Religions of China and Japan

BY Prof. PRITAM SINGH, M.A.

Confucianism

Confucius was born in 551 B. C. in the little state of Lu (China), in the province of Shan-tung. Of his early life nothing is known. But he began teaching at the age of 22 and many pupils gathered round him. He studied history, literature and ancient customs. While young, he visited the capital of China and there had the opportunity of seeing the great sacrifices to Heaven and Earth being performed. He saw the court and the Emperor and had access to the archives and thus came into touch with the ancient literature of China. At the age of fifty he was made a magistrate and put the principles of administration into practice and made the city a model town. He was then raised to the office of the Minister of Justice and became an adviser to the duke or the governor. He resigned his office and took to wandering from court to court, giving advice to princes and rulers. He died in 478 B. C. at the age of 73. He was as a matter of fact a contemporary of Buddha, and little knew at the time that Buddhism would hold sway in his country.

It must be clearly understood that Confucius does not stand to this religion in the same relation as Buddha does to Buddhism or Muhammad to Muhammedanism. He was not the founder of a religion and not even a reformer in the ordinary sense of the word. For twenty centuries in China, however, he has been a great authority on religion, ethics and politics and the whole education of China has been through the literature given by Confucius. He was not a speculative thinker, discussing problems like the origin of the universe, the nature of being, the one and the many, which exercised the minds of the philosophers of Greece and India. His commonsense philosophy dealt exclusively with the practical questions of ethics and politics. “To him God was essentially the moral order of the world, an order energizing in the phenomena of nature as well as in the course of history and the destiny of individual lives.” This corresponds to the idea expressed by Keshub Chander Sen, who says that we can see God’s hand working in nature, in human history and in the heart of man.

In the ethics of Confucius, virtues like filial piety occupy a high place. A son is required to obey his father while he lives and to respect him when he is dead. Filial piety and fraternal love are the root of benevolence according to Confucius. Benevolence must not, however, transgress the limits of equity. “Requite injury with justice and kindness with kindness,” was the teaching of Confucius. Men should deal with men as Heaven deals with them according to their deserts, said he.

A fundamental doctrine of Confucian ethics is that the nature of man is good. It is through faulty education and bad example that man deteriorates. He must by his own effort develop a stable good character and to achieve this he must have a strong will and a true ideal. The object of Confucius was to produce the “Superior man,” the man who knew the right thing and did it, a man of faultless virtues.

Conflicting theories of ethics were enunciated by the contemporaries of Confucius, some advocating pessimism and others radical altruism. In the end Confucius got a supporter in Mencius, a disciple who earned a place next in honour to the Master. He passed from city to city, teaching his disciples, including the princes, the enlightened principles of government on which the prosperity of states depended and giving sound advice on the ethics of private life and on conduct of affairs, like the wandering sophists among the Greeks. His works surpass even those of Confucius in logical acumen and in systematic presentation and he followed the method of Socrates, when he employed the dialogue form. A Chinese scholar who compares Mencius with Confucius says: “Confucius spoke only of benevolence, but as soon as Mencius opens his mouth, we hear of benevolence and righteousness. Confucius spoke of the will or mind, but Mencius enlarged also on the cultivation of emotions.”

The tomb of Confucius is one of the holiest places in China and there are temples in every city, which are dedicated to him. They are on the same general pattern with a series of courts leading to the central hall known as the Hall of the Great Perfection. The orthodox religion of the people of China and the religion of the State with all its officials and of the whole literate class is commonly known as Confucianism.

Taoism

The Confucian orthodoxy prevailed for many centuries in China and the religion of China became stagnant. Its supremacy was challenged by Taoism, founded by Lao-tse an older contemporary of Confucius. Tao in the Chinese language literally means the ‘way’. In the Confucian literature the word is used for the “Way of heaven”. The Taoist Scripture is known as Tao-teh-king. The book is divided into two parts, the first part being predominantly metaphysical and the second ethical and political. Lao-tse was the first great thinker of China who tried to penetrate into the ultimate reality behind the world of appearance, the one behind the many. His discoveries correspond to the teachings of the Upanishads among the Hindus. According to the teachings of this great sage, the Absolute in itself is unknowable, but its operations in the phenomenal world are within men’s knowledge. Lao-tse says, that intelligent observation discovers in these operations a constant characteristic, a way or method, in which we can discern a Being unnameable and for the sake of convenience we call him Tao or the Way.

This method or norm of the universe is to serve as a pattern for man’s conduct. The cosmic principle comes to be the ethical principle or teh, virtue. Then man not only knows the Tao, who is transcendent but has it in himself. The wise man is he who does not meddle with the established order of the world, nor does he impede it. Taoism advocates quietism and cultivates inaction, passivity and gentleness. Lao-tse says: “The wise man does not accumulate. The more he expends for others the more does he possess his own, the more he gives to others, the more does he have himself.” Again he says, “As gentleness overcomes force and weakness strength, so evil is overcome by good”. Unlike Confucius he holds that injury should be recompensed with kindness. He thought that China suffered from over- government and so he said that the best government was that which governed the least. He regarded war as a great calamity and was opposed to capital punishment. He was for a return to the state of nature, in which lay the salvation of the state as well as the individual according to him. In short Taoism was a way to attain perfect blessedness. When universal law is the law of one’s being, he is one with the universe. There is a glow of mystic emotion noticeable in the teachings of Lao-tse.

Such philosophy, however, did not make much appeal to the masses of men. Many speculative thinkers and mystically minded people or contemplative recluses accepted Taoism at the time and are even now following that faith. The Taoist holy men took to a hermit life and on the top of it came the Buddhist example, which accentuated monasticism among the Chinese. The Taoist monasteries and nunneries were modeled after the Buddhist pattern. These monasteries have, however, now disappeared. There was a time when the Taoists had their pontiff or pope who had not much authority.

Buddhism in China

Three foreign religions have in different ages established themselves in China, Buddhism, Muhammedanism and Christianity. The last two have remained foreign and have exerted very little influence on Chinese thought, but Buddhism has been so naturalised that it is considered one of the three religions of the country and has contributed much to its composite faith.

The Chinese came into contact with the Buddhists in the second century B. C. During the next three centuries Buddhism made gradual progress in China, till in the fourth century A. D. many monasteries were erected. The Buddhist literature was translated into Chinese by Indian scholars and Chinese began to visit the places sacred to Buddha and studied the religion in the place of its birth. The most famous of these pilgrims was Fah-hien who traveled all over India for fourteen years.

Chinese temperament had very little affinity with the doctrine of Buddha which was based on profound pessimism, while the people of China had a practical turn of mind. Buddha himself had put aside the metaphysical questions and gave the way of individual salvation. The followers were not satisfied and they filled the void by adoration of the Buddha and the holy ones and popular gods of India and of the regions beyond. Even the superstitions of the masses found their way into the new faith and a door was opened for the entrance of magic into Buddhism. Buddhism denied everything worth having–life, wealth, children; it offered in exchange deliverance from world misery, of which the Chinese people, simple as they were quite unaware. They could not understand its metaphysic, and the idle, unsocial and uncivil life of the monks had no appeal for them. The Chinese had been worshipping the spirits of their ancestors and the Buddhist missionaries described in detail the state of departed spirits, the blessedness of the good in heaven and the torments of hell. This attracted them and then the temples, monasteries, and ceremonial attracted those who had an emotional or aesthetic disposition. Again, Buddhism was very accommodating in admitting the native gods and it awakened the soul of the people in a manner that the old religion could not. Thus Buddhism spread and spread till it put into shade both Confucianism and Taoism. But a reaction set in and there was terrible persecution On the part of the state officials and the followers of the original faiths of China.

In China the common people go to temples where images of gods made of wood or pottery are set up. Lighted sticks of incense are set up and there are vases of flowers and a table for offerings. The gods are also worshipped in the homes of the people. Pilgrimages procession, festivals and ceremonies are resorted to. Images, pictures on the walls and tablets of ancestors are worshipped in shrines as well as in homes. People are ignorant and superstitious and have faith in magic and charms. The masses are leavened with Buddhist ideas, but Taoism and Confucianism wield a strong influence. The worship of ancestors has lost none of its importance in China. The religion of the Chinese people is primitive and not based on the Chinese classics and Christian missionaries meet with great difficulties when they give them Christianity. In some parts of China, Islam has spread with wonderful rapidity.

Shintoism* the Ancient Religion of Japan

The old State religion of Japan is known as Shintoism. Its palmy days extended from the seventh to the twelfth century A. D. Shinto literally means the “Way of the gods.” The gods in the Shinto faith are of two kinds (1) Nature-gods and (2) Man-gods, the first being the result of personification and the second of definition. The Shinto gods belong mostly to the second category and, according to some, Shintoism is mere ancestor worship; but nature worship was common among the ancient Japanese. We find such deities as Sun, Moon, Earth, Sea, Rain-storm, Fire and Thunder etc., corresponding to Vedic gods. Both categories of deities, Man and Nature have again three sub-divisions as they are the deities of individuals, classes or qualities. All these are exemplified in the Shinto faith. The Sun, which by the way, is a goddess, represents an individual object. The god of Trees represents a class and there is the god of Growth, which is an abstract quality.

The Nature-gods are personified, which means that material objects or phenomena of nature are regarded as persons exactly in the same way that Vedic gods are believed to have a spirit. Shintoism is therefore a highly polytheistic faith and numbers its deities by hundred, but it has no idols. The two kinds of Gods–Nature-gods and Man-gods are merged under the one term Kami which means a god in the Japanese language. Almost any Kami or god may send rain, bestow prosperity in trade, cure sickness etc., without much discrimination of function. So the Shinto gods are beneficent gods.

The Japanese mythology resembles the mythology of other countries, which shows that the human mind works almost in the same way everywhere. The Japanese believe that the inanimate universe is instinct with sentient life. To them the Sun and the wind and the Sea were gods who could hear and answer prayers and exercise a providential care over mankind. But the synthesis of these and other aspects of nature into one divine whole is wanting.
The second idea, which dominates the myths of Japan, is the Principle of the divine right of kings. This survives even today in Japan although Europe gave it up long ago. The Mikados or the Japanese emperors derive their authority from their ancestor, the Sun-goddess, which has been deified. The Imperial dynasty is also supposed to be descended from the Storm-god, which accounts for the development of Japan as a great naval power.

The Sun-goddess is the most prominent member of the Shinto Pantheon and is described as the Ruler of Heaven and is unrivalled in dignity. She wears royal insignia and is surrounded by a court. She is not an autocrat, but has a council of the gods which decides important matters. The moon deity is masculine, while stars are not given much importance. Of course the Rain or Storm-god occupies the same place as Rudra does in the Vedic Pantheon.

The Earth is also worshipped in Japan as it is in China. Even at the present day when a new building is erected or new rice-land brought under cultivation the propitiation of earth takes place in the form of some ceremony. Many mountains have their gods, but they do not take a high place in the Shinto Pantheon. Then there are the sea-gods and river-gods etc.

In ancient Japan, the sacred and the secular were not clearly differentiated. The Department of Religion was like a Government Bureau. The shrine and the palace have the same word in the Japanese language and so the wood for Shinto festival corresponds to the word for government. The Mikado or the Emperor is both the high priest as well as the sovereign the nation. All Shinto priests are appointed by the government and the need not be celebrates, nor need they wear any special sacerdotal costume. They only read the litanies and sees to the repair of the shrines.

Ancestor worship is in no way to be confused with divine worship. It is only a sign of respect and reverence for the dead, which is a common feature of all religions. It does not involve any superstitious belief in supernatural power exercised by dead forefathers or heroes. In the Shinto religion bowing is the common form of respect. It is the custom to bow twice before and after making an offering. The Japanese do not prostrate themselves before a shrine. Offerings made are also token of respect and are not supposed to be eaten or worn by the deity. The object is to propitiate the god or to expiate for sins. The shrines are tiny structures easily transportable in a cart or in a wheel-barrow. There are thousands of such shrines in Japan.

In Shintoism they have no individual private prayers. There are liturgies or official prayers known as Norito addressed by the Mikado to various gods. These prayers take the form of petitions for rain in time of drought, good harvests, preservation from fire, flood and earthquake. In short, all prayers are for material blessings only. Pilgrimages are also made to certain shrines. There is an elaborate ceremonial at certain times of the year when the Emperor makes offerings to the gods. In many private houses there is a god-shelf where a piece of wood from a big shrine like the Ises and tickets with the names of any gods whom the household worships are kept.

Buddhism was introduced into Japan in the sixth century, but it had very little influence on the nature religion. Two centuries later the Buddhist missionaries did with Japan what they had done with China. The true Shinto faith of ancient Japan was gradually absorbed by Buddhism. The Emperors also became Buddhists and the Shinto ceremonies were either abandoned or performed by Buddhist monks who took possession of the Shinto Shrines and celebrated Buddhist rites in them. Attempts have been made to revive the ancient Shinto faith but without any marked success. The reason is that higher religious and mortal ideas of India and China and from civilised Europe of today have come to stay in Japan. In the absence of a code of morals and an efficient ecclesiastical organization and with little aid from the arts of painting, sculpture and architecture and without a sacred literature, no religion can flourish in our times, much less can purely national religion survive the onslaughts of faiths which have elements of universality. Shintoism in Japan is, therefore, doomed to extinction.

* The term “Shinto” which denotes the State religion of Japan, is derived from a Chinese word meaning “Way of the gods” Shintoism is derived from the native polytheistic nature and ancestor worship of the island. When Buddhism was introduced into Japan in the Sixth Century B. C. its spread rivaled that of Shinto, and led to religious faction, until at last the Buddhist priesthood identified their gods with those of the Shinto Pantheon, developing the intermediate faith known as Ryobu-Shinto. But in the last century Shintoism was once more officially separated from Buddhism and proclaimed as the sole religion of the State.

Shintoism is a household religion, and every Japanese family has its small shrines or tablets inscribed with the names of certain deities, kept on a shelf in one room of the house, to which votive offerings are daily made. It is a cult rich in festivals–at blossoming time and harvest, at the ingathering of the rice and the New Year and in honour of local deities, who on these occasions are carried in processions, accompanied by music and dancing. Besides the temple festivals, others are celebrated in the sacred hall of the imperial palace where stands an altar to the Sun-goddess in which the Emperor himself takes part. Shintoism is a relic of spirit worship, and appears to be an atrophied form of that phase of the evolution of religion in which the animistic spirit had as yet scarcely evolved into the God. (From “Spirit of the East” by Ikbal Ali Shah).