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Chinese Religions

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Submitted By spiris0315
Words 433
Pages 2
Stephanie Piris
Religion 0863
August 1, 2011

Chinese Religions Chinese traditions are one of the many interesting religions. The Chinese people do not have one strong religion, but they have 3 major faiths, Confucianism, Daoism and Buddhism. Most Chinese have shown themselves to be concerned primarily with the human person and society. More interestingly, the Chinese people seem to have liberty in choosing their faith based on their own thought and beliefs. Confucianism is upon the most contradictory tradition of the Chinese religions. Confucius teachings were elaborated from two distinct people about human virtue and social life. Confucius was the founder of Confucianism and believed that government must be founded on virtue. In other words, a person should have a moral power to be a ruler. However, Confucius follower, Mencius, elaborated about human virtue and good government, proclaiming the original goodness of human nature. Mencius thought humans were predisposed to doing good things because of the compassionate characteristics humans hold. Further, humans in society have a tendency to act shameful in doing something wrong and to help other when we see someone in need. Conflicting to Mencius’ philosophy of human nature, are Xunzi’s views. Xunzi believed that humans are egocentric people and very driven by our desires. Further, he claimed that humans were originally evil and become good only through strict laws and harsh punishments. From my own personal belief, Xunzi’s views are much more credible and understanding. In my eyes, humans are naturally meant to do wrong. As discussed in class, this is a “dog-eat-dog” world. It is in our nature, once brought into the world, to defend ourselves in all possible ways. Therefore, it makes sense to have an egocentric and desirous nature. We have only ourselves to keep our survival in life, and we are

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