The Elements of Chinese Religious Culture

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Date 03/04/2012
The Elements of Chinese Religious Culture which prepared them to successfully resist domination by the Euro-American majority
Introduction
Honestly, Chinese are normally very pragmatic during their approach to religion and life. To some extent, they are superstitious. Hence, they hold a strong belief in the fengsui doctrines. These doctrines were supposed to aid in the home organization of the Chinese people. They never wanted to do anything which they thought could offend their gods or their various ways of nature. As far as the Chinese people were concerned, they had to select what wished to worship. As a result, they worshipped their gods through the use of given locations or objects in nature. In addition, the Chinese worshipped by the use of their ancestors, animals, and idol representations and folk heroes as if they were their gods. Towards all these representations, they provided ritual offerings alongside respect. Additionally, they burnt incense, various paper objects and ritual papers. This is because they wanted to keep order and ensure they had good luck. Most of these cultural and religious practices contributed a lot towards their resistance from Euro-American majority domination. Generally, the Chinese are religious fanatics, very evangelical and capitalize most on converting other people rather than being converted. Precisely, they have a lot of respect for the religion of other people in the same way they respect their religion (Peter 98).
The culture of the Chinese contained both moral teachings and rituals. The rituals were to be learned, observed and carried out at home. In addition, these rituals were carried out in various temples within the community or within ancestral halls in various villages. In areas where ancestral halls were absent, they had to carry out their rituals at miniature alters in their homes. Additionally, they carried out their rituals within their places of business and within sanctuaries located within their district or family associations in various China towns. Likewise, vital dates together with festivals were observed by the use of banquets and rituals. According to the Chinese people, beliefs and teachings simply denote ethical wisdom or a guarantee foe living well in harmony with gods and nature. The Chinese are normally taught by moral tales, ethical principles and deeds. They are normally taught both in temples and at home. For a long time, the teachings have mixed key concepts and wisdom including Buddhism, Daoism and Confucianism together with religions and lores of the local folks (James, 202).
Within this diversity, there exist some key elements that may be assumed as a general feature of Buddhism within the entire history of the Chinese people. In the first place, most Chinese people are Buddhists. Hence, for most Buddhists, the similar symbol of unity is the Buddha. This was the case despite whether taken as an in Theravada, teacher for humans or worshipped as a holy deity in given form of theistic Mahayana. Within all cases, the element of individual commitment in faith was common in many forms. In addition, Buddhism was one of religions in the world which defined the human circumstance with adequate universality for all people to become within the salvation message. This was the case without an advance methodology for geographic, social, and ethnic foundation. Hence, the personal voluntary characteristic of conversion in regard to the various teachings was from the start and remained among the most decisive symbols of the missionary scope of the Chinese people.
The full study of Buddhism in china started with the advent and enlightenment of Euro-Americans within the 17th century. The basic translation of Buddhism scriptures together with fundamental chronological and organizational reconstructions were fully advanced to offer raw material for comparative analysis of the Chine culture and the culture of Euro-Americans. Despite the fact that there existed a contrast in practice and doctrine, the different movements of missionaries of Theravada Buddhism in China revealed the inner potency of universalism by Buddhism.
As a result, Buddhism turned into the official church of the state. It provided the religious foundation to both evolutionary advances and durable and stable societies. In these double cases, the religion was introduced within favorable cultural, political, and ecological situations by administrators who took charge of small and homogeneous areas of land. Many Chinese people observed a golden chance in Buddhism to become innovative and offer a wide religious foundation as far as legitimacy and social integration was concerned. This made these people to resist domination by the Euro-Americans. In relation to the church-state association, on the contrary in Tibet, the evolutionary movement assumed a theocracy form on the basis of a unique rationalization of Tantric and Mahayana theology of incarnation. The situation was different in most parts of china. In these areas, there was a class separation between layman and celibate monk including its excessively reutilized and orthodox status of the classical customs. This in turn was capable of maintaining a structural separation between state and the church which contained significant effects for institutional advancements which occurred later. As a result, these people successfully resisted domination by the euro-Americans who were the majority (Chong, 58).
Also, another element which made Buddhism history in China a success was its contradiction with the religious values together with high civilization institutions which was distinct from the other forms of Buddhism like for example Indian Buddhism. The diffusion of Buddhism in China that made the Chinese people resist being dominated by Euro-Americans was facilitated by various factors. These factors ranged from economic to political disorders which took place at the end of the dynasty of Later Han. During this period of social breakdown, the Buddhism religion offered therapeutic responses to controversial questions concerning what times and life itself represented. The Confucianis...