Four years ago, I had a small conversation about religion with my first American friend when we were exchange students in Switzerland. I said, “I don’t believe in God, but I believe in fate” —by “fate”, I meant the Confucian idea of “Tianming” 天命(Mandate of Heaven), or “Tianyi” 天意(the will of Heaven).Apparently he didn’t understand at all, he asked, “how could you say that you believe in Heaven but not God, is there any difference?” I didn’t know how to answer him at that time, and later I was having doubts about my belief or Chinese’s for a long time.
Now I am taking an ancient Chinese history course in America, I have officially learned the term “Tianming”. I also noticed that we haven’t really made reference to religion when talking about Confucianism. Then it occurs to me that--Is the concept of “Tianming” religious? Is Confucianism a religion?
In consideration of the language difference, first I have to make clear the Chinese translations for Confucianism --
- Rujia儒家: School of the Scholars
- Ruxue儒学: Studies of Scholars
- Rujiao儒教: Teaching of the Scholars
- Kongjiao孔教: Cult of Confucius, or Confucian religion
In particular, Rujiao is often also called Kongjiao, but there are also difference between them— “Rujiao” technically emerged during the reign of Emperor Wu(r.141-87 BC) in the Western Han Dynasty when Confucianism became a state-supported orthodoxy, although the word wasn’t coined until the Eastern Han Dynasty; however, “Kongjiao” was brought up by Kang Youwei of late Qing Dynasty(1644–1911) when he tried to “launch a reform movement to transform the Confucian tradition into a state religion”(Xinzhong Yao, “An Introduction to Confucianism”). Both of the word contains “Jiao”, which could imply Jiaohua教化—enlightenment, or Zongjiao宗教—religion. Apparently, “Rujiao” was given some religious color, and its existence is quite controversial.
What about Ruxue? The Ruxue, which directly connected with Confucius and Mencius, is the primitive source of Rujiao. So before we define Rujiao as a religion or not, we have to understand the nature of Ruxue. There is no doubt about its significance as a philosophy, but is Ruxue religious so that Confucianism is eventually or virtually a religion?
There are basically three kinds of views:
- Confucianism is a religion.
- Confucianism is not a religion, but it has religious characteristics.
- Confucianism is not a typical religion but a special religion (“Moral Religion”[1]).
I. The idea of “Heaven” in Confucian thought
As we know, the traditional Chinese idea of Tianming has been presented on different bases through different periods of Chinese history, but using western philosophical terms, there are nothing more than these three theoretical principles: “Theological Determinism”, “Moral Determinism”, and “Natural Determinism” (Jie Wang, “On Confucius' view of Tianming, human nature and political value”). The kings of late Shang used spiritual force to rule people by deifying themselves—calling themselves the son of Di(the high god of the Shang).In this way, their power were justified by the god—this was typical “theological determinism” with religious thought. In the Zhou dynasty, people use the word “Tian” (Heaven) to take the place of “Di”. Although both are acting like god, Tian is different from Di because it has morality (Qingzhong Yang, “Why Zhou people call the high god Tian”). Tian helped Zhou succeed in overthrowing Shang because the Zhou rulers had morality and it is their Mandate of Heaven to rule the people. This “Tian” concept showed a transition to “Moral Determinism” in Tianming’s interpretation, it is “a ruling or presiding Tian”[2], or a heaven of arbitrator. Connecting morality and Heaven with religious faith made the Zhou people pay attention to virtues and rituals because they wanted to get blessings under Heaven’s watching. However, when it applied to governing, things went differently-- the ruler behaved badly but still didn’t get punished by Heaven, so what’s the point of looking up to Tianming? “Then the trend of doubtful thought emerged inevitably” (Yibo Yang, “Reading Confucian morality's religious role from Heaven”).
Living in Spring and Autumn period, Confucius used to deeply believe in the Shang and Western Zhou’s traditional idea of Tianming. He thought Tian has will and force to arrange people’s life. He said, “Life and death are governed by fate, wealth and honor are determined by Heaven” (Ivanhoe, 34). He saw the limitation of manpower and believed in Heaven’s mysterious power, even with some awe—“The gentleman stands in awe if three things: the Mandate of Heaven, great men, and the teachings of the sages” (Ivanhoe, 47). However, Tianming didn’t respond to him as he expected, in his troubled times, he fell into contradiction between his beliefs and reality.—“If Heaven intended this culture to perish, it would not have given it to those of us who live after King Wen’s death. Since Heaven did not intend that this culture should perish, what can the people of Kuang do to me?” (Ivanhoe, 25)By this time, the “ruling Tian” has transformed into “a fatalistic Tian”, or a heaven of fate.
It seemed Tianming’s “Moral Determinism” did not work for the society, what then? The fall-down of the “ruling Tian”, accompanied with “a fantastic Tian,” directly brought about the rise of ‘a naturalistic Tian’ (Yang), in other words, people began to use “Natural Determinism” to explain “Tianming”.
Confucius also had his answer to this question, he said, “…at fifty I understood Heaven’s Mandate” (Ivanhoe, 5). What did he mean by saying that?
According to Sima Qian’s Record of the Grand Historian, Confucius was studying The Book of Changes later in his life, which also accorded with his remark in the Analects[3]. So Confucius first studied the I Ching, the divination manual which connotes Daoism idea like “the way” or “Yin Yang”, then get the essence of Tianming (Junhua Ren, “Awe Tianming and Ecological Ethics--on Confucius' idea of ecological ethics”),which meant this Tianming is not the previous Tianming anymore. It actually means natual law[4] (Ren).Confucius, the great thinker, didn’t stay stuck in this contradiction of the previous Tianming’s theory, instead, he stopped to talk about the Mandate of Heaven, but “achieved two big shifts on his view of values”:1from “Tianming” to “Tiandao” (the Way of Heaven) 2from divinity to humanity (Wang). There is one thing we need to notice, Confucius actually did not concern himself much on Tiandao, he even didn’t talk about it--In the Analects, the only place “Tiandao” appeared is Zigong’s remark, where he said, “…one does not get to hear the Master expounding upon the subjects of human nature or the Way of Heaven ” (Ivanhoe, 15).Confucius would rather focus on his second shift to humanity--“the Goodness”, “the Wisdom”, “the Sage” and so on .As a result, these series of cultural refinements had a tremendous influence on Chinese political views and civilization.
In addition, Confucius’ view of Tianming was also represented on his attitude towards ghost and spirits. In his time, it’s impossible to deny their existence, because most of people were superstitious about the unexplainable natural world. According to Confucius cautious personality, when he realized it was difficult to clarify a question, he wouldn’t answer it arbitrarily. Then he gave an equivocal statement-- “respecting the ghosts and spirits while keeping them at a distance—this might be called wisdom” (Ivanhoe, 18). He thought devoting efforts and doing good to people (务民Wumin) was the priority, it was what the Wisdom would do. Again, like I said before, he shifted his attentions to moral practices. “‘This is why Confucius didn’t make his teaching become a religion like Jesus’, said by Mou Zongsan[5] in his book The Particularities of Chinese Philosophy (page 21, 47)” (Wang).
Although Confucius’s view of Tianming didn’t solve the ethical dilemma, and his view of Tiandao was deficient, he still had profound impact on later Confucian schools. After Confucius, Mencius had a different idea about Tianming. He didn’t think Heaven had will, but he pointed out that Heaven was the origin of human nature—therefore, “If one understands one’s nature, then one understands Heaven” (Ivanhoe, 152). In this way, Heaven was connected to people, it was still powerful, but it was not incomprehensible, as long as one “preserve one’s mind and nourish one’s nature” (Ivanhoe, 152). Mencius used Heaven to explain everything, but didn’t take it as some kind of god, from this, we can see a rational philosophy thought. Mencius’s Ruxue did not lose touch with reality; its religiousness was quite limited.
II. Rujia’s unique religious character
After discussing the two greatest Rujia philosophers Confucius and Mencius’ views on Heaven, now let’s go back to the question I asked at the beginning about the relationship between Confucianism and religion. Apparently, we need to define “religion” first. Look at what basic factors Buddhism and Christianity have in common: God and scripture. But Confucianism had neither—Tian was not a personified God, and the Analects didn’t play a role as religious scripture. So Confucianism was definitely not a traditional religion. However, religions in different culture always imply different definition. Besides the idea of Heaven as I discussed earlier, Confucianism also showed other important religious characters, for example-- “Ritual”, which was also the core concept of Confucian thought. Does that mean Confucianism had religious basis? Some people agreed, some did not. Here I will use “sacrifice” as an example to show Confucianism’s unique religious character compare to other religions and explore the diversity of religious meaning in Chinese culture.
Xunzi said, “Ritual has three roots”—“heaven and earth”, “forefathers and ancestor”, “rulers and teachers” (Ivanhoe, 275), correspondingly, there are also “three sacrifices” to these “three roots” in Confucian traditions. Most modern people think the “three sacrifices” only had a sense of gratitude but not praying, and the ceremony was given to visible objects but not to some transcendent, which showed its non-religious character(Renfu He, “The Religious Value of Tang Junyi's Ideas on the Confucian ‘Three Sacrificial Offerings’”). Tang Junyi, who was a representative figure in the second New Confucianist, expressed his insights and contradicted toward the “non-religious” comment in his book the Development of Chinese Humanities. “He pointed out that, the ‘three sacrifices’ not only had a deep religious spirit, but also had a high religious value beyond any other religions (He).
His two main reasons are:
- It’s true that ancient Chinese regarded their gratitude to the cult objects, which include ancestors or some specific people who was related to the worshipper, usually won’t be worshipped by others and won’t be replaced by others, which gave them a unique meaning. And this uniqueness made this “sacrifice” religious.
- It’s also true that the cult object was real and it can be imagined during the ceremony, but the thing is, all the ceremony needs images—figure of Buddha, the Jesus statue, and so on—these are inevitable. However, because the object was real, the worshipper would see them objectively, they wouldn’t get too lost in it. Moreover, when Chinese worshipped the ancestor, there were only Ancestral Tablet without portrait (portrait usually was put aside), this made the worshipper more concentrated (He).
Generally speaking, the Confucian “three sacrifices” gathered both realistic and transcendental religious spirit which was incomparable to other religions.
III. Rujiao as a “Moral Religion”
Image via Wikipedia Before I started to work on this paper, I never thought of Confucianism as a religion. But now, I will have to be surprised at my conclusion--I think before the Han Dynasty, Confucianism acted as a philosophy with religious characters, but later on, it was developed into a “Moral Religion”. This is not the ultimate answer to the topic of this paper, only my own idea, and I’m not sure how long I will hold onto it. But no matter what Confucianism is, it was already part of the essence in Chinese culture; it was where I lived in, where I believed in.
[1] “Moral Religion” was put forward by Mou Zongsan, but later in my paper I didn’t elaborate Mou’s opinion. I only borrowed this term to express my idea of Confucius’ apotheosis.
[2] The Chinese philosopher Feng Youlan differentiates five different meanings of tian in early Chinese writings:
(1) A material or physical Tian or sky, that is, the Tian often spoke of in opposition to earth, as in the common phrase which refers to the physical universe as 'Heaven and Earth'
(2) A ruling or presiding Dian, that is, one such as is meant in the phrase, 'Imperial Heaven Supreme Emperor'
(3) A fatalisDic Dian, equivalent to the concept of Fate (ming 命), a term applied to all those events in human life over which man himself has no control.
(2) A ruling or presiding Dian, that is, one such as is meant in the phrase, 'Imperial Heaven Supreme Emperor'
(3) A fatalisDic Dian, equivalent to the concept of Fate (ming 命), a term applied to all those events in human life over which man himself has no control.
(4) A naturalisDic Dian, that is, one equivalent to the English word Nature.
(5) An ethical Dian, that is, one having a moral principle and which is the highest primordial principle of the universe. Source: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tian#Meanings
(5) An ethical Dian, that is, one having a moral principle and which is the highest primordial principle of the universe. Source: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tian#Meanings
[3] “If were granted many more years, and could devote fifty of them to learn( I-king), surely I would be able to be free of major fault”
[6] In modern life, people still do things like this. Personally, I remembered my parents asked me to worship Confucius once or twice when I was a kid for a better grade even we didn’t really count on it.
Works Cited
He, Renfu. "The Religious Value of Tang Junyi's Ideas on the Confucian "Three Sacrificial Offerings唐君毅论儒家“三祭”的宗教价值" Journal of Sichuan University(Social Science Edition) 3 (2009). Confuchina.com. Web. 11 Dec. 2009. http://www.confuchina.com/05%20zongjiao/tangjunyi%20lun%20sanji.htm.
Ivanhoe, Philip, and Bryan Norden. Readings in classical Chinese philosophy. Indianapolis: Hackett Pub., 2005. Print.
Ren, Junhua. "Awe Tianming and Ecological Ethics--on Confucius' idea of ecological ethics敬畏天命与生态伦理--孔丘的生态伦理思想新探" Confucius Studies 2 (2000). Confuchina.com. 29 June 2003. Web. 11 Dec. 2009. http://www.confuchina.com/03%20lunlizhengzhi/kongzi%20shengtai%20lunli.htm.
Wang, Jie. "On Confucius' Tianming,human nature and political value论孔子的天命、人性及政治价值依据." Confucius Studies 6 (2005). Confuchina.com. Web. 11 Dec. 2009. http://www.confuchina.com/02%20xinxue%20yu%20renxinglun/kongzi%20tianming%20renxing.htm.
Yang, Qingzhong. "Why Zhou people call the high god Tian论周人何以称至上神为天." Journal of South-Central University for Nationalities 1 (1997). Confucius2000.com. 26 June 2004. Web. 11 Dec. 2009. http://www.confucius2000.com/confucian/lzrhyczsswt.htm.
Yang, Yibo. "Reading Confucian morality's religious role from Heaven从以天论德看儒家道德的宗教作用." Social Sciences in China 3 (2006): 39. Confucius2000.com. Web. 11 Dec. 2009. http://www.confucius2000.com/admin/list.asp?id=2604.
Yao, Xinzhong. An introduction to Confucianism. Cambridge: Cambridge UP, 2000. Books.google.com. Web. 11 Dec. 2009. http://books.google.com/books?id=tAE2OJ9bPG0C&dq=Xinzhong+Yao,+An+Introduction+to+Confucianism+pdf&printsec=frontcover&source=bn&hl=en&ei=ahYiS47JKMXBngf4l430CQ&sa=X&oi=book_result&ct=result&resnum=5&ved=0CBsQ6AEwBA#v=onepage&q=&f=false.
Zhao, Jihui. "On Confucianism as both philosophy and moral religion论儒学既是哲学又是道德宗教." Confuchina.com. 04 Mar. 2003. Web. 11 Dec. 2009. <http://www.confuchina.com/01%20zong%20lun/ruxue%20zhexue%20zongjiao.htm>. published on Huangshan International Ruxue seminar in July,2001
Feedback from professor: A-
This paper addresses a very important but complicated problem,and show very sophisticated understanding of names while still being able to arrive at a clear conclusion.There are a few points I’ve indicated where the writing is not so clear ad left me puzzles as to your exact meaning. In addition, Xunzi’s ideasabout Heaven deserve to be mentioned along with those of Confucius and Mencius,since they seem to be a further development of this trend you identify（see page 269-274 in Ivanhoe)![Reblog this post [with Zemanta]](https://lh3.googleusercontent.com/blogger_img_proxy/AEn0k_svOH6xiaS8n4MIls9zwwqb2NvhorvKXp6J9XjHMGRe8UMazz9tzs93wzK4TULeGq1Yzgu4rVvS9NV6WUYReWeLknjn70OvgCS7kwOGy04vIVZFfY-lAbwGMipvZBz164ba9N7IZ1U3mnB2=s0-d)
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