Chinese traditional religion: Encyclopedia - Chinese traditional religion

Chinese traditional religion

Chinese traditional religion is a loosely-connected system of practices and beliefs that has been practiced by large segments of the Han Chinese population of China from the early period of Chinese continuing to the present. With the influx of Western cultural influences for several centuries and the complex developments and modernization of the 20th century, the prevalence of Chinese traditional beliefs has declined, but still remain strong, many or most gradually transforming into elements of culture and social behavior while retaining little spiritual or religious significance.

It is composed of a combination of religious practices, including ancestor worship or veneration, Buddhism and Taoism. Chinese traditional religion also retain traces of some of its ancestral Neolithic belief systems which participate in Animal worship, as well as the worship of the Sun, Moon, Earth, heavens, and various stars.

These traditional practices are situated in the context of Chinese culture and social structures, which, like many throughout East Asia, and unlike many in the West, do not suppose an exclusive adherence to a single belief system. Instead, elements of traditional practices may be practiced by individuals who identify themselves as Buddhists or members of other traditions. This is all the more true when these traditional practices are seen as cultural elements without spiritual significance, permitting them to be retained by adherents of certain belief-systems, such as various forms of Christianity, with which the overall assumptions of Chinese traditional practice as a religion would likely have been incompatible.

The system of Chinese traditional beliefs, expressed concretely in a wide range of practices, has been passed down from generation to generation through oral tradition, formal cultural activities and rituals, and some literature. Throughout the course of Chinese history, it absorbed a wide variety of influences from many different belief systems (e.g. Buddhism, Taoism, Chinese philosophy), without being challenged in its integrity. Like most popular traditions of most cultures of the world, the system of traditional beliefs generally did not go by a specific or formal name in Chinese culture, recognized only in terms of specific constituent practices or elements (e.g. New Years traditions, ancestor portraits and veneration). Likewise, no profession or confession of belief is typically required, nor any initiation practice or ritual--as most practices were integrated into the daily life of Chinese culture, all the more so given the distinct homogeneity of many rural regions of China even in the 21st century.

Chinese traditional religion - Western views

As the French Wikipedia observes,

that is, as a popularized version of an "authentic" religion.

Chinese traditional religion - Demographics

Many publications on religion in China do not include statistics on the number of adherents of traditional religion, with most adherents registered under the category of Taoist or Buddhist. However, despite the critical influence of those two belief-systems, Chinese traditional religion is not coterminous with them and, strictly speaking, marked distinctions exist. Nonetheless, such overlaps or blurring of distinctions are consistent with East Asian cultural understandings of religion and identity that do not require exclusive indentification are an adherent of solely one distinct tradition.

See also

• Chinese mythology
• religion in China
• Chinese folk religion

Adapted from the Wikipedia article "Chinese traditional religion", under the G.N U Free Docmentation License. Please also see http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki