There are many religions that influenced China but the most popular one are Ethnic religion, Taoism, and Buddhism. Ethnic religion is worshiping many deities such as clan deities, national deities, city deities, cultural heroes, dragons and dead ancestor.
Taoism was unintentionally created by Laozu when he wrote the Tao Te Ching. Tao mean the way, Te means "virtue" in the sense of "personal character", "inner strength", or "integrity." and Ching means "canon", "great book". The book is written in classical chinese, span over 81 sections and contain over 5000 chinese character. The school of Taoism focuses on health, longevity, immorality and we wei (non-action) and spontaneity. Overtime Taoism expanded it focuses on alchemy, astrology, martial arts, traditional medicines, fengshui and qigong.
Buddhism is the most popular religion in China with over 660 millions of believers which accounts over 50% of the Chinese population. Probably the most recognized Buddhist figure is the Dalai Lama which believed is the several incarnations of the original Dalai Lama Gendun Drup. The current Dalai Lama is Tenzin Gyatso.
The Statue of haizu statue
The city god temple in Beijing
Probably one of the most recognized symbol in the world is the Yin and Yang which belongs to Taoism.
The Chinese Buddhist monk ceremony
The grandmaster meditating
The colors involved in the ceremonies and art are fascinating. I wonder what their inspiration was in wearing robes of such vibrant colors? Most interesting about Taoism though, is the exploration into sciences, something few religions to date ever respected. A combination of mysticism and fact seems contradictory and naturally conflicting. Perhaps that is what led to it's downfall. The open-mindedness could not form a symbiotic relationship with the discipline and meaning religion brings people. Then comes the introduction Buddhism into Chinese society bringing them the enlightenment being open-minded gives. China seems to have a penchant for these types of religion and with half the population behind these philosophies today, it's strange that such a close-minded political landscape can govern them.
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