While
Buddhism and Taoism are initially not superstitious, the folk cults derived
from these traditional religions are. And these believes are pretty popular
amongst the common folks even until today. Throughout Chinese history, the
widespread of Buddhism and Taoism were mainly due to the blessings of the
Chinese emperors. The Chinese emperor Zhu Yuanzhang (朱元璋) was once a monk who has authored two works
concerning a discussion on three religions <三教论> and a discussion on Buddhism
and Taoism<释道论>.
Buddhism as
a whole put much emphasis on 'emptiness' and 'Buddha nature' and certainly denies
the existence of a sole creator. Hence it is unfounded to say Buddhism is
superstition really.
The core of
Taoism is mainly based on the philosophy of I Ching which again refers to Yin
and Yang and how to unite with our nature. That too doesn’t worship any deities
or statues.
Both of
Buddhism and Taoism are indeed different with Christianity and other religions
that worship only one God.
Even though
both of Buddhism and Taoism are never close to superstitious, uneducated common
folks continue to believe that there are ‘someone’ watching over them and that
someone are gods and goddesses. In fact, these superstitious folks have ‘created’
many of the gods and goddesses from epics such as ‘Journey To The West’ (西游记).
Another example
is a god known by the name 'The Lord Of Dark Heaven' (玄天上帝) was also known as 'the upper lord' (上天, 上帝). This character was very popular during the
Ming and Qing Dynasties and its traces can still be seen in places where the Chinese
communities congregated in Southeast Asia until today.
When
Western missionaries came to old China, they systematically make use the name ‘upper
lord’ (上帝) to spread
Christianity amongst the unwary Chinese folks at that time. I would say that
the trick worked pretty well too as Christianity was seen wide acceptance
amongst the Chinese folks since then.
Hence my
take is that superstitions enable a new religion to spread, and it is precisely
superstitions that see the downfall of a religion. And magic (not stage magic)
is merely based on superstitions!
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