Chinese Religious Traditions

Introduction

Religion is often associated with belief in a supreme being, membership in a single organization, and an emphasis of belief over practice. However, Chinese religious traditions challenge this conception of religion. It is shown in this paper that the Chinese traditional religion challenges the existence of a supreme being as the center of religion. It also contests the concept of religion as a membership in a single religious organization that emphasizes religious beliefs more than religious practices. This paper reviews the existence of religion in China prior to their engagement with the West, and analyses what might be at stake in questioning the existence of religion in China preceding engagement with the West. It is noted that the Chinese people had a religion before they could interact with the West, and that their cultural practices remain the mainstay of Chinese religion after the introduction of other religions such as Islamism and Christianity.

Chinese Religious Traditions and the Concept of Religion

The conceptual definition of religion associates it with the belief in and worship of a supreme being. The Chinese religious traditions challenge this concept of religion. As a matter of fact, it is more appropriate to refer to the idea of religion in China as ‘Chinese traditional culture’, instead of ‘Chinese traditional religion’. However, both phrases will be used interchangeably in this paper. The Chinese religion is fundamentally represented in the unity of three traditional cultures namely Confucianism, Daoism, and Chinese Buddhism that existed prior to the engagement of China with the West. It is critical to note that the key religious idea of the three traditions is not a personal God or some other ...

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...d the West led to the introduction of Catholicism, Protestantism, and Islamism. This made the presently permitted religions in China to be Confucianism, Daoism, Buddhism, Catholicism, Protestantism, and Islamism. The question as to whether religion existed in China before their engagement with the West puts at stake the legitimacy of the Chinese traditional religion. If the Chinese traditional religion should be referred to as ‘Chinese cultural practices’, questioning the existence of religion before the introduction of Christianity and Islamism into China amounts to demeaning the legitimacy of the people’s religion. This will be in contrary to the right of each community in the world to belong to a particular religion and to practice it without interference from other people.

Work Cited

White, William C. Chinese Jews. Ottowa: University of Toronto Press, 2008.