Please use only the attached word document “INT-244: Chinese and Japanese Popular Religions” to complete this assignment
TOPIC: Chinese and Japanese Popular Religions
If possible, interview a practicing Daoist or Shinto individual or a leader of one of their temples, which can be used as an academic resource for this assignment. If you would like to take pictures during your visit to this community or place of worship, be sure to obtain permission.
Complete the provided “Chinese and Japanese Popular Religions” document prompts that analyze key issues in Chinese and Japanese popular religions.
Utilize the course textbook and a minimum of four additional academic resources, one of which can be your interview and should include topic materials and external resources. Use at least one resource per question.
APA style is not required, but solid academic writing is expected.
RESOURCES
Read Chapters 13 and 14 in Neighboring Faiths: A Christian Introduction to World Religions.
Read “Chinese Popular Religion and Christianity Before and After the 1949 Revolution: A Retrospective View,” by Bays, from Fides et historia (1991). URL:https://lopes.idm.oclc.org/login?url=http://search.ebscohost.com/login.aspx?direct=true&db=rfh&AN=ATLA0000839705&site=eds-live&scope=site
View the video, “CRAZY and Beautiful Chinese Religion in Taiwan – AMAZING PICTURES!” from The Taiwanese Secrets on the YouTube website (2010). URL:https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ohwIUXYMt7Y
View the video, “Confucius: Words of Wisdom,” by History Education, located in the Films on Demand database (1998). URL:https://lopes.idm.oclc.org/login?url=http://digital.films.com.lopes.idm.oclc.org/PortalPlaylists.aspx?aid=12129&xtid=42473
Read “Shinto, an Ancient Japanese Religion,” by Robinson, from ReligiousTolerance.org (2012). URL:http://www.religioustolerance.org/shinto.htm
Read “Shinto History,” from the Faiths & Ecology website. URL:http://www.arcworld.org/faiths.asp?pageID=117
View the video, “Shinto Shrine,” from BEGIN Japanology, on the YouTube website (2016). URL:https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=m5SUvJCF_jY
View the video, “Taoism in Brief,” from Luofu Mountain, on the YouTube website (2014). URL:https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=–PyvGh2Ukc
INT-244: Chinese and Japanese Popular Religions
Complete the following prompts by analyzing key issues in Chinese and Japanese popular religions. A minimum of five academic resources is required, one of which must be the course textbook. Use at least one resource per question.
1. Briefly summarize five key features of Chinese popular religion (shamanism/ancestor worship, Chinese idolatry, Confucianism, Daoism, and Chinese Mahayana Buddhism). (100 words or less)
· Key Feature #1:
· Key Feature #2:
· Key Feature #3:
· Key Feature #4:
· Key Feature #5:
·
2. Briefly summarize three key features of Japanese popular religion (Shintoism, Japanese Buddhism, and Confucianism). (100 words or less)
· Key Feature #1:
· Key Feature #2:
· Key Feature #3:
·
3. Describe key religious practices for an individual follower of Chinese popular religion in his or her daily life (e.g., arranging a marriage, funerals, etc.). (approximately 100 words)
4. Describe key religious practices for an individual follower of Japanese popular religion in his or her daily life (e.g., emperor’s birthday, birth of a baby, etc.). (approximately 100 words)
5. Explain how you think Christians might approach interactions with followers of Chinese or Japanese popular religions in a respectful, constructive manner while maintaining clarity and faithfulness to the message of Christianity. (200-250 words)
© 2018. Grand Canyon University. All Rights Reserved.
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© 2018. Grand Canyon University. All Rights Reserved.
INT-244 Topic 6 Overview
Chinese and Japanese Traditions
Introduction Tao (Dao) means way. The Tao is the ultimate reality and is a single, uncreated, unified force or path that is the basis of being for all existence. The Tao has natural rhythms and patterns. To be in the Tao means that one’s life is in accord with, in harmony with, or one with these rhythms and patterns. The Tao is the dynamic combination and opposition of two basic principles that are in a constant and unceasing state of action and re-action the yin (negative, female) and the yang (yahng; positive, male). Taoism asserts that right being leads to right doing. Confucianism asserts that right doing leads to right being.
Asian Christian theologian Hwa Yung (2000) has suggested that
it is simply incorrect to assert that Asian cultures are naturally all inclusive. Both Chinese/Korean Confucianism and Indian Hinduism (and for that matter Buddhism and Islam also) have clear canons by which orthodoxy is defined and heterodoxy excluded. These have operated throughout China’s and India’s history, and continue to do so today. (p. 118)
In spite of the fact that Chinese Popular Religion typically entails a composite of Buddhism, Confucianism, and Taoism, the popular view that Asian logic does not make distinctions is misguided. It is to this synthesis of religious thought and traditions that we now turn.
Taoism and Confucianism: The Human Situation
Taoism
All humans are part of the cosmic process, the Tao, and are composed of the complimentary forces of yin and yang. As parts of the Tao, humans are by nature inherently good, i.e., in harmony with the Tao.
Humans do not remain in harmony with the Tao. Humans may either yield to the Tao and its ebb and flow or strive against the Tao, seeking to create separate identities that oppose the Tao. This resistance leads to a lack of centeredness and balance. This imbalance or disharmony is the basic human problem.
The human desire for some state of being other than oneness with the Tao disrupts the ever-changing, interacting balance that is the Tao. It is an illusion that humans are unique, permanent selves separate from the Tao.
Confucianism
Humans are not autonomous individuals; humans exist in the context or web of relationships founded in the family and the society. These Five Basic Relationships are as
follows: 1.The relationship of the sovereign (ruler) and the subject, marked by justice and righteousness 2.The relationship of a parent to a child, in particular, the father to the son, marked by proper rapport 3.The relationship of the husband and wife, marked by the separation of their proper functions
4.The relationship of an elder and a younger, marked by proper precedence given to the elder
5.The relationship of a friend to a friend, marked by faith and trust Harmony results from the proper practice of these mutual obligations. Confucianism affirms the Taoist dynamism of the yin and yang in the maintenance of all personal and societal relationships.
Social chaos and disharmony are due to the imbalance in the relationship between the sovereign and the subject that resulted from the collapse of the feudal system.
The collapse of the sovereign/subject relationship was caused by the failure of the rulers and the educated elite to live virtuous lives, i.e., to behave as prescribed by their social roles. The resultant social chaos led to a deterioration of the other four relationships, which, in turn, accelerated the social chaos.
Taoism/Confucianism: Where Can We Go From Here?
Taoism
This question and the answer to it make little sense in the context of Taoism because the Tao is an ever-changing, interacting balance that has no goal or end.
All life, including human life, has one goal—harmony with the Tao. Humans can be at harmony with the Tao if they will simply cease trying to control or resist the Tao.
The way to harmony with the Tao is wu wei: action without asserting oneself, the refusal to strive against the Tao. By allowing oneself to flow with the current of the river that is the Tao, one regains one’s state of nature, harmony, or oneness with the Tao. A person is not to seek to be virtuous or to influence others. A human must cease resisting and allow the Tao to be the Tao. Humans may ease their return to the flow of the Tao by nurturing the three bodily energies (Jing, Ch’i, Shen) through meditation, exercise, and separation from the artificial values of society
Confucianism
The restoration of a harmonious, ordered society exhibiting the proper relationships is the goal of the transformation. Harmony (ho) can be restored by ideal persons (jun-zi) modeling exemplary lives of virtue and harmony to one’s family, to society, and to all humanity.
How does one develop the virtuous life sufficient to influence societal disharmony? The ideal person is one who maintains a balance between the inner virtues (nei) and the outer virtues (wai). Ren (jen)—goodness, humaneness, or human-heartedness—is the inner virtue that asserts that the end of all actions should be the good of others. Shu, reciprocity (the Confucian golden rule), is an inner virtue that asserts that the ideal person should not do to others what that person would not want done to him or herself. Hsueh, self-correcting wisdom, is an inner virtue that asserts that one who seeks to be an ideal person must conform one’s behavior relative to the moral standard of the ideal person. Li, propriety or good form, is the central outer virtue and refers to the proper manner and/or demeanor in which sacred rites and rituals are to be publicly administered. It can also refer to treating others with respect, courtesy, and reverence or to maintaining correct conduct in one’s relationships as outlined in the Five Basic Relationships. Xiao, filial piety, is an outer virtue that asserts the correctness of the respect of one’s elders, especially within the family relationship. The rectification of names is an outer virtue that asserts that titles and positions have significance and that those holding such titles and/or positions should act appropriately. For example, a father should not act like a child, and a king should not behave as a subject. The life that appropriately balances the inner and outer virtues influences others and reduces social chaos.
Taoism and Confucianism: Reality and the Holy
Taoism
The Tao is reality. The Tao created the world experienced by humanity. The Tao surrounds humanity in the form of nature and is the energy that flows through all life. Everything is cyclical in the process of action and re-action, of coming into being, maturing, decaying, and returning to the Tao. Everything has its flow, pattern, destiny, or power (de), the opposition of which leads to imbalance and disharmony. True reality is the flow of the Tao. Humanity experiences true reality when it is in harmony with the flow of the Tao. Just as the Grand Canyon was cut by the flow of the Colorado River, any resistance to the de of the Tao, any disharmony, striving for permanence, or resistance, will be eroded and harmony restored.
The Tao is the sacred. The Tao is not God, at least in any personal sense. The Tao is the ground from which all being arises. The many gods of the world are manifestations of the Tao, but none of them is the Tao, in whole or in part.
Confucianism
Reality is harmonious. The acceptance and conformity of a person to one’s position in society brings harmony to that person and increases societal and cosmological harmony. Reality is relational. All of reality is relationally integrated into a patterned whole. All existence supports and sustains the interrelatedness of all existence. Reality is Life-Giving and Life-Sustaining. The universe is in harmony when the totality of the integrated relationships functions effectively in the support and promotion of life.
Being and truth are self-existent, eternal, indestructible, infinite, transcendent, and intelligent. Confucianism considers sacred rites and rituals as essential in the maintenance of social harmony but does not postulate on the spiritual efficacy or reality that underpins them.
Conclusion
Taoism is spreading in the United States with the increasing popularity of both the martial arts/exercise regime t’ai-chi, with its emphasis on centeredness and balance, and feng shui, the art of reading and applying the yin and yang forces to create and facilitate harmony in buildings, rooms, and activities. Religious Taoism remains centered in Taiwan, Hong Kong, and Chinese communities worldwide.
References
Yung, H. (2000). Mangoes or bananas? The quest for an authentic Asian Christian theology. Oxford, England: Regnum.