Chinese Thought: A Different Kind of Contemplation

In modern society, people are eager to classify and organize things to make them easier to understand. Where some schools of thought can be easily identified as religion or philosophy, Chinese thought does not fit neatly into a mold. The teachings of Confucius and Chuang Tzu cannot be classified as either religious or philosophical. Ancient Chinese teachings were more like a combination of these two categories, with differences from both. This distinction of ideas from those of other societies, especially those of Western Europe, could explain why the Buddhist ideas of India spread more easily to China than to the West.

The teachings of ancient China are more difficult to understand because they are not exactly religious or philosophical. The ideas of Confucius and Chuang Tzu should not be considered religion because there is no call for reverence, obedience or, most importantly, worship of a higher power. Gods are mentioned rarely, and pleasing them was never the most important focus of the teachings. In fact, though Confucius mentions the gods, he states that humans should not focus their energy in worshiping them: “To work for the things the common people have a right to and to keep one's distance from the gods and spirits while showing them reverence can be called wisdom” (Confucius 824). The failure of ancient Chinese teachings to honor or worship the gods separates them from Western ideas of religion.

Ancient Chinese thought is similar to modern conceptions of philosophy in that it was often the study of wisdom, truth, knowledge, and virtuous living. Confucius focused on what made a man into a “Gentleman,” encouraging his students to live honest lives and teaching often about moral uprightness. Confucius valued the idea of an inner moral judge, saying that “a man who has a sense of shame […] can be said to be a Gentleman” (Confucius 829). The importance of knowledge and wisdom in society were also important parts of the teachings.

However, ancient Chinese thought was different from philosophy because the ancient Chinese teachers were not looking for answers to questions about the universe, the past, and the future. Confucius focused more on the present times and the virtues required to be a good person: “It is these things that cause me concern: failure to cultivate virtue, failure to go more deeply into what I have learned, inability, when I am told what is right, to move to where it is, and inability to reform myself when I have defects” (Confucius 825). The ancient Chinese also accepted that they would never know and understand everything, so they did not focus on what they did not know. The primary focus of Chinese teachings was to live in the world as a part of the world. Chuang Tzu taught that the Way could not be found in certain places, that it was in everything: “You must not expect to find the Way in any particular place-there is no thing that escapes its presence!” (Chuang Tzu 857). This way of thinking of the world as a unit and the present as the only comprehendible idea is philosophical in that it deals with knowledge, wisdom, and the general idea of existence, but it is different from modern philosophy in that the ancient Chinese did not focus on what they considered beyond their realm of knowledge.

These qualities of Chinese thought as not exactly religious and not exactly philosophical explain why Buddhism could spread so easily into China as opposed to the West. Buddhism shared many of these same qualities. In the teachings of Siddhartha Gautama, as in the teachings of Confucius and Chuang Tzu, gods and the afterlife, though mentioned, were not the focus. This explains how the Chinese could be easily converted to Buddhism. Western religions, however, where the god or gods and the afterlife were considered very significant, would not have easily accepted the ideas of the Buddha.

The Buddha also often refused to answer metaphysical questions because he did not believe that they were pivotal to this life: “This [the explanation of whether or not the world is eternal and infinite, whether or not the body and soul are joined, and whether or not saints exist after death] profits not, nor has to do with the fundamentals of religion […]” (Buddhism). As in Chinese thought, time was not wasted trying to explain things that could not be understood, and enlightenment was internalized. This differs from Western religions in which metaphysical questions had answers and specific steps were set for a salvation. Western peoples would not have been inclined to convert to a religion that was so different from their own, whereas the similarities between Buddhism and Chinese thought would have been a simple transition for the Chinese people.

Ancient Chinese thought and Buddhism were similar enough that conversion from one to another would not require a whole new set of values. This is a possible explanation for the spread of Buddhism to China, but not into the West until more modern times. In the West, where religion and philosophy were separate, more clearly defined categories, the Buddhist ideas that were a blending of these two categories would have made less sense. In ancient Chinese thought, however, the ideas could be easily incorporated, because the focus was not on the gods or the afterlife, but on being a good person and living in harmony with the rest of the world. Studying these religions provides explanation for the divide between the ideas of the West and those of the East.