Chinese Religion

What was Chinese Religion like prior to the advent of Buddhism? Dominated by Confucianism and Daoism. The founders of Confucianism (Confucius) and Daoism (Lao Tzu) lived around the same time as in the Buddha during the Axial Age. Although these to approaches are quite different from each other, they do strive for the same thing – ‘Harmony’. The way harmony is achieved is where the real difference lies for each of these schools of thought. Confucianism looks to attain harmony through society and its institutions. Daoism believes that harmony can only be attained through contemplation and oneness with Nature.

Harmony For Confucius Disorder and Chaos occurs when people do not know their place in society. When people know their place and role in society AND follow it harmony will be established. The best known example of Confucius’s approach is his Five Relationships: Ruler and Subject Husband and Wife Father and Son Older Brother and Younger Brother Friend and Friend

How is harmony to be achieved? According to Confucius the government was the best institution for promoting harmony. If a ruler ruled justly and by example the people would follow. The Chinese bureaucratic system was based on Confucian concepts. In fact, the civil service exam was a test of one’s understanding of the Confucian classics. The lion’s share of the responsibility for harmony in society is placed on the government’s shoulders. If the government does not keep and establish harmony the people will rebel.

Confucianism had a very positive view of humanity. Although people needed guidance and a firm hand from time to time, people were essentially good. Education and the right experiences would teach people how change for the better. The emphasis in Confucianism is weighted towards the social. One’s actions in society are of the highest importance. Harmony is to be found in the ordering of a society.

The way that can be spoken of Is not the constant way; The name that can be named Is not the constant name. The first point is that the Way is too profound for words to describe. No matter how eloquent or detailed, words in any combination lack the power to describe the Way in its totality. At best, one could describe a small part of the Way in words, or, describe what is not the Way. Confucians regarded their human-centered Way as fully describable in words, particularly if we extend our definition of "words" to include the "text" of ritualized behavior (li). In contrast, classical Daoist literature, like the passage above, often casts doubt on the permanence and objectivity of language-derived categories.

One reason the Daoist Way cannot be described in words is that it is not human centered like the Confucian Way. The Daoist Way is the entire cosmos and all its workings. How could mere words describe something as vast and profound as that? Within this Way, human beings are just one of many kinds of living things. The Way is the creator of all things, yet it is not a deity or some other entity with a specific will: The myriad creatures rise from it yet it claims no authority; It gives them life yet claims no possession; It benefits them yet exacts no gratitude; It accomplishes this task yet lays claim to no merit

The core or essence that lies at the heart of the Way is emptiness (wu also "vacuity," "nothingness"). There is no specific thing other than emptiness that lies at the heart of the Way, and the human mind should be like the Way. Therefore, we should cultivate a vacuous mind, harboring no specific thoughts or desires, acting on instinct not rational, calculating thought: The way never acts yet nothing is left undone. Should lords and princes be able to hold fast to it, The myriad creatures will be transformed of their own accord. After they have been transformed, should desire raise its head, I shall press it down with the weight of the nameless uncarved block. It is but freedom from desire, And if I cease to desire and remain still, The empire will be at peace of its own accord

Notice the great difference when compared with Confucius' conception of the Way. For Confucius, it was human beings who created the Way and advanced it. For the philosophical Daoists, it was the Way that gave rise to humans and there was nothing humans could do to modify or change it. Notice also that the Daoist dao seems intangible and lacking in objective reality. Confucius' dao, was concrete and tangible when embodied in li.

For Daoism, harmony lies not in social structures and political institutions, but can be found in a balanced life. In Daoism there is no ‘good’ or ‘evil’. Life is either in balance or it is not. Things, qualities and the like are not inherently good or evil they are simply not balanced with their opposite. Think Chinese cuisine (sweet/sour, etc.) One is not good and the other evil or bad. Both are necessary. Chinese martial arts are based on this same concept. They emphasize remaining balanced while throwing your opponent off balance.

Why Buddhism? Neither Confucianism nor Daoism seems to have addressed the concept of personal suffering very seriously. For most Chinese, there was a need for a religion which took their personal pain and suffering seriously and offered a way of overcoming those pains. Buddhism fit the bill perfectly.