Melina Mercouri

The traditional religion Chinese , also called Chinese popular religion or quite simply Chinese religion , is a Religion Polythéiste practiced before 1949 by the majority of the Han (漢), in which it is necessary to include the schools taoists. It is always alive in the zones of Chinese settlement apart from the popular China. In this country, after the crushing argument given to the transmission of the traditions, the resumption of the worship was done there within the framework of a very limited number of organizations. The religious practice thus sets out again there on bases much narrower than before 1949.

Born in an area from the world where exclusive adhesion with a confession is an almost unknown practice, the traditional religion rests on a vision of the universe and place that there the human being occupies divided by all. Its beliefs and practices, transmitted from generation to generation, are the result of the mixture without drama of all kinds of influences. It is about a natural religious bottom that the Chinese did not considered to be useful to name, not besides than the Indiens had not named theirs (“Hindouisme” is a term invented by the Moslem conquerors - Persan). The vocabulary thus refers only to elements of the religion: practices, characters… Thus bai bai (拜拜, veneration) indicates the most current practice, a prayer with a divinity together with offerings; a daoshi (道士 “main taoist”) is a specialist who followed itself the teaching of a Master (the concept of faithful taoist is unknown traditional Chinese world).

This absence of proper name, associated with that of all gun, made it a long time look by the Westerners in the way in which one looks at the Culte of the saints in the catholic world, like a popular degradation of a “authentic religion”.

It is thus absent from almost all statistics on the religions of Asia, its faithful being recorded in the " categories; taoïste" or " bouddhiste" , even " confucianiste". However, according to a research carried out in 1988 by Chu Hai-yuan for Academia sinica, 30 to 65% of the Taiwan board choose this religious membership when one offers the occasion of it to them.

Traditional religion, Taoism, Buddhism and Confucianism

thumb|150px|Lao Zi The Chinese world gave proper name only to the schools (jiào 教), concept broader than Religion, whose translation in Mandarin, zōngjiào (宗教, religious school), is besides a Néologisme imported Japanese. The school is before a a whole organization which supposes a Master and disciples, and its teaching is not always of religious nature (Confucianisme for example). The Taoïsme remained a whole of schools and not a confession. Indeed, its expansion, accompanied by an institutional and ideological structuring increasing which could have definitively detached it from the remainder of the religious system and have made an individualized religion of it, was stopped as from the time Ming by the constant hostility of the authorities in its connection. Thus, in the Chinese world, only as taoists the people present themselves who engaged like disciples near a Master taoist (dàoshì 道士) which teaches its practices to them, or this Master himself. The taoists belong to the whole of faithful of the traditional religion, of which they constitute the philosophical pole (or more often, it should well be said, magic, even a little sulfurous). Conversely, the faithful one which is not disciple or Master will never designate themselves as taoist, even if it practices within the framework of his religious life of many rites of origin taoist.

In the same way, the identification " bouddhiste" is ambiguous. Indeed, the vision of the universe and the human destiny that offers the traditional religion is very similar to that of Buddhism Mahayana, which besides influenced it much: impersonal universe, successive reincarnations in a state depend on the acts of the former life, helpful divinities (with the number of which one counts Bodhisattva S) being located in a state higher at the human state, nearer of the final release. Thus, faithful of the traditional religion can request very well the Buddha Amituofo or the very popular goddess Guan Yin (觀音), feminized version of Avalokiteshvara, without reading the Sûtra S nor to follow of properly Buddhist practice (meditation, food vegetarian for example). On another side, a person who estimates herself sufficiently committed in the Buddhist way to claim some will often continue the practices of the traditional religion, particularly within the framework of her activities as a member of the family or social community. An investigation carried out for Academia sinica of Taiwan towards the end of the year 1980 indicated that 35% of the people who declare themselves “Buddhist” practices and beliefs have which would rather arrange them in what is called “popular Buddhism”, tinted traditional religion of Buddhism.

Moral, social and political doctrines, the Confucianisme deeply influenced the family relations and the vision of the role of the individual in the community. The Religion, like all the social activities, thus carries the print from there. Nevertheless, in spite of the development of a Metaphysical starting from the 10th century and the religious statute claimed in certain countries by survey firms confucéennes to profit from institutional advantages, the term of religion is appropriate to him badly, and it is not in this quality that it influenced the Chinese popular religion. Thus, the worship of the ancestors reflects the vision confucéenne of the family without being strictly speaking a " rite confucéen". In the same way, the temples of Confucius and the worship which one returned in the imperial palace or the administrations form integral part of the system of the traditional religion, which admits that certain worships or gods are particular with a given social group. Metaphysics néo-confucéenne, moreover strongly influenced by the taoism and Buddhism, was adopted by the new religious currents.

Some general concepts

Deprived of Dogma and Clergy organized, the traditional religion is composed of a unit of practices and beliefs which are far from constituting a perfectly coherent system, but succeed in nevertheless presenting a certain degree of homogeneity. One must undoubtedly partially credit with it the Chinese empire, whose longevity supported the diffusion of common values on all the extent of its territory.

Universe

Contrary to the Chinese Mythology ancient, one does not find in the religion of today any creative god. The characters of the old myths are not besides any more but of remote legendary figures, rare being those which still have temples (Shennong, Xiwangmu, occasionally Nuwa). They were taken again and reinterpreted by certain schools taoists, but their worship remains confidential.

Without beginning nor end, the universe is maintained without the assistance of any divinity in a state of constant change resulting from the transformation one into the other of its two paramount components, the yīn 陰 and the yáng 陽. A more detailed representation of these transformations calls upon the play of five elements (metal water wood fire ground) associated each one with realities of various orders (seasons, colors bodies…) All can thus be explained by the set of these elements, whose comprehension is at the base of methods divinatoires.

The human being evolves/moves in symbiosis with this universe of which it is itself a miniaturized form (a microcosm with the image of the macrocosm). The universe is constantly traversed of energy (qì 氣). Its circulation in the ground, that the art of the fēng shŭi makes it possible to read, determines the beneficial or malefic aspect of a place. Its circulation in the human body influences the health condition, the traditional medicine also uses the theory of the yin-yang and the 5 elements to establish (partly) a diagnosis.

Gods

The gods are creatures of level higher than human, but without the absolute capacity which one lends to the God Monothéisme judéo - Christian or ic Islam, although some are supposed being above the others: thus God of the Sky (Tian Gong 天公), of very old origin, or the Emperor of jade, more recent taoist creation which often merges with him. Besides the faithful ones keep a certain distance with these supreme divinities, and it is not they which make the most assiduous liturgical object. In a general way, if one finds groups organized in systems by certain schools (the Pantheon taoist, Buddhas of the four orients or the three ages…) inside the whole of the deities, the Chinese divinities do not constitute the structured Pantheon. Moreover, the vision of the same divinity can differ from one faithful to another according to ideological or regional differences.

According to the Chinese design, the gods all are supposed to have had a terrestrial human existence, during which they showed an exceptional virtue or practiced a Ascèse which enabled them to reach after death the row of god. In fact one always does not find a real person at the origin of a divinity, but all are seen allotting a biography, even if it is generally imaginary. As exemplary beings, the Bodhisattva S and Bouddha S thus find naturally their place in the Chinese Pantheon and can be called upon by the faithful ones which is not inevitably of authentic Buddhists.

The possibility for very human sufficiently virtuous reaching the state of god, would be he only minor, explains why there is a multitude (one would count some more than 200 with Taiwan where live Chinese of various geographic origin). If the worship of some extends to the unit from the Chinese world, much have limited sphere of activity geographically or a functionally: God of the Ground, goddess who assists the women in labor (Zhùshēng niángniáng 助生娘娘) etc

With the imitation of the company of the imperial time , the gods constitute a celestial kind of Bureaucratie (or sometimes infernal). Certain divinities are indeed true mandarins exerting their authority on the human ones and the Fantôme S, for example God of the Ground and the God of the walls and ditches with the territorial jurisdiction, or God of the Hells judge and guard of the hearts on standby of reincarnation or condemned to purge in hell a sorrow at limited time. It is also as a civil servant that the God of the Furnace, whose effigy throne in the kitchen, assembles at the time of the Chinese New year to submit his report/ratio on the control of the family to God of the Sky or the Empereur of jade. In addition, the imperial administration itself intervened sometimes to allot a title to a divinity. Thus such goddess of such temple saw her growing popularity recognized by a promotion making it pass from " concubine impériale" with " impératrice".

The Chinese of the areas where the cultural exchanges are intense (coasts and islands of the South of China, Southeast Asia) do not hesitate to give their chance to foreign divinities who seem to have a capacity of effective protection. Thus, with Taiwan, a type of Buddha to four faces come from Thailand imported some ten years ago enjoys a certain favor, and very recently a divinity fox of Japanese origin pointed her nose. Even the gods to which one returns usually no worship could not be completely neglected. One to present a small offering can thus see with Singapore the outgoing Chinese of their temple greeting the Hindu divinity nearby temple, or to even him.

Demons and spirits of nature

There exist also Démons or geniuses resulting often from nature, malfaisants or not according to the cases, whose type more known, yāo jīng (妖精), is an animal which responsible itself for energy to the wire of time. Accumulating more easily energy yin, they are as a majority of female sex. It is the case of famous the tempting vixen of the tales or the heroin of the Légende of the white snake.

Beyond and Phantom S

Concept that individuality can remain after death if it is nourished by the Sacrifice S or if it is that of an exceptional personality is surely very old. The ancient Chinese beliefs seem to have allotted to the man several vital components separating at the time from the death, with the number of which figure shén (神), which gave the word god. The worship of the ancestors was at the origin to make protective divinities of the clan of them by nourishing to them shen, but the ancestors of today are not divinisés any more. One returns nevertheless a worship to them which can to them ensure a better situation in the hells or a better reincarnation, and which has the capacity to maintain fortune the family, just as the wise choice according to the rules of the Feng shui of the site of their tomb.

The details of the destiny in addition to-fall can vary according to the individuals. Many considers a judgment on behalf of an infernal judge, two divinities being candidates with the role, Yanluowang of origin Buddhist and the God-Prefect of local origin, with for guiltiest one stay not eternal but sometimes very long in a hell whose iconography is of origin hindo-Buddhist. Some imagine a stay of unlimited duration in addition to-fall, which can be last in a certain comfort thanks to the pieces of furniture or cars flarings at the time of the funerary ceremonies and with the sacrifices of the alive ones. This place would be a place managed by civils servant resembling much their counterparts of in-high. But the most general opinion, very influenced by the Bouddhisme, is that the heart réincarne, its future life being determined by the acts of its preceding existence. The ultimate objective can be the Nirvāna, or more modestly a paradise like that of the pure Ground of the Buddha Amituofo.

The reincarnation is not immediate, and during a few days at least the old alive one is a Fantôme, gŭi (鬼). The existence of the spectra is thus an indisputable fact for the majority of people, even if everyone is not able to feel their presence. If it were Chinese, the young boy incarnated by in would not be addressed to a psychologist. This period of ghostly life can be prolonged for some, particularly the people with whom no offering is made or died of violent death, these particularly dangerous last because it is thought that the fear caused by their test their scrambled the spirit; they are thus blind with the way of the reincarnation and think of leaving their pain by attracting a victim which will take their place; this kind of spirit is often designated as person in charge of the drownings, road accidents or suicides considered as unexplainable. In any event, even if they of the family or are animated better intentions, the contact of the phantoms, from their nature too yin, is prejudicial with the human health. One thus takes care to avoid the useless visits in the cemeteries and other places marked by death, as well as the supposed behaviors to attract them, like the fact of whistling at the fallen night. Term “GUI” having a pejorative connotation, one makes an effort not courroucer in their giving more pleasant names such as “good brothers” (haoxiōngdì 好兄弟).

So certain spirits on standby of reincarnation haunt the places of their life or of their death, much seem to live in this place of waiting which are the hells, whose door is open for one month each year (seventh month of the lunar calendar) per decree of the celestial bureaucracy. They can thus try to regulate the businesses left outstanding by their death and make sometimes, voluntarily or not, of the victims. This is why the tradition wants that one avoids as much as possible the activities at the risk for this period. To various moments of the month, and particularly the fifteenth day, Festival of the phantoms, a meal accompanied by prayers for their delivery their is offered. This ceremony names pŭdù (普度) pŭ " universel" and dù " passage, libération".

For any problem caused by the phantoms, and to deliver them of their current condition, one calls with the main taoists and the buddhist monks. The first are specialists in ritual in protection against the spectra which they are supposed knowledge to hold in respect. A belief lent to certain Masters taoists Hunan the capacity to bring back on their premises in the form of jiangshi, kind of zombie, the corpses of the people died in far, so that they can profit from the rites and a suitable burial on behalf of their family. The prayers of the buddhist monks, almost always present at the time of the funerary ceremonies, have the capacity to facilitate their delivery.

Microphone-bibliography

Marcel Granet the Chinese thought , 1934 (rééd. Albin Michel coll Library of the evolution of humanity 1999)
Marcel Granet the religion of the Chinese , 1922 (rééd. Albin Michel coll alive Spiritualities pocket 1998)

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