Religions and Belief Systems in the Yuan Dynasty

Religion and Belief Systems in the Yuan Dynasty

By Melissa Rose—Red Class—2/2/12

            Religion played a big role in ancient Chinese life, and especially so in the Yuan dynasty where there was a foreign rule, and therefore, new ideas and philosophies spreading around. Emperor Kublai Khan was not strict about religion. When he took the throne, he was still practicing Shamanism, he did not try to convert anyone. He also believed in and followed Confucianism and allowed it to remain the foundation of Chinese society. Several other religions and belief systems in action at the time were Buddhism, Taoism, Legalism, and a few other less popular ones like Islam, Christianity, and Judaism.

            Buddhism was becoming one of the most practiced religions in all of China. It had originated in India, and made its way into the Tang Dynasty in the mid 600’s. Buddhism was first introduced by the original “Buddha.” He was a spiritual figure who taught people to always second guess what they hear, not stress on the “unanswerable questions,” Karma comes in account when deciding your destiny for afterlife, and meditation brings inner peace.

            Confucianism was a set of rules to living a happy and peaceful life, written by Confucius, a Chinese philosopher. He taught that it was most important to respect your elders, and promoted the “five bonds” in which shows the five main relationships, listing the more powerful first: Ruler to Subject, Father to Son, Husband to Wife, Elder Brother to Younger Brother, and the one that is and always will be equal: Friend to Friend. An important quote from his writings, The Analects is “It does not matter how slowly you go so long as you do not stop.” This means never give up on your dreams, as long as it takes you to achieve them.

            Daoism promotes inner peace and harmony with nature. It was first founded by a man known as Laozi. He believed in balance, meditation and peace. This is also the origination of “Yin and Yang.” Yin is the bad, and Yang is the good. Without some Bad in the world, we wouldn’t know Good. This created a balance in the world. Laozi also believed if one had harmony with nature, they would live a long, happy life. An important quote from his writings, Daodejing is “He who knows does not speak. He who speaks does not know.”

            Some Chinese believed in many gods, and for some, there was only one. In the Yuan Dynasty, Emperor Khan was very flexible with religions because it was probably the biggest aspect in most people’s lives. Every day, people worshiped, they meditated and they communicated with their gods and created enough inner peace to deal with all the other political stress in China.

(From godpaths.com)