Chinese religion is unique. This is partly due to the fact that, alone among the great religions of mankind, Chinese religion first developed in isolation, without the influence of the other great world religions. Confucianism and Taoism, two of the three faiths of China, developed their distinctive forms before there was any sign)ficant contact with the rest of the world. For this reason, Chinese religion has taken a form which often seems quite unlike any other. For example, neither Confucianism nor Taoism is like Judaism, Christianity or Islam-monotheistic religions with God at the centre. Confucianism, especially, became a religion without any great speculation on the nature and function of God. For this reason it was often not even considered to be a religion. However, it is clear that Confucianism is a religion and that it was the dominant tradition of pre-modern China.
The earliest forms of Chinese religion are not clear. We know hardly anything definite about the religion of the great Shang dynasty (1751-1050? BC), the first historical dynasty. But although we know little of the detail, we are certain that religion played a very important part in the life of the Shang. In fact, the Shang lived in a world of spirits and powers who directly influenced the lives of the living-their success or failure-and who required sacrifice and appeasement.
The Shang sought to fathom the wishes of these spirits through a complicated system of divination. We still have the records of these divinations, the famous 'oracle bones'. The diviner, at the request of the king, would put the question to the spirit, and record the question and its answer on the carapace of a turtle or the shoulder-blade of an ox. The Shang were concerned to know the will of the spirits for just about everything they did.
Although the nature of Shang religion is clouded in mystery, a certain continuity remains between the Shang and later Chinese religion. There is a persistent belief in the balance of nature, an idea which was later explicitly defined as the famous concepts of Yin and Yang: the forces of dark and light, of soft and hard, of female and male. Another important idea which continues throughout the history of Chinese religion is a constant concern for the well-being of the people. This idea of the wellbeing of the people later became the concept of t'ien-ming or the Will of Heaven.
Therefore, even if much of Shang religion is lost to us, it is clear that the Shang were distinctively Chinese and that their religion formed the basis for the development of Chinese religion, just as their political, social and material culture provided the seeds of the ongoing Chinese civilization.
Prior to the rise of Confucianism certain elements of the Shang and Chou religion took more definite shape. This is not surprising, since all great civilizations make certain choices about religion which give them their historical distinctiveness.
If there is one idea, one characteristic which informs the entire history of the development of Chinese religion, it is a 'consciousness of concern'. Even in the western Chou and eastern Chou one finds the persistent claim that high Heaven itself has concern for the well-being of the people. In fact, Heaven is said to hear and see, as the people hear and see, and hence to have a most active concern for them.
This sense that concern is the basis of the cosmos makes Chinese religion different from such religions as Judaism, Christianity or Islam, where a sense of awe or dread of a supreme power informs religious consciousness. This is why Chinese religion has always had such a close connection with the ethical thought of the people. A sense of concern and participation pervades the Chinese understanding of mankind's relationship to the transcendent and with other people.
In Chinese terms, what then are Confucianism and Taoism? Are they philosophies or religions? Do they have any kind of mystical traditions which seek to aid the faithful to achieve the perfected aims of a religious life?
There is a common Chinese distinction which is helpful in answering this question-the distinction between the terms chia (schools of thought, philosophy) and chino (teaching, religion). The former refers more to the great thinkers and their teachings, and the 'great traditions'. The latter refers to the religious and, by extension, to the unique ways in which the great traditions have been appropriated by the people at grass-roots level. A distinction between the great intellectual traditions and the cultic and devotional side of religious life has been made in all the Chinese traditions, Confucianism, Taoism and also Buddhism, after its introduction into China in the second century AD.
The Chinese traditions have never felt the need to contrast chua and chino in a hostile fashion. In a very characteristic way, they are said to represent two different parts of one continuum. They are different yet related. In traditional China, each of the great religions operated on both levels: there were great Confucian, Taoist and Buddhist philosophers, as well as masters of the various religious arts of meditation, liturgy and ritual.
The Latinized name, Confucianism is a Western invention which has come down from the seventeenth-century Jesuit missionaries. Interestingly enough, these early Western missionaries clearly saw the religious nature of Confucianism, even if they did not agree with its traditions and rituals.
The Chinese term for Confucianism, Ju (scholars, literati-with the special meaning of Confucian from the T'ang dynasty), points to its broader character as intellectual culture. It is usually regarded as philosophy (chia), such terms as Ju-chiao, K'ung-chiao (K'ung being Confucius' family name), or Li-chiao (Li referring to Confucian rituals) are also used. All of these terms refer to those elements of worship, ritual and sacrifice which are religious teachings, which is, of course, what chino itself refers to.
Confucianism is best known for its moral philosophy, represented by Confucius (551-479 BC), Mencius (371-289? BC) and Hsun-tzu (fl. 298238 BC). It is clearly grounded in religion-the inherited religion of the Lord-on-high, or Heaven. Even the great rationalist Hsun-tzu sees society founded on the penetrating insight of the sagely mind. And though Confucianism is less known for its mysticism, the Book of Mencius as well as other works cannot be fully understood except in the light of mysticism.
The Chung-yung, one of the 'Four Books' which became the basis for Confucian self-cultivation in the southern Sung (1126-1279 AD), explicitly states that the sage, having realized true integrity (ch'eng), becomes one with Heaven and Earth. Confucian moral metaphysics reaches over into the religious quest for unity with the ground of being.
None the less, Confucianism gives primary emphasis to the ethical meaning of human relationships, finding and grounding the moral in the divine transcendence. The perfect example of this is Confucius himself. He is best remembered as a great teacher. The basis of his teaching was the concept of humanity (jen). Just as compassion is the greatest Buddhist virtue, and love the Christian, jen is the ultimate goal of conduct and self-transformation for the Confucian. And whereas most of Confucius' teachings stress the ethical dimension of humanity, he made it clear that it was Heaven itself which protected him and gave him his message: 'Heaven is the author of the virtue that is in me.'
Confucius stands as a prophet, giving an ethical teaching grounded in religious consciousness. Mencius (371289? BC) projects the image of a teacher of mysticism. He proclaims an inner doctrine, alluding to the presence within the heart of something greater than itself.
'All things are present in me. When I reflect upon myself in all sincerity, my joy is boundless.'
What was an implicitly religious message in Confucius, becomes explicit in Mencius. For example, Confucius is said not to have discussed relationship, human nature and the Way of Heaven. Yet Mencius made his whole system of thought revolve around these two concepts. He attempted to show how the very essence of the Way of Heaven, the divine power of the cosmos, became human nature. He felt that if this human nature could be correctly cultivated and nurtured, even the common person could become a sage.
The Confucian classics (there are thirteen of them) prefer to discuss the work of spiritual cultivation in terms of emotional harmony and psychic equilibrium-a harmony of due proportions, rather than the absence of passions. The 'Doctrine of the Mean' (Chung-yung), one of the 'Four Books', distinguishes between the two states of fundamental mind, the 'pre-stirred' state (before the rise of emotions), and the 'poet-stirred' state (after contact with the things and events of the world). The meaning, best expressed by the concept of true integrity (ch'eng), lies in the harmony of emotions which have arisen, but resembles the equilibrium of the 'pre-stirred' state.
The Chung-yung, as we have seen before, claims that this harmony puts a person in touch with the cosmic processes of life and creativity. 'If they can assist in the transformation and nourishing process of Heaven and Earth, they can thus form a trinity with Heaven and Earth.'
The third of the founding fathers of Confucianism, Hsun-tzu, is best remembered for his doctrine of ritual action (li).If Confucius begins Confucianism with the dramatic, almost prophetic, demand that we live a life of jen or perfect humanity, and Mencius expands upon the concept of jen to show that this is a life of heightened inter-subjectivity and intuition into the boundless joy of the enlightened sage Hsun-tzu provides the practical side of Confucian religion.
It is his genius to demonstrate the power of correct ritual action needed to transform the human heart, which is prone to err, into the mind of a sage. In doing so, Hsun-tzu provides a model for daily life which supports the religious and ethical intuitions of Confucius and Mencius. Without a life of ritual-a liturgy of daily life ennobled by humility and graced by beautiful conduct-the supreme insights of religious geniuses such as Confucius and Mencius would be impossible to maintain.
In the course of time, the meaning of the word 'Heaven' becomes ambiguous, shifting from the early reference to a supreme deity (the Analects of Confucius), to a vacillation between that and moral force (Mencius), to the universe itself (Hsun-tzu).
Confucian mysticism, especially in its second great phase, Neo-Confucianism, leans more and more in the direction of pantheism. This is borne out by the later philosopher, Chang Tsai (1020-77). It is here that Confucian religion and mysticism show the imprint of Taoist-and Buddhist- influences. Yet Chang Tsai still shows a profoundly Confucian bent to his mystical vision of the unity of the world, by expressing this as one of a perfected family. In this vision, all the world becomes related to him as his own family. The note of intersubjective concern sounded by Confucius and Mencius is reeffirmed.
The first great flowering of Confucianism produced such diverse thinkers as Mencius and Hsun-tzu. Neo-Confucianism gives us Chu Hsi (1130-1200) and Wang Yang-ming (1472-1529). Both started from a desire to reform the Confucianism of their day, and then sought to give practical guidance for the perfection of the mind. Their schools, respectively, were called 'the teaching of principle' ((li-hsueh) and 'the teaching of mind' (hsin-hsueh). In actual fact, both were primarily concerned with the task of achieving sagehood. The great debate between them centred on how to achieve this.
Chu Hsi believed we must go through a long and arduous process of self-cultivation and ethical activity in order to reach jen. He stressed the method of 'tine examination of things' (ko-wu), as the best means to achieve this end. But this was more than a scientific interest in the material matters of the cosmos. It was to be an examination of all the various ethical and spiritual states of the mind, an attempt to know the self, in order to perfect the original nature, which he held to be good.
Chu Hsi expressed his spiritual goal in this way:
'The mind of Heaven and Earth, which gives birth to all things, is humanity (jen). Man, in being endowed with matter-energy receives this mind of Heaven and Earth, and thereby his life. Hence tender-heartedness and humanity are part of the very essence of his life.'
Wang Yang-ming agreed on the goal of sagehood, but rejected Chu Hsi's gradualist method. For Wang, only the 'enlightenment experience' of the absolute unity of our minds with the mind of the Tao would suffice to achieve sagehood. All other methods, including Chu Hsi's attempt at gradual self-cultivation, were a waste of time if they did not provoke this realization of the enlightenment experience. After Wang himself had had such an experience he wrote:
'My own nature is, of course, aufficient for me to attain sagehood. And I have been mistaken in searching for principle in external things and affairs.'
The great Neo-Confucians gave Confucianism a new lease of life. They provided a whole new explanation of the Confucian vision which could compete philosophically with Taoism and Buddhism. But, even more, they provided a practical set of life-models for the earnest seeker of sagehood. Although Chu Hsi consulted gradualism and Wang Yang-ming immediate experience, both sought that moment when the mind of man precarious in its tendencies to good and evil, would be transformed into the Mind of Heaven, the state of perfected excellence.
The great Taoist religion is, in many ways, the opposite of Confucianism. Confucianism seeks to perfect men and women within the world, a goal of the secular as sacred. Taoism prefers to turn away from society to the contemplation of nature, seeking fulfilment in the spontaneous and 'trans-ethical'. The Tao, a metaphysical absolute, appears to have been a philosophical transformation of the earlier personal God. The way it teaches leads to a union with itself-a way of passive acceptance and mystical contemplation. Such is the teaching of the great Taoist thinkers, of Lao-tzu and Chuang-tzu. Little is known about their lives, if indeed they ever existed. This is perhaps fitting for men who had allegedly chosen a life of obscurity and taught a way of silence.
Taoism is not just passive contemplation. The texts of Lao-tzu and Chuang-tzu (also the name of the book, Chuang-tau) served a later generation of religious-minded thinkers anxious to transcend the limited conditions of human existence. Their ambition was to 'steal the secret of Heaven and Earth', to wrench from it the mystery of life itself, in order to fulfil their desire for immortality.
The goal of the Confucian was to become a sage, a servant of society. The goal of the Taoist was to become an immortal (a hsien). They revived the belief in personal deities, practising a ritual of prayer and appeasement. They fostered the art of alchemy-the external alchemy, which 'internalized' the golden pill of immortality-and sought it through yoga and meditation. They also saw sexual hygiene as another means of prolonging human life.
This new Taoism has been called 'Taoist religion', to distinguish it from the classical philosophy of Laotzu and Chuang-tzu and its acceptance of both life and death. This Taoist religion developed its own mystical tradition, embellished with stories of marvellous drugs and wonder-working immortals, of levitations and bodily ascensions to heaven. Basing itself on the early texts-the Lao-teu, Chuang-teu, Huai-nan-teu, and Lieh-tcu-the Taoist religionists created long-lasting religious institutions.
Some of these groups still exist today, and can trace their roots back to the Taoist movements at the end of the second century AD. With their esoteric and exoteric teachings, their lines of orthodox teachers, their social organizations, they more closely resemble the other great religious traditions of mankind. But their persistent Chinese style comes through: they seek unity with the Tao which cannot be named.
How can Taoism be distinguished from its great sister religion, Confucianism? One major goal of all the various schools and sects of Taoism was the quest for freedom. For some it was a freedom from the political and social constraints of the emerging Confucian state. For others it was the even more profound search for immortality. And for others it was the search for oneness with the Tao itself. This Tao was the sum total of all things which are and which change for change itself was a very important part of the Taoist view of reality. As the Chuang-tau tells us, the Tao is 'complete, all-embracing, the whole: these are different names for the same reality denoting the One'.
This One, this totality of the Tao, worked as a liberating concept for the Taoists. Within the ceaseless flux of the Tao they found the power to live life in a spontaneous fashion. Probably the most famous statement of the freedom of the Taoist immortal is that of Lao-tzu where he says, 'The ways of men are conditioned by those of Heaven, the ways of Heaven by those of the Tao, and the Tao came into being by itself.' The Tao is therefore the principle of the universe and is also a pattern for human behaviour, often called 'uncontrived action' (wu-wei).
'All things alter and change,
Never a moment ceasing,
Revolving, whirling, and rolling away,
Driven far off and returning onward,
Like the mutations of cicada,
Profound, subtle, and illimitable
Who can finish describing it?'
The Taoist imagination was totally unfettered by the confines of Confucian etiquette or sensibility. They provided the magic garden of the Chinese people. Some took this magic very seriously. Some found that this too was just another illusion of the changing Tao. For example, at the end of a report of a magical spirit journey attributed to King My of the Chou dynasty, the magician who has been his guide for the trip explains:
'Your majesty feels at home with the permanent, is suspicious of the sudden and temporary. But can one always measure how far and how fast a scene may later turn into something else?'
Or, as the next story in the Lieh-tcu puts it:
'The breath of all that lives, the appearance of all that has shape, is illusion.'
But unlike many of the great religions of India and the East, the Taoists never felt that the Tao could be called a conscious god.
'How can the Creator have a conscious mind? It spontaneously takes place but seems mysterious. The breath and matter collect together coagulate and become shape: constant with transformation it continues on without ever ceasing.'
Throughout its whole history, the diverse masters of Taoism have sought, in various ways, to become part of this 'self-so-ness' of reality. Life rolls on by itself in an unbroken wave of creative spontaneity. Neither the Confucian Heaven, nor the rule of earthly kings and emperors, nor the folly of demons or goblins can defy it.
'Being of themselves as they are
Silently brings them about,
Gives them serenity, gives them peace,
Escorts them as they go and welcomes them as they come.'
The true immortal lives to learn a life in tune with the Tao.
In all Taoist religion there is a poetic touch, a realization that life is a beautiful, and frightening, panorama of transformations. No religion has been more successful at invoking the sense of wonder which these transformations cause to human beings. Set within their mountain retreats and their lake pavilions, the Taoists have truly been the poets of nature. The great T'ao Ch'ien (365-427 AD) expresses this sense of wonder tinged with serene resignation and hope.
'Just surrender to the cycle of things,
Give yourself to the waves of the Great Change,
Neither happy nor yet afraid,
And when it is time to go, then simply go
Without any unnecessary fuss.'
Today this sense of poetic beauty and desire to achieve oneness with the Tao still informs the Taoist religion. Because of the great revolutionary changes in China, it is hard to tell just how Taoism will develop there in the future. However, the Taoist Association is again functioning, and Taoism has been recognized as an important part of China's great cultural history. This means that there is probably a future for the Taoist religion very like its past. Taoism has always been at odds with the government. Yet it survives as long as Chinese culture itself exists.
The great Chinese religions have always influenced each other's development. In early China great debates and arguments went on between the Taoists and Confucians. But the arguments helped both sides develop their own distinctive attitudes.
The picture becomes even more complicated with the introduction of Buddhism into China. Both Taoism and Confucianism borrowed a great deal from the new Indian religion. The Taoists reformed their religious structures, founded monasteries and wrote a huge canon of sacred texts in imitation of Buddhist models.
The great Neo-Confucian revival in the eleventh and twelfth centuries BC would also be unthinkable without the stimulus and challenge of Buddhist philosophy. Although the Confucians did not borrow nearly as much as the Taoists from the Buddhists, they were certainly stimulated to work out their own mature philosophic response to Buddhist thought.
And on the practical level, they learned a great deal about meditation, which they called 'quiet-sitting', from the Buddhists.
The great heyday of cross-fertilization of religions in China came in the Ming dynasty (1369-1644). At this period many great religious thinkers, such as Lin Chao-en ( 1517-98) sought to effect a harmonization of the three great religions of China. Their cry was that the three religions are one.
Lin sought to combine the best features of Taoist and Buddhist meditation with a Confucian sense of shared concern for fellow creatures in a uniquely Chinese synthesis. This kind of syncretistic religious life is still present in China today. And, in fact, it would not be far wrong to say that most religious Chinese are in fact a mixture of all three great religions. The syncretists had such a great effect that no one thinks it odd to be a Buddhist, Taoist and Confucian at the same time.
Finally there is the element of Western culture in modern China's intellectual development. Along with the development and cross-fertilization of their indigenous traditions, the Chinese have been rapidly coming to terms with the West and its great missionary religion Christianity. Christians, like the Taoists, are again active in present-day China, even if as a tiny minority. The Chinese are assimilating a new cultural perspective, just as they did in the case of Buddhism almost 1,SOO years ago. Religious and secular Western influence will no doubt have just as great an impact on China- witness the tremendous transformative power of Maoist thought, based in part on Marxist concepts-as did Buddhism. The future of Chinese religion will therefore certainly be as interesting as her past, and probably just as complex. It is impossible to say what will survive from the past. But we can be absolutely certain that what will emerge will be distinctively Chinese at all levels.