This course provides an introduction to the study of the history, major teachings, and practices of the major Chinese religions and spiritual practices and is deigned to give conceptual tools to appreciate diverse religious practice in East. It covers the development of Buddhism, Daoism, Confucianism and wide range of popular and local religions. From historical perspective we will also explore the development of key theological, religious and philosophical doctrines as well as associated practices. An effort will be made to spend time on each tradition according to its importance to Asia as a whole. We will explore the role of religions in politics and social relations in East and South, South East Asia and China in particular, and will analyze the origins, central teachings, divisions and branches, rituals and practices, influences on culture, and responses to modern challenges for each tradition. The emphasis throughout the course is on the hermeneutic difficulties attendant upon the study of religion in general, and Asian religions in particular. We will explore new Asian religions as dynamic, ongoing forces in the lives of individuals and in the collective experience of modern societies.
Sects and Syncretism
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Del curso dictado por National Research University Higher School of Economics
Religions and Society in China
44 calificaciones
National Research University Higher School of Economics
44 calificaciones
De la lección
Chinese folk religions: ancestor worship, temples, festivals and communal identities
This module's content describes the characteristic traits of Chinese sects and popular cults. This module introduces one of the most important notions in Chinese religious studies: Chinese synctretism.
Conoce a los instructores
Aleksey A. MaslovHead
School of Asian Studies
[MUSIC]
The idea of salvationism, we can find almost in all folk religions in China.
First of all, this idea came not from the folk religions.
This idea came from Buddhism and Taoism, even from Confucianism.
For example, the idea of this salvation.
The idea to how to overcome this world was very popular, for example, in Taoism.
Let's remember the idea, the such and
such person, such individuals as immortals or [FOREIGN].
Who's immortal in Taoist tradition?
The person who found the secret, how to overcome this world and
became immortal in this physical body.
So that's once again, the idea of salvation Taoism.
In Buddhism, this idea is even more obvious.
For example, in Buddhism, you can be reincarnated.
So it means to save your life and
your physical body from the sufferings of this world.
So this idea was not in lieu for China.
But all this idea was a little bit differently
represented in Taoism and Buddhism.
They were not the central ideas, because the central idea of Buddhism and
Buddhism and Taoism were the idea of self-cultivation.
So popular religions, just borrow it.
Took some parts from Buddhism and Taoism not just general ideas and
general theory, but also some practice.
For example, the practice of meditation, the practices of the so-called,
the internal alchemy and transform it in its own, more simple way.
Anyway, the idea of the salvation,
first of all, became the idea of the moral self-education.
The idea of the more purification of your mind,
of your acts in this world, of all events and actions that you take part.
And now the point, all these religions were based on the very strong base of
the eschatology as well as the idea of the egalitarianism.
What does it mean, egalitarianism?
It's the idea that all people in the world are equal.
All these people are equal,
because all of them are children of the Buddha, for example.
So that means that there is no high official and low rank official.
There is not just a peasant and the seer.
There is not rich and poor.
All of them are just equal.
So the idea of the egalitarianism became one of the bases of
the organization of such groups, as well the organization of the Rubena.
So, some of these Rubena just promoted the egalitarianism ideas and
people was dissatisfied by the non-equality of the social order.
So, these sects became cradles of all this egalitarianism.
Another point that all of this folk religions were based on the idea
of the strong charismatic person, as a founder of this group.
So in majority of the cases, this founder was a real person.
So it was not just some kind of mythological person that you can find, for
example, in some Taoist or in some Buddhist sects.
So some of them considered, for example, unborn venerable mother or
in others as a patron or patroness of this religion.
But in all cases we can find a real person just at the beginning of the line
of such a religious tradition.
And this real person step by step became,
rated as deity or like a reincarnation, for
example, of Buddha of some old mother.
Usually, these kind of founders received a kind of divine revelation.
For example, sacral text or sacral knowledge from some deities and
the common story involved such fathers.
That the father, during his dream,
he saw some deity who opened his eyes or
opened some points, some points in his body and
put a knowledge like an oracle knowledge to his brain.
And after that time, he became just a kind of reproducer of this
knowledge like a bridge between the heavenly knowledge and this humankind.
So, the oldest founders became kind of missionaries in this world and
promoted some sacred knowledge.
Another very important point of all these groups is the idea of self-cultivation,
which could be developed in different ways.
For example, the most common practice was a meditation.
Sitting meditation, standing meditation or even lying meditation.
A lot of groups were involved in the practice of martial
arts like Wushu or Kung Fu.
Some groups, almost all groups exercised in different kind of breath
exercises like [FOREIGN] and [FOREIGN] and
another practice which became very important for these groups became healing.
Healing, it means like a exorcism.
It's not just traditional Chinese medicine, but
they use traditional drugs or herbal drugs.
But anyway, the healing, it was a healing by the name or
by the support of the Holy God, Holy Spirit who gave a force,
a power to cure, to heal another person.
So meditation, special exercises and
healing became part of the everyday practice.
At the same time, the members of these groups gather together almost every day or
every week, usually by the weekends around some shrine or
a local temple dedicated to the local patron of this group,
of this sect, usually for the old venerated mother.
And during these three shows, they danced, but the chanting,
they practiced some martial arts, especially in the 19th century.
They were involved with some group ritual, usually it was a dance.
And in this case, they went deeper into
some very deep somatic state of mind transformation.
So in this case, this kind of transformation was taken as an opening to
the Holy Spirit and as a possession of the Holy Spirit.
So, the idea of salvation.
The idea of salvation is the center part of all practices of all these religions.
Who saves people?
Who's the central part of this ritual?
First of all, the central part is this lady who is called in
Chinese tradition Wusheng Laomu, Eternal Venerable Mother or
the Unborn Ancient Mother, Wusheng Laomu.
Wusheng Laomu, it's epithet of Xiwangmu.
Xiwangmu, very old Chinese folk personage,
also lady who saved the,
especially Taoist tradition, saved people.
Wusheng Laomu, why it's Wusheng?
So it means the unborn, because Wusheng Laomu, Wusheng, these two characters.
It's a notion close connected to the idea of Dao, Dao or [FOREIGN].
Dao has no birth and has no death.
So, it means unborn.
Unborn and it's eternal.
So it's eternal mother, which existed before times.
In folk religions, Wusheng Laomu,
it's creatix of all living beings and all other deities.
So of human and of animals, of the Buddhist.
And Buddhists stay or lay just after the high
personage of the unborn ancient mother.
Is also a kind of personification of
the primordial energy of the universe.
In the folk understanding, what does mean Wusheng Laomu?
First of all, it's embodiment of the great energy.
If you are connected to this Wusheng Laomu, you can gain this energy.
And by the means, by having all this energy, you can cure other people.
You can help other people.
You can save other people.
And first of all, you can save your family or the member of your clan.
So one of the ideas is to be connected in some way with this Wusheng Laomu.
And this eternal concern about salvation or
moral completion became a central part of the practice and
of the theory or the basis, of these folk religions.
So all humans are considered the children of Wusheng Laomu.
These children came to this world,
came to this very dangerous world full of sufferings.
And finally, they lost in this world.
They lost in the ocean of sufferings.
They are tied by all these everyday events of the ideas and
they don't know how to get rid of all these ties.
So Wusheng Laomu tries to save humankind,
to save not only all humankind, but person by person, one by one.
In this way, she sent her a voice to
this Earth and to help other people.
Usually, she sent different kind of Buddhas and
Buddhas helped other people to get salvation.
So that's why Buddha's just a kind of voice of the Wusheng Laomu.
The cult of Wusheng Laomu became very popular not only amongst the religious
sects, but also as a every day cult especially in Hong Kong or in Taiwan.
For example, in this picture, you can see one of the figures
of the Wusheng Laomu in one of the shrines in Hong Kong Island.
And you can see also the picture of the old man, which in some traditions,
is considered as a husband of this Wusheng Laomu.
So in this case, they weren't all humankind and tried to save humankind for
the ocean of sufferings, that's the general idea of the salvation.
At the same time, salvation could not be done at once.
There are three stages of the end-time,
so-called, the sanqimojie.
These three stages are divided into so-called the three suns, sanyang.
Each sun, each period is represented by one of the Buddha,
which also came from the Buddhist tradition.
But we cannot find completely the same idea in pure Buddhist tradition, for
example, in Chan Buddhism or in other Buddhist groups.
So each Buddha coincide with some period of the human kind.
Buddha, once again, was sent by the mother to save humanity.
So the Green Sun is also called qingyang was governed by the first Buddha.
And the periods of Green Sun, it's the past period that already has gone.
So today, we're living in the period of the Red Sun governed by
the Gautama Buddha or the Buddha of the present.
So, we still reside or protected by his energy and
we could be saved by if we follow the teaching of the Buddha Gautama.
It doesn't mean Buddhism in general.
First of all, it means the idea that were proclaimed by the sectarian tradition.
And first of all, meditation, the self-purification.
But what, as we could be followers of this religion, what shall we wait?
We shall wait for the Buddha of the future, Maitreya.
When Buddha vision, the future will come to this world,
it will be a period of the White Sun or the White Sun when all
humankind could be saved, completely and finally saved.
So, that's why a lot of uprising in China were done under
the slogan of the White Sun or the coming of the White Sun.
It's one of the explanation of the title, the name of different sects,
call themselves baiyang, the teaching of the White Sun.
It means so-called the eschatology, the waiting for
the final period of the humankind, when first of all,
all followers of this tradition could be saved.
That's the idea of all of the eschatology and
the idea of the Three Suns in Chinese popular tradition.
[MUSIC]
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