Ren Jiyu丨 has a Chinese national form of religion - Confucianism

Confucius was the founder of Confucianism. Confucius had previously made Confucianism a profession, but they were not yet a school. Confucius was engaged in education all his life, teaching disciples and teaching people with his ideological system, so the first school of thought appeared in China, Confucianism. Confucius and Confucianism have an inseparable relationship, which is universally recognized. Later, Confucianism arose in the Song Dynasty, and Confucianism regarded Confucius as its leader, and the leader appeared several years after Confucius's death, and Confucius did not take any responsibility for it. Confucianism and Confucianism are not the same thing.

In the Northern Zhou Dynasty, there was already a saying of "three religions" (three religions refer to Buddhism, Confucianism, and Taoism), and the Northern Zhou Dynasty was short and did not attract attention. During the Sui and Tang dynasties, the theory of "three religions" was very popular, and whenever the Tang Dynasty met a national celebration, the edict "three religions" debated in the court. The three religions of Confucianism, Buddhism, and Taoism fought for honor and status for their own "teachings," and all sent representatives to actively participate.

In the Tang Dynasty, there were many people who rejected Buddhism and Taoism, and Han Yu was the most well-known. Han Yu rejected Buddhism (and also opposed Taoism), and Han Yu rejected Buddhism because he replaced Buddhism and Taoism with Confucianism and fought for the status of Confucianism. People like Han Yu advocated that the Tang Dynasty was in the minority, and the majority of people in society recognized the fact that the three religions were established, believing that Confucius, Shakya, and Lao Tzu were all "saints" and worthy of respect, and that the identity of Shakya had been regarded as a foreigner since the Northern and Southern Dynasties, and that Buddhist classics had also achieved the same legal status as Confucian classics, and that "Buddhist scriptures" had been established, and the popularity exceeded that of Confucian classics.

Confucianism became a complete form of religion, which should be counted from the Northern Song Dynasty, and Zhu Xi perfected it. For many years, people have used to calling this system of science or Taoism, which I call Confucianism, and this is not a dispute of terms, it is really important. In order to illustrate the facts, let's start with China's national conditions.

There is not much historical information left of the three dynasties of Tang Yu, and we only start with the Qin and Han dynasties, which laid the political pattern for more than 2,000 years, that is, a unified centralized feudal autocracy. Many dynasties after the Qin and Han dynasties, until the end of the Qing Dynasty, followed this route. For more than 2,000 years, there have been times of division, but it has not lasted long, and even during the period of division, everyone from the people to the rulers considers it to be abnormal, and reunification is normal. For more than 2,000 years, there have been a pair of basic contradictions: a high degree of political unity and extreme economic decentralization. The feudal economy is a natural economy in which each household is the unit of production, and the products are for their own consumption, not for circulation. Economic exchanges and handicrafts were basically closed, and only the luxury goods enjoyed by the upper nobles had a nationwide circulation, and the pearls and silk of the South China Sea and the furs of the north were concentrated in the hands of the court nobles, and the Silk Road also reached as far as Europe. But this is also limited to luxury goods and cannot be compared with the goods of the later capitalist period.

The natural economy is characterized by being closed and decentralized, and does not want too much government intervention. After the Qin and Han dynasties, China was a unified big country, which politically demanded centralized power, was multi-ethnic, and had a vast area. The Central Plains of China entered the feudal society relatively early, and production was relatively developed, and some ethnic groups in the surrounding areas were still in slavery or even primitive society, and predatory wars inevitably broke out between the two sides. In order to ensure the normal operation of the country's production, it is objectively necessary to have a strong central government to maintain a safe and prosperous situation. A high degree of political unity is an objective need, and extreme economic dispersion is an objective reality, which is the nature of the natural economy. How to reconcile the contradiction between political centralization and economic decentralization and prevent it from being unusually light and heavy has become a major issue of concern to the rulers of successive generations. Confucianism plays an important role here.

What rule does feudal society depend on? A big country like China, which stretches thousands of miles or tens of thousands of miles, cannot do it by force and political power alone. In addition to political and military force, religion must be used to cooperate. It is no accident that the three major religions of the world developed in feudal society. Religion was needed in feudal society. If it is only an individual's needs, it has subjective factors and accidents, and you don't need to pay too much attention to it, and if it comes from the needs of society and the country, this cannot be regarded as subjective and accidental, it has a social, mass, and objective nature. The emergence and popularity of religion is based on the objective needs of society. Confucianism is a special religion that appeared in the land of ancient China, a religion that can only be found in China.

The reason why a religion is a religion is that it has its essence and its shell. The outer shell is its organizational form, the objects of worship, the scriptures to be recited, the rituals of religious activities, and so on. These aspects vary from religion to religion. The reason why a religion is a religion is also its essential part, which means that the field it believes in and pursues is the relationship or negotiation between man and God. In the words used by the ancient Chinese, it is "the relationship between heaven and man". Religion is both within and outside social life. Religion has to deal with the good and bad fortune of real life, and at the same time it has to rely on the external forces of superrealization. "The relationship between heaven and man" involves two objects, "heaven" and "man", one of which is fictitious - heaven; There is one end that is real - people. This inevitably leads to a peculiar connection between its fictional nature and its practice.

It doesn't matter whether there is a master who creates the world, what is the image of the master who creates the world, whether it is kind or strict, whether it is Chinese or foreigner, visible or intangible. Both religion and philosophy deal with the fundamental issues of life and society, but their positions and methods are different. Philosophy uses a rational and speculative way to explore and analyze the fundamental problems of the world and life, while religion uses faith and intuition to explore and solve the fundamental problems of the world and life. Philosophy at least admits that some problems are still unclear and it is inconvenient to draw conclusions, religion does not admit that there are problems that cannot be solved, and there are no problems that cannot be clarified, and religion can solve all the difficult and serious problems encountered in life. Because of this difference, philosophy has become more closely related to science after it has been separated from religion; Religion is essentially opposed to science, because belief does not allow doubt, the object of worship is never allowed to be the object of study, and it follows the path of irrationalism. Some religious philosophies use the form of rationalism to lead people to beliefism, and some schools of Buddhism use speculation as a means to lead people to beliefism. Confucianism, which I call Confucianism, is such a kind of rationalism as a means that ultimately leads people to faith. Song Confucianism taught people to be good at skepticism when reading, and Zhu Xi talked about many valuable experiences in calligraphy. But it is not permissible to doubt why people should be filial and loyal. Doubts about loyalty and filial piety are tantamount to beasts. Wang Yangming is the most daring anti-traditional skeptic, daring to consider the words of Confucius before believing them, and not blindly following them. But Wang Yangming didn't dare to doubt whether people should be loyal and filial. It is believed that loyalty and filial piety are the nature and the root of conscience.

Religion advocates asceticism and has a series of training methods to curb desires, and the same is true of Confucianism, which is a basic content of Confucian cultivation. Philosophy teaches people to obey the truth and fight for the truth, when Zhu Xi encountered the villain in power and oppressed him, he did not insist on the struggle, destroyed the manuscript of the emperor's defense, and called himself "Lian Weng", which was a decision he made after divination and was inspired by the gods. It is "heaven", not "man", that dominates fate. Treat the "occasion of heaven and man", and finally bend to the sky.

In addition to the general nature of Confucianism, the shell of Confucianism also has the characteristics of religion. It believes in "Heaven and Earth". The monarch was the core of the feudal patriarchal system; The Four Books, the Five Classics, and the Thirteen Classics are classics recited by Confucianism; Worshipping the heavens, sacrificing Kong, and worshipping ancestors is a Confucian sacrificial ritual held according to the hierarchy from the Son of Heaven to the common people under the feudal patriarchal system. When Tong Meng entered the school and began to receive Confucian education, he knelt down and bowed to the tablet of Confucius. Confucian temples have been established in all prefectures and counties from the central to the local level, which are places for Confucian believers to meet and worship on a regular basis. It is precisely because it is a religion cultivated by China itself, it takes the feudal patriarchal system as the core, and absorbs some religious cultivation methods in Buddhism and Taoism (such as asceticism, meditation and reflection). Confucianism sometimes appears as anti-religious, but in fact, it uses a national form of religion suitable for the feudal patriarchal system to lead people into a dead end of faithism, obscurantism, and idolatry with a more worldly attitude.

After the establishment of Confucianism, successive governments used administrative orders to promote its ideas, and used imperial examinations to encourage young people to study and study, so that religion was socialized and lay people became monks. The god-making movement during the 10 years of turmoil that is still fresh in people's memories succeeded, and the drunken mentality of millions of people was that its religious roots were not Buddhism or Taoism, but the ghost of Chinese Confucianism was roaming, but it was presented to people in the form of atheism.

This article is transferred from | Philosophical foundations