[MUSIC] Hello today in our final class, we'll speak about present day situation in Chinese religions. And not religions that are indigenous for China, for example, Buddhism and Taoism. But we'll also discuss religions that came to China from outside, for example, Christianity or Judaism and Islam. But first of all let's understand what the official position of the People's Republic of China toward religion. Let me remind you first of all that people Republic of China was established in 1949. So it so called the, Liberation of China, that the official terms also in people in Republic of China. Before 1949 Republic of China existed and that's the self name of Taiwan today, but according to the position of people of Republic of China in Taiwan, it's Territory of the grade of one China. So it's called the policies of one China. So what's about religions according to Chinese Constitution? Officially, China gives place to all religions and all religious activities, and according to the Article 36 of the constitution. Citizens of the People's Republic of China enjoy freedom of religious belief. And in this Article 36 we can find one very important note about what's religious activity. So Chinese state officially supports normal religious activities. What does that mean, normal? So it's activities that take place within government-sanctioned religious organizations and registered place of worship. It means that you have to register and to get a license, or any kind of permission to open your church, your temple, and to promote some, any kind of religious activities. So it's illegal just to establish your own for example, home charge or family charge. And to provide and to stimulate any kind of missionary activity. So for Chinese, it's very important to sustain this normal religious activity. [INAUDIBLE] In this situation, the special Buddhist State and Administration for Religious Affairs was established in China. That's the official body that try to provide some, well, positive conditions. And at the same time make some inspections on the local church, Catholic, Protestant and even Buddhist and Taoist temples whether they really support this kind of Patriotic religious activity. So patriotism, [FOREIGN] in Chinese. So patriotic activity became one of the factor, or like a stimulus for the future development of such official, or institutionalized churches. So officially parts of promotes in schools. In middle schools and universities. But undertakes officially to protect and respect religion until such time as religion itself will disappear. So completely disappear. Atheism it's an official ideology for China. So, in this case, we cannot find the Chinese Constitution, any mention of some particular religion. For example, Buddhism, Taoism or, for example, Confucianism. What does it mean institutionalized religions? It means that some religions that have official doctrine or sanctioned bodies which are closely connected to the party or to the state. There are several associations in Chinese that is [FOREIGN]. Associations that are connected to the local churches or local religious communities. The biggest, one of the biggest, it's the Buddhist Association of China, Chinese Taoist Association, Islamic Association of China, Three-Self Self Patriotic Movement, which is Protestantism and Chinese Patriotic Catholic Association. So all these associations, not churches but associations, are so called the non-governmental popular and non-commercial organizations. Officially, it's just an association of people and local communities. And the main idea of these associations is just to give place and to provide the better conditions for religious activities. But in real sense, in real life, all these associations just put the strict control, put under strict control all the local churches and communities. That's the official structure or architecture of Chinese religious activities promoted and protected by the state. At the same time a lot of Chinese today started to speak about the Confucianism not just as initial idea in the People's Republic of China. But as about the Confucianism as a national religion. So it means kung jiao sung jiao, so it means religion. A lot of people ask, if Buddhism and Taoism are religions. What's the difference with the Confucianism? Maybe Confucianism also can be named as a religion, it means that it should be established for example, Confucianist religious association. And state will promote the establishing of the Confucians temples. And for example in Hong Kong today, we can find some so-called the Confucian church. That they translate this name of [FOREIGN] into English. Actually it's not a real charge but they use these term. In Hong Kong, we can find a very large so-called the Confucian Academy, [FOREIGN] which is a quite religious organization. There are some kind of priests, and a lot of businessmen in Hong Kong support this organization. We can find some kind of sub-branches of this organization all over Southeast Asia. For example, in Indonesia, in Malaysia, in Singapore, we can find different Confucius academy or Confucian charges. And the main idea of these churches, is just to follow the heaven or in Chinese it's Tian. So heaven as a highest deity. And almost every week, or every months, members of such organization promotes religious activities around some Confucius elders. It's not in China. It's not in the, so called, Mainland China, not in the People Republic of China. It's mainly in Hong Kong, in Indonesia, in Taiwan. The idea of Confucian Church is that religion is not the new one. This idea was put forward by the great Chinese patriot and reformer Kang Youwei at the beginning of the 120th century. So he proposed that Confucianism is one of the state religion of Ching China and this kind of Confucianism religious should be modeled after the European model because Yang Youwei was a great promoter of different kinds of western ideas. And one of his idea is just to put more western idea into Chinese society, just to give a new development, a push for the development of China. So after he recognized the European model of religion as its church and structure and also social structure. He decided to introduce the same idea into Chinese society. And he proposed to establish Confucianism as a state religion. This idea was supported by some Chinese officials. But first of all, because Chinese empire, Qing Empire, Qing Dynasty came to the end in 1911, this idea didn't get any kind of development. But anyway, this idea of the Confucian church is still alive today. This is called the kong jiaohui. So it means the different kinds of societies for promoting or for the resurgence of Confucianism as a state religion. Still, in life Outside of mainland China. That one of the very interesting tend in the development of the modern religions in China, Confucianism, which is a great teaching, great doctrine, is not recognized as a religion in mainland China. [MUSIC]
