—- We Chinese have no religion?
Can you believe that China has no religion? Buddhism comes from India. But a big country like China doesn’t have a religion. I know very less about religion, however had been involved in this topic several times.
I was asked if I was a Buddhist by one of our clients, an US Christian, when he knew I was from China some days ago.
I used to pick up an Iranian family, showed them around Shekou in Shenzhen. He is an officer from Iranian ship, as I know Iranians believe in Allah. What is interesting is that he asked if I am a Christian. Another time I had a conversation with another Iranian who staying at Youlian Shipyard at Shenzhen, we talked about different religion groups for long.
Another thing is that seems Christian is becoming popular in China today. I had been “taught” by two Chinese priestesses twice in Shenzhen to believe in God.
I begin to think about my beliefs?
Do I have region? If so, what is it, why I am not aware of it? If not, why not or why should I have?
What’s the reason and purpose of religion?
Chinese religion is widely believed to be not an organized, unified system of beliefs and practices. Chinese religion is a general term used to describe the complex interaction of different religious and philosophical traditions, four main traditions are Chinese folk religion, Confucianism, Taoism and Buddhism.
Until this day, I happen to find some answer from a Chinese scholar Mr. Ku (1857-1928). Some people say that the Chinese has no religion. But instead, it is perhaps more correct to say that the Chinese do not want—do not feel the need of it. Ku said, the happy union of soul and intellect, of head and heart lightens we Chinese the burden of mystery of the unknown universe and “Confucianism without being a religion can take the place of religion”, it is the equivalent of religion for the mass of the whole Chinese nation as well as for the learned.
Good citizenship is secret of Confucianism, also the secret of Chinese civilization. However even long before Confucius’ time, it existed. The first written code of the law of the Chinese gentleman called Chou Kung Chih Li was made by Duke of Chou.
It developed from a religion stressed on family to afterwards Confucianism which stress on both family and state with state religion shall prevail if there is conflict within between.
One significant difference from Church religion is that Confucianism, if you like to say it is a religion, is kind of social religion rather than personal religion.
