Word Count: 514The Chinese people have threemain traditions in their history- Confucianism, Taoism, andBuddhism.
I am going to be talking about Confucianismand Taoism. Both of these date back to the Sixth CenturyB. C. The traditional founder of Taoism is Confucius andLaozi. On top of many other things Confucius was a veryinfluential speaker. Throughout time, his teachings, andpreaching developed into a religion.
He spoke to a widevariety of people. Daoist tend to look back to Laozi astheir founder. Over centuries, Taoism was transformedfrom a small religion, very conservative, into a looselyorganized religion. During the Second Century B. C.
, a rulernamed Han had the most part in it. A large number ofreligious groups rose from this because of the social andpolitical disorder. One of these groups named the YellowTurbans in eastern China. , fought Han in 184 B. C. This ledto a civil war.
Han lost authority and power, and hisgenerals became warlords. Then, in Western China, agroup known as the Way of the Celestial Masters cameinto power. From the Second Century B. C. , Taoists andothers believed it was possible to find an elixir which wouldmake them immortal. An elixir is a sweetened alcoholicmedicinal preparation, but back in ancient philosophy itwas thought to be for changing base metals into gold, or forprolonging life.
Research flourished because of this belief. But the chief ingredient, cinnabar, was found to bepoisonous. Many imperial deaths ensued from this. But thiswas not the only way to achieve immortality back in ancienttimes.
Another belief said that a man would have to acquire108 women to get granted 10,000 years of life. For morethan 2,000 years ,Chinese, Japananese, and Koreanpeople have lived in cultures that were greatly influenced bythe thoughts of Confucius. Confucius saw himself as anordinary man doing a good deed for a diverse group ofcultures. He taught his fellow human beings moral behaviorand good family relationships. He thought that they are thekey to a well ordered society.
People valued his opinionsand teachings very much and followed them in every daylife. Confucius himself avoided talking about religion, but atthe same time recognized the importance of worshipping hisancestors. He believed that he was not guided by religion,but by a higher power called heaven. Confucius lived at atime when China was changing. A lot of the traditions thateveryone had lived by were long gone and they had movedon to new things, but not Confucius, he still believed in thetraditions of old and still preached them. Most of thetraditions had been written down and would later be thecenter of Confuciuss teachings.
Proceeding Confuciussdeath his followers preserved his thoughts and ideas for thenext three centuries to come. Confucius had somefollowers that preached his works, too. Among these, wereMencius and Xunzi. They spread Confuciuss ideas whileat the same time elaborating on them. Mencius studiedConfucians understanding of mortality. He believe thatseeds of goodness were in everyone, but at the same timethere had to be developed properly.
On the other hand,Xunzi believe that everyone was not good and thateveryone didnt practice good behavior. He believed thatthey needed Confucius to guide them with his teachings. were a very big and importantpart of the ancient world and there traditions. .
