China has been a multi-religion country since the ancient times, such as

Buddhism, Confucianism, and Taoism. Today, I will talk about a major religion of
Confucianism in China. Confucius was born in 551 BC in the small feudal state of
Lu in what is now Shantung Province (Confucianism). Through the article of The
Origin of Confucianism, I know that after Confucius death, his disciples compiled
his teachings in The Analects of Confucius. They began to spread these teachings
throughout China. A later disciple, Mencius (372 289 BCE), became an ardent
proponent of Confucianism and further spread its teachings among the people.
The Chinese fore more than two millennia has followed Confucianism; therefore it
must be a important role in Chinese. Chinese believe Confucianism that because
his attitude worth to learn and be traditional attitude. Through the article of
Confucianism, the main principle of Confucianism is ren ("humaneness" or
"benevolence"), signifying excellent character in accord with li (ritual norms),
zhong (loyalty to one's true nature), shu (reciprocity), and xiao (filial piety).
Together these constitute de (virtue). Specially, Chinese really belief xiao; we can
think about all of Chinese festival, such as spring festival, moon festival, which
family need to celebrate together. Furthermore, since ancient China, people prefer
to live in big house because they want to live with family even if growing up,
children also need to live with parents which means xiao. However, western family
prefer to dependent.
I think the most sacred places of Confucianism are not religion as western,
because he was an educator. There is no god. Nor are there priests, shrines or
churches. There are no people running around calling themselves Confucianism.
For example, I am a Chinese, I think I am not belief Confucianism. However, when
I started to learn in school, my teachers also teach me what are ren, zhong, shu,
and xiao. Chinese people should be that. Therefore, Confucianism sometimes is
religion, and sometimes is an ethical system.
Chinese government uses an attitude of Confucianism to relate other counties.
From the article of Confucianism we can know that, For 2,000 years Confucianism
was the official philosophy of China. The only way a person could achieve an
important position in the government or in society was by having a good
knowledge of Confucianism. To become a government official it was necessary to
pass a difficult civil service examination based on the ideas of Confucius. Since it
was Confucianism that kept the leaders in power, they were opposed to any
changes. The Confucianists believed that they were the only civilized community
in the world and they looked down on the beliefs and cultures of other people.
This attitude made the Chinese unwilling to change their way of life when they
were first exposed to Western culture. This unwillingness to adopt Western ideas
and techniques in the late 19th and early 20th centuries proved to be disastrous
for the Chinese.
In the conclusion, I think I really learned more knowledge of Confucianism even if I
am Chinese and Shandong is my hometown. I was very deep influenced by
Confucianism in school life; however, I never think more like Confucianism also
influence in Chinese social development and whole country. Furthermore, I think in
nowadays China, Confucianism still influences most of Chinese attitude, even
Chinese also prefer to modern. For example, even chinese international students
can not celebrate chinese new years with their family, they need to face time ore
text to their order relative which were xiao.
Reference
Confucianism.
(n.d.).
Retrieved
March
19,
2015,
http://www.religionfacts.com/a-z-religion-index/confucianism.htm

from

The

Origin of Confucianism. (n.d.). Retrieved March 20, 2015, from

http://chosonkorea.org/index.php/confucianism/east-asia-in-the-context-ofconfucianism/ the-origin-of-confucianism
Confucianism.
(n.d.).
Retrieved
March
20,
2015,
from
http://www.globaled.org/chinaproject/confucian/reading1.html