Chinese Philosophy and Religion Quiz

RS 1023E (570) Midterm Exam Review

• Exam Dates & Times:

  • Saturday, December 21, 2024
  • 9:00 am to 12:00 pm
  • W 170
  • 3 hours in length

• Exam Format:

  • Two parts
  • Part 1: 40 multiple choice/true-or-false questions (1 point each = 40 points total)
  • Part 2: 4 written answer questions (15 points each = 60 points total)
  • Multiple choice questions follow the same format as the Indian Religions Quiz
  • Written answers should focus on content rather than style. Each written-answer question is worth 15 points, so detailed answers are essential.

Resources

• Course Reader in Asian Religions (OWL)
• Lecture Notes (including PowerPoint slides on OWL)
• Mid-Term Exam Study Guide (OWL)

Four Broad Sections

• Introduction to Religion, RS and Secular Humanism
• Religions of India (Hinduism & Buddhism)
• Religions of China (Confucianism & Daoism [Buddhism])
• Religions of Japan (Shinto [Buddhism])

Mental Maps

• Start with a broad overview (map) of each topic
• Fill in details as understanding develops

A Major Theme in the Course

• Religions change over time
• The course follows a largely chronological structure
• Focus on the centuries when key developments occurred
• Students are not required to memorize exact dates, but should know the correct century for important events

Secular Humanism

• Definition of Secular Humanism
• Freud's perspective: religion as a coping mechanism for fears of nature and the repression of civilization.
• Maslow's view: religiousness as a response to peak experiences.
• Dawkins' view: religion as an evolutionary byproduct of gullible minds.

Religions of India

• Hinduism: 1400 BCE to present (3500 years)
• Buddhism: 500 BCE to 1300 CE (1800 years)

Hinduism - Main Topics

• Introduction to India and Indian Religions
• Vedic Period
• Origin of Hinduism and the Fire Sacrifice
• Upanishads
• Post-Vedic Period
• Hindu Dharma, the Laws of Manu, and Rites of Passage/Funerals
• Hindu Epic Mythology, the Epics in Brief, and the Bhagavad-Gita
• Explosion of Hindu Mythology (in the Puranas) and New Religious Practices

Hinduism - Vedic Period

• Early/Middle Vedic Period (1400-700 BCE): Hymns (Rig Veda), fire sacrifices to gods (e.g., Indra, Agni, Soma), texts of ritual theory. Focus on social participation for heaven.
• Late Vedic Period (700-500 BCE): Upanishads, reincarnation, law of karma, samsara, moksha (atman = brahman). Focus on world renunciation and spiritual liberation.

Hinduism - Dharma

• Cosmic dharma vs. social dharma
• Dharma as a solution to the inner tension between duty in the world and renouncing the world for spiritual liberation
• Laws of Manu (1st c. BCE – 2nd c. CE): dharma according to social class and life stage; includes theology of debts
• Bhagavad-Gita (1st c. CE): physical participation in society with mental renunciation (through yoga)

Hinduism - The Epics

• Epics Ramayana and Mahabharata (200 BCE-400 CE)
• Cultural products created by Valmiki and Vyasa
• Stories can be read as human-centered or cosmically
• Good (gods) triumphing over evil (demons)
• Vishnu's avatars as Rama and Krishna
• Importance of dharma
• Ramayana: Rama's killing of demon Ravana, who kidnapped his wife Sita
• Mahabharata: Righteous sons of Pandu (Pandavas) overcoming evil cousins (Kauravas) to win the Kuru Kingdom
• New Universe of the Epics: rise of Vishnu & Shiva (and Brahma), demotion of Vedic gods. Vishnu as god of society, Shiva as god of renunciation
• Devotion largely replaces food sacrifices
• Institution of pilgrimages
• Cycles of creation, existence, destruction
• Existing world through repeated cosmic time-cycles (yugas)

Hinduism – Explosion of Mythology

• Puranas (300-1500 CE): anthologies of mythology continuing trends of the Epics
• Stories of many new gods and goddesses
• Vishnu or Shiva as the highest god based on context

Hinduism - New Religious Practices

• Puja: Production of sacred images of epic/puranic deities, temples to house sacred images, ritual worship (puja) replacing fire sacrifices
• Brahmin priests transformed from Vedic sacrificial experts to temple-based puja experts
• Temples become a new sphere of public worship, devotees visit temples for darshan
• Pilgrimage: A religious activity dating to the Mahabharata, expressing a devotion to sacred places where divine activity takes place

Hinduism - Devotion (bhakti)

• Tamil bhakti-saints arise in South India (6th c. CE)
• Composed hymns of devotion to Vishnu or Shiva.
• Salvation through devotion; anti-ritual; anti-caste
• Spirit of bhakti spreads north to embrace all of India

Buddhism – Topics

• Life of the Buddha & Early Scriptures;
• Early Buddhist Teachings/Doctrines;
• Historical Development & Origins of Mahayana;
• Growth and Practice of Mahayana Buddhism;
• Becoming and Being a Buddhist.

Buddhism – Life of Buddha

• Three sources: early scriptures, later biographies, past-life stories
• Born in 5th c. BCE in northeast India (Shakya clan)
• Named Siddhartha (of the) Gautama (lineage),aka Shakyamuni (sage of the Shakya clan).
• Married; had a son
• Renounced as a shramana (around ages 29-30).
• Trained with two teachers
• Practiced harsh asceticism for years.
• Arrived at a Middle Path, Enlightenment (around 35)
• Preached for 45 years
• Gathered community(monks, nuns, laity)
• Died at the age of 80; cremated
• Remains distributed as relics in stupas.
• Scriptures (collected at First Buddhist Council): Monastic Code (Vinaya) and Sermons/Conversations (Sutras).

Buddhism – Early Doctrines

• Three characteristics of existence: impermanence, unsatisfactoriness, lack of self
• Five Aggregates (skandhas): form, feeling, perception, karma formations (including personality traits), consciousness
• 12-Link Chain of Dependent Origination: traces the ultimate cause of suffering (duhkha) to ignorance; removing ignorance removes duhkha.
• The Four Noble Truths: duhkha (suffering), cause of duhkha (craving), end to duhkha (nirvana), path to the end of duhkha (Eightfold Path)
• Eightfold Path: Wisdom (Right View, Right Intention), Morality (Right Speech, Right Action, Right Livelihood), Meditation (Right Effort, Right Mindfulness, Right Concentration).

Buddhism - Becoming and Being a Buddhist

• Becoming a Buddhist: The Three Refuges ("I take refuge in the Buddha, the Dharma, and the Sangha")
• The Five Precepts (for all Buddhists, including laypeople): abstaining from killing, stealing, sexual misconduct, lying, taking intoxicants
• Additional precepts for novices
• Full Vinaya for monks (225 rules) and nuns (320 rules)

Buddhism – Historical Development

• Division into 18-20 schools (nikayas) after the Buddha's death. Theravada (Path of the Elders) survives to present with its Pali Canon.
• Emperor Ashoka (3rd c. BCE): converted to Buddhism; sent missionaries (Theravada into Sri Lanka)
• Addition of Abhidharma to Scriptural Canon after schools split off.

Buddhism – Origins of Mahayana

• 'Maha-yana' ('Great-Vehicle') as a reform movement in the 1st c BCE
• Labelled existing practice as 'Hina-yana' ("Lesser-Vehicle")
• Critiques of Hinayana: selfish Arhat path, Buddha vanishing, obsession with Abhidharma
• New Proposals: Path of the Bodhisattva, Buddha as supreme being beyond space and time, Doctrine of Emptiness
• Presented ideas in New Mahayana Sutras.

Buddhism – Mahayana Buddhism

• Why did the Buddha teach the Path of the Arhat if the Path of the Bodhisattva was the true path?
• Why did the Buddha suggest he would leave the world behind forever if it wasn't true?
• Lotus Sutra (2nd c. CE): Buddha's skilful means (upaya), teaching to the level of the audience,.
• Path of the Bodhisattva as always the True Buddhist Path; based on Buddha's own path outlined in past-life stories (Jatakas).
• Cults of advanced Bodhisattvas (e.g., the cult of Avalokiteshvara).
• Buddhas in millions of world systems. Amitabha Buddha and his Pureland (Sukhavati)
• Life as a Bodhisattva: Six Perfections (charity, morality, patience, vigour, meditation, wisdom); Shantideva’s Essence of Enlightened Conduct.

Buddhism – Fate in India

• Buddhism effectively wiped out from India by 13th c. CE
• Reasons: stiff competition from Hinduism, persecution by Islamic rulers.
• Continued to live in the world outside India

Religions of China

• The "Three Teachings": Confucianism (500 BCE – present), Daoism (500 BCE – present), Chinese Buddhism (1st c. CE – present).

Religions of China - Main Topics

• Introduction to China and Chinese Religions
• Confucianism
• (Philosophical) Daoism
• Coming of Chinese Buddhism
• (Religious) Daoism
• (Neo-)Confucianism
• Chinese Popular Religion.

Intro to China and Chinese Religions

• Early Dynasties in China: Xia; Shang (1600–1050 BCE); Zhou (1050–221 BCE), including the Warring States Period
• Features of Early Chinese Religion during Shang & Zhou: animism (sacrifices to gods and spirits, ancestor veneration), divination; Shangdi as high god, Tian (Zhou); Mandate of Heaven
• Warring States Period.

Confucianism

• Confucius (551–479 BCE): born into “common” class in State of Lu; tried politics; wandered as teacher; studied past (e.g., early Zhou Dynasty, Duke of Zhou); taught the Way (Dao) of the Ancients.
• Confucianism: aimed at achieving human goodness (ren). Goodness through ritualistic human interactions and cultivating moral force (de).
• Disciples became Gentlemen (junzi); sought rulers to follow teacher’s ideas. Early thinker of Warring States Period.
• Disciples collected Confucius' sayings (Analects).
• Mencius (372 - 289 BCE): defined human goodness as "sympathetic compassion." Believed goodness innate in all humans, developed through education
• Xunzi (312-230 BCE): believed humans naturally wicked; education necessary for goodness. Xunzi-style Confucianism adopted under Han Dynasty.

(Philosophical) Daoism

• Two kinds of Daoism: Philosophical (Warring States); Religious (late Han Dynasty).
• Texts on Philosophical Daoism: Dao De Jing (Laozi); Zhuangzi (Zhuangzi)
• Principles of Philosophical Daoism: yin-yang; the dao as a natural force coursing through the world; the dao guides the world as it should be; wu wei (not acting against the Dao)
• Distrust of words; book learning, direct experiential learning better. Do nothing that causes contention. Freedom is preferable to wealth and status.

Chinese Buddhism

• Enters China (1st c CE) via Central Asia
• Confuse with Daoism (initially)
• In 166 CE, Emperor made sacrifices; four major schools (Tiantai, Huayan, Jingtu, Chan).
• Influenced development of Religious Daoism and Neo-Confucianism

(Religious) Daoism

• 142 CE, Zhang Daoling, revelation from god Laozi
• Forms Way of Celestial Masters
• Incorporated earlier Chinese practices: internal/external alchemy; Fangshi (shamanistic practices, healing, exorcism); divination; yin-yang based cosmologies
• New practices: communal scripture chanting; confession of sins; feasts; marriages, etc.; pantheon of Daoist Gods and immortals
• 4th C CE, Supreme Clarity sect: claimed higher revelation; less communal, focused on internal cultivation, opened monasteries.
• 5th C CE, Numinous Treasure sect: more communal again, incorporated Buddhist deities, monasteries, karma, and reincarnation

(Neo-)Confucianism

• Established by Zhu Xi (1130-1200 CE) during the Southern Song Dynasty (1127–1279 CE).
• Trained in Chan/Zen Buddhism for ten years; returned to reform Confucianism.
• Reduced 13 Confucian Classics to Four Books: The Great Learning, The Analects, The Doctrine of the Mean, The Mencius.

Chinese Popular Religion

• Examined "Three Teachings" as separate traditions; free to mix elements of traditions.
• Common elements: morality and behaviour (Confucianism); gods and immortals (Religious Daoism); understanding of afterlife and deities (Buddhism); understanding of the soul (folk religion).

Test your knowledge on the four schools of Chinese Buddhism, key figures in Daoism and Confucianism, as well as significant historical events in Chinese philosophy. This quiz covers various aspects of Religious Daoism, Philosophical Daoism, and Confucian teachings. Challenge yourself to see how well you understand these profound cultural traditions.