Religion Test 3a
How many people lived in China in 2018?
1.4 billion. 18.5% of world's total population.
What year was the Communist People's Republic of China established? Who was the first ruler?
1949. Mao Ze-Dong
What percentage of the worlds population lived in east Asia in 2018?
21.6% (1.6 billion)
What does Confucius mean by Jen (Ren)?
A kind of love that generates a fellow feeling and community feeling. Not only makes living in a community possible, it makes it attractive as well. Begins in the family and extends to the state or society.
What policy did the Jesuits adopt to convert the Chinese?
A policy of accommodation to rectify eastern religions with Christianity
What is alchemical Taoism?
An attempt to synthesize elements from different schools of Taoism and blend them with metaphors they derived from Laozi and Zhuangzi. They were preoccupied with extraordinary powers and magic, seeking by so doing to gain Immortality.
What does Confucius call de?
An inner virtue with a spiritual ethical transformative power
Which six classics are considered canonical in Confucianism?
Analects, Book of Changes, Book of Odes, Book of History, Book of Rites, and the Spring and Autumn Annals
Who, according to the Daodejing, is a sage?
Anyone who has the power to grasp the spontaneity and natural flow of the universe. The power is achieved through wisdom
How did ancient China present Confucianism?
As a code of wisdom and conduct for the Chinese gentleman scholar or the aspiring Chinese statesman
What religious system made its way to China by way of the Silk Road during the Han Dynasty?
Buddhism
Name five independent nations of east Asia
China, Japan, South Korea, North Korea, and Mongolia
What unified Europe in the Middle Ages?
Christianity or Christendom
Which four virtues were Confucius's ideal of proper behavior?
Chung (faithfulness), hsin (sincerity), tu (earnestness), ching (respectfulness)
What religious system did the Han dynasty promote as the official state educational system?
Confucianism
What two great schools of Chinese thought emerged during the Warring States period?
Confucianism and Doaism
In what way is the Confucian idea of cultivating virtues different from the Western Christian notion of cultivating virtues as found in eremitical tradition of monasticism?
Confucianism believes you need community where as western Christian monks take refuge in solitude
Which three religious traditions were promoted during the Ch'ing or Manchu dynasty?
Confucianism, Doaism and Buddhism
Which three religions have had profound influence in China?
Confucianism, Taoism, and Buddhism
Who was Han Hui?
Confucius's favorite disciple
What book was Laozi thought to have written?
Daodejing (Tao Te Ching)
What does the Daodejing say happens to all organisms or Ming?
Death
What are the five familial relationships in Confucianism?
Father-son, Older brother-younger brother, older friend-younger friend, husband-wife, and emperor-subject.
What kind of natural disasters plagued China during the Shang dynasty?
Floods, earthquakes, and famine.
The First Opium war was fought between China and who?
Great Britain
The Second Opium war was fought between China and who?
Great Britain and France
What great landmark was started during the Qin (or Ch'in) dynasty?
Great Wall of China
What were the four great Chinese dynasties?
Han, Tang, Sung and Ming
What, according to the Daodejing, is the goal of human life?
Harmony with the Dao
Why did Laozi abandon his government position?
He realized the government laws and bureaucracies distort the simplicity by which humans should carry out their life
Why did Kong Fuzu seek a return to the pristine old times?
He wanted a return to harmony and order
What did Laozi do when he abandoned his government position?
He withdrew from society and lived a solitary life.
What port was ceded to Britain by the treaty of Nan-Ching?
Hong Kong
What problem has been raised by feminist scholars with respect to the Yin-Yang principle?
It's a problem at the Yin subjugates women
What Mongolian leader invaded China during the Sung Dynasty and established the Yuan Dynasty?
Kublai Khan
To whom has Taoism traditionally traced?
Laozi (Lao Tzu)
Name two examples of mystical Taoist
Laozi and Zhuangzi
Who are the authors of the two classical text of Taoism?
Laozi and Zhuangzi
What, according to Zhuangzi, is life?
Life is an ongoing transformation of the Dao
Which Italian explorer visited China during the Yuan Dynasty?
Marco Polo
Which two Italian Jesuit missionaries traveled to the far east and encountered eastern religions in their missionary work?
Matteo Ricci and Michele Ruggieri
What two misunderstandings do the western depiction of the Dao tend to suffer from?
Metaphysical and mystical. The metaphysical era depicts the Tao as a kind of transcendental reality or principle or even a Supreme Being that is distinct and distant from the world. The mystical tends to depict the Tao as some ineffable absolute Other beyond human reach that can be grasped only by Mystical encounter
What, according to Confucius, should learning lead to?
Moral goodness or Ren (Jen)-moral perfection or sagacity
What are the three jewels of the Dao?
Non-coercive leadership, frugality and compassion
Who was Zengzi
One of Confucius's famous disciples
What is mystical Taoism?
Refers to those Taoist hermits, in the period of the Warring States, who developed a pantheistic conception of nature.
What is Li?
Ritual propriety; it guides a superior persons actions
What was the name of the all-powerful divine force during the Shang dynasty?
Shang Ti. A personal God who could be reached only through mediums or diviners.
Who are some alchemical Daoists?
Some Daoist priests
What, according to the Daodejing, is in evitable in human existence?
Suffering
Who was the first provisional president of the first Republic of China?
Sun Yat-sen on January 1, 1912.
What two rebellions did the Ch'ing or Manchu dynasty have to contend with?
Taiping (1850-64) and Nian (1853-68) Rebellions
What is meant by the "problem of simplistic approach to the study of China"?
Taking for granted the enormity of the geographical location we call China
What does the Daodejing say about describing the Dao?
That it is indescribable
What is xiaoren?
The "small man". Does not adhere to conventions of proper decorum and does not follow the Way
What did the Shang dynasty introduced to China to make China a powerful force in the world?
The Shang (or Yin dynasty) introduced Chinese writing systems that made China a powerful force in the world
Around what period was Zhuangzi born?
The Warring States period, the fourth century BCE, around 369 BCE
What is the Western mind prone to that is not found in the Chinese worldview?
The Western mind is prone to dualism: body-mind, light-dark, and matter-spirit split. The Western mind tends to conceive things in terms of either-or, not both-and.
What Chinese dynasty is traditionally considered the first dynasty and how long did it last?
The Xia Dynasty. It lasted about 500 years.
What is the Yin and what is the Yang?
The Yin is a feminine principle. It represents night, cold, and the earthly realm. The Yang is a masculine principle. It represents light, heat, hot, and sky or the heavenly realm. The two principles are not in competition, rather they are thought to be complementary
What is junzi?
The morally superior person who, by according with the ritual code of the tradition, treat others with respect and dignity, and pursues virtues like humility, sincerity, trustworthiness, righteousness, and compassion
What Zhou idea did the Han Dynasty reinvent?
The mythical idea of tianming ("mandate from heaven").
What did the Zhou (or Chou) rulers invent to maintain their power?
The mythical idea of tianming ("mandate from heaven"). This is the idea that the Zhou ruler could only be the ruler because there could only be one ruler at a time and that this Zhou ruler has the blessings of the gads to rule.
What is the Axial Age?
The period between 800 BCE and 200 BCE. Coined by German-Swiss psychiatrist and philosopher, Karl Jasper (1883-1969). It was a period of instability and chaos. Was unique in that it distinguished ancient peoples from modern's.
What are the three motifs of the Daodejing?
The political, the religious, and the practical
What is the Daodejing critical of?
The uninhibited depravity of self-serving rulers and it is also scornful of social activism of self-seeking rulers because it considers it to be nothing more than an abstract moralism
In what did ancient China find a unifying force?
Their ruler. The emperor of China.
What, according to Confucius, does the practice of ritual do?
They guide the superior man's actions. Promotes the actualization of the normative five relationships. Harmonizes or civilizes a person, whereas the absence of ritual turns a person backward, away from the Way. Distinguishes a human person from beast. Means of manifesting one's humanity and a means of nurturing within a person the very qualities that make that person human
Why did the Jesuit missionaries favorite Confucianism over Taoism?
They had a negative view of Taoism characterizing it as a deviant religion of the poor and powerless that is based on idolatrous and superstitious beliefs and practices
How did China think of the cosmos?
They thought of the cosmos in terms of a union of two complementary but nonetheless opposite principles, Yin-Yang
What is hedonistic Taoism?
Those who gave up trying to save the social order in the time of Chaos and disorder.
How many trends within Taoism have scholars distinguish?
Three. Hedonistic, Mystical and Alchemical
How was China able to exercise a cultural dominance over East Asia?
Through the spread of Confucianism
What four possible meanings or interpretations are there for the term Tao?
Ultimate reality, the way of nature, means to personal liberation, or a formula for harmonious living
What, according to Confucius, does a leader need to justify his or her rule?
Virtue alone.
Who made an artificial distinction between Taoism as part philosophy and as part religion?
Western polemicists
When does a person's filial obligations to one's parents cease?
When they die
Name one hedonistic Taoist?
Yang Zhu (Yang Chu)
Who made epic voyages to Arabia and Africa during the Ming dynasty?
Zheng He, great admiral
Under what dynasty did Kong Fuzu live?
Zhou Dynasty
