What were the major religions of pre-communist China?

by Leecannon_
gobberpooper

The major ones have been Buddhism, Daoism, and Chinese folk religion. Even still, estimates put folk religion practitioners at about 25-30% of the country.

Something thats important to note and makes this question difficult to answer is some of the fundamental differences between eastern and western religions (and by western I almost strictly mean Abrahamic). In western religion, there are explicitly noted texts, mythologies, and religious bodies from beliefs are derived i.e Christians believe the word of the Bible, Muslims the Quran and Hadiths etc. In eastern religions, this is not the case. There are thousands of texts compiled and interpreted by many different people, and beliefs are arguably more fluid. For example, Daoism and Chinese folk religion are closely intertwined in some regions, but are very separate in others. In many Chinese buddhist temples, there are statues of Bodai(fat buddha) surrounded by four traditional guardians that are clearly derived from the local religion. This is seen nowhere in Tibet, southeast Asia, or India. However, neither way is wrong. A central part of Hinduism is that everyone has their own path, and traditionally much more freeform/tolerant of differing beliefs. Emphasis on traditionally, as going into the current state of Hinduism as a world religion and nationalistic/political entity would require several books of research.

I hope that gives you a better understanding of eastern religion. It can be difficult to say "people practice/dont practice this religion" because the definitions are so loose that theyre close to meaningless without strict context.

gatesthree

Rural shamanism, Taoism, confucuonism, Buddhism.