On whether Confucianism is a religion.

Among Confucianism, Buddhism and Taoism, Confucianism has always been called the essence of China traditional culture. As far as spiritual temperament is concerned, it has been profoundly affecting the ideological world and daily life of China people, and its great influence is still faintly visible.

The development of Confucianism is divided into four stages: the formation of Confucianism in the Spring and Autumn Period and the Warring States Period; Confucianism became an orthodox thought in Han dynasty; Confucianism in Song and Ming Dynasties evolved into Neo-Confucianism; A large number of progressive thinkers appeared in Ming and Qing Dynasties, criticizing and inheriting traditional Confucianism.

As far as the background of the times is concerned, Confucianism in the pre-Qin period is faced with the social reality of "ritual collapse and bad music" that changed from slave society to feudal society. Confucius and Mencius inherited Zhou Wen's enlightenment thought, and through their own gains and losses, they transformed etiquette laws and regulations into people's conscious moral practice, thus laying the foundation for the Confucian study of inner saints. In order to meet the political needs of unifying the country, "East Learning" is a theory specially used to explain political unity in the Han Dynasty, starting with the combination of "the skill of six arts" and "the skill of Confucius". Adapted to the need of strengthening the centralization of power, he fabricated a political theory to adapt to the cycle of "the feeling between heaven and man" and "three unifications" (black unification, white unification and red unification); Adapted to the need of strengthening monarchical power, perfunctory theological teleology of "divine right of monarchical power"; It adapts to the need of maintaining the principle of great unity, and transforms many pre-Qin (not just Confucianism) related thoughts into the theory of "loyalty and filial piety" based on the "three cardinal guides and five permanent members" (people often think that "three cardinal guides and five permanent members" is just an inappropriate expression of Confucianism represented by Confucius and Mencius! Because at least Han Fei outside Confucianism also advocates "loyalty and filial piety"); It adapts to the need of maintaining and continuing national unity, and puts forward the idea of restraining land merger, restricting land, thinning land and saving labor. In a word, Dong Xue is a combination of the "six arts" in the pre-Qin period and the "skills of Confucius", and a set of theories of Yin and Yang, five elements, Confucianism, Taoism, ink, name, miscellaneous, Shu Shu Shu, etc. are hybridized, grafted, perfunctory and reformed, and a set of "heaven-man induction" and Yin and Yang five elements is concocted. Confucianism in Song and Ming Dynasties faced the situation of Buddhism and Taoism flooding and Confucianism declining. Masters Zhu Cheng and Lu Wang rebuilt the Confucian orthodoxy by absorbing and sublating Buddhism and Taoism, and pushed Confucianism to a new stage of development.

Confucianism is a cultural Taoism, which reflects and represents the lifestyle and value principles of the whole society. In fact, just like "tea ceremony", it is an institutional arrangement or choice under the political pattern of "the overlord of Taoism" or "learning Confucianism from abroad" in feudal times. Such a system, for Confucianism, is like a double-edged sword for kingship. From such a perspective, we can clearly see that the relationship between the imperial examination system and Chinese studies is complex and dialectical.

Religion existed as early as primitive society, and its root and foundation lie in the low level of productivity development and the weakness of primitive people to the forces of natural struggle. Religious norms at that time often became social norms that people followed. In the most primitive times, before class differentiation appeared, human beings began various religious activities.

Will people's spiritual activities such as fear of natural forces and thinking about various phenomena in nature become social activities such as religion? Judging from the origin of primitive religion, religion is the only effective means to limit people's natural attributes, ensure and cultivate people's sociality in an era when organizations that manage people's collective activities such as state machines have not yet appeared and science education is still underdeveloped. From archaeology and folklore, we know that primitive religions worship things around them, such as hunters worshipping various animals and mountain gods; Fishermen worship river gods and water gods; Collectors may worship various plants, such as tree gods and flower gods. The objects of worship are neither abstract spiritual gods nor the only gods that dominate the world, but natural things closely related to human activities. Moreover, the sacrificial activities are attended by all tribal members and presided over by tribal leaders or so-called priests who can communicate with the gods. Therefore, worship activities

It is not only a ceremony, but also an activity to enhance the collective consciousness of all employees.

. Perhaps the latter is the real purpose of worship activities. As for the worship of spiritual sustenance and spiritual comfort and the leading role of religion, it is only the secondary role brought by the development and popularization of religion in the middle and late period of social activities, rather than the fundamental reason why religion has become a very important social activity. With the development of society, the scale of collective activities is growing. Especially with the emergence of the advanced organization form of the state, religious worship has become more and more abstract, and the dead, ghosts and ghosts have all entered the worship object, and the religious worship ceremony has become more and more horrible, and even people have to be worshipped. It is unreasonable to say that these behaviors are spiritual sustenance and spiritual comfort, but it is more reasonable to interpret them as suppressing people's natural characteristics and supporting strengthening people's sociality. The emphasis on obedience and the role of special religions in maintaining social order are the main reasons for the existence and development of religions. Therefore, the rulers of past dynasties were particularly enthusiastic about religious ceremonies, and sometimes they used the state machine in their hands to promote a religion they liked. Even some rulers designate a religion as the state religion, which is consistent with the laws and regulations of the country. The supreme ruler of the country is often the supreme leader of religion. That is to make full use of the role of religion in ensuring and cultivating people's sociality.

God For most religions, "God" is a subject, which can be idolized or become a spiritual form. The gods in the eastern world and the Greek and Roman world generally have the form of idols. For God, some people think that it is the personification of supernatural imagination, or it can be human's understanding of nature, which generally exists in mythology. This era is the myth era. After the end of the Greek-Roman world, the western world generally believed in Christianity. In this type of religion, God is not given idols, which avoids the consequences of idolatry, such as the transition from spiritual pursuit to material pursuit. Many philosophers and theologians are convinced that God is an infinite "aggregate" of spiritual consciousness and a personified existence pursuing an idealized, more perfect and higher spiritual realm. In order to build a concrete system, the personified god has a series of interpretations by later generations-of course, some contents have been passed down from generation to generation by hearsay managers and modified by different people.

For the materialistic world, God naturally does not conform to the law, but since it is a personalized spiritual carrier, it can be a reasonable existence for one's thoughts and consciousness. Just as some people use the laws of materialism to study the rationality of religion and the existence of God, they ignore the spiritual pursuit element in the concept of "God" for the role of social system.

Indeed, social groups must ensure their own survival before they can think, but when the feasibility of spiritual pursuit exists, spiritual pursuit will be individualized, even contrary to the materialistic laws formulated by some schools-the choices made by human consciousness do not need to be completely in line with a certain law in a certain aspect. At this time, the concept of God was rationalized in consciousness. Therefore, God is neither a machine nor a tool. In modern times, the concept of God has become a belief of religious believers rather than an idol. As one of the sustenance of human spiritual pursuit, it will also go on with human history.

Some views on "Confucianism is not a religion";

Is Confucianism a religion? Whether China has a religion or the so-called "Tao" is Plato's "idea" and Hegel's "absolute spirit". The yin and yang of Zhouyi inspired Leibniz to invent the binary system of computer science, which can also prove the positive and negative electrons in today's high-energy physics. In short, they all tried to attach China culture to western culture, and only changed from concrete and external comparison to abstract and internal comparison, that is, to study and interpret China's thought and culture with western concepts and categories. Is Confucianism a religion? Right? We have western religious concepts and styles, and compared with Confucianism, we feel that there are many similarities, so we say; "Confucianism is a religion, called Confucianism", or compared with other aspects of Confucianism, it is considered that it cannot be tolerated by religion, saying, "This is not a religion", for example, the humanistic spirit is anti-religious, and the rational spirit is also anti-religious (in fact, this is based on the views formed by the Renaissance and the Enlightenment in western history). In fact, in Confucianism, religious piety, humanistic care, practical rationality and so on are parallel and seamless, but there is tension or treatment, but there is a golden mean spirit that restricts it from going to confrontation and life-and-death. This is incomprehensible with western thinking, and this is the greatness of Confucianism.

Of course, today, we should first affirm the contribution made by western culture to the revival and regeneration of China culture after more than 200 years of western learning spread to the east. It impacts our old age with its own spirit and stimulates our old age with its own vitality. However, we have no reason to "completely westernize" and lose our valuable things. Academically speaking, western culture has activated our dull minds, and the ideological and cultural fields have been in the conflict and blending between China and the West, ancient and modern. This is history and reality, and there is no need to avoid and deny it. The key is how we can give full play to our intelligence, complete the historical task of China's cultural transformation quickly and well in this process, and do a good job in guiding China society onto a good road, but there is indeed a basic problem of thinking method.

If we always use the terms, concepts, categories, academic paradigms and thinking modes of western culture to study China culture, the more "achievements", the greater the negative effects. On the basis of understanding the western ideological system and grasping its characteristics, with reference to the west, this paper seeks the logical approach of China culture, reflects on its historical gains and losses, explores its internal connotation, and adapts to the times and the world to become a new ideological and cultural form, paradigm and model that can be understood by today's people, and respects Christianity. Therefore, I think that Confucianism is divided into religion, philosophy, politics and law, and judged as humanitarianism, practical rationality and rule by virtue. Are deconstructing Confucian traditions. It is necessary to deconstruct nature, but reconstruction must also be considered. Is the division of academic thoughts the logical way of the West and the inevitable direction of China? In other words, the deconstruction of Confucianism is inevitable and necessary.

Regardless of whether Confucianism is religious or not, I think Confucianism is indeed religious, mainly because as a rational belief, taking Confucius as the ancestor has formed a lasting attraction to ancient intellectuals with scholars as the main body, prompting thousands of generations to make different contributions to the huge Confucian system. Therefore, this is a force similar to religion, which promotes the development of Confucian knowledge-belief system (not theological system). But it is not the work of Confucius alone, so it is not appropriate to replace Confucianism with Confucianism, not Confucianism, but Confucianism. Although this belief is rational, there is a persistent, submerged, and sometimes even "killing one's life" Chinese-style enthusiasm in it, which is often manifested as the integrity of scholars, somewhat similar to religious feelings, but it has not led to religious fanaticism because of rational constraints, which is commendable.

As for the use of Confucianism by feudal autocratic emperors to become official Confucianism and royal religion, it is actually an alienated form of Confucianism and an official branch of Confucianism. Generally speaking, it also belongs to Confucianism, but it is not the whole of Confucianism, and it can never represent Confucianism, not to mention that this "religion" is difficult to compare with the real religion in the West. First of all, the religious belief in Confucianism is too low, which is only a form of official showing the legitimacy of its regime to some extent. Everyone is very serious, but no one takes this seriously, and there is no sincere religious belief, because everyone knows that China's political dominance lies in the strength contest behind it, which is just a necessary decoration.

Confucianism is not a religion, and the macro-historical development after the emergence of Confucianism can also prove this. From the perspective of world history, Buddhism still has an important influence on India's political life or economic life. In Europe, religion once dominated the world, and religions in Arab countries still play an important role in today's national life. If Confucianism is essentially a religion, it is difficult for us to explain why it has never formed a religious-dominated country and is a historical stage of mainstream national ideology. Even during the prevalence of Buddhism, religion existed as a supplement to secular life, and no religion ever became the mainstream ideology in China. Doesn't that explain the problem?

Confucianism is not a religion, and it can also be explained from Confucianism. Confucius was very opposed to the way of talking about people from the perspective of God, saying, "If you can't serve people, how can you serve ghosts?" ? If you don't know life, how do you know death? ",emphasizing the realistic attitude of" knowing is knowing, not knowing is not knowing ",and adhering to the general method of concrete analysis of specific problems. The same problem.

, gave different answers to different people. We can't see these vivid concerns about the real world and secular life of Confucianism, but we say that Confucianism is a religion. How can we be satisfied under Confucius' grave? In addition, Confucianism is not a religion, which can be explained by the inheritance of China's philosophical development. Confucian thought "Yao and Shun were described by ancestors, and the charter was civil and military" has a historical basis, and its theory can be compared to verify its correctness, rather than Confucius' own unfounded.

In a word, it is neither historical nor academic to exaggerate the religious nature of Confucianism and constantly deny it. What is urgently needed now is comprehensive reflection and comprehensive research, so as to create a new ideological and cultural system that can make China go global and gain world understanding and recognition, find a way out for ourselves and plan the future for mankind. No matter what we do from those aspects, we can stick to this belief, carry out great synthesis and innovation, and achieve the same goal by different routes, not different routes. We can say that Confucianism does not belong to the category of "religion" defined by general western religious experience, but Confucianism is not a religion, let alone a western religion.