The Souls Of China Summary

As one of the four great ancient civilizations, China has a very long history and a gorgeous culture. We can not ignore the fact that not only religions and cultures are inseparable, but also can influence each other profoundly, Just like Buddhism and Chinese culture. “The Chinese traditional culture includes three systems of thought: Confucianism, Taoism and Buddhism. The first two are Chinese culture, and Buddhism is a foreign religion from India. For over 2,000 years, Buddhism has interacted with all levels of Chinese culture such as literature, philosophy, morality, arts, architecture and religions. As a result, Buddhism has successfully integrated into the traditional Chinese culture and has become one of the three pillars.” (Xing, 308) 2010 Religious report survey data show that there are

“It is often said that, aside from the impact of Marxism on twentieth-century China, the only other time when the Chinese looked beyond their own borders for intellectual sustenance was during the period when Buddhism was absorbed from India” (LaFleur 23). Why did this religion appeal to the Chinese when they disregarded so many other external influences? After all, being tied to the rest of the world by the Silk Road meant they were constantly inundated with novel concepts from far and wide. The answer must lie in how Buddhism interacted with the other faiths already established in the country, namely Confucianism and Daoism (sometimes spelled Taoism). While at first glance it may appear that Confucian China would be the last place

In China power was determined by the Mandate of Heaven for centuries. The Mandate of Heaven was that if a leader was fulfilling his duty to his subjects then he should stay in power. People would believe the Mandate of Heaven had changed to another ruler when that ruler would not properly handle things like floods and famines. I ruler could keep power through floods and famines if he was still seen to be fulfilling his duties as a leader. Even after the Mandate of Heaven went out of practice in China, its basic concept remained. This concept was that a ruler would stay in power in China if people thought the leaders were fulfilling their duties. In other words, a leader’s tenure depended on his relationship with the people. The Chinese Communist Party (CCP) was engaged in the daily lives of the average Chinese peasants, while the Chinese Nationalist Party, Guomindang (GMD), and their leader, Chiang Kai-Shek focused more on maintaining power then improving China for everyday people. The day to day involvement of the CCP in the life of peasants in China, and the GMD ignoring the needs of the everyday Chinese was the major force that drove the GMD out of power and helped the CCP gain control of China.

The region of China is extensive and profound. “In China lay people did not belong to an institutionalized sect, nor did their religious life have anything to do with signing articles of faint. Religion in China was so woven into the broad fabric of family and social life that there was not even a special word for it until modern times, when one was coined to match the Western term” (Thompson, 1). In China, Taoism, Buddhism, and Confucianism are all blended. In the earliest period, Shang Dynasty (2000 BC), people in China had worshipped a lot of different gods (polytheism) such as weather god, river god. People in the Shang Dynasty believed that their ancestors become like gods after they died, so people worshipped their

Pu, Muzhou. In Search of Personal Welfare: A View of Ancient Chinese Religion. Albany: State

In conclusion, I have described the afterlife and the death rituals in Ancient China by describing some of their practices as well as what they believed in. I characterized the afterlife and the beliefs of Ancient China by explaining and describing the different concepts and perceptions that tie in with my topic. I also described that in Ancient China they do use the use of terror management theory by knowing that they are going to die because they know that they are promised an afterlife (C. Davis, personal communication, October, 2016). As ethical responsibly goes, it is the chore to follow and continue the correct path, which ties in with the people of Ancient China being promised an afterlife as well (C. Davis, personal communication, September,

The early Chinese believed that the afterlife was somehow like the world of the living and that wealthy Chinese nobles and leaders needed everything they might need in the journey to the afterlife. Human sacrifice to them was providing the wealthy people with servants often times the servants they had when the noble or leader was alive would be the protectors of the grave or to serve them in the afterlife.

Many Chinese believed the missionaries posed a threat to their society from fears of Western imperialism and so they were antagonistic. “They expressed their hostility by writing and disseminating inflammatory anti-Christian literature; issuing threats of retaliation against any who dared enter the religion and by the direct instigation of, and participation in, anti-Christ riots” (Lutz 34). The Chinese were active in their rejection against Protestantism. They could not understand much of what Protestantism meant because there were few missionaries fluent in Mandarin and so they rejected the church doctrine. Additionally in Qing China there was a strong presence of Confucian beliefs with the civil service examination system and so the coming of this new religion appeared to challenge the social and political order in China. Although there were a few important converts such as Liang Fa, a co-worker of Morrison who was ordained as the first Chinese Pastor devoted the rest of his life travelling around China to spread Protestantism among the Chinese population (Barnett and Fairbank 40). However Morrison’s greatest accomplishments were composing the

In pre-revolutionary China, the people were either poor farmers, part of rich families, or busy city-goers. There was a drastic difference between the social classes, but each class placed great value on traditions in the family and in society. For example, the Chinese treated the elder in a family with great respect. People also placed great value on the idols and gods that they worshiped. Just as traditions were changing in China, customs also altered in the Wang family. In The Good Earth Wang Lung’s sons do not grow up worshiping the Earth Gods as their father had done, no longer hold the same positive attitude towards the Earth, and reject filial piety altogether. In The Good Earth by Pearl S. Buck, Wang Lung’s children are raised in an

At the core of any nation’s culture are its religious beliefs. In China there are the “Three Jewels” Confucianism, Daoism, and Buddhism, as described in Lopez (1996). There are small numbers of people practicing other religions such as Christianity and Islam, but these are the three dominant beliefs of the region. While they are separate in content, they have coexisted for several thousand years. Lopez (1996) goes on to say, “Historical precedent and popular parlance attest to the importance of this threefold division for understanding Chinese culture…Buddhism is the sun, Daoism the moon, and Confucianism the five planets…suggesting that although they remain separate, they also coexist as equally indispensable phenomena of the natural world.” Each belief system stands alone, and at the same time needs the other(s).

A documentary named The Thirty Years of China’s Christians narrates the struggle and challenges of Christianity in China over the past 30 years. The shooting of the documentary took two years, recording the glory of God in China.

China has long been stereotyped as being strictly anti-religious, but Pan Yu asserts that China must reexamine their views on religion in order to “transition from a revolutionary power to a party in power” (Yu, p1). Unfortunately, China's stagnant view on religion has been strengthened by the misquotation/misunderstanding of Marx's adage of “religion is the opium of the people” combined with Lennon's insistence on Atheism being fundamental to the successful implementation of Communism.

The film attempts to use the public sphere to promote Christianity and convince its audience to ‘convert’ to the religion (Diao 2016; Vivani 2014). The documentary endeavours to do this by taking the Christian faith, a cause the audience may not initially be sympathetic to, and encapsulating it within a narrative that viewers are more likely to feel compassion towards: a lachrymose story of orphanhood and poverty. For this reason, the film raises awareness and lends voice to some of the most marginalised groups in rural China: the destitute, oppressed, and disabled. To further

Teiser, Stephen F. "The Spirits of Chinese Religion." Http://afe.easia.columbia.edu. Ed. Donald S. Lopez. 1996 Princeton University Press.

This chapter highlights how global trade as well as regional trade affected different economies, countries and even individuals, in different ways. The first example of this is the Fujian trade diaspora, from the Southeast coast of China. This system focused on economic gain by spreading out across the world, traveling, and accumulating wealth while traveling. If successful, the individual was often rewarded upon their return home. The Chinese tribute system on the other hand, while still somewhat focused on economic gain, was centered more so around political as well as social gain. Often times in this system, traders would find themselves at a slight net positive, or net even, due to the