Chinese Religion

Religion has always played a major role in human society. From Hinduism, Buddhism, Confucianism and Daoism, these 4 religions have something in common. They all tell a person how to live and make an ordered society. Confucianism is a Chinese religion based off of a famous philosopher-teacher named Confucius. He had taught that harmony resulted when people accepted their place in society. Throughout this essay expressions of Indian and Chinese religion and how they’re ordered societies had been created will be shown. As stated before, Religion paid a major part in Indian society. A great example of this is Buddhism and Hinduism. Hinduism is a religion that believes in multiple Gods. Unlike most major religions, Hinduism has no
single founder and no single sacred text. It evolved over 3,500 years and grew out of the overlapping beliefs of the diverse groups who settled India. (World History, 69). Not only was India run by its religions but it was also run by a caste system. Modern India works the same ways as well. Land ownership patterns remain unequal; lower castes have low educational status; have lower consumption expenditure resulting in lower access to nutrition, healthcare, and private education; and have a fewer social connection to important social institutions such as government services, healthcare, and medical services. (“Caste in 21st Century India: Competing Narratives”, 2012) From this selection of text 21st century, India acts just like ancient India. They have the same sort of caste system as ancient times. The poor on the bottom of the caste and rich and government leaders on the top. The higher you are the more important and more rights you get to have. Ancient China also had a very ordered society.
They had excellent ways of developing their kingdoms into organized and civilized regions. They often followed the ways of Daoism and Confucianism. Those were the major religions at the time of ancient China. Confucius was a famous Chinese philosopher-teacher who taught wisdom to his young pupils. Confucius spoke of ways to keep an organized society and household. For example, said by Confucious himself; “For the purposes of discipline within the family, as well as for material support and protection, the woman was counseled to subject herself to the man.” (The Ethics of Confucius by Miles Menander Dawson, 1915) Confucianism has had such a major role in China it is actually coming back. Chinese scholars are actually putting his work back into the Chinese schooling systems. For example, “The teaching curriculum for secondary schools now includes the teaching of the Confucian classics, and several experimental schools have been set up that focus largely on the classics” (China’s Leaders Rediscover Confucianism by Daniel A. Bell, 2006). As you can tell, not only has Confucianism influenced ancient China but, it is actually still affecting present day
China. From what you can tell religion has always helped create an ordered society.
The reason this is because Confucianism actually tells how one is supposed to live and govern while Hinduisms tells how one should act and be like. Buddhism’s also wants a person to eventually reach nirvana in one of their lifetimes. The way to reach nirvana is by following the Four Noble Truths and the Eightfold Path. The Four Noble Truths are: “All life is full of suffering, pain sorrow. The cause of suffering is rooted in evils such as greed, desire, and hatred. The only curve of suffering is to overcome the desire of other evils. The way to overcome desire and other evils is to follow the Eightfold Path. The Buddha described the Eightfold Path as “right views, right aspirations, right speech, right conduct, right livelihood, right effort, right mindfulness, and right contemplation.”” (World History, 72) As you can tell, Buddhism also tells how to live a life in not only prosperity but to live in
piece. In conclusion, you can obviously see that religion has always affected ancient and modern civilizations. From the information, you can see Confucianism has had the biggest effect on China while both Hinduism and Buddhism had major effects on both Ancient and Modern Indian cities/civilizations. Buddhism wants people to respect the world while Confucianism wants people to learn that their place in society is O.K. He wanted people to know that they are fine the way they are and to live and peace with the world as it is.