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Research on Confucianism in East Asia
The influence of confucianism upon the Chinese people
The impact of confucianism on society
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Recommended: Research on Confucianism in East Asia
Introduction
Since its birth, Confucianism has reigned supreme with no serious challenger in East Asia. While Christianity has attempted to move in from the West into places like China, it has been marked as a western tool of imperialism and oppression while Confucianism is seen to be truly Chinese. Even in Japan, where until 1945, State Shinto was the predominate religion, State Shinto can trace its roots to Confucianism as a way to control the population. Confucianism has fundamentally changed East Asia and without the region would be incalculably different.
Body
In China there has always been an enormous relationship between religion and political reform, especially when it came to Confucianism. In fact, an entire political class was dedicated
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However, this was not always the case, “between 1870 and 1884, Shinto bureaucrats attempted to make a state religion out of Shinto through the Great Promulgation Campaign” (Bary 538). This campaign failed miserably due to the fact that, “the creed had no basis in popular religious life and because it was composed of platitudes about obeying authority and revering the emperor, the people found it incomprehensible and its priests ludicrous (Bary 538) When the campaign failed, Shinto fell out of favour among the people, however, there was another attempt in the works. After the Great Promulgation Campaign there was a movement to incorporate Shinto shrines and practices with imperial practices and traditions. This movement focused on the issue previously stated about the previous attempt at creating a state religion, and worked. From 1900 with the creation of the national association of shrine priests to 1940 with the formal creation of the Bureau of Divinity, State Shinto became more that a religion, it was a way of life. The Japanese government able to make State Shinto, “suprareligious in that, first, it transcended the beliefs of a mortal founder and, second, it embodied the essence of the Japanese nation, its divine creation, and the divinity of imperial rule” (Bary 539). A prime example of the supremacy of State Shinto is the suppression of other religions. Between 1921 and 1935 a new religion, …show more content…
The adaptation in the beginning was rocky to say the least. However, the Japanese seem to possess the ability to learn from the mistakes of the past. Learning from the failed Great Promulgation Campaign, the government went to great lengths to incorporate State Shinto into people’s everyday lives. This effort was met with great success, in fact, the adoption and practice of State Shinto was so effective, that in 1945, at the end of World War II, the United States of America banned State Shinto and dissolved the Bureau of Divinity. The United States of America saw State Shinto for what the government had created, one of the most effective propaganda tools in history. Thus, with the fall of the Japanese Empire in 1945, along went State
Chinese state and that was the major sticking point for the religion in China. For
Buddhism and the Chinese government, along with the strict Confucianists, did not have promising results. The Chinese government was unstable and had complications during the coming of Buddhism, it was threatening to them and to the strict Confucianists who had these new, unknown ideas coming at them. The two sides had completely different views on Buddhism and both were stuck with the positives and negatives. After 570 C.E., China’s imperial structure was restored due to the shrinking influence of Buddhism.
Shinto: The Way Home written by Thomas Kasulis is a book designed to inform the reader of Shinto traditions and history, but how does his work stand on its own as a scholarly source. Kasulis uses simple organization strategies to control the flow of the work the simplest method is the separation of the book into six chapters as well as a two prefaces one from the editor and one from the author. The first chapter discusses Shintoism in the terms of a western audience while the second chapter confers the connection with normal Japanese culture with Shinto traditions. The third, fourth, and the fifth chapter canvases the history of Shinto traditions in chronological order from prehistory to 2002. Chapter 6 explains Issues with Shinto in a modern
What personal qualities were a women in classical China supposed to exhibit? What were her prescribed responsibilities? To what extent were normative gender roles for women in classical India similar? To what extent they were different?
Regarding religion, Chinese culture saw the emergence of Confucianism and Buddhism as the major influence. Confucianism stressed filial piety which meant respecting elders and superiors, ruling righteously, and obeying commands and orders. Confucianism was introduced by the Chinese thinker Confucius. Buddhism was brought to China, but originated in India and was founded by Siddhartha Gautama. Followers of Buddhism worshipped Buddh...
Shinto is the defining element of Japanese religion and culture. It has been around for mille...
Confucianism is a philosophy and way of life formed in China by Confucius, an early Chinese philosopher. It began as a simple concept with ideals of personal virtue, simple filial piety, and basic gender distinctions and social inequalities. But, over time with the emergence of Neo-Confucianism it began to transform into a way of life that was degrading towards women with certain hostilities towards rivaling religions. In its early period, from around 500 B.C.E to the Common Era, Confucianism changed in that it became the leading belief system and a major part of Chinese tradition. From the transition into the Common Era to the end of the Classical time period, Confucianism was altered because of a loss of popularity following the collapse of the Han dynasty and the corruption in the governing political system. In its ending period, the post-classical era, Confucianism underwent perhaps its biggest adjustments with the emergence of Neo-Confucianism. The ideas and virtues presented in the “rebirth of Confucian philosophies” of intolerance of foreign religions and extreme filial piety...
“The spread of Confucianism across East Asia was accomplished largely through voluntary and consensual means, rather than by conquest o...
Japan has been a home for Shinto and Buddhist religions for centuries. The Christian missionaries during the 16th, 19th and 20th centuries worked hard to evangelize the Japanese nation but could not get desired success. There efforts in past failed partly due to sanctions imposed by the local rulers. The Jesuits missionaries traveled with Spanish and Portuguese traders to many areas of America and Asia-Pacific and established their churches and religious missions. They were funded, sponsored and trained by their respective governments in order to spread Christianity. At several places they preached the Christian faith by force but the aboriginal population did not accept it wholeheartedly. Initially the Jesuits targeted the elite class of the country and a large number was converted. The rulers also forced their subject to embrace the same faith. About 300,000 Japanese were converted in the first phase. Later on, Christianity was prohibited as the rulers started seeing them as a threat to their authority. Following a change of regime, the ban was lifted and missionaries were again allowed to enter Japan. Like many Native American tribes, the Japanese also resisted the new religion. As a result, presently Christians form only 1% of the total population in Japan. This paper is focused on how the Christian religion was introduced in Japan, the evolution of evangelism, establishment of churches, the restrictions and hurdles faced by the missionaries and priest of the new religion and the response of Japanese nation towards an alien faith. All these queries are answered in detail given as follows.
Confucianism is a complex system of moral, social, political, and religious teaching built up by Confucius on the ancient Chinese traditions, and still is the state religion down to the present day. Confucianism aims at making not just a man of virtue, but the man of learning and good manners. The perfect man must combine the qualities of a saint, a scholar, and gentleman. Confucianism is a religion without positive revelation with a minimum of dogmatic teachings.
Japan’s modern day society was greatly influenced by the integration of Confucianism and the samurai. However, the influence was not distributed equally, nor fairly between both sexes. The Confucian ideals not only change women’s social status in Japan being subservient to men, but also erased their identity as a human being with individual rights.
The Buddhist brought with them the concept of multiple gods and Buddha’s “spiritual state to provide the power for humans to make the transition into death and the afterlife successfully” (Corduan, 2012, p.410). Confucianism brought the obedience of the child to the parent into Chinese mainstream life, plus the “social stratification and codes governing dress, actions and communication” (Corduan, 2012, p.409). Taoism introduced the balance of forces in harmony in spirits in the form of yin and yang, thus creating that balance of nature and humans (Corduan, 2012). Christianity influenced Chinese life both socially and economically by introducing the concepts of “love for one’s neighbor, self-discipline, and trust” (Lu, 2014, p.2) as both essential and beneficial (Lu, 2014). All of these together with the traditional Chinese religion, give the Chinese culture it’s popular religion
Japan has three dominate religious that have had a great impact on the culture and the Japanese people. Two of these religions are non-native to Japan. Buddhism and Neo-Confucianism were brought to Japan by either foreign visitors or natives who traveled to foreign lands and decided that Japan needed to adopt these religio-philosophical ideas and traditions. Shinto, however, is the only one out of the big three belief systems that are native to the Japanese people. Buddhism and Neo-Confucianism although originating from countries outside of Japan, when these two belief systems entered the Japanese’s religious tradition they took on distinct Japanese characteristics. Japan and the Japanese people’s ideology are reflected by these three religions.
Confucian culture, also known as Confucianism, was founded by Confucius during the Spring and Autumn Period, which was developed gradually after the Han Dynasty with benevolence as the core. Since the Han Dynasty, Confucianism was the official ideology and the basis of mainstream ideology in the vast majority of historical periods of China, and it also influenced many southeast Asian countries in history. After a variety of shocks, Confucianism was still the core values of China's social public, and represented the Chinese culture and national tradition in the world (Littlejohn, 2010). In the contemporary society, the Confucian culture in China increasingly spread, at the same time, its modern value is excavated by many countries in the world, and its international influence is also growing with the rise of China.
“Our greatest glory is not in never falling, but in rising every time we fall” (qtd. in "Quotes by Confucius"). Confucius was an exceptionally prominent character around 551 BCE until his death in 479 BCE, although records are unclear. He was greatly influential back in that time, and still remains so to this day; especially in Eastern countries such as China. Through his teachings and ideologies, he founded the Ru School of Chinese Thought, which today has been given the name of Confucianism. Confucius impacted political and sociological standpoints; much of which still helps to shape the Chinese thought.