Joachim Gentz is Reader of Chinese at the University of Edinburgh.
摘要
Chinese religions are often represented as a unity in which each tradition possesses a number of typical Chinese features of a Chinese religious system. Some of these features have been described as non-religious so that from as early as the 17th century onward there has been a debate in Europe whether religion in China exist at all or whether what appears as Chinese religions are not atheistic, purely functional or just superstitious cults and rituals. On the other hand Chinese religions have for many hundreds of years been an object of interest and fascination for Western scholars. European history of thought has been influenced by Chinese religions and today Chinese religions still and again play an important role in the formation of modern Western thought. The extremely abundant and well preserved historical material makes Chinese religions not only a highly interesting case as object of world history of religions. Because of its entirely different philosophical and political context it makes them also a challenging field of analysis of Western systematic questions and theories of religion which can be proven on the basis of the rich findings of a scholarship in Chinese Religions which is expanding considerably from year to year. At the same time Chinese religions provide common readers with new challenging perspectives and insights about the nature of reality, environmental contexts, bodily health and different types of self-awareness and provoke the question whether in fact it is not the Western tradition that is a surprising exception within the religious traditions in the world.
