My point is that, at any scale, describing East Asia, or China's "faith" as "the confluence of three religions" is a kind of lazy politics.
Why?
First of all, we should all agree. As long as we systematically study Chinese history, we will know that whether in the study of village covenants, folk sacrifices, rural customs or the ideology of scholars and officials, Confucian classics, the Four Books and the Five Classics, are in an absolute leading position.
Secondly, as for rural gods. The hybridization of local gods is indeed the norm of faith. There are countless common gods in Buddhism and Hinduism. The ritual holy places of the three Abrahamic religions also intersect with each other. In Christian countries, the Germanic polytheistic spring goddess celebration is also held in April every year, called "Easter". The folk worship of the Thousand-Handed Jesus Daozun cannot be regarded as a proof of unclear faith.
Academically speaking. At least I have never seen the saying that the "three religions" of "the confluence of three religions" are used as the name of a belief. You have written "three religions" in name, it is impossible to be one religion. Furthermore, since Dong Zhongshu's "rejecting all schools of thought and respecting Confucianism alone", it has been the norm for Confucian scholars to publicly offer sacrifices to various gods, which is also the means for Confucian scholars to maintain their political power and knowledge monopoly. This state has almost run through Chinese history.
From Yang Kuan's "History of the Western Zhou Dynasty" and Li Zehou's "A Modern Reading of the Analects" to new research in recent years, domestic historians will also tell you that one of the core arguments of Chinese Confucianism is to "humanize" faith. "Huangdi's three hundred years" became Huangdi's governance for a hundred years, the system continued for a hundred years, and the people missed him for a hundred years. Such a humanized explanation. This humanization and the attitude of "respecting ghosts and gods but keeping them at a distance" is the Confucian "ontology" that inherits the spirit of Zhou Li - that is, discussing ontology is meaningless, and heaven and hell are just vassals of "human relations".
The Zhou people "matched virtue with heaven". Confucianism is the same.
At the same time, starting from the beginning of the Western Zhou Dynasty, the worship of ghosts and gods dominated by the sacrificial groups of the old Shang Dynasty was gradually transferred to the worship of destiny and ancestors dominated by nobles and retainers. In the late Spring and Autumn Period and the Warring States Period, the society transitioned from the production relations of the state and wild clans to the society of small peasant family farming, which pushed this movement to a climax. Confucianism itself was born from the separation of sacrifice and practical officials. In the Han Dynasty, Confucianism, which focused on secular moral norms and the family social order of monarchs, ministers, fathers and sons, borrowed the theory of heaven and man and the theory of the beginning and end of the five elements from Yin-Yang School and Taoism. A complete and self-consistent theoretical system of the unity of politics and religion, including spiritual and secular, was established.
In this system, priests and the gods they observed and relied on have been removed from daily affairs. The only thing that has the power to dominate people is the "human relations" moral order from the self-cultivating peasant rural society. The moral concepts brought by other religions must also be subject to the human relations order. So when the Catholic Pope refused Chinese believers to worship their ancestors, this religion was banned.
This system was impacted by Western Buddhism and local Taoism during the Southern and Northern Dynasties. In addition, the Chinese aristocratic families inherited from at least the end of the Qin Dynasty disintegrated during the Southern and Northern Dynasties and the Sui, Tang and Five Dynasties. Therefore, the political reforms of the Tang and Song Dynasties were also accompanied by ideological reforms.
In this reform process, the Confucian scholars played a leading role. Cheng-Zhu Neo-Confucianism borrowed the ontological "qi" of the world from Taoism, and borrowed the concepts of reincarnation and cause and effect from Buddhism to construct the study of things (to oversimplify), but its fundamental principle is still to maintain the Confucian moral order of "the way of heaven is constant, it does not exist for Yao, and it does not die for Jie". Therefore, from the end of the Southern Song Dynasty to the Ming Dynasty, the power of the gentry as the actual head of the village continued to expand. They could eat up the extinct households, assist in litigation, control clan property, form a village community, and call for group training in wartime.
No matter when, the main sacrifice on the rural community day is definitely a national scholar-official. Or a rural Confucian gentry. Only public Buddhist and Taoist ceremonies, or funerals of the deceased, will be carried out according to Buddhism and Taoism. This is the "respect ghosts and gods but keep them at a distance" reserve that Confucianism has given to other religions.
Compared with the Buddhist and Taoist beliefs that only have an impact on theological rituals. The family filial piety of fathers and sons and brothers, the gratitude of teachers and students, the loyalty of monarchs and ministers in Chinese society, and the judgment of cases in the Spring and Autumn Period, the protection of relatives, loyalty, filial piety, chastity and righteousness, from the countryside to the court, are all stipulated by Confucianism. Even what is a "lewd temple" and what is a "orthodox religion" depends on whether the temple can help the Confucian gentry rule in the local area. This is not a belief, and the so-called belief has no influence in China at all.
In addition, I mentioned folk beliefs, which are the secret societies that exist in contrast to Confucian scholars. This is another system. Since the Song Dynasty, because the old Chinese aristocratic families withdrew from the historical stage, the bureaucrats and local gentry of the Song and Ming dynasties only had the institutionalized promotion system of the imperial examination. Therefore, officials took different paths, and the opposition between officials and the people gradually intensified. Civilian autonomous groups began to proliferate. Confucian gentry began to advocate village agreements since Fan Zhongyan. Small farmers and tenants followed the village secret societies.
The characteristic of secret societies is that the scriptures are written randomly, but they are well organized. What is still prominent is the belief of "practical rationality" and "humanization" that has emerged in Chinese civilization from the Zhou Dynasty's rituals and music to the rise of Confucianism. The Mingjiao and White Lotus Sect in the Song and Yuan Dynasties, the White Lotus Sect, Wenxiang Sect, Luozu Sect in the Ming Dynasty, the White Lotus Sect, Tianli Sect, Shouyuan Sect in the Qing Dynasty, and even the Taiping Heavenly Kingdom's God Worshipping Sect. They are all well-organized secret societies with messy scriptures.
For this reason, I suggest that beliefs be divided into "official beliefs" and "folk beliefs". Two categories. For folk beliefs, you can fill in "integrated beliefs", or you can fill in Buddhism, Taoism, Jingming and other religions according to the actual history of secret societies and sects.
Modern national studies "harmlessly treat" Confucianism, turning the Four Books and Five Classics into "national studies" to dilute its Confucian scripture attributes. It is a modern cultural study that talks about the simulation of ancient society. Confucianism and its tributaries undoubtedly dominate the upper class.
