Confucianism: A Very Short Introduction (Very Short Introductions)

by Daniel K. Gardner

Thus in Confucius’s cosmological outlook, there is no God—that is, there is no monotheistic creator deity, nor any being or entity responsible for the creation of the universe or for its ongoing operation. The cosmos operates on its own, automatically, as it were, and so it has since the beginning of time. It is not that a spirit world populated by nature deities and ancestors does not exist for Confucius and his contemporaries; various spirits could assist human beings in controlling rivers and fields, villages and cities, and families and lineages. But there is no ultimate, omnipotent spirit or deity responsible for the creation of all that is and was. In fact, nowhere in the indigenous Chinese tradition is there textual or archaeological evidence of a belief in what might be called a creator deity.