Alister Hardy Religious Experience Research Centre
Abstract
What is Chinese spirituality? There is no ready answer for us to give. The difficulty of
defining Chinese spirituality is threefold. Firstly, the diversity of religion in China is much
greater than in many other cultures, which manifests itself in several religious traditions
such as Confucianism, Daoism, Buddhism and folk religion. This phenomenon of a single
environment, locality and culture encompassing a number of diverse spiritual beliefs and
practices has added enormous difficulties to the formation of a single form of spirituality.
Secondly, to each tradition many streams are attached that develop in different directions.
Although sharing the basic principles, these streams or strings do not always converge
towards one set of spiritual pursuits, which have placed more weight on divergence rather
than convergence.
Thirdly, since the very beginning there have been two layers of religious life in China, one at
the level of the intellectuals or upper classes, and the other of ordinary people. People living
at these two levels do not always think in the same way in terms of religious faiths and
practices. What appeals to ordinary peasants, manual workers and artisans would probably
have been simply brushed aside as superstitions or ignorant beliefs by the educated. Fully
aware of the problems in defining Chinese spirituality precisely, this paper attempts to
examine the most representative aspects of religious practices concerning the approaches
that have been taken in Chinese religions in order to attain the spiritual goal and the
implications that each of these approaches would have for religious followers