Religions Of Ancient China

by Herbert Allen Giles

The problem of the universe has never offered the slightest difficulty to Chinese philosophers. Before the beginning of all things, there was Nothing. In the lapse of ages Nothing coalesced into Unity, the Great Monad. After more ages, the Great Monad separated into Duality, the Male and Female Principles in nature; and then, by a process of biogenesis, the visible universe was produced.

Genres: History, China, Philosophy, Religion, Nonfiction, Asia, Audiobook

Kindle Edition

First published January 1, 1906

About the author

Educated at Charterhouse, Herbert Allen Giles was a British diplomat and author of books on China and the Far East. He served as British Vice-consul at Pagoda Island from 1880 to 1883 and at Shanghai from 1883 to 1885. He then became Consul at Tamsui in 1885 and in 1891 at Ningpo. He taught Chinese at Cambridge and, in 1902, became a senior lecturer at Columbia University. His works include Chinese Sketches (1876), Historic China (1882), The Remains of Lao Tzu (1886), China and the Chinese (1902), The Civilization of China (1911), Confucianism and Its Rivals (1915) and The Second Hundred Best Characters (1922).

Reviews

[Yu · Rating 4 out of 5]

This booklet is a delightful pleasure. At first, I was wondering why it didn't get four stars from Goodreads. After reading it, for me personally, I took one star off because of its reckless feeling in terms of citations and the lack of explanation on original text. Some readers are questioning the source of the stories in the book. As someone who learned Chinese Language and Literature and a translator myself, it is not hard to match the titles and tales, but it would be so much helpful if he could include the original Chinese titles, which would also make the text way more convincing. However, I do think it is some kind of limitation of the era. This is a book published on 1916... Think about it!

I adore the style of writing definitely! He has a great command of language, and explains very well! If anyone who wants to get to know a bit about Chinese ancient philosophy, this booklet would be a great choice!

[T.R. Preston · Rating 3 out of 5]

Fascinating insight to the views on God in a time long before the Christian God was created. I feel this book was rather short, though, and it could've went deeper into the time period than it did.

[Angela · Rating 4 out of 5]

A good introduction to ancient chinese religion. A very quick read.

[John Engelman · Rating 5 out of 5]

“Religions of Ancient China” is a pamphlet on that topic written by Herbert A. Giles, who was a professor at Cambridge University. It was first published in 1905.

The autochthonous religion of ancient China combined a creation story, the worship of a god named “Shang Ti” and the belief in many spirit beings. Religious ceremonies consisted largely of sacrifices. Professor Giles does not mention this, but some of those sacrifices were human sacrifices.

Confucius accepted the existence of the traditional Chinese deities, but he did not spend a lot of time talking about them, and thought that humans should emphasize justice toward each other.

Professor Giles was dismissive of Taoism, and thought it meant nothing more than the command to do nothing. I see Taoism as the art of how of least to survive, and at best to win, when one cannot succeed because of an obvious superiority. I think Taoism appealed to Chinese men who could not pass the Imperial Exams.

Professor Giles did not have much to say about the beliefs of Buddhism. I was surprised to learn that when Buddhism entered China there was hostility between Buddhists and Taoists. Eventually they learned to accept each other and to learn from each other.

The philosophy of Confucius is presented in “The Analects of Confucius.” The philosophy of Taoism is presented in “Tao Te Ching,” by Lao Tsu, and “Inner Chapters” by Chuang Tsu. I would have appreciated it if an editor named these books, and suggested several modern translations.

I recommend “The Sayings of Confucius,”
https://www.amazon.com/gp/customer-re...
“Tao Te Ching,”
https://www.amazon.com/gp/customer-re...

and “Inner Chapters,” by Chuang Tsu.
https://www.amazon.com/gp/customer-re...

The following web address leads to my Amazon book review of an anthology of Chinese short stories. My book review includes web addresses to my Amazon book reviews to the Four Books and the Five Classics. The Chinese Imperial Exams were based on these books. Those who passed the Imperial Exams were admitted to the Scholar Gentry. The Scholar Gentry was for about two thousand years the civil service of the various Chinese dynasties. The Four Books and the Five Classics were the canon of Confucianism.

[Mel Foster · Rating 3 out of 5]

Thanks to LibreVox and Spotify I listened to this little essay for free. It's helpful as a brief big picture overview of the successive waves and clash of religious thought in China. Giles expatiates most in the early years and becomes more brief later, saying very little regarding the influence of Christianity and Islam, which arrived in the 630s--not 'ancient' by strictly Fall of Rome Standards, but pretty close. While I have read some on Confucianism, Taoism, and Buddhism, in China, I had not heard much about its most ancient religious beliefs. The names of God were most interesting.

[Claudia Lind · Rating 5 out of 5]

Very short. Opens doors to things you probably didn’t know before and makes you want to dive deeper into further reading. It’s a timeline kind of thing. I like it. Also it's on Spotify, and it's about an hour and twenty minutes long. Definitely worth a listen. Brings up everything from the emperors to Judaism. And that one of the oldest mosques are in Kanton. I have a hard time finishing things so this one gets 5 stars simply from keeping my messy brain intetested.

[Chet]

Giles is always enjoyable. He wrote prior to the world wars and the Chinese revolution and the hyper politicization of anti-communist academia in the West. Giles has no axe to grind, he only pleasantly seeks to inform a general readership. Anyone who attempts such a service today is labeled a communist or someone who is pushing Chinese state propaganda.

[The_J · Rating 2 out of 5]

Running the gambit from early BC through to the Lutheran missionaries, quite the sweep of history with the fascinating insight that the Buddhists took the best of the Taoists (religious structure), and the Taoists in exchange took the worst of the Buddhists (ceremony and temple structure).

[Dave · Rating 4 out of 5]

Great historical analysis of religious development in China.

[Ilse · Rating 5 out of 5]

A fascinating read that I’m very happy to have found by accident, definitely something I’d recommend to people interested in this topic!

[Pearl · Rating 3 out of 5]

Pretty interesting. Could be more in depth.

[Mark elliott · Rating 4 out of 5]

Many different theory's are found here. It shows many different God's and how who's ideas merged together in time.

[Rosie Hartwell · Rating 4 out of 5]

A very summarised, but effective look into religion and practice in early China. Gives a lot of context to both religious, and non-religious practices in China throughout it's history.

[Oliver · Rating 3 out of 5]

Contextual summary of the title from the British ~1900 CE perspective. No brilliant insights yet still could be considered useful.

[Matheus Evangelista De Souza · Rating 3 out of 5]

It's an ok primer, I suppose. I think it used Christianity as an anchor point too much.

[Savannah Huffaker · Rating 4 out of 5]

Listened to the audiobook version on my way home! Very informative and the perfect length. Read it to help better understand religion in China as well as other religions in general

[Clumsy · Rating 4 out of 5]

[Audiobook]

[Ege-Rea Jantson · Rating 3 out of 5]

It was good. It would have been great if it would have gone deeper as at times it felt like it touched a huge period of time with just one sentence or a paragraph and then just scrammed.

[bea · Rating 2 out of 5]

read

[Nick · Rating 4 out of 5]

Pretty good overview. Unlike some other books ive read on this subject there is a focus on certain trends amongst all Chinese religions, such as actual theism and its proliferation into monism dualism and polytheism, ancestor veneration, agnosticism and even materialism. There are a number of variant theories across all Chinese religions pertaining to each of these categories. All in all, I find the broadly Chinese position to be closest to the Indian position, though more rationalistic and precise and less mystical and meditative. Hence, materialism is more pronounced in the Chinese tradition than in any other tradition I've studied. The original theism seems to have almost gone extinct outside of occasional ritualism, with Taoism taking up the dominant role in pre-communist daily religious practice alongside Buddhism, though the latter is slightly more "high church" to my eye. Formal confucianism likewise is an elite phenomenon though it permeates daily family life. It also discusses some of the intrusion of Zoroastrian and Manichean/Nestorian and Islamic ideas into China, but it doesn't seem as though these by and large had a great effect on the general current of Chinese thought, with the exception perhaps of Islam (not as an influence but as a stable counterpole).

[Patty Chang · Rating 2 out of 5]

Meh, history as hearsay and gathered impressions. No works cited. Unsubstantiated chronology dating back thousands of years BC. Where is he getting his facts?

[Ben Edsall · Rating 3 out of 5]

A look way back into one of the oldest cultures on earth and the formation of their belief systems.

[Roberta · Rating 2 out of 5]

holds many interesting concepts... was an okay read.

[Luís Garcia · Rating 4 out of 5]

(lido em Chengdu, China)

[Sherri Shade · Rating 3 out of 5]

Good summary

I was hoping for a little more detail on the religions. The first book in the series was on pantheism and was more in depth, still looking forward to reading more of the series though.