During the Zhou dynasty, people began to believe that the rulers of the Chinese states were 'sons of heaven', meaning that they were chosen by the gods. This idea continued to gain credibility. Once China was unified, the emperors used this belief to their advantage to help them retain power.
Many laws in ancient China concerned the emperor and his protection. Laws and punishments were in place, for example, for those that entered the palace without authority and used the main road that was reserved for the emperor. Anyone that aimed to hurt the emperor would be allowed no support and would be tortured and executed immediately.
Red Apple Education, n.d.
Buddhism first came to China from India around 500 AD, spreading through Central Asia along the Silk Road. At this time China was broken up into a lot of smaller kingdoms, so there wasn't much organised opposition to the new religion.
In China, Buddhism got stronger and stronger, even while it was losing ground in India to Hinduism. Soon most of the Buddhists were in China and not India. In China, even more than in India, most Buddhist people continued to lead more or less ordinary lives, but some Buddhist men and women left their jobs and their families in order to live in Buddhist monasteries as monks or nuns.
Carr, 2016.
Confucianism is a way of life taught by Confucius in the 6th–5th century BCE. Sometimes viewed as a philosophy, sometimes as a religion, Confucianism is perhaps best understood as an all-encompassing humanism that neither denies nor slights heaven. Confucianism has been followed by the Chinese for more than two millennia.
Confucianism is characterised by a highly optmistic view of human nature. The faith in the possibility of ordinary human beings to become awe-inspiring sages and worthies is deeply rooted in the Confucian heritage (Confucius himself lived a rather ordinary life), and the insistence that human beings are teachable, improvable, and perfectible through personal and communal endeavour is typically Confucian.
Religion Facts, 2016.
In Chinese the word dao means “way,” indicating a way of thought or life. There have been several such ways in China’s long history, including Confucianism and Buddhism. Daoism (also spelled Taoism) is a philosophical and religious tradition that developed in China in ancient times under the influence of ideas credited to a man named Laozi. Like Confucianism, it has deeply influenced Chinese culture. Daoism began as a complex system of philosophical thought. In later centuries it also emerged as a communal religion and was integrated into popular folk religion as well.
Daoism. (2016). In Encyclopædia Britannica.
