Author: Dr. Fazal Ahmad Ahmadi
An Overview of “Confucianism Religion” (Part 2)
1. Research literature:
In world literature, the current country of China has an ancient history, and over the course of this long history, it has produced numerous works of literature, art, science, and technology. In other words, China, which has a history dating back three to six thousand years BC, saw the formation of its first organized government in 2205 BC.
The discovery of Chinese culture is considered one of the achievements of the European Enlightenment period. “Diderot” writes about the Chinese: “These people are superior to other Asian peoples in terms of historical antiquity, art, intelligence, wisdom, politics, and the philosophy of friendship. According to some authors, they are equal to the most enlightened peoples of Europe.”
“Voltaire” also said: “The body of this empire has lasted for four thousand years without much change in its laws, customs, language, or even the fashion of its people. The organization of this empire is truly the best organization that the world has seen.”
Later, when China was closely known, the praise and description of the scientists did not decrease, and some scholars of our time brought this praise to the peak with humility.
However, China, like other nations, has had a period of primitiveness, the period of tribal and primitive societies, and the Chinese religions themselves were primitive religions in this period, at the same time, like the issues in religions, such as: “Totemism”, “Taboo”, “mana”, “fetishism” and “animism” are mentioned as primitive religions in the period of primitiveness, these things are also true in Chinese civilization. It means that the primitive and primary Chinese in one thousand to two thousand years before Christ had the religion of spiritism, fetishism, tabooism and totemism.
In other words, the ancient Chinese were first spirit worshipers, that is, they imagined souls for all the objects of the material world, they considered the spirits of their ancestors to be effective in their lives and destiny, they praised the ruler of the upper world and called “Tao”, the ruler of existence and all things. They believed and were aware of “Ti Yin” or the sky, Tao meant the creator of the world, and this type of primitive monotheism can be seen in ancient Chinese beliefs, as well as the existence of multiple gods and the worship of the sky, among other things, is notable among Chinese beliefs.
Worshiping the sky as the source of blessings, worshiping wind and thunder, trees and mountains, dragons and snakes, etc. are other examples of worship, during this period, the god of the heavens named “Shank Ti” had absolute sovereignty over the world, which every year The Khaqan of primitive China used to sacrifice for him with special rituals and ceremonies in the Altar of Heaven. Chinese gods were praised and worshiped in the form of “Henotheism”, at the same time, the god of the sky and the god of the heavens were created by the minds of the Chinese emperors in order to introduce themselves to the people as the caliph of the god of the sky and his child and to consolidate their political power. To increase The Chinese religion generally has three longitudinal stages:
1. The ancient Chinese ritual, whose natives are Saman and full of many and different gods.
2. The religion of Tao or Taoism, which Lao Tzu decorated in a special way and presented to the society.
3. Confucianism, in this article, only “Confucianism” is discussed as one of the religions of China that emerged in the age of civilization; Of course, each of the two stages has a special place in the knowledge of Chinese religions, which needs to be researched in its place.
As mentioned, the religions and beliefs of the Old Testament of China from the beginning to the appearance of “Laotse” and “Confucius” who lived at the same time around the sixth century BC, first avoided the worship of many spirits and gods. For example, two male and female gods were very famous, the male god was called “Shank T” and his duty was to punish and reward people in this world. The female deity was known as “Haten”, these two deities were actually the deities of Chinese emperors. The ancient Chinese believed that two principles rule the world: one is male, positive or light, and the other is female or negative or darkness. As long as these two opposing forces are in harmony, the affairs of the world will revolve around the satisfaction and happiness of the society. With the change in the balance of these two forces, the world will also face dangerous changes and transformations.
In spiritism, which was one of the important ancient beliefs of China, the spirits of the ancestors came to the aid of the children and were effective in their life affairs and attracted the spirits to worship and pray with their consent. First, the maternal ancestors and then the spirits of the paternal ancestors were worshiped, the worship of the ancestors’ spirits later became the worship of the husbands’ spirits for women; Of course, with the exception of the kings and emperors of China, who were the children and representatives of the sky god and people were forced to worship and obey them.
Also, religious life in China begins with “Sinisme”, this primitive religion is very similar to one of the forms of “religious life” that is specific to the customs and lives of the Chinese people. In fact, this religion is the foundation of “Confucianism”. in other words, as a result of the transformations and reforms that came in the ancient religion of China, “Confucian religion” emerged and made primitive ideas appear in a new and fresher form and exposed old ideas in new clothes to Chinese people thoughts.[Khodayar Mohebi, Beta: 28] According to this article, in the following, Confucius’ character will be examined first and then his religious teachings will be discussed.
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