While in modern history, the
Taiping Rebellion,
Boxer Rebellion,
Communist Revolution, and the
Cultural Revolution contributed significantly to the rise of irreligion and distrust of organized religion among the general populace, irreligion in its various forms, especially
rationalism,
secularism, and
antitheism, has had a long history in China dating back millennia. The
Zhou dynasty Classic of Poetry contains several catechistic poems in the
Decade of Dang questioning the authority or existence of
Shangdi. Later philosophers such as
Xun Zi,
Fan Zhen,
Han Fei,
Zhang Zai, and
Wang Fuzhi also criticized the religious practices prevalent during their times. Buddhism flourished in China during the
Southern and Northern dynasties period. It was during this period that
Fan Zhen wrote
Shen Mie Lun (
Simplified Chinese 神灭论,
Traditional Chinese 神滅論, "
On the Annihilation of the Shen") in reaction to Buddhist concepts of
body-soul dualism,
samsara and
karma. He wrote that the soul is merely an effect or function of the body, and that there is no soul without the body (i.e., after the destruction and death of the body). Further, he considered that cause-and-effect relationships that were claimed to be evidence of
karma were merely the result of coincidence and bias.
Confucianism as a state-instituted philosophy has flourished in China since the
Han dynasty, and the opportunities it offered were another fundamental origin of atheism in China. While there were periods in which Taoism and Buddhism may have been officially promoted, the status of Confucianism in Chinese society had rarely been challenged during imperial times. Extensive study of the
Confucian Classics was required to pass the
Imperial Civil Service Examinations, and this was the major (and often sole) means by which one could achieve prominence in society. Confucianism places particular emphasis on
humanistic and this-worldly social relations, rather than on an otherworldly soteriology. This produced a cultural tendency that facilitated acceptance of modern forms of irreligion such as humanism, secularism, and atheism.
Zhu Xi, one of the most important Confucian philosophers, encouraged an
agnostic tendency within Confucianism, because he believed that the Supreme Ultimate was a rational principle, and he discussed it as an intelligent and ordering will behind the universe (while stating that "Heaven and Earth have no mind of their own" and promoting their only function was to produce things. Whether this can be considered a conscious or intelligent will is clearly up to debate). China is considered to be a nation with a long history of
humanism,
secularism, and this-worldly thought since the time of
Confucius, who stressed
shisu (世俗 "being in the world").
Hu Shih stated in the 1920s that "China is a country without religion and the Chinese are a people who are not bound by religious superstitions." In the 19th century, after China's defeat in the
First Opium War and in successive wars, the country succumbed to increasing domination by foreign imperialist powers. The
Boxers (or the
Yihetuan) considered Christian missionaries as promoting foreign influence in China and held deep anti-Christian views. Orthodox, Catholic and Protestant missionaries and church members were massacred. In the 1920s, the
Anti-Christian Movement (非基督教运动) was an intellectual and political movement in
Republican China. The
May Fourth Movement for a New Culture attacked religion of all sorts, including
Confucianism and
Buddhism as well as Christianity, rejecting all as superstition. The various movements were also inspired by modernizing attitudes deriving from both
nationalist and
socialist ideologies, as well as feeding on older anti-Christian sentiment that was in large part due to repeated invasions of China by
Western countries. During the Cultural Revolution, a radical policy of anti-religion and anti-tradition was instituted. In the ensuing decade, the five major religions in China were severely suppressed. Many religious organizations were disbanded, property was confiscated or damaged, monks and nuns were sent home (or killed in violent
struggle sessions). Since the
reform and opening up of 1979, the government has liberalized religious policies to a degree, and the religious population has experienced some growth. Nevertheless, the irreligious remain the majority among all age groups in China. The CCP may even support certain local religious institutions and festivals in a bid to promote
Chinese unification such as
Mazu. However, atheism, characterization of religion as superstition, and promotion of
scientific materialism remain core tenets of the ruling CCP. ==See also==