Religion 101 (9 page)

Feng Shui

One example of the use of harmony and meditation is the practice of Feng Shui. The literal meaning of
Feng Shui
is “wind and water,” which are the natural elements that shape the landscape. A Feng Shui expert can advise on how to get the best results in a home or office by establishing the most advantageous alignment of space and furnishings to allow the most positive and harmonious flow of
chi
(energy).

Zhuangzi (fourth century
B.C
.) was a great Taoist sage. He is best known for the book that bears his name, the
Zhuangzi
, also known as
Nánhuá Zhēnjīng
(
The Pure Classic of Nan-hua
). It is thought to have originally comprised thirty-three chapters, although there may have been more. Again, as it seems with most works of written religious antiquity, there is controversy over what the author wrote and what others contributed. However, scholars agree that the first seven chapters of the
Zhuangzi
were written by the author alone.

He wrote other books highly critical of Confucianism. On the other hand he was seen as being a great influence on the development of Chinese Buddhism. Buddhist scholars considered Zhuangzi to be the primary source for Taoist thought and they drew heavily from his teachings. Overall he was considered the most significant and comprehensive of the Taoist writers.

He lived around 327
B.C.
, which made him a contemporary of the eminent Confucian scholar, Mencius. All of this confirms yet again how intertwined Taoism, Buddhism, and Confucianism were with each other.

TAOIST RITUALS AND FESTIVALS

Dragons, Ghosts, and the Moon

The religious aspects of Taoism are related more to shamanism than worship in the typical way. Taoist priests usually look after temples in urban areas. Monks and nuns live in temples located in sacred mountains. China has many sacred mountains and some of the temples are even dramatically suspended on the side of them. In general, monks and nuns are permitted to marry. Their work is ensuring the worship of the sacred texts, of which there are some 1,440 books.

In Taoism there is a strong element of the ways and means of achieving immortality. Throughout life, adherents study and practice exercises designed to increase the flow of chi energy, and some will become expert in meditation to the point where they become one with the Tao. A quote from the
Zhuangzi
provides a good clue to the Taoist attitude toward life and death:

Birth is not a beginning; death is not an end. There is existence without limitation; there is continuity without a starting point.

Existence without limitation is space. Continuity without a starting point is time. There is birth, there is death, there is issuing forth, there is entering in. That through which one passes in and out without seeing its form, that is the Portal of God.

Birth and Death

Birth is a time for casting horoscopes. A month after the birth a naming ceremony is held. Death combines elements of Taoism, Buddhism, and Confucianism in regard to life after death. Funeral rites have to be performed correctly in order that the dead join the family ancestors. There is a belief that the soul is judged by the King of Hell. After the body is buried, paper models of money, houses, and cars are burnt to help the soul in the afterlife, perhaps by paying for a release from the King of Hell. After about ten years the body is dug up. The bones are cleaned then reburied at a site often chosen by a Feng Shui expert.

Religion 101 Question

When a Taoist funeral procession passes through the streets on its way to the cemetery, what color do the family and friends of the deceased wear?

White, the traditional color of mourning in China.

Taoist Festivals

Taoists and Buddhists share four major Chinese festivals. In addition, the Taoists have many others throughout the year including the Taoist vegetarian and fasting days.

Chinese New Year

Chinese New Year is the major festival, which is also known as the “Spring Festival.” It is a time of great excitement and joy. It is also a time of wonderful and copious food and of gifts and roving bands of musicians that parade through the streets. Families reunite and give lavish gifts to children. Traditionally it is the time when new paper statues of the kitchen god are put up in houses. The door gods, who defend the house against evil spirits, are also replaced with new ones and good luck sayings are hung over the doorways.

The high point of the season is New Year’s Eve, when every member of every family returns home. A sumptuous dinner is served, and children receive gifts of red envelopes that contain gifts of lucky money. Firecrackers and whistling rockets seem to be everywhere.

In preparation for the events, every house is thoroughly cleaned so that the New Year will start off fresh and clean. Hair must be cleaned and set prior to the holiday, otherwise a financial setback would be invited. Debts should also be settled so that the coming year can start off with a clean slate.

Following various religious ceremonies, the eleventh day is a time for inviting in-laws to dine. The Lantern Festival, on the fifteenth day after New Year, marks the end of the New Year season.

The Dragon Boat Festival

The Dragon Boat Festival is celebrated with boats in the shape of dragons. Competing teams row their boats forward to a drumbeat in an effort to win the race. Celebrated in June, the festival has two stories about the history of its meaning. The first one is about the watery suicide of an honest young official who tried to shock the emperor into being kinder to the poor. The race commemorates the people’s attempt to rescue the boy in the lake from the dragons who rose to eat him. It is looked at as a celebration of honest government and physical strength.

The other story says the boats race to commemorate the drowning of a poet on the fifth day of the fifth lunar month in 277
B.C.
Citizens throw bamboo leaves filled with cooked rice into the water so the fish can eat it rather than the hero poet.

Hungry Ghosts Festival

The third great festival is the Hungry Ghosts Festival. Taoists and Buddhists believe that the souls of the dead imprisoned in hell are freed during the seventh month, when the gates of hell are opened. The released souls are permitted to enjoy feasts that had been prepared for them so that they would be pacified and would do no harm. Offerings and devotions, too, are made to please these ghosts and even musical events are staged to entertain them.

Mid-Autumn Festival

The Mid-Autumn Festival is also called the Moon Festival because of the bright harvest moon, which appears on the fifteenth day of the eighth lunar month. The round shape of the moon means family reunion, so, naturally, the holiday is particularly important for members of a family.

One myth says that on the moon were the fairy Chang E, a woodcutter named Wu Gang, and a jade rabbit that was Chang E’s pet. In the old days people paid respect to the fairy Chang E and her pet. The custom has gone now, but moon cakes are sold during the month before the arrival of the Moon Festival.

Another story concerns the goddess Sheng O, whose husband discovered the pill of immortality and was about to eat it and become a cruel ruler for eternity. Sheng O swallowed the pill instead, but the Gods saved her and transported her to the moon. She lives there to this day.

THE TEACHINGS OF CONFUCIUS

The Search for Order

Confucius lived in a time of political violence, so the stage was set for a teacher to emerge who had the ability to dispense a spiritual philosophy that would generate restorative thoughts of social and ethical calm, and who saw perfection in all people. It has been said that he initially attracted more than 3,000 students, some of whom became close disciples.

Confucius was born in the small state of Lu in 552
B.C.
, in what is now Shantung Province.
Confucius
is a Latin version of
Kong Fuzi
(Kong the master). He was born into an aristocratic family that had seen much better times. His father died when he was only three years old. His mother educated him at home. By the time he was a teenager, he inquired about everything and had set his heart on learning.

He started off as a keeper of stores and accounts, but moved on to other minor posts in government. However, he had difficulty in finding a good job even though he was ambitious and willing to do more or less anything. But, he never gave up his first love: learning. He found teachers who would school him in music, archery, calligraphy, and arithmetic. From his family he had learned the classics: poetry, literature, and history.

When he was nineteen years of age he married a woman of a similar background to his own. Not much else is known about her. They apparently had a son and a daughter.

Confucius the Teacher

All the learning Confucius had done qualified him to teach, which he started to do in his thirties. He was the first person to devote his whole life to learning and teaching for the sole purpose of trying to improve the lot of his fellow humans. He also became known as the first teacher in China whose concern was providing education for all. The rich had tutors for their children. He believed that everyone could benefit from self-education. During his life he worked to open the doors of education to everyone, and he defined learning as not only the acquisition of knowledge but also the building of character.

A major thrust in his teaching was filial piety, the virtue of devotion to one’s parents. He considered it the foundation of virtue and the root of human character.

Interestingly, the male attitude toward sex was strict. The purpose of sex was to conceive children, in particular sons. According to Dr. Mel Thompson, an authority in eastern philosophy, there is a sense that male energy is dissipated through sexual union, and that men may be worn out both physically and morally by too much sex. Sexual excess on the part of a ruler was given as a valid reason to take from him the right to rule.

Proper social behavior and etiquette were considered essential to right living. A set of ethics is contained in the
Analects
, a collection of moral and social teachings, which amount to a code of human conduct. Many of the sayings were passed on orally. Here are some examples:

Clever words and a plausible appearance have seldom turned out to be humane.

Young men should be filial when at home and respectful to elders when away from home. They should be earnest and trustworthy. Although they should love the multitude far and wide, they should be intimate only with the humane. If they have any energy to spare after so doing, they should use it to study culture.

The gentleman is calm and peaceful; the small man is always emotional.

The gentleman is dignified but not arrogant. The small man is arrogant but not dignified.

In his attitude to the world the gentleman has no antagonisms and no favoritisms. What is right he sides with.

If one acts with a view to profit, there will be much resentment.

One who can bring about the practice of five things everywhere under Heaven has achieved humaneness … Courtesy, tolerance, good faith, diligence, and kindness.

Jen

Confucius concentrated his teachings on his vision,
Jen
, which has been translated in the most complete way as: love, goodness, and human-heartedness; moral achievement and excellence in character; loyalty to one’s true nature, then righteousness, and, finally, filial piety. All this adds up to the principle of virtue within the person.

Growth of His Reputation

Around age fifty a turning point came in Confucius’s life. He was given an important job and was asked his advice about how to induce the people to be loyal. He answered, “Approach them with dignity, and they will respect you. Show piety towards your parents and kindness toward your children, and they will be loyal to you. Promote those who are worthy, train those who are incompetent; that is the best form of encouragement.”

The reputation of Confucius grew, as did the number of his disciples. Trouble came, of course, because he generated the enmity of those who opposed his teachings and growing influence. His political career was short-lived, and at the age of fifty-six when he realized his influence had declined, he moved on and tried to find a feudal state in which he could teach and give service. He was more or less in exile, but his reputation as a man of virtue spread.

When he was sixty-seven years old he returned home to teach, write, and edit. He died in 479
B.C.
at the age of seventy-three.

CONFUCIAN LITERATURE AND RITUALS

Birth, Marriage, Death, and Beyond

The most important Confucian literature comprises two sets of books. The major one is the Five Classics. While Confucius may not have personally written them, he certainly was associated with them. The Five Classics contain five visions:

1. I Ching (Classic of Changes)
   
2. Shu Ching (Classic of History)
   
3. Shih Ching (Classic of Poetry)
   
4. LiChi (Collection of Rituals)
   
5. Ch’un-ch’iu (Spring and Autumn Annals)
   

For 2,000 years their influence has been without parallel in the history of China.

When Chinese students were studying for civil service examinations between 1313 and 1905, they were required to study the Five Classics. However, before they reached that level, they tackled the Four Books, which served as an introduction to the Five. The Four Books are: