East Asian Religions

Paper Summary:

This paper discusses how the religions of China, Korea and Japan have in common an emphasis on the essential unity of all things and the necessity of the individual's integration with nature, family and society. It shows how some of the most important religions in East Asia have been Confucianism and Taoism, which were indigenous to China and Buddhism, which was imported to China from India and then spread to Korea and from there to Japan. Through a brief overview of the main beliefs of these main East Asian religions, it demonstrates how this region of the world has been a distinct entity in terms of the nations' reliance on similar types of worship, shared faiths that are adapted to separate cultures and similar conceptions of the relationship between religion and society.

From the Paper:

"Devotion to ancestors and the burial of the dead characterized Chinese civilization from its earliest beginnings and these aspects of religion have persisted throughout history. But the emergence of the concept of the Tao, usually translated as "way", was to influence the formation of the two great indigenous religions of China. The Tao--and "how to know it, live it and construct a society that exemplifies it"--has been the thread that runs through all Chinese thought and religious expression and has, consequently, affected Korean and Japanese civilization as well (Ellwood & McGraw 183). Chinese thinkers held that there were three realms in which the Tao could be realized: nature, society, and the individual's inner being."

More papers on East Asian Religions:

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• Essay # 24268 : "Buddhism and East Asian Culture"

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