In the study of comparative religion, the East Asian religions, form a subset of the Eastern religions which originated in East Asia.
This group includes Chinese religion overall, which further includes ancestor veneration, Chinese folk religion, Confucianism, Taoism and popular salvationist organisations (such as Yiguandao and Weixinism), as well as elements drawn from Mahayana Buddhism that form the core of Chinese and East Asian Buddhism at large. The group also includes Shinto and Tenrikyo of Japan, and Korean Shamanism, all of which combine shamanistic elements and indigenous ancestral worship with various influences from Chinese religions. Chinese salvationist religions have influenced the rise of Japanese new religions such as Tenriism and Korean Jeungsanism; as these new religious movements draw upon indigenous traditions but are heavily influenced by Chinese philosophy and theology. All these religious traditions generally share core concepts of spirituality, divinity and world order, including Tao ('way') and De ('virtue').
The Shang dynasty of ancient China worshipped their ancestor, Shangdi ('Highest emperor'). The Shang dynasty was defeated by the Zhou dynasty, whose deity, Tian ('Heaven'), emphasized virtue. However, rather than replacing or excluding Di, Tian spared Shangdi and encouraged ancestor worship instead. This symbolizes how Confucianism, while emphasizing virtue and condemning barbarism, did not replace existing beliefs and traditions.
Early Chinese philosophy proposed its own concept of Tao (the Way) to define virtue. The Hundred Schools of Thought, the ancient Chinese philosophical movement that sought to articulate the Tao, eventually consolidated into Confucianism and Taoism. Together with Buddhism arrived from India, these traditions came to be regarded as the Three Teachings or Three Ways, fostering a pluralistic religious framework across East Asia. Consequently, while terms incorporating Tao—such as Shinto, Pungryudo—appear throughout the East Asian religious landscape. East Asian religions include many theological stances, including polytheism, nontheism, henotheism, transtheism, pantheism, panentheism and agnosticism.
The place of East Asian religions among major religious groups is comparable to the Abrahamic religions found across the classical world, and Indian religions across the Indian subcontinent, Tibetan Plateau and Southeast Asia.
Terminology
Despite a wide variety of terms, the traditions described as "Far Eastern religions", "East Asian religions" or "Chinese religions" are recognized by scholars as a distinct religious family.de Groot, J. J. M. Religion in China: Universism a Key to the Study of Taoism and Confucianism. Pp 45–46. Kessinger Publishing. 2004. .James, Edwin Olver. The Comparative Study of Religions of the East (excluding Christianity and Judaism). Pg 5. University of Michigan Press. 1959.
Syncretism is a common feature among East Asian religions, often making it difficult to recognize individual faiths from one another: practitioners frequently draw on multiple traditions at once, and deities, rituals, and doctrines are shared, adapted, and transformed across religious boundaries rather than confined or bound to a single system.Ito, Satoshi. Translated by Breen, John and Mark Teeuwen. Shinto – A Short History. Pg 9. Routledge. 2003. Fisher, Mary Pat. Living Religions: An Encyclopaedia of the World's Faiths. Pg 164. I.B. Tauris. 1997. . Further complications arise due to the inconsistent use of many terms. For example, "Tao religion" is used for both Taoism itself and for the many Tao-based new religious movements that have emerged.Vrijhof, Pieter Hendrik & Waardenburg, Jean Jacques. Official and Popular Religion: Analysis of a Theme for Religious Studies. Pg 419. Walter de Gruyter. 1979. .Beversluis, Joel Diederik. Sourcebook of the World's Religions: An Interfaith Guide to Religion and Spirituality. Pg 41. New World Library. 2000. .
Similarly, "Far Eastern religion" or "Taoic religion" may refer only to faiths incorporating the concept of Tao, may include Chan and Japanese Buddhism, or may inclusively refer to all Asian religions.Fisher, Mary Pat. Living Religions: An Encyclopaedia of the World's Faiths. Pp 164–165, 174–175. I.B. Tauris. 1997. .Northrop, Filmer Stuart Cuckow. The Meeting of East and West: An Inquiry Concerning World Understanding. Pg 412. The Macmillan company. 1946.Yamamoto, J. Isamu.Buddhism: Buddhism, Taoism and Other Far Eastern Religions. Zondervan. 1998. .
Philosophy Confucianism
Confucianism is a complex system of moral, social, political thought, influential in the history of East Asia. It is commonly associated with legalism, but actually rejects legalism for ritualism.Yao, Xinzhong. An Introduction to Confucianism. pp 191–192. Cambridge University Press. 2000. It also endorses meritocracy as the ideal of nobility.Smart, Ninian. World Philosophies. Pp 66. Routledge (UK). 2000. . Confucianism includes a complicated system governing duties and etiquette in relationships. Confucian ethics focus on familial duty, loyalty and humaneness.De Bary, William Theodore & Tu, Weiming. Confucianism and Human Rights. Pg 149. Columbia University Press. 1998. .
Confucianism recognises the existence of ancestral spirits and deities, advocating paying them proper respect.Sharot, Stephen. A Comparative Sociology of World Religions: virtuosos, priests, and popular religion. Pp 46, 85. New York: NYU Press, 2001. . Confucian thought is notable as the framework upon which the syncretic Neo-Confucianism was built.Huang, Siu-chi. Essentials of Neo-Confucianism: Eight Major Philosophers of the Song and Ming Periods. Pg 5. Greenwood Press, 1999. .
Neo-Confucianism was developed in reaction to Taoism and Chan Buddhism. It was formulated during the Song dynasty, but its roots may be traced to scholars of the Tang dynasty. It drew from Buddhist religious concepts and Taoist yin yang theory, as well as the Yijing, and placed them within the framework of classic Confucianism.Huang, Siu-chi. Essentials of Neo-Confucianism: Eight Major Philosophers of the Song and Ming Periods. Pp 11–12, 63–64, 106. Greenwood Press, 1999. . Despite Neo-Confucianism's incorporation of elements of Buddhism and Taoism, its apologists decried Nirvana and Xina('immortal').
At the same time, however, Neo-Confucianism encouraged ancestor worship and, by extension, fostered the development of local or indigenous religions. Japan actively supported indigenous beliefs to refine Shinto, while China condemned Taoism yet simultaneously sponsored and supported it. In contrast, the Joseon dynasty in Korea uniquely condemned native shamanism and sought to exclude local religions. As a result, Korean shamanism largely faded in Korea, paving the way for the entry and spread of Christianity.Maspero, Henri. Translated by Frank A. Kierman, Jr. Taoism and Chinese Religion. pg 52–53. University of Massachusetts, 1981.
These differences stemmed from how each dynasty approached the Hua–Yi distinction. Hua–Yi distinction refers to a worldview that strictly distinguishes between Sinic civilization and barbarianism; based on this distinction, religions and customs were categorized as either orthodox or heterodox, with the latter being actively suppressed. China considered Chinese folk religion and Taoism to be within the realm of shine and treated them as orthodox. Japan’s Huayi thought, as well as the concepts of Sinocentrism in Vietnam and Goryeo dynasty in Korea, viewed their respective lands as alternative centers of civilization, regarding their own native customs as orthodox. In contrast, Joseon’s Sojunghwa ideology viewed native Korean customs as barbarian, striving to replace them with Chinese Neo-Confucianism to establish Joseon as the true successor to Sinic civilization. Based on this ideological framework, Goryeo's shamanic traditions came to be branded as heterodox and were systematically oppressed.
Neo-Confucianism was an officially endorsed philosophy for over five centuries, deeply influencing all of East Asia.Flew, Antony G. A Dictionary of Philosophy. Pg 62. St. Martin's Griffin. 1984. .
Religions Chinese folk religion
Chinese folk religion comprises a range of traditional religious practices of Chinese, including the Chinese diaspora. This includes the veneration of shen ('spirits') and ancestors, and worship devoted to deities and immortals, who can be deities of places or natural phenomena, of human behaviour, or progenitors of family lineages. Stories surrounding these gods form a loose canon of Chinese mythology. By the Song dynasty (960–1279), these practices had been blended with Buddhist, Confucian, and Taoist teachings to form the popular religious system which has lasted in many ways into the present day. Taoism
The Tao may be roughly defined as the flow of reality, of the universe, or the force behind the natural order.Cane, Eulalio Paul. Harmony: Radical Taoism Gently Applied. Pg 13. Trafford Publishing, 2002. . Believed to be the influence that keeps the universe balanced and ordered, the Tao is associated with nature, due to a belief that nature demonstrates the Tao.Martinson, Paul Varo A theology of world religions: Interpreting God, self, and world in Semitic, Indian, and Chinese thought. Pp 168–169. Augsburg Publishing House. 1987. . It is often considered to be the source of both existence and non-existence.See Wuji and Taiji for more information about "non-existence" and "existence" in East Asian religious thought.
The Tao is often associated with a "virtue" of being, the de or te. This is considered the active expression of Tao.Sharot, Stephen. A Comparative Sociology of World Religions: virtuosos, priests, and popular religion. Pp 77–78, 88. New York: NYU Press, 2001. . Generally, those religions closer to Taoism explain de as "integrity" or "wholeness", while those faiths closer to Confucianism express this concept as "morality" or "sound character".Yao, Xinzhong. An Introduction to Confucianism. Pp 155–156. Cambridge University Press. 2000. .
The concepts of Tao and de are shared by both Taoism and Confucianism.Markham, Ian S. & Ruparell, Tinu. Encountering Religion: an introduction to the religions of the world. Pg 254. Blackwell Publishing, 2001. . The authorship of the Tao Te Ching, the central book of Taoism, is assigned to Laozi, who is traditionally held to have been a teacher of Confucius.Hansen, Chad D. A Daoist Theory of Chinese Thought: A Philosophical Interpretation. Pp 202, 210. Oxford University Press. 2000. . However, some scholars believe that the Tao Te Ching arose as a reaction to Confucianism.Fisher, Mary Pat. Living Religions: An Encyclopaedia of the World's Faiths. Pg 167. I.B. Tauris. 1997. . Zhuangzi, reacting to the Confucian-Mohist ethical disputes casts Laozi as a prior step to the Mohists by name and the Confucians by implication. However, secular scholars usually consider Laozi and Zhuangzi to have been mythological figures.Boltz, William G. "Lao tzu Tao te ching." Early Chinese Texts: A Bibliographical Guide, edited by Michael Loewe. pg 270. Berkeley: University of California, Institute of East Asian Studies. 1993. (Laozi)Birrell, Anne. Chinese Myths. Pp 16–17. University of Texas Press. 2000. . (Zhuangzi)
Early Taoist texts reject Confucian emphasis on rituals and order, in favour of an emphasis on "wild" nature and individualism. Historical Taoists challenged conventional morality, while Confucians considered society debased and in need of strong ethical guidance.Maspero, Henri. Translated by Frank A. Kierman, Jr. Taoism and Chinese Religion. pg 39. University of Massachusetts, 1981.
Taoism consists of a wide variety of religious, philosophical and ritual orders. There are hermeneutic (interpretive) difficulties in the categorisation of Taoist schools, sects and movements.Mair (2001) p. 174