Syncretism in
Chinese Religion
Syncretism is the
blending of religious
traditions in common
everyday practice
Qing dynasty painting of
Confucius presenting the
baby Gautama to Laozi
There is a great degree of interaction, compatibility
and syncretism between the 3 largest religious
traditions in China .
Confucianism
Buddhism
Taoism
Other religions present in China (Christianity, Islam) or which China was
exposed to (Zorastrianism, Manicchaeism, Judaism) can coexist with the
3 main traditions, but they don’t syncretize into a coherent web of culture
as do these three traditions.
I would suggest that compatibility between Confucianism,
Taoism and Buddhism is due to the fact that all 3 traditions
had to be basically compatible with Native Chinese Folk
Traditions.
Confucianism
Taoism
Native Chinese Folk Religion
Buddhism
Native Chinese Folk Religion has ancient elements of
belief that are compatible with C,B &T
Tao = the Way
Yin/yang & 5 element model:
Ti, T’ien: heaven
San Jiao (San Chiao);
500s CE. First synthesis of
these 3 religions into into
one temple.
Supernatural beings, animism, deified
spirits
Ling-hun (soul), transcending the
body.
Hsien (pursuit of longevity and
immortality) ex: Taoist “Immortals”
and “Buddhist Eminent Monks”
Magic
20th century to present:
syncretic religious
societies continue to form
underground (illegally) in
China.
The Birth of Chinese Civilization
begins with the mythology of the
The world
used to be
wild…
3 sage-kings: Yao, Shun & Yu
….until Yao reshaped it…
..and we get civilization
Yin & Yang
..are 2 complementary
principles that must
balance one another
It’s symbol is the T’ai Chi….
female
passive
dark
cool
moist
Earth &
moon
Yin & yang is not a “good vs bad” type dualism.
Good is achieved when the right balance and mix is
achieved between yin and yang in a given
thing/situation.
male
active
bright
hot
dry
Heaven &
sun
S
Yin & yang
and the 5 elements have
directional associations…
E
W
N
..as well as associations with colors, virtues, animals, plants etc.
Feng Shui: the study of how direction and location can
be planned and arranged to get the most positive outcomes
Grave sites
City planning
Home location
Interior decorating
Chinese Alchemy has a 5 Element Theory
The West (Greeks) had a 4 element theory: earth, water, fire, air
☲
☷
☳
☵
☰
The five elements are usually used to describe the state in
nature:
Wood/Spring: a period of growth, which generates abundant
wood and vitality;
Fire/Summer: a period of swellness, which overbrews with
fire and energy;
Metal/Autumn: a period of fruition, which produces
formation and bears fruit;
Water/Winter: a period of retreat, where stillness pervades;
Earth: the in-between transitional seasonal periods
Chinese religion
has magical
elements that can
produce the
changes people
desire
Central concepts in Pre-Confucian thought
Metaphysics Cosmology & Ontology
• Dao (“Way”) - the Ultimate; the One; the Absolute; the
underlying Power; the Source. It is a connected, holistic, organic
worldview that trusts spontaneity over propriety and nature over
civilization. It is somewhat mysterious and indescribable. To be
good and happy and successful we must connect with the Dao
• Heaven (T’ien) & Earth; an ever-changing expression &
blend of Yin & Yang. (Heaven is Yang in relation to Earth; and Earth is Yin
in relation to Heaven; but each is, in itself, a blend of both Yin & Yang.)
Taoism will absorb these ideas wholly into a very
spiritual/magical worldview;
Confucianism will modify them into a more philosophical
/sociological worldview.
Chi = Ch’i =
Transliterations use Roman letters to make
rough English reproductions of the words
sound. China and Taiwan have different
transliteration symbols. Intonation is lost, and
some meaning gets lost. Chinese has ideagrams: English is a phonetic system.
= the fundamental energy
that configures into
particular things.
This idea-gram is vapor coming out of
something
There is no mind-matter dualism: but there is light ch’i and
heavy ch’i. Spirituality is meant to cultivate light ch’i.
Living badly weighs your ch’i down. The primordial ch’I
was light.
Examples:
* When music effects us, it’s the flow of ch’i.
* Nature gives us food (flow of ch’i).
* In medicine, disease is defined as a bad flow of ch’i in the body.
Healing?
Acupuncture, spiritual practice, herbs.
Equilibrium (balance) of your ch’i with the universe needs to be established.
Chinese wisdom is often taught through
analogies, written in small stories collected in
(Book of Changes). this book.
Which story applies is determined by casting yara sticks (also cracks
in cooked animal scapula, or today, coin tosses) to determine what a
persons state is at a given time.
I Ching
The result presents a perspective of what state your life is in at that
particular moment.
It has been used for fortune telling
but some would say that is a misunderstanding of
its true purpose and meaning
Related concepts; divination, oracles
The I Ching tells how to
interpret TRIGRAMS for
divination
Throwing the I Ching:
1. Perform a binary random
act in series of threes and
record them as straight or
broken line according to a
key in the I Ching.
2. Do this 6 times to create
the 6 trigrams.
3. Look up the final
trigram in the book of
changes.
Go to
http://www.egreenway.com/tai
chichuan/trigram.htm
Hexagrams are
more involved. 64
possible patterns of 6
lines each exist. Each
can be looked up in the I
Ching for divination.
Each of these hexagrams
is a chapter in the
I Ching.
http://www.wsu.edu/~dee/CHPHIL/PRECONF.HTM
Written or
edited by
Confucius or
his followers
I Ching
The Book
Of
Changes
Shu
ching
The Book
of History
Li chi
The Book
of Rites
Shih
ching
the Book
of Odes
---------------- Pre-Confucian --------------
Ch'un
ch'iu
The Spring
and Autumn
Annals
Pre-Confucian Chinese Theology
• Shang-Ti, the original ancestor (after the 11th century BC)
• Heaven (Tian, T’ien) - the divine realm (Human beings who have
died live on with Shang-Ti as ancestors (ti) in Heaven.)
• Continuity & interchange between Heaven (the divine realm) and
Earth (the human realm), i.e., between the ancestors & those
living on Earth.
Spiritism: spirits
are everywhere,
both good [shen]
& evil [gui]).
The ancestors are to be worshipped, and sacrifices are to be
offered to them; they, in turn, will guide and protect us,
especially with regard to our futures (divination practices).
When we die, we will join the ancestors in Heaven and
become ancestors ourselves.
[No hell(s)? See next slide.]
•
Before the arrival of Buddhism in
…it seems that Chinese religions
China…
did not contain a welldeveloped idea of an afterlife.
• The souls of those who had lived
in accord with the “Mandate of
Heaven” (will of Shang-Ti)
would become ancestors in
Heaven;
• the souls of those who had not
followed Heaven’s decree
would, after death, continue to
live on for a time in a dark
underworld area (called “the
Yellow Springs”) & then fade
away into nothingness.
• The idea of multiple levels
of hell entered Chinese
religion through Buddhism,
which arrived in China in the
1st century AD.
• The religious Daoists
accepted this idea (but
modified it in various ways).
• Apparently, the
Confucianists continued to
show little interest in this
subject.