way, Heaven's Way, was one which Confucius adhered to with religious fervor and which was his supreme gift to his people.
Although there have been attempts to call the Confucian ideology an atheistic or agnostic one, it is not possible to do so on the grounds that Confucius' concept of Heaven was not as sharply and well-defined as the personal God in the Christian theology. In fact, on closer examination of the Confucian writings, one finds that Confucius recognized the existence of Heaven (Tian) as a sort of Supreme Being who rules over man and the world. (The Chinese word Tian was originally the word for God.) Heaven in this view is both transcendent and immanent. Confucius stands in awe of this ultimate source of creativity which works incessantly in the universe and the human world. If religious belief is understood to mean faith in something transcendent that has exerted profound influence on our lives, then Confucius must be regarded as a deeply religious man.
Confucius had a lively faith in Heaven. This faith in Heaven was the ultimate source of his greatness. He acknowledges, “It is only Heaven that is grand”, and “He who sins against Heaven has no one to whom he may pray”. He himself admitted that at fifty he “knew the Mandate of Heaven”. Heaven was a term that often occurred in his teachings:
The superior man stands in awe of three things. He stands in awe of the Mandate of Heaven; he stands in awe of great men; and he stands in awe of the words of the sages. The inferior man is ignorant of the Mandate of Heaven and does not stand in awe of it. He is disrespectful to great men and is contemptuous toward the word of the sages.
His faith in Heaven convinced him that man's happiness depended upon the approval of Heaven rather than the praises of men, upon one's interior qualities rather than external things. Once he said: I do not murmur against Heaven nor grumble against men. My studies lie low, but my penetration rises high. Tian alone knows me.
This faith explains why Confucius could be so composed and serene when faced with the dangers of life. The idea of Heaven led Confucius to feel that somehow, somewhere there was a power that stood on the side of the lonely person struggling for what is right.
Faith in Heaven and a sense of heavenly mission could be seen in Confucius' declaration that since Heaven endowed him with virtue or power (De), none could harm him and that since Heaven would not destroy culture, his enemy would not be able to harm him:
When King Wen [the founder of the Chou dynasty 1122BC -- 256BC and mentioned by Confucius as a model of virtue] perished, did that mean that culture ceased to exist? If Heaven has really intended that such culture as his should disappear, a latter-day mortal would never have been able to link himself to it as I have done. And if Heaven does not intend to destroy such culture, what have I to fear from the people of Kuang?
Like other great spiritual leaders, the security of his own life was of no consequence to Confucius. Once, in a touching episode which took place on the border of the two states of Chen and Ts'ai, he and his disciples were surrounded by an army sent by his political enemies. Their food supplies were running out, and many of the followers were sick and depressed. Confucius, however, was seemingly unconcerned -- he continued to lecture and read, play music and sing.
It is apparent that Confucius felt that he had been entrusted by Heaven with a mission to cure the ills of the Chinese people, and he hoped that Heaven would not permit him to fail. Believing he had this heavenly conferred virtue as well as a heavenly appointed destiny, he went about his mission as a great educator of his people resolutely and with great conviction. He regarded himself as Heaven's instrument on earth, a wooden bell to arouse the people from their lethargy. He was convinced that his teachings denoted a moral endowment, which, if fully cultivated, would make one worthy to rule the whole empire.
Confucius' view of Heaven was endorsed and further developed by Mencius, who acknowledged the existence of a Supreme Ultimate: “Heaven gives birth to creatures.” Mencius went even further to point out a concrete way to approach Heaven: “He who exerts his mind to the utmost knows his nature. He who knows his nature knows Heaven. To preserve one's mind and to nourish one's nature is the way to serve Heaven.”
In common with other great spiritual leaders Confucius was neither loved nor respected for his insights, especially by the intelligentsia. In his lifetime, he was ridiculed and misunderstood. Up to the time of his death he was unable to make the Way prevail. At times of great distress, he was heard to remark: “Alas! How is it that the Way does not prevail!” On another occasion, he cried out in despair that there was no one who understood him, but added, “But Heaven understands me!”
These little cries should not be discounted although they occur relatively infrequently in the writings of Confucius. It is known that Confucius was usually a happy and serene man, at ease with all around him. He was not in the habit of “murmuring against Heaven” or “grumbling against men”. If such cries were uttered at all by a man who was known to be normally serene and composed, then they must have been said at moments of extreme agony and, for this reason, should be taken all the more seriously.
Another thing which characterized the religious faith of Confucius was his belief in the power of divine beings. Confucius praised the strong power of spirits. When he offered sacrifices to his ancestors and other spiritual beings, he felt as if they were actually present.
The word 'sacrifice' is like the word 'present'; one should sacrifice to a spirit as though that spirit was present, the Master (Confucius) said, if I am not present at the sacrifice, it is as though there were no sacrifice. The ancient Chinese believed that the offering of sacrifices to beings in other worlds was a means of disciplining one's mind and nature. Confucius sacrificed to spirits as though they were actually present. It would not have been in keeping with his character for him to observe the ritual forms of sacrifice of prayers and foodstuffs, if he was not sincere in his belief in the existence of spirits. Confucius was not an insincere or hypocritical man: if he had felt that such acts were of no consequence, he would not have hesitated to speak out against them.
As to sacrificial rites, we may note that Confucius announced his distaste for one item of ritual usage -- the human effigy. These wooden burial figures were made with human limbs so as better to represent human beings capable of serving the dead. Confucius is reported to have condemned makers of such figures.
Once, when Confucius was ill, his disciple Tze-lu prayed for him. Upon hearing this, the sage asked Tze-lu whether this was true. “Yes,” answered Tze -lu. “I have prayed for you to the gods above and below.” Confucius told Tze-lu: “I have been praying, too, for a long time.” What Confucius meant was that he had been praying a1l his life, not just during his current illness. There is also in the Analects a prayer by Confucius: “Whatsoever I have done amiss, may Heaven avert it, may Heaven avert it.”
There cannot be the slightest doubt that Confucius was deeply religious. He did not deny God or His evidences; rather he acknowledged, throughout his teachings, the glory and over-powering majesty of Heaven which overshadowed all created things.
A Humanistic Focus in Confucius' Teachings
The essence of Confucius' teachings lay in his conviction that serving man was equivalent to serving Heaven. Thus, the orientation of his philosophy was thoroughly “this-worldly”. Confucius stayed close to the concrete. Not for him were the metaphysical speculations of Heaven or what comprised the afterlife. He avoided committing himself on theological questions and refused to be wafted on the wings of metaphysics into the realm of the Great Unknown where only pure ideas exist.
Like his historical contemporary, the Buddha, Confucius was basically a humanist and a pragmatist, avoiding speculation about the metaphysical ideas of God or the Supreme Ultimate. He set the tone for later Chinese scholars who marginalised such controversial topics as the existence of God and the immortality of the soul, subjects extensively discussed by Western philosophers. Not for him were the debates on how many angels could dance on the head of a pin.
Not understanding the motive behind the “this-worldly” orientation, many Western observers tended to view the followers of Confucius as irreligious. A not uncommon comment from a Westerner is that the Chinese have a great moral tradition, but they lack religious faith in God.
What such Westerners do not realize is that Confucius' concern and focus on practical human problems was due to his belief that the best way to serve Heaven would be to serve man, rather than by making sacrifices to spirits, ghosts or to Heaven itself. Confucius' vision was centered on uplifting the moral fibre of society, the belief that human nature is capable of perfection once certain rules of conduct are followed. His commitment was to the retrieval of the deep meaning of human civilization. Self effort was indispensable for a happy and better life for all. A truly religious man should be totally committed to the propagation of the ideal social and political behavior. The separation of the sacred and the secular would be too arbitrary and superficial. What was sacred was not just meditation on God but also one's behavior towards one's fellow men.
What was sacred was not merely how one behaved in a temple or how one recited a holy text but how one's actions and attitudes manifested themselves in everyday occurrences of social relationships.
It may be noted here that in contrast to the major religions of the world which stress belief in God as the essential task of religion, Confucianism stressed ideal human relationship as the essence of its philosophy. For this reason, critics have asserted that Confucianism is not a religion, but a humanistic and ethical philosophy. One must note that although Confucius did not stress the necessity of belief in Heaven or a supernatural element, this did not mean that he disclaimed the necessity of belief. He did not stress the belief in a God for the simple reason that any man in his right mind in ancient China would not disclaim the existence of God or Heaven. The key was therefore not to emphasize belief but to stress the importance of good character and good deeds.
It must be remembered that the age of Confucius was not an agnostic or atheistic age. In fact, it was an age of an infusion of all kinds of supernatural beliefs. There was an “over-belief” in the Presence of God and gods. The popular imagination invented various spirits, which were worshipped as gods, for various natural objects -- the tree, the water, the river and even the garden wall. There was a belief in the malevolent ghosts of those whose sacrifices had been discontinued, or who had otherwise been wronged in their earthly term. The malevolent ghosts sought revenge on mortals and religion was concerned with protection against their attacks. Charms, exorcism, communication through mediums, the sounding of gongs, placing of spirit-walls to prevent entry of evil spirits through a doorway, offerings to placate them, the burning of incense, prayers, fasting -- all are evidence of the fear of the uncertainties of the spiritual dimension.
What was necessary at that time was not a call for a belief in a God or in a supernatural being which would have proved to be redundant, but the responsible and rational behavior that must come with such a belief Confucius called to man to adhere to the moral code that such a belief in the supernatural world entails. Confucius reminded his fellow men that the right way of worshipping Heaven was found in good behavior towards one's fellow men rather than in offering sacrifices as a means of placating gods, spirits and ghosts.
In the context of his time, Confucius believed that the people needed a “this-worldly” emphasis more than an “other-worldly” one. The people of feudal China needed to learn how to live the life rather than theories on metaphysics. A pragmatic approach was needed. Thus, by turning away from the vain search for the mysterious region of life after death, Confucius taught his followers to take a more realistic interest in present-day life.
Once, in response to a question as to what wisdom was, Confucius replied, “To be devoted to one's duties regarding others, to honour the gods and spirits and to remain far from them, this may be called wisdom. Thus, although Confucianism later became a state religion, it never developed or established a full-fledged priesthood which had the time to dwell on theories of metaphysics. Unlike the history of institutionalized religions such as Islam and Christianity, there was no protracted struggle between church and the state and there was no strong centrally organized religion in most periods of Chinese history. The separation of church and state was never made in Chinese culture. Yet without the establishment or infrastructure of a “church” in the Western sense of the word, one cannot help but notice the impressive historical record of the ability of the Confucians to moralize politics and to transform a legalist or military society into a moral community.
Confucianism: Religion or Philosophy?
The Confucian tradition stands on the boundary of philosophy and religion, a humanistic tradition and a religious tradition. It stands on the boundary of religious scripture and humanistic classics. For this reason, Confucianism should be defined as both a religion and a philosophy since there does not exist a word to cover these two concepts. It should not, as has been the case, be defined as only a religion or a philosophy. This is because if we define it solely as a religion, we may not be able to understand its uniqueness, and if we define it solely as a philosophy, we may lose the dynamism and vitality that it has on the hearts and minds of the people.
The Confucian scholars themselves never considered whether their system of values was a philosophy or a religion. This was simply not a question that had any relevance in their culture. Take, for instance, the question of dualistic terminology, e.g. “sacred” vs. “secular”, “spiritual” vs. “practical”, etc. which plays a large part in Western philosophical consciousness. These categories are quite alien to the Chinese since there is no concept of duality in the traditional Chinese mind. In the same way, philosophy and religion are neither separable nor dearly distinguishable in Chinese civilization.
Nevertheless, the popular attitude is that Confucianism is not a religion but a philosophy. We have already seen how Confucius' emphasis on the concrete and the practical rather than the abstract and the metaphysical has led people to think that he did not believe in Heaven. There are, however, other reasons for this misunderstanding.
First, the writings of Western Sinologists such as Legge and Giles in the 19th and early 20th centuries helped mould such beliefs. Their well-known works emphasized the agnostic character of Confucianism. In addition, a later generation of Western scholars," who grew up under the influence of Legge and Giles and who became acquainted with Chinese culture through Chinese classical studies, and through association with the Chinese educated class, assigned a relatively unimportant place to religion in Chinese society, leaving unexplained the universal presence of religious influence.
Chinese scholars themselves who lived during the time of the Chinese Renaissance which came at the close of World War One were also happy to lend support to this view. They hoped to defend the dignity of the Chinese civilization by stressing the role of rationalism in the classics, given the Western contempt for superstition and magic as the signs of national backwardness. Two passages from the Analects were often quoted to support the supposedly non-religious stand of Confucius. One was a remark by Tzu-kung (a disciple of Confucius) that Confucius was reluctant to talk about the way of Heaven.
Our Master's view concerning culture and the outward insignia of goodness, we are permitted to hear; but about Man's nature, and the ways of Heaven he will not tell us anything at all.
However, the fact that Confucius did not talk much about Heaven should not be misinterpreted to mean that Confucius did not have deep concern for Heaven. It is, after all, futile to talk about something that is beyond the comprehension of most people. Confucius himself admitted that only at fifty years of age did he know the Mandate of Heaven. What would have been the point of discussing metaphysics with the average man, who most probably would not reach the age of fifty?
The other passage often quoted to prove Confucius' aversion to spiritual matters relates to the incident when his disciple asked whether one should serve ghosts and spirits and the dead. Confucius replied, “Till you have learnt to serve men, how can you serve ghosts? ” Tzu-lu then ventured upon a question about the dead. The Master said, “Till you know about the living, how are you to know about the dead.”
This passage was often quoted to illustrate the fact that Confucius did not have much influence on the religious lives of the Chinese people. Yet it should be made clear that although Confucius was against discoursing on spirits, he never disputed their existence. In fact, he exhorted his followers to worship the spirits with reverence and sincerity as though they stood before them. Thus, although he kept aloof from spirits and such, he did honour their presence. Such utterances of Confucius would also be best interpreted relatively rather than absolutely (as had been the case). He taught during a period when there was excessive spirit worship as well as the worship of the dead. Confucius wanted to turn the people away from such preoccupations to more practical concerns.
The Great Tao
While "God" was the supreme concept in the West in terms of questions of the Highest Reality, "Dhama" (truth or law) took its place in the Indian tradition. But in the Chinese tradition "Heaven" and "Tao" occupied the place of the highest reality.
A prominent Chinese scholar summarized Confucianism in six words: "follow Heaven's Tao: establish man's Tao". Although we know the existence of Heaven's Way, it cannot be described. We do know however that if it is not there, nothing can exist in the universe. Because of Heaven's Tao things exist and grow and die and are born again. The purpose of life is to establish one's Tao, which must be in harmony with that of Heaven.
An understanding of the Chinese religion must therefore include an understanding of the Great Tao.Since the Confucian emphasis was a predominantly 'this-worldly' one, it was left to the Taoist sages, particularly Lao-tzu and Chuang-tzu, to try to expound more fully the concept of Tao. Their exposition of Tao was absorbed into the Confucian ideology and together they form the Chinese worldview and religious orientation.
Due to the success in the West of books such as The Tao of Physics, the word 'Tao' has now gained currency and is listed in well-known English dictionaries. However, such dictionaries describe Tao simply as a 'way' or 'path'. This is correct but not complete. One should note that as well as indicating the multifarious ways of communicating with this ultimate reality, Tao also denotes the ultimate reality in Chinese religious experience. Tao means both the way as principle and the way as the means to realize the principle. We note, too, that Tao is the common term used by all Chinese religious thinkers to denote the essence of religion. It is used to exemplify their understanding of the most subtle nature of religious experience.
The most famous exposition of the Tao is found in the Tao-te Ching which contains a consistent and coherent view of life and the universe. It is believed to be the most translated work next to the Bible. Not surprisingly, in the course of succeeding centuries, commentaries on this canon have been written in great profusion, attesting to the immense interest and importance attached to this work. About a thousand commentaries are known to exist: some 500 in Chinese, over 250 in Japanese and a small number in the Western languages. There have also been numerous translations of the Taoist canon. The earliest was in Sanskrit and made by a Buddhist luminary of the T'ang dynasty. The next earliest translation was in Latin and appeared about 1750. It was apparently made by a Jesuit missionary who had been to China. In 1828 the first Russian version appeared, and 40 years later the English version. Today, there are more than 40 English translations in the field, competing with one another for superior merit.
In relation to its small size (some 5000 characters), the influence directly or indirectly exerted by this extraordinary work on Chinese life and culture is profound and far-reaching. It has, for instance, contributed considerably towards the development of various classical schools of Chinese philosophy, notably Han Fei-tzu (d. 233 BC), a great leader of the Legalist school, and Chuang-tzu (369-286BC), second only to Lao-tzu as a Taoist mystic and philosopher.
Like all the religions of humankind, Taoism has added to the pool not only of spiritual but also of physical knowledge. The development in China of such sciences as chemistry, mineralogy and geography can be traced to Taoism. In addition, Taoism has played a signal part in the development of medicine, acupuncture, and the practical arts and crafts, as well as alchemy, astrology, divination and martial art (kung fu).
Lao-tzu, the Man
The author of the Tao-te Ching is said to be Lao-tzu, who is believed to be the first ancient sage of China who dedicated his life to the study of Tao. We cannot, however, be sure of his real name. Lao-tzu is a description rather than an appellation. It can mean 'old philosopher' or 'old sir', but it can also mean 'old child' or 'old fellow'. Perhaps Lao-tzu followed his own dictate that one should not be attached to names and thereby kept himself so well hidden that today very little is known of him except his writings.
The story goes that Lao-tzu was a custodian at the imperial archives in the state of Chou and as such had access to the ancient books of China. However, being disillusioned with the depraved conduct of the nobility and their oppression of the peasants and slaves, he left China to live outside its borders as a sign of protest. The officer of the frontier, Yin Hsi, noted his intention and urged him to write a book before he left his homeland. Lao-tzu took up the suggestion and wrote a book discussing Tao and virtue. At first the work was simply called Lao-tzu.
Later, during the Han dynasty (202BC-AD 9), it was dignified with the title Tao-te Ching (Classic of the Way and Its Virtue).It is traditionally believed that a meeting took place between Lao-tzu and Confucius. The earliest account begins with Confucius going to Chou to put questions to Lao-tzu concerning the rites, although in the document itself nothing further is said about them. All that is recorded is a lecture by Lao-tzu on the kind of behavior to be avoided. There are other versions of this meeting, however. One version, which is of Confucianist origin recounts that Confucius received instruction in the rites, while another of Taoist origin concerns the censure of Confucius by Lao-tzu. After the meeting with Lao-tzu, Confucius is reported to have said:
I know a bird can fly, a fish can swim, and an animal can run. For that which runs a net can be made; for that which swims a line can be made; for that which flies a corded arrow can be made. But the dragon's ascent into heaven on the wind and the clouds is something which is beyond my knowledge. Today I have seen Lao-tzu who is perhaps like a dragon."
Whatever the version, one notes that it is Confucius, who sought advice from Lao-tzu and not the other way round. Scholars inclined to believe that Confucius was at one time a student of and an apprentice to the older philosopher, Lao-tzu, whose influence in the conception of a non-anthropomorphic and all-pervasive Tao, in a laissez-faire(wu-wei) philosophy of government as well as in the advocacy of harmony, moderation and of deeds rather than words can be observed in the thinking of Confucius himself.
Tao: Absolute, Unknowable, Immanent and Transcendental
The Chinese people, contrary to common belief, were very religious. The words 'Heaven', 'Great Heaven', 'Immense Heaven', 'Supreme Heaven', 'Dominator' were often used to designate the Supreme Being.
Regardless of the diversity of names given to the Supreme Being, the ancient Chinese always believed in God as the single source of life and of all existence. From this inexhaustible spring of life, one is able to draw life-energy to nourish one's own life. God is the ultimate source of life, imparting His life-energy to many agents, such as parents, earth, air and water. Abundant nutrition is distributed to all creatures and this can be seen in nature.
Thus, the Chinese concept of God is not mythological. Chinese history of the primitive period from 2000 BC is based largely on legends but there is no legend concerning God and no book that contains the acts of God as does the book of Genesis. No definition of God has ever been suggested. There was no myth, no legend, no miracle.
The ancient Chinese centered their daily lives around the idea of a Supreme Being who was benevolent, omnipotent, virtue-loving, just and therefore capable of punishing evil. In fact, their concept of God did not differ much from that found in the Old Testament, but unlike that description, the Chinese idea of the holy sage was not a mysterious person who walked among his people. Instead, it was a God (Tao) who by definition was indefinable, indescribable and unknowable except as the single source of an creation. The religious attitude of the ancient Chinese can thus be said to be monotheistic. It must be noted that the terms 'Heaven' and 'Earth' did not denote two gods, as has often been suggested. To the Chinese, Heaven was the male and Earth the female principle. They represented the harmonious operation of the centrifugal and centripetal forces (yin and yang), which, in turn, derive from the Ultimate.
Yin and yang is the pivotal theory in traditional Chinese thought so that no aspect of Chinese civilization, government, architecture, personal relationships or ethics can escape its influence. Yin-yang are two principles or archetypes whose interaction generates the five elements -- metal, wood, water, fire and earth -- which, in various combinations, constitute the foundation of the cosmos in all forms. They are also the manifestation of the Tao. It is a view of a wholesome nature made up intricately of halves. In other words, everything that is a half must be completed by another half: spirit and matter, subject and object, inside and outside, above and below, man and woman, light and darkness, etc. The two poles complement each other and there is a dynamic balance between them. Most Western philosophies have tended to be lopsided by glorifying one pole at the expense of the other, e.g. the mind is considered to be better than the body, logic better than intuition.
The confluence of these two powers, like a symphony of love, produces infinite varieties of forms and colors of life. “In the beginning was the Tao”, goes a Chinese saying. “The Tao became yin and yang and from these two principles emerged ten thousand things.” It is a concept of cosmic union involving the idea of the one and single God, immanent in everything. These work together and represent one single, and pervading vital impetus, not two gods.
However, during the 6th century BC, this monotheistic principle of the Supreme Ultimate was lost sight of , and spirits, ghosts, ancestors and other objects were worshiped. Thus it was the mission of Confucius and Lao-tzu to remind the people to look beyond the worship of spirits and other shamanistic practices to the Great Tao, the Supreme dominator, as expounded in their ancient scriptures.
Since the Chinese did not have either a theology or an interest in speculation, their idea of God was neither Philosophical nor theological. The Chinese were not concerned with the attributes of God. They believed in one Supreme Being which had no clear definition. As to who He was and what He looked like, that was better left to God Himself. The Chinese sages have expounded the belief that from a relative knowledge, absolute truth can not be obtained; in other words, it is impossible to fathom the Infinite with a finite measure. The essence of Chinese religion can be said to comprise a belief in the presence of a Great Tao which is unknowable. Often represented by the Chinese word “Heaven”, the Great Tao was not so much the personal Creator, Ruler and Judge of the Jews and Christians but a remote, absolute and ultimate reality which cannot logically be well defined. As the Origin of the Universe and “mother” of all things, Tao is transcendent and defies all designation.
The Tao-te Ching explains that it is shapeless, soundless and bodiless. The descriptions of Tao's nature use terms such as cloudy, formless, obscure, elusive, silent and void. Tao is essentially indefinable in human language and inexplicable by human reasoning. It is beyond the distinction of personal or impersonal. Tao cannot be understood as “God” in the sense of ruler, monarch, commander, architect, shaper or maker of the universe. The true Taoist knows that Tao is not only the Way but the Origin and End of all things, yet it cannot be identified with anything in particular. Immanent in the universe, it nonetheless transcends it. It is the mystery of mysteries which evokes in the minds of thinking people a perennial sense of wonder. Taoism never hides the mysterious nature of Tao; rather it glorifies it. The wiser the man, the more amazed he is by this mystery.Only ignorant fools think that they know. There is an interesting similarity between the metaphysics of Tao in Taoism and Brahman of Hinduism. Both Tao and Brahman are in essence and in themselves indescribable and nameless, while in manifestation and function both are identifiable with many and all things in the universe.
The Taoist believes that “the Great Tao is simple and near because He is present in everything”. Confucius himself said that “Tao is not far from man”. Confucius also elaborated that Nature (human nature) is ordained by Heaven; that taking command of nature is Tao, and that to cultivate or practice Tao is Jiao (to teach/to educate). In other words, Confucius refers to the fact that Tao is to be found in a person's daily life.
Chuang-tzu and the Mysterious and Benevolent Tao
Deeply influenced by the Tao-te Ching, Chuang-tzu, a literary genius with profound spiritual insights, composed many verses on the nature of Tao. Chuang-tzu was born in the city of Meng in the state of Sung (in the present Honan Province) in the decade between 370 and 360 BC and died probably in his early eighties. Chuang-tzu's notion of the Tao appears to be essentially the same as that of Lao-tzu; but whereas Lao-tzu was a sage, economic with words and pregnant in his utterances, Chuang-tzu articulated, by graphic descriptions and interesting stories, what was implicit in the epigrams of his master.
With Chuang-tzu the philosophy of Taoism can be said to have reached its summit since later works have not contributed anything significantly new. Together, Chuang-tzu's and Lao-tzu's ideas became (like those of Confucius and Mencius) the leaven of Chinese thought. These two thinkers can be called the “pilgrims of the absolute” precisely because of their almost childlike faith and confidence in the Tao; both expressed their skepticism of the various schools which attempted to paint a more concrete picture of the Unknowable. The following verse on the nature of the Tao is typical of Chuang-tzu:
It (Tao) may be obtained, but cannot be seen. before heaven and earth were, Tao was. It has existed without change from all time. Spiritual beings drew their spirituality therefrom, while the universe became what we can see now. To Tao, the zenith is not high, nor the nadir low; no point in time is long ago, nor by lapses of age has it grown old.
Since the Tao defies all human understanding and human language, what Chuang-tzu and Lao-tzu have attempted to do is to describe, obliquely and in a negative way, some of its effects in relation to the existent universe and human world. They reasoned that since the Tao alone is the absolute, it follows that everything else is relative, including all human opinions and traditions.
Just as the sun rises on the evil and good and sends rain on the just and unjust, one characteristic of the Great Tao is that it does not differentiate but loves all nature and all men. The bounty and generosity of Tao however does not mean that Tao does not take an active hand in redressing inequities because although “the Tao of Heaven plays no favorites... it always succors the good”.
Confucius has the same idea of Heaven and narrates what he terms the “three impartialities”:
Heaven spreads over all without partiality; Earth sustains and contains all without partiality. Reverently displaying these three characteristics and thereby comforting all under Heaven in the tools which they imposed, is what is called “the three impartialities.
The Promise of Immortality
We note that the assurance of immortality has always been and will always be important for man, for if there is no such assurance, then there is nothing left to work towards, no reason to strive, nothing to look forward to. Religion alone offers to the individual fulfillment of his quest for immortality and enables him to transcend his desire for the material and the mundane. In pre-Confucian time, there had always been the belief in reward and punishment.
The Book of Changes(Yi Jing) records that the family [people] that accumulates good is sure to have happiness, while the family that accumulates evil is sure to have superabundant misery. This has been passed down through popular sayings such as “the virtuous will be rewarded, the wicked punished” and “the reward of virtue and vice is like a shadow following man”. Such sayings generally assume an afterlife. This can be seen in popular Chinese mythological accounts which graphically describe the horrors found in the various chambers of Hell.
Because the people of his time were preoccupied with the worship of spirits, Confucius emphasized that a person should focus his attention on living a good life. The afterlife, with its rewards or punishments, is not within one's contro1 and thus should not be the point of emphasis. When Confucius was asked whether men have consciousness after their death, he replied:
If I say that the dead have consciousness, I am afraid that the pious sons and obedient grandsons will harm their own lives for the dead; if I say that the dead have no consciousness, I am afraid that the unfilial and impious children will abandon the cadavers of their deceased parents and not even bury them. Why are you so eager to know if the dead have consciousness? It is not important now. We will know it naturally later (when we die).
Nor did any of his disciples talk about the subject at length, their famous reply being; “If we do not know about life, how do we know about death?”
Thus, Confucius was non-committal on questions of immortality and was careful to rationalize why he was oriented in this way. He did not deny that the afterlife was a reality but he did not emphasize it. He accepted what the ancient Chinese had believed about God and afterlife, that is, that Heaven and afterlife are not clearly and dogmatically defined, but are vaguely recognized as real.
Yet it seems to be part of human nature to worry about death and the hereafter. Thus, it was left to the other Chinese sages to fill in the gaps about death and to satisfy man's greatest curiosity and psychological desire for assurance. Therefore, to understand the Chinese ideas about this subject we must turn to the writings of Lao-tzu, Chuang-tzu and Mencius.
In the Tao-te Ching, Lao-tzu affirms the promise of immortality to those who adhere to Tao: It is said that/He who Preserves his life/Meets no tigers or wild buffaloes on the road/Remains untouched by weapons in the wars./In him the wild buffalo/Finds no space for his horns,/The tiger no space for his claws,/The soldier no space for his blade./How is this?/Because there is no place for death in him.
As for Chuang-tzu, the promise of eternal life is so real that it makes life on earth seem like a dream or a metaphor. For him, human beings were the passing shadows of their spirits or true selves. There is a belief in immortality, in the human spirit and in the soul. Death is just the beginning of a new stage of life. However, death, being unknown, is commonly feared and Chuang-tzu, like the great spiritual leaders, reassured people that their fear of death might be unfounded.
Mencius' confidence in achieving immortality was unmatched among the followers of Confucius. He did not believe that a person's life ends with his physical death.This strong moving power is man's built-in link to immortality. Yet whether one preserves this power or not depends on the way it is nourished. It must be nourished by uprightness, righteous deeds, and most of all, the Tao.
Later, for the popular mind, the afterlife came to be considered as a kind of reincarnation (introduced into China by Buddhism). This fitted in well with the popular imagination and saying that “if during life, one is not sparing of the five grains, after death one will become one of the six domestic animals”. Later Taoist and Buddhist works catered to the popular taste and elaborated on pictures of Heaven and Hell with many features and grotesque descriptions. An even later Taoist doctrine suggested that a good man could achieve long life and eventually become immortal. In popular belief, after great men died, because of their contributions in their lifetimes, they turned into deities. A conspicuous example of this belief is the popular deity Kuan Kung ( Guan Gong), a virtuous and just general of Chinese history, loved by many. It must be noted, however, that such ideas were absent from the original philosophy of Lao-tzu.
Predetermination or fate (ming) occupied a prominent place in the traditional Chinese interpretation of life and life crises. By the time Of Confucius, a variety of theories of fate had emerged.
One of the popular contemporary adages during the time of Confucius, and which is still quoted today, is “Death and life have their determined appointment; riches and honour depend upon Heaven”. Confucius himself spoke of fate thirteen times, one example of which is: “If my principles are to advance, it is so ordered. If they are to fall to the ground, it is so ordered”.
Mencius was even more explicit in regarding Heaven as a personified predeterminer. For example, "To advance a man or to stop his advance is really beyond the power of other men.”
The belief in fate is therefore a component of the Chinese psyche.
Tao and Tao Alone
The Tao-te Ching advocates that the nature of great virtue is to follow Tao alone. Once in harmony with Tao, everything is made whole, there being no metaphorical demons or spirits to upset the people's constitution.
The Tao-te Ching states that it is natural for men to turn to Tao and that it is separation from Tao which is unnatural. Tao is the one who gives life, nurses, raises, nurtures, shelters, comforts, feeds and protects. Every creature who is conscious of its origin thus has a natural and intimate kinship with Tao. Tao is like the mother to the newborn. Logically, then, turning towards Tao is life and turning away is death. Being on the path is as life-giving as reaching the end of it, while being off the path is more death-dealing than ignorance of where the path leads: “If I have a grain of wisdom, I walk along the great Tao, and only fear to stray."
For Lao-tzu and Chuang-tzu, the ultimate end of man was to be united with Tao. Once one attained a union with the Tao, humanity and justice would flow spontaneously “like a stream from the fountain”. These virtues would no longer be onerous duties imposed upon one by an external authority. In their performance, one would feel no sense of being virtuous, but only a deep joy incidental to any act gracefully done.
However, to be at one with the Tao, one should first empty oneself of all human knowledge so as to be objective in the partaking of divine knowledge. To show the importance of an unbiased mind in the search for Truth, the Tao-te Ching frequently uses metaphor in describing a human being's uncontaminated nature variously likening it to uncarved wood, the innocence of a spewing infant, the seeming obscurity of muddy water and the openness of a valley. Lao-tzu believed that man's original nature was constant although its pristine simplicity had been smothered by layers upon layers of the “knowledge” and “desire” generated in a contrived and Unnatural society. For Lao-tzu, this encrustation of social norms values and conventional erudition could be pared away through a cultivation of the Taoist way and a return to the beginning: “To get learning, add to it daily./To get Tao, subtract daily./Subtract and subtract/Until you achieve nothing-doing/Do nothing-doing/And everything will get done.”
The Tao-te Ching stresses that one must unlearn conventional knowledge and reject all artificially-established values before one can return to a natural and uncontaminated state. The cultural accumulation around one's original nature -- this unnatural carving of the “uncarved wood” -- represents a real deterioration of the human condition. Truth will only be distorted when seen through prejudiced eyes. Lao-tzu went on to elaborate on the fact that most people see the concrete aspect of the wheel, vessel or room not realizing that its utility or usefulness lies in its hollowness.
Tao is to be known by “nothing knowing”, a clear and unobstructed state of mind, made possible only by first emptying oneself of all human learning. The mind should be opened to Tao by absorbing and becoming intimate with it and not by building mental constructions on top of it.
Nothing-knowing can be achieved not only by the learned but the common people. As in the past revelations, men devoid of learning have comprehended the truth, “a power whose reality men of learning fail to grasp”. This is perhaps most clearly seen in the recognition of Christ by the illiterate and the rejection of Him by the intellectuals of His time. Indeed, Lao-tzu warns that “the wise are not learned; the learned are not wise”, as learning is more often a hindrance rather than an aid to spiritual insights. In this context, Tao is attained not so much by knowledge but by an absence of knowledge accomplished through learning.
The Chinese concept of God as revealed in the Tao-te Ching is that He is absolute, unknowable, immanent, transcendental and benevolent. There is a belief in immortality and in the operation of fate, and a realization that to follow Tao is to go by Heaven's Way, not man's way. To be at one with the Way, an unbiased mind is of critical importance. Like the Confucian Analects, the Tao-te Ching dwells on the practical and the factual rather than the mystical. As a spiritual legacy, the Tao-te Ching covers a vast variety of subjects ranging from personal culture to political ideals and expounds both the immanent and the transcendent aspect of Tao. As has been observed by both oriental and occidental scholars (including Hegel), the ideas of Lao-tzu tend to be more philosophical in the pure sense of this term when compared with those of Confucius. They have played a major part in fostering a spirit of contentment, a deep love of nature, and a strong sense of moderation, simplicity and innocence in the psyche of the Chinese people.
Confucianism and Taoism: The Nucleus of Chinese Culture
The question of a Chinese religion of which Confucianism and Taoism forms the core can be discussed by defining what a religion is. If one considers Paul Tillich's definition of religion as “ultimate concern”, or A. N. Whitehead's concept of religion as “the art of the internal life of man”, then there is no difficulty in naming the philosophy of Confucius (and Lao-tzu) a “religion”. Tillich defines religion as the system of beliefs, ritualistic practices, and organizational relationship designed to deal with ultimate matters of human life such as the tragedy of death, unjustifiable sufferings, unaccountable frustrations, and uncontrollable hostilities that threaten to shatter human social ties. Such matters transcend the conditional finite world of empirical rational knowledge, and to cope with them as an integral part of life, man is motivated to seek strength from faith in the non-empirical realms as spiritual power inspired by his conception of the supernatural.
Einstein's concept of wonder and the experience of the mysterious in daily routine corresponds to the Chinese concept of contemplating the intrinsic value of things. Julian Huxley's concept of religion as a way of life, an inner awareness and a sublimation, is also similar to the Chinese approach to religion.
In addition, one notes that the thoughts of Pierre Teilhard de Chardin in The Divine Milieu are very Chinese. His whole structure of the worldview coincides with the Chinese cosmological view of life. Likewise, his idea that God permeates all things and that we can encounter God in our own action resembles the Chinese concept of the Mandate of Heaven descending upon man and all things. The Chinese believe that the love of Heaven is in all creatures, and that in meeting them, man encounters God. The divine love energy is the unifying power of the universe. The universe has consciousness and is progressing towards the Great Unity that Teilhard de Chardin calls the “Omega point”.
Similarly, both Confucianism and Christianity share a common basic ethic which may be said to be love for one's fellow human being. Five hundred years before the Sermon on the Mount, the Analects of Confucius had already stated the Golden Rule: “What you do not wish others to do to you, do not to others.” Jesus was to emphasize this just as positively: “Whatever you wish that men do to you, do so to them.”
In light of these definitions, scholars may refer to a “Chinese religion” rather than a “Chinese philosophy”. Yet, one must remember that the Chinese approach to the Holy and the Supreme God is a unique one. The Chinese concept of religion is that it is a religion that emphasizes the eternal now. It is a religion of life. It is a way of living, not just thinking about life. Humans must live and experience the beauty and goodness of the universe right here and now, not just hope for and aspire to the phantom of a future happiness.
For Confucius and the Chinese sages, a religion is a set of moral codes for living a good life. The foremost duty of the sage was therefore to create a set of rules for rightful conduct.
In discussing the “Chinese religion”, one should note too that there is no Chinese word that corresponds exactly to the word “religion”. To the Chinese, there is no difference between religion and education. The Chinese people use the word “teaching” (jiao) to include all religions. The “religion” of the Chinese people is implicit in the word “teach”. Education, or religion, guides the people to live a good life, in harmony with the mystery of the Great Tao. Both “teaching” and learning have the purpose of bringing enlightenment. A great teacher teaches one to understand the great principles of life and of the universe and how to reach the good and appreciate the beautiful. Although the Chinese notion of “teaching” does not indicate an explicit belief in God, it is incorrect to say that the Chinese do not believe in God. Everywhere in the classical books of China, such as those of Lao-tzu, Confucius, Mencius and Chuang-tzu, there is reference to the presence of the Supreme Ultimate, of Heaven and of the Great Tao.
To conclude, Confucianism, as well as Taoism, is both a religion and a philosophy. It is a religion because it shares with the major religions the acceptance of a God, the supreme being. It seeks strength from faith in the non-empirical realms. It also emphasizes mercy and love. It encourages prayer. On the other hand, Confucianism or Taoism is a philosophy because there was no “revealer”, only an educator or a Great Tao; he is not “divine” and therefore does not have the authority to promise paradise or salvation as a reward for belief. Bearing in mind terminological difficulties, Confucianism and Taoism are referred to as both a religion and a philosophy since there is no word that envelops both concepts. They are the nucleus of the Chinese culture which underlies the structure or formation of the overall mentality of the Chinese people
---- From Perspectives of Philosophy and Religion Author Unknown
History of Thought in China
The spiritual tradition of China has resulted in a rich and unique civilization admired by the world and has contributed to the sense of national pride which the Chinese have for their heritage. To understand this tradition one must focus on the history of thought in China, for it is this which is the nucleus of the history of the nation.
Throughout much of China’s long and fascinating history, two rival approaches to life competed for dominance. One was Confucianism, with its emphases on reason, traditional morality, and rigid order. The other was Taoism, with its stress on intuition, mystical identification with nature, and endless change and flux.
The two most important figures in China’s history of thought are Confucius and Lao -tzu. Their teachings may be said to sum up the past and forecast the future. Although their teachings were not original since it is possible to find almost every important tenet of their philosophies before their time, nevertheless their great influence on subsequent Chinese culture places them in the period which succeeded them rather than in that which came before.
Before Confucius and Lao-tzu were long centuries of nature-and ancestor-oriented responses to the sacred. The ancient Chinese had polytheistic ideas of God and worshipped their many gods among whom there was the supreme God (Di) represented as a remote and imperial creator, the nature deities such as earth itself and its products, such as grain, rivers and mountains. There were also the spirits of deceased kings and high ministers who had passed away Pacifying these spirits kept the population busy and fearful. Sacrifices of fowl and cooked food were frequent rituals practiced by the majority of people as a means of protection from the spirits and for the asking of favors. Shamans (wu shi) were consulted frequently for supernatural guidance in even the smallest matters.
These were long centuries of superstitious beliefs in spirits and ghosts who were believed to constantly appear to men in dreams or simply as day-light apparitions and to communicate freely with men without the aid of a shaman.
Then in BC 551, Confucius came. His teaching readjusted the moral and spiritual fibre of the people, especially that of the intellectuals. He taught the people to keep spirits at a distance and to focus their energies instead on the cultivation of a good character as well as virtues such as human-heartedness and love for others. He gave the people a higher vision of themselves as human beings capable of perfection in character and morals. As a result, the shamanistic hold on the people receded gradually into the background. By the late Chou period (1122 BC -- 256 BC), the teachings of Confucius had become a major influence, and by the time of the Han dynasty (206 BC -- 220 AD), it was adopted as the state orthodoxy. By then, the ruling class and the educated in society looked down on shamans as impostors who traded on the credulity of the masses. Five hundred years later, in 32--31 BC, when shamanistic performances at the Chinese court were abolished, the sayings of Confucius about keeping spirits at a distance were quoted by a minister who sponsored this reform. Although shamanistic divination, sacrifices and seances did not entirely disappear from Chinese society, shamanism no longer had a stranglehold on the vast majority and especially the intellectuals and the educated. Its role had become marginal with the withdrawal of the support of the court. In its place was an increased emphasis on rational thought. The mastery of Confucian literature became the basis for the civil service examination system (imperial examination system, ke ju)and this survived until the waning years of the Ch'ing dynasty in the first decade of the 20th century.
In the place of gods, spirits and ghosts, Confucius revived the concept of one Supreme Being -- that of “Heaven” (Tian) or “Supreme Lord”(Shang Di). These were not new concepts, but they were concepts that had been forgotten with the political and social and spiritual deterioration of China after the last Golden Age, believed to be that of Kings Wen and Wu during the time of the early Chou (around 1100 BC). For the Chinese of that Golden Age, “Heaven” referred to the supreme being and the personal god who has absolute power and who rules over the universe. At the same time, it also referred to an impersonal cosmic power or nature.
Another remarkable Chinese sage, Lao-tzu, who lived during the same period as Confucius. Lao-tzu popularized the idea of Tao (Dao, Way ) a concept which in time became just as important, if not more so, than “Heaven” in Chinese thought. With the coming of Lao-tzu and his important work, the Tao-te Ching (Dao De Jing), often called “the Chinese Bible”, the idea of a personal and supreme god was denied and instead, an “unknowable” Tao was introduced which was regarded as the essence and the Ultimate reality of the universe.
From the 6th century AD onwards, Confucian and Taoist ethics and metaphysics began to play a bigger and bigger part in the Chinese consciousness. They formed a system of social values, and fulfilled various spiritual and ethical functions very much like those of a religion. Thus, although they were historically speaking “philosophies”, they functioned like religions and became in all senses and purposes the Chinese religion. It is useful to view these two religions as one whole. They are two halves, irretrievably linked in the cultural thought of the Chinese people, originating in the same century. While Confucianism manifests its influence predominantly in the ethical and political spheres, Taoism manifests its influence mainly in the literary, the artistic and the spiritual.
Taoism, however, was gradually overshadowed by Confucianism which was officially recognized by the Han emperor towards the end of the 2nd century BC and was declared the orthodox philosophy of the state, with a government university set up in the capital to teach its doctrines to prospective officials. This did not mean that Taoism was in any way suppressed. People were still free to read and study its literature, and it is certain that educated men of the Han continued to savor the literary genius of Chuang-tzu and Lao-tzu as they had in the past. It simply meant that Taoist writings were not accorded any official recognition as the basis for decisions of state and public affairs.
Thus it was Confucianism rather than Taoism which was the more dominant force in Chinese culture as it laid down the structural principles and supplied the key operational values for the basic Chinese institutions from the family to the state. The Confucianists -- the scholars trained in the Confucian doctrine -- staffed the offices of the government and constituted the elite of the society. Through them, the influence of Confucianism permeated every aspect of Chinese society for more than two thousand years.
A word must be added here on Buddhism, the subsequent “third” party of the Chinese religion. Although the Buddha lived in approximately the same period as Confucius and Lao-tzu (563-483BC), his teachings were brought into China by Buddhist devotees through the Silk Route only around the 1st century AD. Buddhism was propagated among the people in the southwestern region and gradually penetrated central China and flourished. It was very popular with the court in the time of the Divided dynasties (around 420--590AD) and during the T'ang dynasty (618--907 AD).
By then, however, Confucianism had entrenched itself as the state ideology and Buddhism was not able to take over its preeminent position. Nevertheless, some aspects of Buddhism were absorbed into the Chinese culture and, through the centuries, it was so interwoven with Confucianism and Taoism that it became quite indistinguishable from the two. At the height of its popularity in the T'ang dynasty, Buddhism was neither inseparable from nor in conflict with native Chinese religious and cultural beliefs and practices. It became a part of the Chinese religion. This phenomenon has been referred to as the Chinese conquest of Buddhism rather than the Buddhist conquest of China. Like Taoism, Buddhism Played the role of a supporting structure essentially filling in certain metaphysical “gaps” which Confucianism did not Provide.
In view of these developments and in terms of the intention to understand the spiritt, culture and psyche of the Chinese people, the focus of this paper will necessarily be on Confucianism and Taoism since they are the undisputed core of the Chinese culture and religion.
The Significance of Confucius
Although it is difficult to measure the influence of religious or philosophical systems, it is possible to assert that Confucius was the greatest and most significant unifying force of the Chinese people and of civilization in Chinese history. In fact, Confucianism is synonymous with what is known as the “Chinese Great Tradition”. An originator of one of the greatest spiritual traditions in human history, Confucius set the pattern for later thinkers in China.
Taoism, of course, has exercised tremendous influence on Chinese art, religion, government and philosophy of life, while Buddhism has contributed substantially to Chinese religion, philosophy and art, especially sculpture. There is no question, however, that Confucianism has been the controlling influence so far as government, education, literature, society, ethics and non-institutional religion in China are concerned whereas in all these both Buddhism and Taoism have played a secondary role. Confucianism was the official philosophy of China for about two thousand years until the birth of the Republic of China in 1911. It went through many phases and had various aspects, but its fundamental tenets have generally remained constant throughout the centuries. Furthermore, the metaphysics, epistemology and psychology of medieval Buddhism and Taoism were assimilated into Confucianism to constitute Neo-Confucianism in the 11th and 12th centuries.
Confucianism has left an indelible mark on the social and political structure of the nation. Through the educational system, teachers succeeded in inculcating Confucian values into the minds of young people. Thus, the Chinese outlook on life has been immensely colored by Confucian ideas which have been formulated since his day into a governing code of etiquette and morality for all the Chinese. Just as the sayings of Chairman Mao were reference points for policy decisions when he was alive, so in Imperial China, for over two thousand years, the sayings of Confucius were often the ultimate authority in all spheres of social and political life.
Dynasties have risen and fallen but Confucianism, although increasingly stereotyped and formalized through the centuries, abided, despite such changes. Because of Confucius, the large family system, with its special emphasis on filial and fraternal obedience, continues to be a dominant factor in society. In almost everything from their national to private life, in their culture, in their manners and behavior, in their customs and traditions, in their mode of expression in speaking and writing, the Chinese are indebted to Confucius. Through centuries of enforcement and practice as a social doctrine, Confucianism won uncritical acceptance by the people and became an emotional attitude as well as a body of rational thinking.
In addition, Confucian teachings were brought to Korea, Japan and Vietnam in varying degrees and became a part of their national heritages. Each of these countries owe to it the best features of their social life and public institutions.
Confucius, the Man
Confucius is the latinized rendering of the Chinese K'ung Fu-tzu. K'ung is the surname. Fu-tzu means "the Master". Confucius and his most well-known disciple, Mencius, are the only Chinese with latinized names. This can be explained by the fact that Chinese books were translated first into Latin by the Jesuit missionaries of the 16th and 17th centuries who saw in Confucianism a religion somewhat like the Greek philosophy of Plato and Aristotle and did much to publicize it. Having been made famous in Europe as Confucius and Mencius, it was impossible thereafter to call them K'ung-tzu and Meng-tzu.
An attempt to understand Confucius is made difficult by the large mass of legend and tradition that has accumulated so thickly about him that over the centuries it has become very difficult to discern fact from fiction. These elaborations about Confucius stem from two different motives. On the one hand, his admirers wanted to exalt him and therefore built up an elaborate genealogy that traced his ancestry back to emperors. On the other hand, those whose interests were menaced by this revolutionary thinker sought to nullify his attacks on their entrenched privilege by distorting and misrepresenting what he had to say. The safest course therefore is to completely disregard the elaborate traditional story of his life and rely only on the documents that can be proved to be early and reliable.
Confucius was born in 551 BC in the state of Lu, in Shantung Province. We cannot be certain about his ancestry but there might have been aristocrats among his forebears. As a young man, however, he was without rank and lived in humble circumstances. He had to make his own living and was self taught. His father died when he was a child, and Confucius grew up under the care of his mother. Being fatherless and born into a society without the benefit of a well-organized social welfare system, Confucius learned poverty and hardship of life from an early age. This experience was probably one of the chief reasons for his strong desire and search for an ideal life and world. These experiences gave him a close view of the sufferings of the common people, about whom he became deeply concerned. He grew up convinced that the world was in a sorry state and that it was vital for drastic changes to be made.
Confucius lived during the time called the Period of the Warring States (8th--3rd century BC). China was not yet unified but divided into many states which were ambitiously warring among themselves. The splendid Chou dynasty, established by the end of the 12th century BC, had reached its zenith in the 11th. By the 10th century, it had begun to decline. The feudal system had steadily disintegrated. As the consequence of the war, China experienced social, political, economic and moral chaos. The major question of the time was how people could live in peace.
Murders, intrigues, assassinations, rebellions and notorious immoralities were the order of the day. The poor and down-trodden were the greatest victims of the social disorder. Confucius witnessed glaring discrepancies between name and reality. The king was not like a king, the ministers not like ministers, fathers not like fathers, brothers not like brothers and friends not like friends. Men seemed to have lost their humanity, as evidenced in the unscrupulous behavior and hypocrisies of the local princes and the ministers, the corruption of the royal house and the immoral behavior of the nobility. Of the aristocrats Confucius had a poor opinion. He saw that men who were born with every hereditary claim to rank and nobility often behaved like beasts while others without those advantages often conducted themselves in a manner far more worthy of respect. “It is difficult to expect anything from men who stuff themselves with food the whole day, while never using their minds in any way at all. Even gamblers do something and to that degree are better than these idlers.” The aristocrats used considerable ingenuity to devise ever more expensive adjuncts to their luxurious living, for which the people paid with taxes and forced labor. Above all, the aristocrats practiced the art of war. As the nobility was of military origin, most felt that the arts of war were the only occupation worthy of the attention of gentlemen and made fun of those who concerned themselves with the need for good government and orderly administration.
Confucius spent about ten years of his life travelling from state to state in China seeking a ruler who would use his philosophy in government. Like the great spiritual leaders, he never found one in his lifetime. In some places he was treated with scant courtesy; at least once an attempt was made on his life. In only one case did a noble who wielded the chief power in a state treat Confucius with great deference and frequently ask his advice; but this man was so corrupt that, when an invitation came to return to his own state, Confucius did so gladly.
In the Analects, Confucius said “In the morning hear the Way (Dao); in the evening die content”, exclaiming that if he could hear the Way in the morning, he would be happy to die in the evening of the same day. The Way, Heaven's Way, was one which Confucius adhered to with religious fervor and which was his supreme gift to his people.
Although there have been attempts to call the Confucian ideology an atheistic or agnostic one, it is not possible to do so on the grounds that Confucius' concept of Heaven was not as sharply and well-defined as the personal God in the Christian theology. In fact, on closer examination of the Confucian writings, one finds that Confucius recognized the existence of Heaven (Tian) as a sort of Supreme Being who rules over man and the world. (The Chinese word Tian was originally the word for God.) Heaven in this view is both transcendent and immanent. Confucius stands in awe of this ultimate source of creativity which works incessantly in the universe and the human world. If religious belief is understood to mean faith in something transcendent that has exerted profound influence on our lives, then Confucius must be regarded as a deeply religious man.
Confucius had a lively faith in Heaven. This faith in Heaven was the ultimate source of his greatness. He acknowledges, “It is only Heaven that is grand”, and “He who sins against Heaven has no one to whom he may pray”. He himself admitted that at fifty he “knew the Mandate of Heaven”. Heaven was a term that often occurred in his teachings:
The superior man stands in awe of three things. He stands in awe of the Mandate of Heaven; he stands in awe of great men; and he stands in awe of the words of the sages. The inferior man is ignorant of the Mandate of Heaven and does not stand in awe of it. He is disrespectful to great men and is contemptuous toward the word of the sages.
His faith in Heaven convinced him that man's happiness depended upon the approval of Heaven rather than the praises of men, upon one's interior qualities rather than external things. Once he said: I do not murmur against Heaven nor grumble against men. My studies lie low, but my penetration rises high. Tian alone knows me.
This faith explains why Confucius could be so composed and serene when faced with the dangers of life. The idea of Heaven led Confucius to feel that somehow, somewhere there was a power that stood on the side of the lonely person struggling for what is right.
Faith in Heaven and a sense of heavenly mission could be seen in Confucius' declaration that since Heaven endowed him with virtue or power (De), none could harm him and that since Heaven would not destroy culture, his enemy would not be able to harm him:
When King Wen [the founder of the Chou dynasty 1122BC -- 256BC and mentioned by Confucius as a model of virtue] perished, did that mean that culture ceased to exist? If Heaven has really intended that such culture as his should disappear, a latter-day mortal would never have been able to link himself to it as I have done. And if Heaven does not intend to destroy such culture, what have I to fear from the people of Kuang?
Like other great spiritual leaders, the security of his own life was of no consequence to Confucius. Once, in a touching episode which took place on the border of the two states of Chen and Ts'ai, he and his disciples were surrounded by an army sent by his political enemies. Their food supplies were running out, and many of the followers were sick and depressed. Confucius, however, was seemingly unconcerned -- he continued to lecture and read, play music and sing.
It is apparent that Confucius felt that he had been entrusted by Heaven with a mission to cure the ills of the Chinese people, and he hoped that Heaven would not permit him to fail. Believing he had this heavenly conferred virtue as well as a heavenly appointed destiny, he went about his mission as a great educator of his people resolutely and with great conviction. He regarded himself as Heaven's instrument on earth, a wooden bell to arouse the people from their lethargy. He was convinced that his teachings denoted a moral endowment, which, if fully cultivated, would make one worthy to rule the whole empire.
Confucius' view of Heaven was endorsed and further developed by Mencius, who acknowledged the existence of a Supreme Ultimate: “Heaven gives birth to creatures.” Mencius went even further to point out a concrete way to approach Heaven: “He who exerts his mind to the utmost knows his nature. He who knows his nature knows Heaven. To preserve one's mind and to nourish one's nature is the way to serve Heaven.”
In common with other great spiritual leaders Confucius was neither loved nor respected for his insights, especially by the intelligentsia. In his lifetime, he was ridiculed and misunderstood. Up to the time of his death he was unable to make the Way prevail. At times of great distress, he was heard to remark: “Alas! How is it that the Way does not prevail!” On another occasion, he cried out in despair that there was no one who understood him, but added, “But Heaven understands me!”
These little cries should not be discounted although they occur relatively infrequently in the writings of Confucius. It is known that Confucius was usually a happy and serene man, at ease with all around him. He was not in the habit of “murmuring against Heaven” or “grumbling against men”. If such cries were uttered at all by a man who was known to be normally serene and composed, then they must have been said at moments of extreme agony and, for this reason, should be taken all the more seriously.
Another thing which characterized the religious faith of Confucius was his belief in the power of divine beings. Confucius praised the strong power of spirits. When he offered sacrifices to his ancestors and other spiritual beings, he felt as if they were actually present.
The word 'sacrifice' is like the word 'present'; one should sacrifice to a spirit as though that spirit was present, the Master (Confucius) said, if I am not present at the sacrifice, it is as though there were no sacrifice. The ancient Chinese believed that the offering of sacrifices to beings in other worlds was a means of disciplining one's mind and nature. Confucius sacrificed to spirits as though they were actually present. It would not have been in keeping with his character for him to observe the ritual forms of sacrifice of prayers and foodstuffs, if he was not sincere in his belief in the existence of spirits. Confucius was not an insincere or hypocritical man: if he had felt that such acts were of no consequence, he would not have hesitated to speak out against them.
As to sacrificial rites, we may note that Confucius announced his distaste for one item of ritual usage -- the human effigy. These wooden burial figures were made with human limbs so as better to represent human beings capable of serving the dead. Confucius is reported to have condemned makers of such figures.
Once, when Confucius was ill, his disciple Tze-lu prayed for him. Upon hearing this, the sage asked Tze-lu whether this was true. “Yes,” answered Tze -lu. “I have prayed for you to the gods above and below.” Confucius told Tze-lu: “I have been praying, too, for a long time.” What Confucius meant was that he had been praying a1l his life, not just during his current illness. There is also in the Analects a prayer by Confucius: “Whatsoever I have done amiss, may Heaven avert it, may Heaven avert it.”
There cannot be the slightest doubt that Confucius was deeply religious. He did not deny God or His evidences; rather he acknowledged, throughout his teachings, the glory and over-powering majesty of Heaven which overshadowed all created things.
A Humanistic Focus in Confucius' Teachings
The essence of Confucius' teachings lay in his conviction that serving man was equivalent to serving Heaven. Thus, the orientation of his philosophy was thoroughly “this-worldly”. Confucius stayed close to the concrete. Not for him were the metaphysical speculations of Heaven or what comprised the afterlife. He avoided committing himself on theological questions and refused to be wafted on the wings of metaphysics into the realm of the Great Unknown where only pure ideas exist.
Like his historical contemporary, the Buddha, Confucius was basically a humanist and a pragmatist, avoiding speculation about the metaphysical ideas of God or the Supreme Ultimate. He set the tone for later Chinese scholars who marginalised such controversial topics as the existence of God and the immortality of the soul, subjects extensively discussed by Western philosophers. Not for him were the debates on how many angels could dance on the head of a pin.
Not understanding the motive behind the “this-worldly” orientation, many Western observers tended to view the followers of Confucius as irreligious. A not uncommon comment from a Westerner is that the Chinese have a great moral tradition, but they lack religious faith in God.
What such Westerners do not realize is that Confucius' concern and focus on practical human problems was due to his belief that the best way to serve Heaven would be to serve man, rather than by making sacrifices to spirits, ghosts or to Heaven itself. Confucius' vision was centered on uplifting the moral fibre of society, the belief that human nature is capable of perfection once certain rules of conduct are followed. His commitment was to the retrieval of the deep meaning of human civilization. Self effort was indispensable for a happy and better life for all. A truly religious man should be totally committed to the propagation of the ideal social and political behavior. The separation of the sacred and the secular would be too arbitrary and superficial. What was sacred was not just meditation on God but also one's behavior towards one's fellow men.
What was sacred was not merely how one behaved in a temple or how one recited a holy text but how one's actions and attitudes manifested themselves in everyday occurrences of social relationships.
It may be noted here that in contrast to the major religions of the world which stress belief in God as the essential task of religion, Confucianism stressed ideal human relationship as the essence of its philosophy. For this reason, critics have asserted that Confucianism is not a religion, but a humanistic and ethical philosophy. One must note that although Confucius did not stress the necessity of belief in Heaven or a supernatural element, this did not mean that he disclaimed the necessity of belief. He did not stress the belief in a God for the simple reason that any man in his right mind in ancient China would not disclaim the existence of God or Heaven. The key was therefore not to emphasize belief but to stress the importance of good character and good deeds.
It must be remembered that the age of Confucius was not an agnostic or atheistic age. In fact, it was an age of an infusion of all kinds of supernatural beliefs. There was an “over-belief” in the Presence of God and gods. The popular imagination invented various spirits, which were worshipped as gods, for various natural objects -- the tree, the water, the river and even the garden wall. There was a belief in the malevolent ghosts of those whose sacrifices had been discontinued, or who had otherwise been wronged in their earthly term. The malevolent ghosts sought revenge on mortals and religion was concerned with protection against their attacks. Charms, exorcism, communication through mediums, the sounding of gongs, placing of spirit-walls to prevent entry of evil spirits through a doorway, offerings to placate them, the burning of incense, prayers, fasting -- all are evidence of the fear of the uncertainties of the spiritual dimension.
What was necessary at that time was not a call for a belief in a God or in a supernatural being which would have proved to be redundant, but the responsible and rational behavior that must come with such a belief Confucius called to man to adhere to the moral code that such a belief in the supernatural world entails. Confucius reminded his fellow men that the right way of worshipping Heaven was found in good behavior towards one's fellow men rather than in offering sacrifices as a means of placating gods, spirits and ghosts.
In the context of his time, Confucius believed that the people needed a “this-worldly” emphasis more than an “other-worldly” one. The people of feudal China needed to learn how to live the life rather than theories on metaphysics. A pragmatic approach was needed. Thus, by turning away from the vain search for the mysterious region of life after death, Confucius taught his followers to take a more realistic interest in present-day life.
Once, in response to a question as to what wisdom was, Confucius replied, “To be devoted to one's duties regarding others, to honour the gods and spirits and to remain far from them, this may be called wisdom. Thus, although Confucianism later became a state religion, it never developed or established a full-fledged priesthood which had the time to dwell on theories of metaphysics. Unlike the history of institutionalized religions such as Islam and Christianity, there was no protracted struggle between church and the state and there was no strong centrally organized religion in most periods of Chinese history. The separation of church and state was never made in Chinese culture. Yet without the establishment or infrastructure of a “church” in the Western sense of the word, one cannot help but notice the impressive historical record of the ability of the Confucians to moralize politics and to transform a legalist or military society into a moral community.
Confucianism: Religion or Philosophy?
The Confucian tradition stands on the boundary of philosophy and religion, a humanistic tradition and a religious tradition. It stands on the boundary of religious scripture and humanistic classics. For this reason, Confucianism should be defined as both a religion and a philosophy since there does not exist a word to cover these two concepts. It should not, as has been the case, be defined as only a religion or a philosophy. This is because if we define it solely as a religion, we may not be able to understand its uniqueness, and if we define it solely as a philosophy, we may lose the dynamism and vitality that it has on the hearts and minds of the people.
The Confucian scholars themselves never considered whether their system of values was a philosophy or a religion. This was simply not a question that had any relevance in their culture. Take, for instance, the question of dualistic terminology, e.g. “sacred” vs. “secular”, “spiritual” vs. “practical”, etc. which plays a large part in Western philosophical consciousness. These categories are quite alien to the Chinese since there is no concept of duality in the traditional Chinese mind. In the same way, philosophy and religion are neither separable nor dearly distinguishable in Chinese civilization.
Nevertheless, the popular attitude is that Confucianism is not a religion but a philosophy. We have already seen how Confucius' emphasis on the concrete and the practical rather than the abstract and the metaphysical has led people to think that he did not believe in Heaven. There are, however, other reasons for this misunderstanding.
First, the writings of Western Sinologists such as Legge and Giles in the 19th and early 20th centuries helped mould such beliefs. Their well-known works emphasized the agnostic character of Confucianism. In addition, a later generation of Western scholars," who grew up under the influence of Legge and Giles and who became acquainted with Chinese culture through Chinese classical studies, and through association with the Chinese educated class, assigned a relatively unimportant place to religion in Chinese society, leaving unexplained the universal presence of religious influence.
Chinese scholars themselves who lived during the time of the Chinese Renaissance which came at the close of World War One were also happy to lend support to this view. They hoped to defend the dignity of the Chinese civilization by stressing the role of rationalism in the classics, given the Western contempt for superstition and magic as the signs of national backwardness. Two passages from the Analects were often quoted to support the supposedly non-religious stand of Confucius. One was a remark by Tzu-kung (a disciple of Confucius) that Confucius was reluctant to talk about the way of Heaven.
Our Master's view concerning culture and the outward insignia of goodness, we are permitted to hear; but about Man's nature, and the ways of Heaven he will not tell us anything at all.
However, the fact that Confucius did not talk much about Heaven should not be misinterpreted to mean that Confucius did not have deep concern for Heaven. It is, after all, futile to talk about something that is beyond the comprehension of most people. Confucius himself admitted that only at fifty years of age did he know the Mandate of Heaven. What would have been the point of discussing metaphysics with the average man, who most probably would not reach the age of fifty?
The other passage often quoted to prove Confucius' aversion to spiritual matters relates to the incident when his disciple asked whether one should serve ghosts and spirits and the dead. Confucius replied, “Till you have learnt to serve men, how can you serve ghosts? ” Tzu-lu then ventured upon a question about the dead. The Master said, “Till you know about the living, how are you to know about the dead.”
This passage was often quoted to illustrate the fact that Confucius did not have much influence on the religious lives of the Chinese people. Yet it should be made clear that although Confucius was against discoursing on spirits, he never disputed their existence. In fact, he exhorted his followers to worship the spirits with reverence and sincerity as though they stood before them. Thus, although he kept aloof from spirits and such, he did honour their presence. Such utterances of Confucius would also be best interpreted relatively rather than absolutely (as had been the case). He taught during a period when there was excessive spirit worship as well as the worship of the dead. Confucius wanted to turn the people away from such preoccupations to more practical concerns.
The Great Tao
While "God" was the supreme concept in the West in terms of questions of the Highest Reality, "Dhama" (truth or law) took its place in the Indian tradition. But in the Chinese tradition "Heaven" and "Tao" occupied the place of the highest reality.
A prominent Chinese scholar summarized Confucianism in six words: "follow Heaven's Tao: establish man's Tao". Although we know the existence of Heaven's Way, it cannot be described. We do know however that if it is not there, nothing can exist in the universe. Because of Heaven's Tao things exist and grow and die and are born again. The purpose of life is to establish one's Tao, which must be in harmony with that of Heaven.
An understanding of the Chinese religion must therefore include an understanding of the Great Tao.Since the Confucian emphasis was a predominantly 'this-worldly' one, it was left to the Taoist sages, particularly Lao-tzu and Chuang-tzu, to try to expound more fully the concept of Tao. Their exposition of Tao was absorbed into the Confucian ideology and together they form the Chinese worldview and religious orientation.
Due to the success in the West of books such as The Tao of Physics, the word 'Tao' has now gained currency and is listed in well-known English dictionaries. However, such dictionaries describe Tao simply as a 'way' or 'path'. This is correct but not complete. One should note that as well as indicating the multifarious ways of communicating with this ultimate reality, Tao also denotes the ultimate reality in Chinese religious experience. Tao means both the way as principle and the way as the means to realize the principle. We note, too, that Tao is the common term used by all Chinese religious thinkers to denote the essence of religion. It is used to exemplify their understanding of the most subtle nature of religious experience.
The most famous exposition of the Tao is found in the Tao-te Ching which contains a consistent and coherent view of life and the universe. It is believed to be the most translated work next to the Bible. Not surprisingly, in the course of succeeding centuries, commentaries on this canon have been written in great profusion, attesting to the immense interest and importance attached to this work. About a thousand commentaries are known to exist: some 500 in Chinese, over 250 in Japanese and a small number in the Western languages. There have also been numerous translations of the Taoist canon. The earliest was in Sanskrit and made by a Buddhist luminary of the T'ang dynasty. The next earliest translation was in Latin and appeared about 1750. It was apparently made by a Jesuit missionary who had been to China. In 1828 the first Russian version appeared, and 40 years later the English version. Today, there are more than 40 English translations in the field, competing with one another for superior merit.
In relation to its small size (some 5000 characters), the influence directly or indirectly exerted by this extraordinary work on Chinese life and culture is profound and far-reaching. It has, for instance, contributed considerably towards the development of various classical schools of Chinese philosophy, notably Han Fei-tzu (d. 233 BC), a great leader of the Legalist school, and Chuang-tzu (369-286BC), second only to Lao-tzu as a Taoist mystic and philosopher.
Like all the religions of humankind, Taoism has added to the pool not only of spiritual but also of physical knowledge. The development in China of such sciences as chemistry, mineralogy and geography can be traced to Taoism. In addition, Taoism has played a signal part in the development of medicine, acupuncture, and the practical arts and crafts, as well as alchemy, astrology, divination and martial art (kung fu).
Lao-tzu, the Man
The author of the Tao-te Ching is said to be Lao-tzu, who is believed to be the first ancient sage of China who dedicated his life to the study of Tao. We cannot, however, be sure of his real name. Lao-tzu is a description rather than an appellation. It can mean 'old philosopher' or 'old sir', but it can also mean 'old child' or 'old fellow'. Perhaps Lao-tzu followed his own dictate that one should not be attached to names and thereby kept himself so well hidden that today very little is known of him except his writings.
The story goes that Lao-tzu was a custodian at the imperial archives in the state of Chou and as such had access to the ancient books of China. However, being disillusioned with the depraved conduct of the nobility and their oppression of the peasants and slaves, he left China to live outside its borders as a sign of protest. The officer of the frontier, Yin Hsi, noted his intention and urged him to write a book before he left his homeland. Lao-tzu took up the suggestion and wrote a book discussing Tao and virtue. At first the work was simply called Lao-tzu.
Later, during the Han dynasty (202BC-AD 9), it was dignified with the title Tao-te Ching (Classic of the Way and Its Virtue).It is traditionally believed that a meeting took place between Lao-tzu and Confucius. The earliest account begins with Confucius going to Chou to put questions to Lao-tzu concerning the rites, although in the document itself nothing further is said about them. All that is recorded is a lecture by Lao-tzu on the kind of behavior to be avoided. There are other versions of this meeting, however. One version, which is of Confucianist origin recounts that Confucius received instruction in the rites, while another of Taoist origin concerns the censure of Confucius by Lao-tzu. After the meeting with Lao-tzu, Confucius is reported to have said:
I know a bird can fly, a fish can swim, and an animal can run. For that which runs a net can be made; for that which swims a line can be made; for that which flies a corded arrow can be made. But the dragon's ascent into heaven on the wind and the clouds is something which is beyond my knowledge. Today I have seen Lao-tzu who is perhaps like a dragon."
Whatever the version, one notes that it is Confucius, who sought advice from Lao-tzu and not the other way round. Scholars inclined to believe that Confucius was at one time a student of and an apprentice to the older philosopher, Lao-tzu, whose influence in the conception of a non-anthropomorphic and all-pervasive Tao, in a laissez-faire(wu-wei) philosophy of government as well as in the advocacy of harmony, moderation and of deeds rather than words can be observed in the thinking of Confucius himself.
Tao: Absolute, Unknowable, Immanent and Transcendental
The Chinese people, contrary to common belief, were very religious. The words 'Heaven', 'Great Heaven', 'Immense Heaven', 'Supreme Heaven', 'Dominator' were often used to designate the Supreme Being.
Regardless of the diversity of names given to the Supreme Being, the ancient Chinese always believed in God as the single source of life and of all existence. From this inexhaustible spring of life, one is able to draw life-energy to nourish one's own life. God is the ultimate source of life, imparting His life-energy to many agents, such as parents, earth, air and water. Abundant nutrition is distributed to all creatures and this can be seen in nature.
Thus, the Chinese concept of God is not mythological. Chinese history of the primitive period from 2000 BC is based largely on legends but there is no legend concerning God and no book that contains the acts of God as does the book of Genesis. No definition of God has ever been suggested. There was no myth, no legend, no miracle.
The ancient Chinese centered their daily lives around the idea of a Supreme Being who was benevolent, omnipotent, virtue-loving, just and therefore capable of punishing evil. In fact, their concept of God did not differ much from that found in the Old Testament, but unlike that description, the Chinese idea of the holy sage was not a mysterious person who walked among his people. Instead, it was a God (Tao) who by definition was indefinable, indescribable and unknowable except as the single source of an creation. The religious attitude of the ancient Chinese can thus be said to be monotheistic. It must be noted that the terms 'Heaven' and 'Earth' did not denote two gods, as has often been suggested. To the Chinese, Heaven was the male and Earth the female principle. They represented the harmonious operation of the centrifugal and centripetal forces (yin and yang), which, in turn, derive from the Ultimate.
Yin and yang is the pivotal theory in traditional Chinese thought so that no aspect of Chinese civilization, government, architecture, personal relationships or ethics can escape its influence. Yin-yang are two principles or archetypes whose interaction generates the five elements -- metal, wood, water, fire and earth -- which, in various combinations, constitute the foundation of the cosmos in all forms. They are also the manifestation of the Tao. It is a view of a wholesome nature made up intricately of halves. In other words, everything that is a half must be completed by another half: spirit and matter, subject and object, inside and outside, above and below, man and woman, light and darkness, etc. The two poles complement each other and there is a dynamic balance between them. Most Western philosophies have tended to be lopsided by glorifying one pole at the expense of the other, e.g. the mind is considered to be better than the body, logic better than intuition.
The confluence of these two powers, like a symphony of love, produces infinite varieties of forms and colors of life. “In the beginning was the Tao”, goes a Chinese saying. “The Tao became yin and yang and from these two principles emerged ten thousand things.” It is a concept of cosmic union involving the idea of the one and single God, immanent in everything. These work together and represent one single, and pervading vital impetus, not two gods.
However, during the 6th century BC, this monotheistic principle of the Supreme Ultimate was lost sight of , and spirits, ghosts, ancestors and other objects were worshiped. Thus it was the mission of Confucius and Lao-tzu to remind the people to look beyond the worship of spirits and other shamanistic practices to the Great Tao, the Supreme dominator, as expounded in their ancient scriptures.
Since the Chinese did not have either a theology or an interest in speculation, their idea of God was neither Philosophical nor theological. The Chinese were not concerned with the attributes of God. They believed in one Supreme Being which had no clear definition. As to who He was and what He looked like, that was better left to God Himself. The Chinese sages have expounded the belief that from a relative knowledge, absolute truth can not be obtained; in other words, it is impossible to fathom the Infinite with a finite measure. The essence of Chinese religion can be said to comprise a belief in the presence of a Great Tao which is unknowable. Often represented by the Chinese word “Heaven”, the Great Tao was not so much the personal Creator, Ruler and Judge of the Jews and Christians but a remote, absolute and ultimate reality which cannot logically be well defined. As the Origin of the Universe and “mother” of all things, Tao is transcendent and defies all designation.
The Tao-te Ching explains that it is shapeless, soundless and bodiless. The descriptions of Tao's nature use terms such as cloudy, formless, obscure, elusive, silent and void. Tao is essentially indefinable in human language and inexplicable by human reasoning. It is beyond the distinction of personal or impersonal. Tao cannot be understood as “God” in the sense of ruler, monarch, commander, architect, shaper or maker of the universe. The true Taoist knows that Tao is not only the Way but the Origin and End of all things, yet it cannot be identified with anything in particular. Immanent in the universe, it nonetheless transcends it. It is the mystery of mysteries which evokes in the minds of thinking people a perennial sense of wonder. Taoism never hides the mysterious nature of Tao; rather it glorifies it. The wiser the man, the more amazed he is by this mystery.Only ignorant fools think that they know. There is an interesting similarity between the metaphysics of Tao in Taoism and Brahman of Hinduism. Both Tao and Brahman are in essence and in themselves indescribable and nameless, while in manifestation and function both are identifiable with many and all things in the universe.
The Taoist believes that “the Great Tao is simple and near because He is present in everything”. Confucius himself said that “Tao is not far from man”. Confucius also elaborated that Nature (human nature) is ordained by Heaven; that taking command of nature is Tao, and that to cultivate or practice Tao is Jiao (to teach/to educate). In other words, Confucius refers to the fact that Tao is to be found in a person's daily life.
Chuang-tzu and the Mysterious and Benevolent Tao
Deeply influenced by the Tao-te Ching, Chuang-tzu, a literary genius with profound spiritual insights, composed many verses on the nature of Tao. Chuang-tzu was born in the city of Meng in the state of Sung (in the present Honan Province) in the decade between 370 and 360 BC and died probably in his early eighties. Chuang-tzu's notion of the Tao appears to be essentially the same as that of Lao-tzu; but whereas Lao-tzu was a sage, economic with words and pregnant in his utterances, Chuang-tzu articulated, by graphic descriptions and interesting stories, what was implicit in the epigrams of his master.
With Chuang-tzu the philosophy of Taoism can be said to have reached its summit since later works have not contributed anything significantly new. Together, Chuang-tzu's and Lao-tzu's ideas became (like those of Confucius and Mencius) the leaven of Chinese thought. These two thinkers can be called the “pilgrims of the absolute” precisely because of their almost childlike faith and confidence in the Tao; both expressed their skepticism of the various schools which attempted to paint a more concrete picture of the Unknowable. The following verse on the nature of the Tao is typical of Chuang-tzu:
It (Tao) may be obtained, but cannot be seen. before heaven and earth were, Tao was. It has existed without change from all time. Spiritual beings drew their spirituality therefrom, while the universe became what we can see now. To Tao, the zenith is not high, nor the nadir low; no point in time is long ago, nor by lapses of age has it grown old.
Since the Tao defies all human understanding and human language, what Chuang-tzu and Lao-tzu have attempted to do is to describe, obliquely and in a negative way, some of its effects in relation to the existent universe and human world. They reasoned that since the Tao alone is the absolute, it follows that everything else is relative, including all human opinions and traditions.
Just as the sun rises on the evil and good and sends rain on the just and unjust, one characteristic of the Great Tao is that it does not differentiate but loves all nature and all men. The bounty and generosity of Tao however does not mean that Tao does not take an active hand in redressing inequities because although “the Tao of Heaven plays no favorites... it always succors the good”.
Confucius has the same idea of Heaven and narrates what he terms the “three impartialities”:
Heaven spreads over all without partiality; Earth sustains and contains all without partiality. Reverently displaying these three characteristics and thereby comforting all under Heaven in the tools which they imposed, is what is called “the three impartialities.
The Promise of Immortality
We note that the assurance of immortality has always been and will always be important for man, for if there is no such assurance, then there is nothing left to work towards, no reason to strive, nothing to look forward to. Religion alone offers to the individual fulfillment of his quest for immortality and enables him to transcend his desire for the material and the mundane. In pre-Confucian time, there had always been the belief in reward and punishment.
The Book of Changes(Yi Jing) records that the family [people] that accumulates good is sure to have happiness, while the family that accumulates evil is sure to have superabundant misery. This has been passed down through popular sayings such as “the virtuous will be rewarded, the wicked punished” and “the reward of virtue and vice is like a shadow following man”. Such sayings generally assume an afterlife. This can be seen in popular Chinese mythological accounts which graphically describe the horrors found in the various chambers of Hell.
Because the people of his time were preoccupied with the worship of spirits, Confucius emphasized that a person should focus his attention on living a good life. The afterlife, with its rewards or punishments, is not within one's contro1 and thus should not be the point of emphasis. When Confucius was asked whether men have consciousness after their death, he replied:
If I say that the dead have consciousness, I am afraid that the pious sons and obedient grandsons will harm their own lives for the dead; if I say that the dead have no consciousness, I am afraid that the unfilial and impious children will abandon the cadavers of their deceased parents and not even bury them. Why are you so eager to know if the dead have consciousness? It is not important now. We will know it naturally later (when we die).
Nor did any of his disciples talk about the subject at length, their famous reply being; “If we do not know about life, how do we know about death?”
Thus, Confucius was non-committal on questions of immortality and was careful to rationalize why he was oriented in this way. He did not deny that the afterlife was a reality but he did not emphasize it. He accepted what the ancient Chinese had believed about God and afterlife, that is, that Heaven and afterlife are not clearly and dogmatically defined, but are vaguely recognized as real.
Yet it seems to be part of human nature to worry about death and the hereafter. Thus, it was left to the other Chinese sages to fill in the gaps about death and to satisfy man's greatest curiosity and psychological desire for assurance. Therefore, to understand the Chinese ideas about this subject we must turn to the writings of Lao-tzu, Chuang-tzu and Mencius.
In the Tao-te Ching, Lao-tzu affirms the promise of immortality to those who adhere to Tao: It is said that/He who Preserves his life/Meets no tigers or wild buffaloes on the road/Remains untouched by weapons in the wars./In him the wild buffalo/Finds no space for his horns,/The tiger no space for his claws,/The soldier no space for his blade./How is this?/Because there is no place for death in him.
As for Chuang-tzu, the promise of eternal life is so real that it makes life on earth seem like a dream or a metaphor. For him, human beings were the passing shadows of their spirits or true selves. There is a belief in immortality, in the human spirit and in the soul. Death is just the beginning of a new stage of life. However, death, being unknown, is commonly feared and Chuang-tzu, like the great spiritual leaders, reassured people that their fear of death might be unfounded.
Mencius' confidence in achieving immortality was unmatched among the followers of Confucius. He did not believe that a person's life ends with his physical death.This strong moving power is man's built-in link to immortality. Yet whether one preserves this power or not depends on the way it is nourished. It must be nourished by uprightness, righteous deeds, and most of all, the Tao.
Later, for the popular mind, the afterlife came to be considered as a kind of reincarnation (introduced into China by Buddhism). This fitted in well with the popular imagination and saying that “if during life, one is not sparing of the five grains, after death one will become one of the six domestic animals”. Later Taoist and Buddhist works catered to the popular taste and elaborated on pictures of Heaven and Hell with many features and grotesque descriptions. An even later Taoist doctrine suggested that a good man could achieve long life and eventually become immortal. In popular belief, after great men died, because of their contributions in their lifetimes, they turned into deities. A conspicuous example of this belief is the popular deity Kuan Kung ( Guan Gong), a virtuous and just general of Chinese history, loved by many. It must be noted, however, that such ideas were absent from the original philosophy of Lao-tzu.
Predetermination or fate (ming) occupied a prominent place in the traditional Chinese interpretation of life and life crises. By the time Of Confucius, a variety of theories of fate had emerged.
One of the popular contemporary adages during the time of Confucius, and which is still quoted today, is “Death and life have their determined appointment; riches and honour depend upon Heaven”. Confucius himself spoke of fate thirteen times, one example of which is: “If my principles are to advance, it is so ordered. If they are to fall to the ground, it is so ordered”.
Mencius was even more explicit in regarding Heaven as a personified predeterminer. For example, "To advance a man or to stop his advance is really beyond the power of other men.”
The belief in fate is therefore a component of the Chinese psyche.
Tao and Tao Alone
The Tao-te Ching advocates that the nature of great virtue is to follow Tao alone. Once in harmony with Tao, everything is made whole, there being no metaphorical demons or spirits to upset the people's constitution.
The Tao-te Ching states that it is natural for men to turn to Tao and that it is separation from Tao which is unnatural. Tao is the one who gives life, nurses, raises, nurtures, shelters, comforts, feeds and protects. Every creature who is conscious of its origin thus has a natural and intimate kinship with Tao. Tao is like the mother to the newborn. Logically, then, turning towards Tao is life and turning away is death. Being on the path is as life-giving as reaching the end of it, while being off the path is more death-dealing than ignorance of where the path leads: “If I have a grain of wisdom, I walk along the great Tao, and only fear to stray."
For Lao-tzu and Chuang-tzu, the ultimate end of man was to be united with Tao. Once one attained a union with the Tao, humanity and justice would flow spontaneously “like a stream from the fountain”. These virtues would no longer be onerous duties imposed upon one by an external authority. In their performance, one would feel no sense of being virtuous, but only a deep joy incidental to any act gracefully done.
However, to be at one with the Tao, one should first empty oneself of all human knowledge so as to be objective in the partaking of divine knowledge. To show the importance of an unbiased mind in the search for Truth, the Tao-te Ching frequently uses metaphor in describing a human being's uncontaminated nature variously likening it to uncarved wood, the innocence of a spewing infant, the seeming obscurity of muddy water and the openness of a valley. Lao-tzu believed that man's original nature was constant although its pristine simplicity had been smothered by layers upon layers of the “knowledge” and “desire” generated in a contrived and Unnatural society. For Lao-tzu, this encrustation of social norms values and conventional erudition could be pared away through a cultivation of the Taoist way and a return to the beginning: “To get learning, add to it daily./To get Tao, subtract daily./Subtract and subtract/Until you achieve nothing-doing/Do nothing-doing/And everything will get done.”
The Tao-te Ching stresses that one must unlearn conventional knowledge and reject all artificially-established values before one can return to a natural and uncontaminated state. The cultural accumulation around one's original nature -- this unnatural carving of the “uncarved wood” -- represents a real deterioration of the human condition. Truth will only be distorted when seen through prejudiced eyes. Lao-tzu went on to elaborate on the fact that most people see the concrete aspect of the wheel, vessel or room not realizing that its utility or usefulness lies in its hollowness.
Tao is to be known by “nothing knowing”, a clear and unobstructed state of mind, made possible only by first emptying oneself of all human learning. The mind should be opened to Tao by absorbing and becoming intimate with it and not by building mental constructions on top of it.
Nothing-knowing can be achieved not only by the learned but the common people. As in the past revelations, men devoid of learning have comprehended the truth, “a power whose reality men of learning fail to grasp”. This is perhaps most clearly seen in the recognition of Christ by the illiterate and the rejection of Him by the intellectuals of His time. Indeed, Lao-tzu warns that “the wise are not learned; the learned are not wise”, as learning is more often a hindrance rather than an aid to spiritual insights. In this context, Tao is attained not so much by knowledge but by an absence of knowledge accomplished through learning.
The Chinese concept of God as revealed in the Tao-te Ching is that He is absolute, unknowable, immanent, transcendental and benevolent. There is a belief in immortality and in the operation of fate, and a realization that to follow Tao is to go by Heaven's Way, not man's way. To be at one with the Way, an unbiased mind is of critical importance. Like the Confucian Analects, the Tao-te Ching dwells on the practical and the factual rather than the mystical. As a spiritual legacy, the Tao-te Ching covers a vast variety of subjects ranging from personal culture to political ideals and expounds both the immanent and the transcendent aspect of Tao. As has been observed by both oriental and occidental scholars (including Hegel), the ideas of Lao-tzu tend to be more philosophical in the pure sense of this term when compared with those of Confucius. They have played a major part in fostering a spirit of contentment, a deep love of nature, and a strong sense of moderation, simplicity and innocence in the psyche of the Chinese people.
Confucianism and Taoism: The Nucleus of Chinese Culture
The question of a Chinese religion of which Confucianism and Taoism forms the core can be discussed by defining what a religion is. If one considers Paul Tillich's definition of religion as “ultimate concern”, or A. N. Whitehead's concept of religion as “the art of the internal life of man”, then there is no difficulty in naming the philosophy of Confucius (and Lao-tzu) a “religion”. Tillich defines religion as the system of beliefs, ritualistic practices, and organizational relationship designed to deal with ultimate matters of human life such as the tragedy of death, unjustifiable sufferings, unaccountable frustrations, and uncontrollable hostilities that threaten to shatter human social ties. Such matters transcend the conditional finite world of empirical rational knowledge, and to cope with them as an integral part of life, man is motivated to seek strength from faith in the non-empirical realms as spiritual power inspired by his conception of the supernatural.
Einstein's concept of wonder and the experience of the mysterious in daily routine corresponds to the Chinese concept of contemplating the intrinsic value of things. Julian Huxley's concept of religion as a way of life, an inner awareness and a sublimation, is also similar to the Chinese approach to religion.
In addition, one notes that the thoughts of Pierre Teilhard de Chardin in The Divine Milieu are very Chinese. His whole structure of the worldview coincides with the Chinese cosmological view of life. Likewise, his idea that God permeates all things and that we can encounter God in our own action resembles the Chinese concept of the Mandate of Heaven descending upon man and all things. The Chinese believe that the love of Heaven is in all creatures, and that in meeting them, man encounters God. The divine love energy is the unifying power of the universe. The universe has consciousness and is progressing towards the Great Unity that Teilhard de Chardin calls the “Omega point”.
Similarly, both Confucianism and Christianity share a common basic ethic which may be said to be love for one's fellow human being. Five hundred years before the Sermon on the Mount, the Analects of Confucius had already stated the Golden Rule: “What you do not wish others to do to you, do not to others.” Jesus was to emphasize this just as positively: “Whatever you wish that men do to you, do so to them.”
In light of these definitions, scholars may refer to a “Chinese religion” rather than a “Chinese philosophy”. Yet, one must remember that the Chinese approach to the Holy and the Supreme God is a unique one. The Chinese concept of religion is that it is a religion that emphasizes the eternal now. It is a religion of life. It is a way of living, not just thinking about life. Humans must live and experience the beauty and goodness of the universe right here and now, not just hope for and aspire to the phantom of a future happiness.
For Confucius and the Chinese sages, a religion is a set of moral codes for living a good life. The foremost duty of the sage was therefore to create a set of rules for rightful conduct.
In discussing the “Chinese religion”, one should note too that there is no Chinese word that corresponds exactly to the word “religion”. To the Chinese, there is no difference between religion and education. The Chinese people use the word “teaching” (jiao) to include all religions. The “religion” of the Chinese people is implicit in the word “teach”. Education, or religion, guides the people to live a good life, in harmony with the mystery of the Great Tao. Both “teaching” and learning have the purpose of bringing enlightenment. A great teacher teaches one to understand the great principles of life and of the universe and how to reach the good and appreciate the beautiful. Although the Chinese notion of “teaching” does not indicate an explicit belief in God, it is incorrect to say that the Chinese do not believe in God. Everywhere in the classical books of China, such as those of Lao-tzu, Confucius, Mencius and Chuang-tzu, there is reference to the presence of the Supreme Ultimate, of Heaven and of the Great Tao.
To conclude, Confucianism, as well as Taoism, is both a religion and a philosophy. It is a religion because it shares with the major religions the acceptance of a God, the supreme being. It seeks strength from faith in the non-empirical realms. It also emphasizes mercy and love. It encourages prayer. On the other hand, Confucianism or Taoism is a philosophy because there was no “revealer”, only an educator or a Great Tao; he is not “divine” and therefore does not have the authority to promise paradise or salvation as a reward for belief. Bearing in mind terminological difficulties, Confucianism and Taoism are referred to as both a religion and a philosophy since there is no word that envelops both concepts. They are the nucleus of the Chinese culture which underlies the structure or formation of the overall mentality of the Chinese people