Sinitic religion

Sinitic religion or Siniticism is the religion of the Chinese civilisation. It has its sources in the Neolithic and has developed throughout history into a coherent multiplex system which persists up to the present day, and consists of indigenous and popular devotional cults, popular soteriological organisations, vernacular ritual methods, shamanic methods, state ritual systems, and schools of high philosophy and ritual (chiefly distinguished into Confucianism and Taoism).

According to the definition given by Hu Shih, Sinitic religion was the product of the merger of Shang and Zhou cultures, and "has been to China what Hinduism has been to India". The Shang contributed with a strong devotion to ancestors, while the Zhou who came from the west emphasised a theology of the supreme God (Shangdi or Tian, cf. Chinese theology). The result is a living cosmology with the supreme God as its spring, presiding over a hierarchy of mediating forces, namely the gods of cosmic and natural powers, the deified ancestors of great achievement, the progenitors of human groups. Also tribal gods of populations who were assimilated into China were integrated into this cosmology. While always retaining its primary core, it has taken onto itself philosophical elements from Buddhism. The most ancient book of the Sinitic religious system is the Yijing.

Victor H. Mair similarly describes Sinitic religion as built upon two foundations:

• Shang ancestor worship orthopraxis and magianism (i.e. magi priesthood);
• Zhou theology revolving AbOUT Tian and its way;

The developments of organised religious systems from the medieval to the early modern periods did not alter this nucleus, although contributed to a continuous change of architecture, music, literature and institutions. Ho (1998) describes Sinitic religion as "man-centred" with "ancestor worship at its core".

Indigenous and diffuse religious systems

Chinese popular religion

The worship of local gods and forces of nature, and kinship progenitors, was defined as "Shendao" (神道 Shéndào, the "Way of the Gods") by 14th century Hongwu Emperor of the Ming, drawing from the Yijing in which the term refers to the natural order established by deities. It is the "hardware" upon which philosophical and ritual traditions such as Confucianism and Taoism build. Recent scholarship has proposed the name "Shenxianism" (神仙教 Shénxiānjiào, "religion of deities and immortals"). All cults falling outside the scope and patronage of the high institutional forms of Confucianism and Taoism can be defined as "popular religion".

Chinese folk religious sects

Popular masters of laws and methods

High philosophical and ritual systems

Confucianism

According to Hu Shih, Confucianism, founded by Confucius, a scion of the erstwhile ruling Shang lineage, is a school of Sinitic religion concerned with setting the world to the right order, a system of education and "psychology of religious experience" which regards ritual as the device for this praxis. It is also a religion of "ancestor worship" and of "body as inheritance from the ancestors", whence the emphasis on personal purity and cultivation.

Mohism

Mohism, which has not had a profound impact compared to Confucianism, was founded by Mozi. According to Hu Shih it is a religion focused on a theology of "God as love". Moism ultimately merged with Taoism.

Taoism

Taoism is a tradition of philosophy, rite and ecclesiastical organisation, which emphasises living in harmony with the Tao (, literally "Way", also romanised as Dao). Taoist schools function as theoretical and liturgical frameworks for both popular and high cults of broader Chinese religion (cf. Zhengyi Taoism), and some of them (the Quanzhen traditions) have a distinct monastic institution. In this tradition the Tao denotes both the metaphysical source of everything that exist and its physical pattern of unconcealment. Taoism differs specifically from Confucian traditions by not emphasizing rigid rituals and social order, which are fundamental in the latter.

Citations

Sources

• Ho, P.-T. (1998). "In Defense of Sinicization: A Rebuttal of Evelyn Rawski’s ‘Reenvision-ing the Qing’". The Journal of Asian Studies (57), 123-155.

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