In China and Japan, there are numerous similarities and differences in their religions. People have their choices of following a certain religion.
China is a country with great diversity as well as Japan. Religion is a big deal to many Asians.
Chinas religions major religions and beliefs are Taoism, Confucianism,
Buddhism, Islam, Christianity, Dongba and Protestant. China has about 5.5 million Protestants and 3.5 million Catholics. Confucianism is one of the major philosophies that concerns human society, social relations, and individual conduct. It is more of a social and ethical philosophy than a religion. Confucianism was adopted as a state religion which was to reorder society. The concept of family is central to Confucianism, generating a high standard for family interaction through mutual respect, love and consideration for the needs of others.
Buddhism originated in India. This is another one of the major world religions. People sit and meditate for many hours then enlightenment comes to the man and becomes the Buddha. The main concept is liberation of the soul to achieve enlightenment. Life is made of suffering because people are tortured by desire. People overcome desire and enter nirvana, a state of complete freedom. Taoism is truly a Chinese religion which is more individual and mystic and greatly influenced by nature. This is the driving force and all order behind life. It is the power of nature and way of the universe. Taoism is the way to follow to organize life in harmony with nature and the universe. It inspired a love of nature and an intense affirmation for life- physical health, vitality, longevity, and even immorality. Taoism covers a wide variety of gods, magic ceremonies, powers and sorcery. All the religions are practiced today along with Chinas communist ideology.
Confucius had government aspirations. He took to streets offering solicited advice about how to structure government and administration bodies.
The religion became accepted as a state ideology and orthodoxy. The emperor considered the embodiment of Confucian wisdom and virtue. A strong hierarchy became the canon of political rule. Buddhism spilt into several major schools. Many of Japans religions are the same as Chinas such as Buddhism,
Confucianism, and Taoism. Many of the beliefs are the same.
Religions do not play a big role in the everyday lives of most Japanese people nowadays. The average Japanese just follows the religious rituals at a few ceremonies such as births. Japan's two most important religions are.
The two religions co-existed for several centuries and even complemented each other to a certain degree. The feeling of duty to belong to just a single religion as it is widespread among followers of the three large occidental
Chinese state and that was the major sticking point for the religion in China. For
Chinese people might find naming their religion challenging as it is a mixture of “traditional religion, Buddhism, Confucianism, and Daoism” (Corduan, 2012, p.388). The Chinese Popular Religion continues to evolve and change as the world around it changes and outside influences enter the Chinese culture (Corduan, 2012). Investigation of the Chinese Popular Religion includes its key features, practices, and influences, along with tis role in contemporary China, and how Christians can enhance their interactions.
From the eighteenth century through the early twentieth century, China and Japan had similar views regarding Western penetration, yet both countries responded in different ways. By subverting colonial powers, both countries had to adjust their traditional cultures, economy, and political structures in order keep up with westernization.
Since I grew in traditional chinese family, so I don’t know much about religions. In my family, we don’t go to church or temple. In my family, we do have some special customs that we follow during holidays,
Historically, successful civilizations have tended to have constant economic growth. The civilization of China was not successful in the nineteenth century because it had a declining economy, while the civilization of Japan was successful in the same time period because it had a economic growth. As a result China was unable to focus on other key areas such as medical and technological advancements, native culture, and military conquests. Japan’s growing economy enabled it to innovate, grow their culture, and attain military power, all of which are measures of success. China was unable to grow socially and politically because they did not have economic growth.
Both countries both show more contrasting that make them both unique but also share a uniquely beautiful comparing. This is an important and interesting comparison because although both Japan and China share it’s different beliefs and leadership roles they both share a unique part of them that both make them what they are today. Japan although in present today still has controlled dealings when it comes to foreign policies or trading, this can be relative towards how the similarity of six-teen century japan and today. Along with China they still remain distant to foreign ideas and their independance still continues with the west and other outside countries. Both countries have an interesting background that can be relative today like it for everyone
The Meiji Restoration refers to the time when the western technology was adopted by the Japanese which in turn allowed them to fully industrialize which took less than fifty years. The great general “Tokugawa Shogun” ruled Japan in the feudal years and he lost his power and the Meiji emperor took over. When the Meiji emperor was made the head of the Japanese in 1868, the country was a militarily vulnerable region, was mostly farming, as well as got small technical development. It absolutely was handled by many semi-independent feudal lords. The Western forces — European Union as well as the US got Japan to sign treaties that confined its control over the foreign trade that was and also made sure that any law breakers who were not Japanese were not tried in Japanese courts but in the western courts. By the time the Meiji restoration was over the Japanese was in no fear whatsoever that it would be imperialized, instead they sort out to practice imperialism themselves in order to gain power and acquire the natural resources. Japan in turn emerged as one of the world class power using the western technology and its methods while still maintaining the cultural traditional values of the local people in Japan
Today, Japanese and Korean civilizations are advanced, wealthy, and independent with their own system of government and religious beliefs due to the influences from China. The majority of Asia experienced changes in government and dealt with inter and intra state conflicts when the countries were most susceptible to influences from alliances made with other countries. The Tang Dynasty/ Silla alliance shaped the future of Korea’s religious and government movements. Art and literature from China also greatly impacted Korea’s and Japan’s society and provided new insight into literary expression through new forms of poetry and a new system of writing. Religion was also a major influence because of popularity and acceptance of new views and beliefs. Agriculture played an important role in the development of Korean and Japanese civilizations because new tools and forms of irrigation led to more efficient harvesting. The bulk of Chinese influence impacted Japanese society through the Heian period and Korea was heavily influenced by Chinese culture during the period when Silla unified Korea. Although there were many factors of Chinese culture that influenced Korean and Japanese civilizations, religion and government legislation had the most impact.
Then in the 1800's , Europe thrust its way into the heart of the Middle
In “Migration and Multicultural Contention in East Asia” the main region discussed in the article is East Asia, particularly the countries of Taiwan, Korea, and Japan, which are very diverse countries. In the “Policies of Diversity” section, the article discusses the different cultures of each country. This was explained in the quote, “…Taiwan (Hoklo, Hakka, Waisheng ren and aborigines), Korea (Koreans, Manchurians, Chinese, and Japanese) and Japan (Japanese, Ainu, Koreans, and Chinese) have been multi-ethnic societies for centuries…” (Kim and Oh 1574).
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.
For many years, Japan kept themselves distant from the western world and by the 1600s, foreigners had been excelled and Christianity was
To properly consider the impact of integrating with the global economy on China, Japan, India and Southeast Asia, it is useful to first define the global economy. When did it come into being? Frank (1998) posits that a global economy had existed since the start of the thirteenth century. Although financial flows were limited, there was a burgeoning exchange of commodities between Asian and European economies. Of the Asian economies, China and India stood out for the extensiveness of their trade links and magnitude of their trade volumes. Both countries traded with Southeast Asia, the Islamic world, the Mediterranean and European countries. In addition, China traded with the Middle East and North Africa.
Chinese Buddhism entered China a few centuries after the passing away of the Buddha, at a time when Confucianism and Taoism were the predominant religions in a country that was as a big as a continent and rivaled India in historical antiquity and cultural pluralism. In the early phases of its entry, Buddhism did not find many adherents in China.
Christianity is also present in Japan, but only about 1% of the total population is of the Christian faith. In spite of the low percentage of Japanese Christians, many people have Christian weddings in Japan now.