Religions: Confucianism and Daoism

The three teachings(sanjiao)

A belief system comprising of Confucianism, Daoism, and Buddhism. Through this system all three practices are practiced simultaneously. Confucianism focusing on this life and more specifically the external practices that surround it such as governing social interactions. Daoism also focuses on this life and more specifically on internal practices with the goal of prolonging lifespan. The goal of practicing Buddhism is to focus on future lives with the goals of rebirth and liberation.

Li

Rituals, propriety, or ritual propriety. In Confucianism everything makes up Li from big rituals to smaller everyday things like greeting someone.

Self-Cultivation

You can change or develop yourself in certain ways with enough training and discipline to align with the Dao.

Junzi

Literally means gentleman it is the goal of Confucians to become a junzi through learning.

Ren

Goodness, benevolence or humanness virtue

Filial Piety

The idea of respecting your elders. Filial piety does not end when your elders die it is something that is carried on even past death. This is seen with ancestral tablets, household altars, temples to Confucius and Qingming

Qingming

It is the pure bright festival or the tomb sweeping festival. In this festival the family gets together and celebrate family. This annual festival takes place in the spring and during this festival families make offerings of paper money and clean tombs of dead loved ones.

Dao

The way. In Daoism the Dao is the mysterious source of the cosmos while in Confucianism the Dao is the moral order of the cosmos.

Wuwei

It is a king of non-action which is a kind of action that aligns us with the Dao.

Ziran

Described as naturalness or spontaneity. zi means by/of itself and ran means so or thus.

Alchemy

Alchemy has the desire of making yourself immortal. Daoism has two forms of alchemy: internal and external. External alchemy is focused on making a pill or elixir to make them immortal. Internal alchemy through circulation of qi you could extend your life and make yourself immortal.

Yin-yang

Symbol in both Confucianism and Daoism which represents the harmony of two principles. yin is the dark part associated with things like death, stillness, female, moon. Yang is the light part associated with things like life, movement, male. Yin and yang represent a circular motion between one and the next with the dot indicating one never being without the other.

The Cultural Revolution

An attack on religions in China in the 1960-1960’s fueled by the Marxist belief that religion blunted the masses instinct for justice which prevented further advancement to a utopian society. These revolutionaries targeted temples and shrines of all faiths which by the 1970’s led to the destruction of traditional Chinese society. Practices like divination, ancestor veneration, and others were stamped out during this period.