CHINESE RELIGIONS, BELIEFS AND SOCIETY

"Three teachings flow into one" is an old Chinese saying. The three teachings are Daoism, Confucianism and Buddhism. In China they gradually mingled together over the ages.

The first Chinese peoples believed in various gods and goddesses of nature, in spirits and demons. The spirits of nature and the flow of life inspired the writings which are said to be the work of Laozi (born c, 604BC). His ideas formed the basis of the Daoist religion. The teachings of Kong Fuzi (Confucius) come from the same period of history but they stress the importance of social order and respect for ancestors as a source of happiness. At this time another great religious teacher, the Buddha was preaching in India. Within 500 years Buddhist teachings ha reached China, and by the Tang dynasty (AD618-906) Buddhism was the most popular religion. Islam arrived at this time and won followers in the northwest. Christianity also came into China from Persia, but few Chinese were converted to this religion until the 1900s.

The river valleys and coasts of China have always been among the most crowded places on Earth. Confucius, with his love for of social order, had thought that this vast society could be divided into four main groups. At the top were the nobles, the scholars, and the land owners. Next came the farmers, including even the poorest peasants. These people were valued because they worked for the good of the whole nation, providing the vast amounts of food necessary to feed an ever-increasing population. In third place were skilled workers and craftsmen. In the lowest place of all were the merchants, because Confucius believed they worked for their own profit rather than for the good of the people as a whole. However, the way in which Chinese society rewarded these groups in practice did not fit the theory at all. Merchants ended up becoming the richest citizens, lending money to the upper classes. In contrast, the highly valued peasants often led wretched life, losing their homes to floods and earthquakes or starving in years of famine.