West Asian Belief

This is the homepage for the West Asian Belief category, a subcategory of Belief.

Confucianism

Confucius (551–479 BC) was a Chinese philosopher whose teachings are the basis for Confucianism, a tradition sometimes described as a philosophy and sometimes as a religion. Confucius’s disciples organized his teachings into the Analects. He emphasized such ideas as li (decorum and proper behavior) and ren (benevolence or humaneness). He taught that disorder often arose from the failure to call things by their proper names, so he advocated the rectification of names. His followers developed his teachings in different directions; the most famous of them, Mencius, emphasized the innate goodness of human beings.

Analects: One of the “Four Books” used by the ancient Chinese for civil service study, it contains the sayings (aphorisms) of Confucius. The philosopher Confucius did not write or edit the words that make up the Analects; his disciples compiled them in the 5th or 4th century BC. Confucianism is more of a philosophical system than a religion, and Confucius thought of himself more as a teacher than as a spiritual leader. The Analects also contain some of the basic ideas found in Confucianism, such as ren (benevolence) and li (proper conduct).

Chinese Mythology

Yijing (or I Ching or Book of Changes): The basis for ancient Chinese philosophy and religion, the Yijing was created between 1500 and 1000 BC, though legend has it that the dragon-emperor Fuxi derived its eight trigrams from a turtle shell. The trigrams consist of three either broken (yin) or unbroken (yang) lines, and by reading pairs of these trigrams randomly, one could learn about humans, the universe, and the meaning of life. The Qin emperor Shi Huangdi burned most scholarly books, but the Yijing escaped because it was not seen as threatening.

Houyi: An archer who received the elixir of immortality after shooting down nine of the ten suns

Chang’e: Wife of Houyi who steals the elixir of immortality from her husband and goes to the moon

For more information, see Godchecker’s page on Chinese mythology

Daoism/Taoism

Lao-Tzu (500s BC) founded Daoism/Taoism

Tao Te Ching (or The Way and Its Power): Philosophical text behind Daoism, a religion-philosophy founded by the semi-legendary Lao Tzu in the sixth century BC, though scholars now believe it was written about 200 years later, during the Warring States period of the late Zhou dynasty. The Tao Te Ching instructs adherents in restraint and passiveness, allowing the natural order of the universe to take precedent.

For more information, see the BBC’s page on Taoism

Shinto and Japanese Mythology

Amaterasu (Omikami): kami of the sun, she hid in a cave after her brother threw a flayed horse at her and was only drawn out when she saw her reflection in a mirror

Susano’o (No Mikoto): kami of sea and storms, in one story he creates five people from his sister’s necklace

Tsukuyomi (No Mikoto): kami of the moon, he killed the kami of food, uke mochi, during a conflict

Izanami (No Mikoto): kami of death and creation, becomes the goddess of the underworld in the aftermath of the birth of the fire-baby Kagutsuchi

Izanagi (No Mikoto): kami husband of Izanami, he went to look at his wife’s body which turned out to be covered in maggots in the underworld and had to wash himself to cleanse the filth from his body creating the sun the moon and the storms

Raijin: Thunder god

For more information, see the BBC’s page on Shinto or Godchecker’s page on the Japanese pantheon