The main religions of China are Taoism, Confucianism and Buddhism.
The religion of China have shaped the characteristic Chinese temperament. The Chinese have been described by Bertrand Russell as perhaps the most cultured, the most tolerant and the most realistic people he had ever met. By being realistic Russell meant that the Chinese are open minded and face facts as they are without trying to twist them to suit preconceived theories. This trait – which the Chinese possess – was held by Russell to be so important that – according to Russell – if this trait were to become universal then a major portion of the miseries of mankind would be eradicated.
To know more about Russell’s views please read The Basic Writings of Bertrand Russell available at Amazon.
The religion of China also embodies the reasonable nature of the Chinese people. It is a forgiving sort of philosophy, which accepts Man as he is without expecting perfection. We are descended from animals and are – in – fact animals ourselves. All of us have a mixture of physical, mental and moral assets and liabilities. The religion of China and the philosophical Chinese recognize this and attempt to live life reasonably without expecting perfect peace or perfect happiness.
The view of the religion of China regarding human nature is expressed in the famous monkey epic. The story is told of a monkey who undertakes penances and thus obtains supernatural powers. But he is yet not a master of himself or his passions. He thinks himself fit to reside in heaven and goes to stay over there. But he creates so much mischief and trouble that he is expelled from heaven and comes back to earth. Smarting with this grievance the monkey organizes his tribe into an army and proclaims himself “The Great Sage, Equal of Heaven.” The Jade Emperor of Heaven sends his troops to fight the monkey but they are unable to succeed. Ultimately the religious monkey makes a bet with the Buddha or god himself. He made a bet that with his magical powers he could go as far as the end of the Earth. At stake was the title of the “Great Sage” or complete submission. The monkey travels to what he thinks is the end of the Earth. He passes some monkey urine there as proof of his having arrived there. Then he returns back to the Buddha and claims that he has won the bet. Buddha then opens one hand and asks him to smell his own urine at the base of his middle finger, and tells him how all this time he had never left his palm. It is only then that the monkey learns humility. After spending 500 years in captivity the monkey redeems himself by joining some others on a pilgrimage to obtain and bring sacred Buddhist texts to China.
This monkey nature is present in all of us according to the Chinese view. We have obtained powers – even magical powers – yet we are not masters of ourselves and continuously get into mischief. For all that the monkey is still an extremely loveable creature in spite of his conceit and mischief. So should we too, be able to love humanity in spite of all its weakness and shortcomings.
The religion of China recognizes all our shortcomings and our strengths. In view of this the philosophical Chinese take the view of “Lets be reasonable” as applied to life. The Chinese do not expect perfect peace or perfect happiness. The reasonable attitude is, since we have got this human nature, let’s start with it. Passions and instincts are present in us – we cannot wish them away. Just stay in the middle of the road. Do not be enslaved by these passions. Eventually both in Taoism and in Confucianism the highest goal is an understanding and harmony with our passions and with nature itself.
This reasonable attitude creates – at least amongst the thinking Chinese – a forgiving sort of philosophy, which views human error or misbehavior as common human nature – or man’s normal passions. The Chinese regard heaven or god himself as a reasonable sort of being so that if you live according to your best lights you have nothing to fear. With a reasonable god supervising the activities of reasonable and some unreasonable beings everything is quite all right in this world.
This is the attitude of the Chinese and the religion of China as regards human nature.
I hope you enjoyed this article and that it will be useful to you.
Stay tuned for more in this continuing series.
Related posts:
