DIFFERENCES AND SIMILARITIES OF
BUDDHISM,
CONFUCIANISM,
TAOISM, AND
SHINTOISM
Flores, Sofia Lauren S.
11-HUMSS (PM2)
BUDDHISM
FOUNDER
 Siddhartha
Gautama (Buddha)
CONFUCIANISM
FOUNDER
 ‘Kung-Fu-Tzu
(Confucius)
TAOISM
FOUNDER
 Lao Tzu
SHINTOISM
FOUNDER
 Prehistoric
Animists
SIMILARITIES
MAHAYANA
BUDDHISM, TAOISM,
AND SHINTOISM

DOMINANT IN:
 Southern Asia
(Theravada
Buddhism)
SACRED TEXTS
 Tripitaka
(Theravada
Buddshism)
DOMINANT IN:
 Korea
Sutras (Mahayana
Buddhism)
SACRED TEXTS

Four Books
a.
b.
c.
d.

Analects
Mencius
The Higher
Education
Doctrine of the
Mean
Confucian Classics
a.
a. Lotus Sutra
b. Heart Sutra
c. Land of Bliss
Sutra
DOMINANT IN:
 South Korea,
Taiwan
BUDDHISM,
CONFUCIANISM AND
TAOISM
a. Vinaya Ptaka
b. Sutra Pitaka
c. Adhidharma
Pitaka

Dominant in:
Japan, Vietnam
b.
c.
d.
e.
Book of
Changes
Book of Poetry
Book of History
Book of Rites
Spring and
Autumn Annals
SACRED TEXTS
 Tao Te Ching
 Book of Chuang
Tze
SACRED TEXTS
 Kojiki
 Nihongi

Dominant in: China
BUDDHISM,
CONFUCIANISM,
TAOISM, AND
SHINTOISM


God: Non-theistic
Objective:
Answering the
purpose of life
DOCTRINES/BELIEFS






Four Noble Truths
Noble Eightfold
Path
Six Paramitas
Nirvana
Reincarnation
Karma
DOCTRINES/BELIEFS




Filial Piety
Five Cardinal
Virtues
Five Relationships
Tian
DOCTRINES/BELIEFS





Wu-wei (Nonaction)
Law of Reversion
and Yin and Yang
Following Nature
and the Ziran
Feng shui
Tao
DOCTRINES/BELIEFS



Belief in Kami
(spirits)
Animism
Matsuri
OBJECTIVE
OBJECTIVE



Learn the origins
of suffering and
how to end it
Get rid of desires
Attain
enlightenment and
reach Nirvana
OBJECTIVE



Build strong and
respectful
relationships
Develop an
individual’s
character
Concerned with
order, structure,
society
OBJECTIVE


Be one with the
Tao
Dwell in nature

Seek union with
the Kami (spirits)
CONFUCIANISM AND
SHINTOISM

Ancestral worship