Session 6 – Eastern (Asian) Religions
In this final session on Eastern Religion we
will quickly leave the India area and talk
about two religious philosophies that have
changed the lives of over a billion people
throughout history
Taoism and Confusciousism are two
religions that should be addressed together,
because they deal with the same area and
have a history together
Confusciousism
When we look at the religion of
Confusciousism it’s not a formal religion in
the normal sense (more of a belief system)
Statistically it’s kind of hard to get an idea on
how many people follow it, because it’s not
an organized religion in the normal sense
Even though it’s not a formal religion,
the effect it’s had on the eastern
world is astronomical
The group of people most heavily influenced
include the Chinese, Japanese, Korean,
and Vietnamese
When we consider the populations of these
countries (especially China) this worldview
or philosophy end up affecting over a billion
people (although not all of them would
identify as being part of “Confusciousism”)
These ideas are becoming even more
popular (in China) recently because Marxism
is on the decline, the Chinese are okay with
this though because Confucius philosophy
emphasized loyalty and other good things
The Confucian work ethic is seen by many
as the basis for the rapid economic growth
in East Asia today
Today about 1/4th of the world’s population
live under this work ethic
The first aspect of the work
ethic is loyalty to family,
these loyalties are
established in this present
life, but then continue after
The second aspect is a strong moral ethic of
practicing virtues, giving words of wisdom,
doing good works, and having the attitudes
of loyalty, trust-worthiness, and respect
Lastly, it is oriented towards the “eternal”
Eternal means something different to them
than it would to a Christian, it’s not so much
eternal in the sense of heaven and living
after you die, but the influence you have
when you are here, and the impact you have
on the next generations etc.
Why did all this come about? Where do
these ideas come from?
The challenge the ancient Chinese people
faced was to unite and harmonize the
various tribes that populated the vast plains
along the Yellow River
During the Chou Dynasty (1122-897 B.C.)
The Duke of Chou solved this problem by
establishing the ritual-music culture
By the time Confucius came around this
culture had collapsed, taking virtue and
social order with it
Confucius (Latinized version of the Chinese
name K’ung Fu-tzu, which means “Grand
Master K’ung)
He was the prime minister of the State of Lu,
and a well educated-intellectual who was
passionate about the Ritual-Music Culture
In an effort to restore the cultural-political
order, he left home and traveled around
China hoping to persuade the lords and dukes
to follow the rites of the Ritual-Music culture
His efforts to establish this cultural order
failed and he eventually returned home
to teach and write
Because of these failures he begins to ask
more metaphysical questions about
goodness, virtue, if good and evil are
merely relative, or eternal and transcendent
Confucius asked: “What is the foundation of
virtue and goodness in an age of confusion?”
Confucius thought that moral responsibility
existed in the moral consciousness of
individuals, specifically in the jen.
Jen, which can be translated simply as
“Humanity” refers to the ideal goodness – or
“good nature” of humans
This good nature is the source from which
all virtue and good things flow
Three aspects of Jen
The Goal: Jen is the goal of an ideal humanity,
it refers to an ideal whereby the individual has
actualized his or her full potential and is
manifesting his or her moral perfection
The Process: Jen is the human process that
is needed to reach the goal of the ideal
person. Included in this process are the
practices of self reflection, self cultivation,
and moral responsibility.
The Foundation: Jen is the true nature that
resides within each person. According to
Confucianism, this true nature is good
After attempts to re-establish the culture
they originally had failed, he started to
emphasize the need for each individual to
transform him or herself
He called for everyone to return to their
original humanity (jen) and to actualize it
through moral practices etc.
After Confucius, Mencius developed other
concepts that are part of the teaching
Heaven can be discovered in your own
heart-mind, and is not a place where we go
after we die (like in Christianity)
In the second century B.C., the emperor
Han Wu-Ti adopted Confucianism as the
official ideology of China. All other schools
of though were considered heretical
Under imperial Confucianism, the literate
elite become the ruling class in China
The culture and the political system were
integrated at this time, centered on the
ideas of Confusciousism
Around the second century A.D., Buddhism
was introduced to China, and it became the
dominating religious thought from A.D. 500850. Confucian ideology was severely
challenged at this time
Summing up the beliefs
God: Before Confucius came around, God
was spoken of as a personal Being and was
called Ti or Shang-ti. Confucius on the other
hand spoke of reality as T’ien, which had a
less personal meaning of “Heaven”
Central Concern: The central concern of
Confucianism is to affirm humanity’s
inherent goodness and to look for a
way to actualize it
Human Nature: Humans are inherently good
(and potentially perfect) and evil comes only
when we are forced to act in evil ways or
when we allow our minds to fall towards
such an inclination
The way to actualization: The way to
actualize this goodness is through
education, self reflection, self-cultivation,
and behaving by the established norms
of the culture
Ancestral worship happens quite a bit
Originally, Chinese worshipped the Ti
(Creator) but he was too far away from the
human world to be known
Eventually Confucious and Mencius change
this idea (as we talked about)
Ancestors (among the common people)
were originally seen as being somewhere
close to God, and they worshipped them
looking for a sort of mediator to God
According to Confucius, the original idea
was to promote a sense of respectfulness
towards the ancestors rather than
worshipping some invisible spirits
The distortion of this
wisdom developed
later when Buddhism
introduced the
cosmology of
reincarnation
When the started viewing the deceased as
those who continue on after death, they
developed beliefs about ancestor spirits and
their ability to give blessings/curses
In their minds, their fortunes became tied
to the grace of their ancestors
Since that time, ancestral worship has
become a behavior based on superstition
and appeasement
Taoism
Taoism is a vital religion to understand along
side Confusciousism, it has had great
influence on the countries of China, Korea,
Japan, Vietnam, and more.
One Chinese Scholar Wrote: “No one can hope
to understand Chinese philosophy, religion,
government, art, medicine, or even cooking –
without a real appreciation of the profound
philosophy taught in the Tao Te Ching”
We come back to this idea of the Ritual
music Culture in ancient China
The ritual music culture was based on the
idea that there were certain (set) ways of
doing things that we mandated in
“heaven” (the Tao)
The term “music” in the Ritual Music
Culture name is referring to customs within
society, and that they were to be like music
They were to be “Conducted with style like
an artistic performance”
The idea was that when
the rulers promoted a
sense of civility, and virtue
among the people, a
harmonious culture would
come about from it
The idea worked and created harmony in
China for four centuries
This harmony will eventually begin to fade
away because feudal states within China
started to fight against each other for
land and power
There were a number of scholar at the time
who traveled around trying to revive the
ideas of this ritual music culture, the most
influential of those scholars was Confucius
He made a few adjustments though to the
ideas of the Ritual Music Culture
Confucius said that all people (not just the
emperor/leaders) were to live by the Tao
(standards mandated in heaven)
At the same time as Confucius lived, there
was another man by the name of Lao Tzu
Lao Tzu actually considered Confucius and
his Ritual Music Culture ideas to be the
cause of the problems that they were facing
He wrote in the Tao Te Ching (Taoism
Scripture) that: “When righteousness is lost,
only then does the doctrine of propriety
arise. Now, propriety is a superficial
expression of loyalty and faithfulness, and
the beginning of disorder”
Lao Tzu was saying that imposing external
laws reflects the breakdown of the internal
laws, and harmony will not result when laws
are imposed on the people
Lao Tzu and Confucius (according to some
tradition and source) did meet at one point
Lao Tzu was telling Confucius that he was
going about creating this harmony they
wanted in the wrong way, and that Confucius
can’t impose morality on the people
Lao Tzu believed that the answer to their
problems (of social chaos etc.) were to be
found in the Tao (Dow)
He believer in the principle called wu-wei,
which is the idea of purposeful “inactivity”
Lao Tzu taught that to bring harmony, our
only action should be to align ourselves
with the natural flow of the Tao and let it
work it’s natural course through us
He believed that the less the government
was involved, the better for the people
Chuang Tzu, who lived sometime between
399-295 B.C. took the ideas of the Tao Te
Ching as his starting point, and developed
them further (emphasizing the mystical
nature of the Tao.)
His work is called the Chuang Tzu
He would end up placing more emphasis on
the individuals ability to change himself
through the realization of the Te, which is the
universal Tao manifested in the individual
The teachings of Lao Tzu, Chung Tzu, and
Lieh Tzu (another teacher who came after
Chuang Tzu) make up the foundation of
philosophical Taoism
In the following years, Taoism would leave its
philosophical an metaphysical roots and turn
towards what is called religious Taoism, or
more descriptively names, magical Taoism
The idea behind this magic Taoism is to
attain magical powers and immortality
This shift from philosophical to religious
Taoism happens because some people start
taking the writings of the three foundational
teachers as being more literal, figuratively
like they were probably intended
Out of this religious, literal interpretation
movement came a few ideas
Hygiene – The idea that one can use Ch’i,
the breath, or vital energy within yourself to
purify oneself and attain immortality
Alchemy – This stream in Taoism sought to
change natural elements into an potions of
life that would make one immortal
P’eng-lai – This name refers to a mystical
island(s) that people were searching for at
the time. The idea was that immortal beings
lived there, and they had a drug that
prevents you from dying
Religious Taoism almost incorporated a
movement that created a host of gods
Around the third century A.D., philosophical
Taoism started to make a come back
through a movement that was called
“pure conversation.”
People again started to study the primary
scripture and writings of Taoism, which lead
them back closer to the original ideas
This is the form of Taoism that is most
popular today in China and surrounding areas
Information on the origins
Lao Tzu’s life is clouded in
legend when we look at it.
These is considerable doubt
that a person named Lao Tzu
every actually existed
Lao Tzu is a title, which means “the old
philosopher” or “the old master” and is a
term of respect, not a name
There is also disagreement among scholars
on where the Tao Te Ching came from
Some believe it was the work
of several authors which was
collected over the course
of several centuries into
one book
Others say it was the work of
one man named Li Her, who
was give the title Lao-Tzu
Terms and Philosophy
The Tao
The Tao is unknowable and indescribable
according to the Tao Te Ching, but it gives an
attempt to explain it in one area:
“There was something undifferentiated and
yet complete which existed before heaven
and earth. Soundless and formless, it
depends on nothing and does no change…”
…It operates everywhere and is free from
danger. It may be considered the mother of
the universe. I do not know its name;
I call it Tao”
In one sense, the Tao is the force of all
being and existence itself, but in another
sense it’s beyond the force of existence,
because according to the Tao Te Ching,
nonexistence is even more ultimate than
existence. It says all things come from
being, and being comes from nonbeing
The Te
The Te is the pattern that makes an object
what it is, it gives us our individuality
and our uniqueness
It acts as each persons connection to the
universe (Tao)
Taoism says we should accept the Te in all
things, and not try to make other things
conform to how we think they should be
The Yin/Yang Duality
The Tao Te Ching said that “The One
produced the two” and the two are the yin
and the yang in Taoism
This is the opposing, but at
the same time balancing
forces within nature
The Yin and the Yang are
mutually dependent, we can’t
know one without the other
There are a lot of similar ideas between
Taoism and Christianity
Do your best to acknowledge those things,
but also point out the differences that exist
and how the Bible would explain different
(but similar) ideas that we have
These philosophies have influenced the
minds and lives of billions of people, and we
need to be prepared to engage them
Memory Verse
Genesis 1:31: “Then God saw everything
that He had made, and indeed it was very
good. So the evening and the morning were
the sixth day.”