East Asian religions
[1] The group also includes Shinto and Tenrikyo of Japan, and Korean Shamanism, all of which combine shamanistic elements and indigenous ancestral worship with various influences from Chinese religions.
[3] All these religious traditions generally share core concepts of spirituality, divinity and world order, including Tao ('way') and Tian ('heaven').
[8][9] Syncretism is a common feature of East Asian religions, often making it difficult to recognise individual faiths.
[29] Worship of nature deities and ancestors is common in popular Taoism, while professional Taoists put an emphasis on internal alchemy.
[30] Confucianism is a complex system of moral, social, political, and religious thought, influential in the history of East Asia.
It draw Buddhist religious concepts and Taoist yin yang theory, as well as the Yijing, and placed them within the framework of classic Confucianism.
Shinto practitioners commonly affirm tradition, family, nature, cleanliness and ritual observation as core values.
[46] The authorship of the Tao Te Ching, the central book of Taoism, is assigned to Laozi, who is traditionally held to have been a teacher of Confucius.
[48] Zhuangzi, reacting to the Confucian-Mohist ethical disputes casts Laozi as a prior step to the Mohists by name and the Confucians by implication.
Historical Taoists challenged conventional morality, while Confucians considered society debased and in need of strong ethical guidance.
[53] Chan Buddhism was particularly modelled after Taoism, integrating distrust of scripture, text and even language, as well as the Taoist views of embracing "this life", dedicated practice and the "every-moment".
[54] In the Tang period Taoism incorporated such Buddhist elements as monasteries, vegetarianism, prohibition of alcohol, the doctrine of emptiness, and collecting scripture into tripartite organisation.
[56] Confucianism promoted social stability, order, strong families, and practical living, and Chinese officials questioned how monastic lifestyle and personal attainment of enlightenment benefited the empire.
[57] Kitagawa, Joseph (2002), The Religious Traditions of Asia: Religion, History, and Culture, Taylor & Francis, ISBN 978-0-700-71762-0
