Chinese Religion

There are over 1.4 billion Chinese, many of whom are Confucius, Taoists, Buddhists, Christians, Muslims or just “free thinkers”.

Early Chinese culture, around 5000 years ago, was a shamanistic culture with a strong religious stamp, at the centre of which stood the veneration of ancestors and rites. In addition, Heaven was regarded and worshipped as the Ultimate Reality, the Absolute.

The era of Chinese humanism began in China in the sixth century BC with the emergence of wisdom teachers — the most famous of them was Confucius. Humanity in the sense of loving care, goodness, benevolence, is the ethical term that is used most frequently in the Analects of Confucius. Humanity could very well also be the basis today for a fundamental ethic — not only in China, but for humankind as a whole. According to Confucius, humanity is to be understood as mutuality, as mutual respect, as he explains it in the Golden Rule: What you do not wish for yourself, do not do to others.

Good and evil can be distinguished by the basic norm of true humanity in a quite elementary way, one that is valid for all. For the Chinese, there is nothing beyond good and evil. Confuciusis said to have remarked that there are only two ways” humanity or inhumanity.

Taoism arose after the emergence of Confucius. It was a return to nature and its harmony, inspired by the wisdom writing Tao Te Ching, which is attributed to the legendary wise man Lao-Tsu. This is a philosophical-mystical doctrine of the Tao, the way, the primal law and primal foundation of all being, in which human beings are to be embedded and with which they are to live in harmony.