Beliefs in Nature Worship
In ancient times, the Chinese were mainly peasants or farmers. As such, their primary concern was to till their ancestral land to obtain good crops with which to feed themselves and their families. Through experience, they discovered that certain external factors determined the success or failure of their crops. These factors took the form of natural phenomena such as floods, typhoons, earthquakes, landslides, thunder, etc. which caused the destruction of their crops resulting in untold sufferings such as famine and widespread starvation. Being ignorant and uneducated people/ they could not understand the causes of these unfavorable natural phenomena and attribute them to the working of supernatural forces. Gradually, this recognition of unknown invisible forces led to their personification, based upon the belief that these forces were sentient. Temples dedicated to the gods of wind, thunder, etc. were built; prayers were offered to these gods and rites
were performed from time to time. The ancient Chinese thus became nature worshipers, and this practice still exists today among the common simple Chinese who form the majority of the Chinese people in the lands to which they had emigrated, especially in Southeast Asia. Their religious influence still remains in their minds.
Beliefs in Ancestor Worship
From time to time in the course of her long
J? history, China produced many sages, thinkers and philosophers, whose teachings and thinking not only contributed greatly towards the molding and development of Chinese culture but also to a large extent exerted an influence on the religious beliefs and practices of the people, particularly at the popular level. One of the most important of * these practices is Ancestor Worship which became
so widespread that it assumed the status of a religion. More than any other people in the world, the Chinese are obsessed with the dead. While the more sophisticated Chinese regarded this Ancestor Worship as a kind of respect for the dead and a way of showing their love of continuing tradition, for the average Chinese, it indicated a fear of the dead - a terror that the spirits of the dead might return to harm the living if they were not accorded proper care and attention. The Confucian teaching of filial piety strongly reinforced the practice of Ancestor Worship; it has always been regarded as the root of all virtues in Confucianism, leading to
the practice of other virtues like compassion and benevolence. He taught that unless one possessed a sense of gratitude and affection towards one's own parents, one could not possibly harbor love and concern for others.
Today, Ancestor Worship ceremonies are held several times a year, on New Year's Day, All Souls' Day (QingMing), Tung Chi (Winter Solstice) and other lesser occasions. Offerings of food and other things are made to the ancestors, during which gratitude is expressed for past favors granted, and appeals made for the protection of the family from misfortunes and disasters, as well as for good fortune and prosperity in the future. In conservative families, the Ancestral Tablet (Shin Chu), which consists of an upright piece of flat wood on a pedestal, is kept in the house. This tablet is believed to be the abode of the deceased soul. Some families keep the tablet at the clan hall or in a temple, where ceremonies of offerings are held by the appropriate authorities during the festive occasions. Families who keep their ancestral tablets there pay yearly contributions for the burning of incense and chanting of prayers by the monks and nuns on these occasions.
Tang Tein Beng
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