The Ancient Religions of China: So All Beginning
Have you ever wondered the difference between Confucianism, Buddhism and Taoism? Often they are used together or one as an alternative to the other. But why?
1. Characteristics
Have you ever wondered the difference between Confucianism, Buddhism and Taoism? Often they are used together or one as an alternative to the other. But why?
To answer this question we need to go back in time making a first introduction on what are the characteristics of a territory like China.
There are two points to be made:
- The vastness of the population, a quarter of the world’s inhabitants are Chinese;
- The long history. Just think that Confucanism was born 4000 years ago.
2. The three religion
China currently represents an extraordinary phenomenon in terms of religions. In fact, it is the only country in the world where the three religions coexist in a very complex and social system.
For a European this phenomenon is inconceivable and one would wonder how to belong to three at the same time different types of “creed”.
The three religions of ancient China that have endured to this day, crossing the history, events and falls of the Empires are Confucianism, Taoism and Buddhism.
2.1 Confucianism
For centuries Confucianism remained the only faith, where the key principles of philosophy referred to altruism and righteousness, the former in the Confucian context is a state of moral refinement that few individuals possess. Not only that: for Confucianism the cult of ancestors and the cult of nature represent the cornerstones of a life lived in a righteous and grateful way.
2.2 Taoism
Next to Confucianism comes Taoism : a set of philosophical and mystical doctrines formulated by Chinese thinkers in the secc. IV and III BC The conception is of an individualistic and selfish type having as its purpose the preservation of life and the health and peace of the person, to be achieved through various practices (for example through specific diets, respiratory or sexual practices, etc. ..).
2.3 Buddhism
Originating from the teachings of the Indian itinerant ascetic Siddhārtha Gautama (VI, V century BC), the Buddhism , coming from India, with its images, its sanctuaries, monks and Sanskrit ituals found ground fertile among the peoples and was accepted as an Organized Church.
Buddhist philosophy is summed up in the doctrines founded on the four noble truths:
- Truth of pain
- Truth of the origin of pain
- Truth of the cessation of pain
- Truth of the way to the cessation of pain