|
Chinese folk religion (or Chinese popular religion, Chinese Universism) is the religious tradition of the Han Chinese, in which government officials and common people of China share religious practices and beliefs, including veneration of forces of nature and ancestors, exorcism of harmful forces, and a belief in the rational order of nature which can be influenced by human beings and their rulers. The gods or spirits (''shen'', meaning the forces that generate phenomena and make things grow) can be nature deities, city deities or tutelary deities of other human groups, national deities, cultural heroes and demigods, ancestors and progenitors, and deities of the kinship. Stories regarding some of these gods are codified into the body of Chinese mythology. By the eleventh century (Song period) these practices had been blended with Buddhist ideas of karma (retribution) and rebirth, and Taoist teachings about hierarchies of gods, to form the popular religious system which has lasted in many ways until the present day. Chinese folk religion has a variety of sources, local forms, founder backgrounds, and ritual and philosophical traditions. Chinese folk religion is sometimes categorized inadequately as "Taoism" or "folk Taoism", since institutional Taoism acts as a "liturgical framework" of local religions.〔Nengchang Wu. ''(Religion and Society. A Summary of French Studies on Chinese Religion )''. On: ''Review of Religion and Chinese Society'' 1 (2014), 104-127. pp. 105-106〕 Zhengyi Taoism is especially intertwined with local cults, with Zhengyi ''daoshi'' (道士, "masters of the Tao") often performing rituals for local temples and communities. Various orders of ritual ministers operate in folk religion but outside codified Taoism. Confucianism advocates worship of gods and ancestors through proper rites, which have ethical importance.〔Littlejohn, 2010. pp. 35-37〕 Confucian liturgy (儒 ''rú'' or 正统 ''zhèngtǒng'', "orthoprax", ritual style) led by Confucian ritual masters (礼生 ''lǐshēng''), is used on occasions in folk temples and by lineage churches. Taoism in its various currents, either comprehended or not within the Chinese folk religion, has some of its origins from Wuism.〔Libbrecht, 2007. p. 43.〕 Chinese religion mirrors the social landscape, and takes on different shades for different people.〔Arthur P. Wolf. ''Gods, Ghosts, and Ancestors. Religion and Ritual in Chinese Society''. Ed. Arthur O. Wolf. Stanford University Press, 1974. pp. 131-182〕 Despite their great diversity, all the expressions of Chinese folk religion have a common core that can be summarised as four spiritual, cosmological, and moral concepts〔Lizhu, Na. 2013. p. 5-6〕—''Tian'' (), Heaven, the source of moral meaning, the utmost god and the universe itself; ''qi'' (), the breath or substance of the universe; ''jingzu'' (), the veneration of ancestors; ''bao ying'' (), moral reciprocity—, and two traditional concepts of fate and meaning〔Lizhu, Na. 2013. p. 21〕—''ming yun'' (), the personal destiny or burgeoning; and ''yuan fen'' (), "fateful coincidence",〔Lizhu, Na. 2013. p. 23〕 good and bad chances and potential relationships.〔 Yin and yang is the polarity that describes the order of the universe, held in balance by the interaction of principles of growth (''shen'') and principles of waning (''gui''),〔Teiser, 1996.〕 with act (''yang'') usually preferred over receptiveness (''yin'').〔 ''Ling'' (numen or sacred) is the "medium" of the bivalency, and the inchoate order of creation.〔 Both in imperial China and under the modern nation, the state has opposed or attempted to eradicate these practices as "superstition". Yet Chinese folk religions are currently experiencing a revival in both mainland China and Taiwan.〔''(Unofficial Religion in China: Beyond the Party's Rules )''. Roundtable before the Congressional-Executive Commission on China. May 2005. p.36: revival of Chinese Ethnic Religion in Mainland China.〕〔Richard Madsen. ''(The Upsurge of Religion in China )''. Journal of Democracy, Volume 21, Number 4. October 2010.〕 Various forms of culture have received forms of official recognition by the government of China, such as Mazuism and the Xia teaching in southeastern China,〔''(Religions & Christianity in Today's China )''. Vol. IV, 2014, No. 1. ISSN 2192-9289. pp. 22-23〕 Huangdi worship,〔Sautman, 1997. pp. 80-81〕 and other forms of local worship, for example the Longwang, Pangu or Caishen worship.〔Adam Yuet Chau. ''(The Policy of Legitimation and the Revival of Popular Religion in Shaanbei, North-Central China )''. In: ''Modern China''. Vol. 31, No. 2, 2005. pp. 236-278〕 ==Terminology and definition== While in the English language academic literature Chinese "popular religion" or "folk religion" (中国民间宗教 ''Zhōngguó mínjiān zōngjiào'') or "folk belief" (民间信仰 ''mínjiān xìnyǎng'') have long been used to define the complex of Han local indigenous cults of China, the Chinese language historically has not had a concept or overarching name for this. In Chinese academic literature and common usage "folk religion" (''minjian zongjiao'') defines strictly the organised folk religious sects.〔Clart, 2014. p. 393. Quote: "() The problem started when the Taiwanese translator of my paper chose to render "popular religion" literally as ''minjian zongjiao'' 民間宗教. The immediate association this term caused in the minds of many Taiwanese and practically all mainland Chinese participants in the conference was of popular sects (''minjian jiaopai'' 民間教派), rather than the local and communal religious life that was the main focus of my paper."〕 "Folk beliefs" (''minjian xinyang'') is a technical term with little usage outside the academia. With the rise of the study of traditional cults and the creation of a government agency to give legal status to this religion, intellectuals and philosophers in China have proposed the adoption of a formal name in order to solve the terminological problems of confusion with folk religious sects and conceptualise a definite field for research and administration. The terms that have been proposed include "Chinese native religion" or "Chinese indigenous religion" (民俗宗教 ''mínsú zōngjiào''), "Chinese ethnic religion" (民族宗教 ''mínzú zōngjiào''), or also simply "Chinese religion" (中華教 ''Zhōnghuájiào'') viewed as comparable to the usage of the term "Hinduism" for Indian religion, and "Shenxianism" (神仙教 ''Shénxiānjiào'', "religion of deities and immortals"), partly inspired by the term "Shenism" (神仙教 ''Shénjiào'') that was used in the 1950s by the anthropologist Allan J. A. Elliott and earlier by the Qing dynasty scholars Yao Wendong and Chen Jialin in reference to Japanese Shinto.〔Douglas Howland. ''Borders of Chinese Civilization: Geography and History at Empire’s End''. Duke University Press, 1996. ISBN 0822382032. (p. 179 )〕 Other definitions that have been used are "folk cults" (民间崇拜 ''mínjiān chóngbài''),"spontaneous religion" (自发宗教 ''zìfā zōngjiào''), "lived (or living) religion" (生活宗教 ''shēnghuó zōngjiào''), "local religion" (地方宗教 ''dìfāng zōngjiào''), and "diffused religion" (分散性宗教 ''fēnsàn xìng zōngjiào''). "Shendao" (神道 ''Shéndào'', the "Way of the Gods") is a term already used in the ''Yijing'' referring to the divine order of nature. Around the time of the spread of Buddhism in the Han period (206 BCE-220 CE), it was used to distinguish the indigenous religion from the imported religion. Ge Hong used it in his ''Baopuzi'' as a synonym for Taoism.〔Herman Ooms. ''Imperial Politics and Symbolics in Ancient Japan: The Tenmu Dynasty, 650-800''. University of Hawaii Press, 2009. ISBN 0824832353. p. 166〕 The term was subsequently adopted in Japan in the 6th century as ''Shindo'', later ''Shinto'', with the same purpose of identification of the Japanese indigenous religion.〔Brian Bocking. ''A Popular Dictionary of Shinto''. Routledge, 2005. ASIN: B00ID5TQZY p. 129〕〔Stuart D. B. Picken. ''Essentials of Shinto: An Analytical Guide to Principal Teachings''. Resources in Asian Philosophy and Religion. Greenwood, 1994. ISBN 0313264317 p. xxi〕 In the 14th century, the Hongwu Emperor (Taizu of the Ming dynasty, 1328-1398) used the term "Shendao" clearly identifying the indigenous cults, which he strengthened and systematised.〔John W. Dardess. ''Ming China, 1368-1644: A Concise History of a Resilient Empire''. Rowman & Littlefield, 2012. ISBN 1442204915. p. 26〕 "Chinese Universism", not in the sense of "universalism", that is a system of universal application, but in the original sense of "uni-verse" which is "towards the One", that is Shangdi—Tian in Chinese thought, is a coinage of Jan Jakob Maria de Groot that refers to the metaphysical perspective that lies behind the Chinese religious tradition. Contemporary Chinese scholars have also identified what they find to be the essential features of the folk (or indigenous—ethnic) religion of China. According to Chen Xiaoyi 陳曉毅 local indigenous religion is the crucial factor for a harmonious "religious ecology" (''zongjiao shengtai'' 宗教生態), that is the balance of forces in a given community. Professor Han Bingfang 韓秉芳 has called for a rectification of distorted names (''zhengming'' 正名). Distorted names are "superstitious activities" (''mixin huodong'' 迷信活動) or "feudal superstition" (''fengjian mixin'' 封建迷信), that were derogatorily applied to the indigenous religion by leftist policies. Christian missionaries also used the label "feudal superstition" in order to undermine their religious competitor. Han calls for the acknowledgment of folk religion for what it really is, the "core and soul of popular culture" (''suwenhua de hexin yu linghun'' 俗文化的核心與靈魂). According to Chen Jinguo 陳進國, folk religion is a core element of Chinese cultural and religious self-awareness (''wenhua zijue'' 文化自覺, ''xinyang zijue'' 信仰自覺). He has proposed a theoretical definition of Chinese indigenous religion in "three inseparable attributes" (''sanwei yiti'' 三位一體), apparently inspired to Tang Junyi's thought: * substance (''ti'' 體): religiousness (''zongjiaoxing'' 宗教性); * function (''yong'' 用): folkloricity (''minsuxing'' 民俗性); * quality (''xiang'' 相): Chineseness (''zhonghuaxing'' 中華性). 抄文引用元・出典: フリー百科事典『 ウィキペディア（Wikipedia）』 ■ウィキペディアで「Chinese folk religion」の詳細全文を読む スポンサード リンク
|