this issue
previous article in this issuenext article in this issue

Document Details :

Title: The Ambiguous Character of Chinese Religion(s)
Author(s): CHING, Julia
Journal: Studies in Interreligious Dialogue
Volume: 11    Issue: 2   Date: 2001   
Pages: 213-223
DOI: 10.2143/SID.11.2.519025

Abstract :
Are the Chinese people religious? Do they have religions? If they do, do they traditionally have one religion, or more? These questions have been asked over and again including by myself. I have tried to give some answers, but they never seem satisfactory. In fact, they give rise to new questions about the nature of religion and about when a phenomenon is religious or is not religious.
I shall try to address the topic in another way, beginning with an analysis of teh Chinese term for religion, zongjiao, and then move on to syncretism in Chinese religion, and concentrate on the discussion of tradition of Qigong or Chinese yoga as an example both of syncretism and of the ambiguity of calling this practice 'religion'.

Download article