Religious Confucianism

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Religious Confucianism is an interpretation of Confucianism as a religion. It originated in the time of Confucius with his defense of traditional religious institutions of his time, such as the Zhongmiao rites, and the ritual and music system. The Chinese name for religious Confucianism is Rujiao, in contrast with non-religious Confucianism, which is called Rujia. The differences can be roughly translated with jiao meaning religion, and jia meaning school, although the term Rujiao is ancient and predates this modern usage of jiao. Ru ("Erudites") were a "small group of cultural specialists" who preserved older Zhou dynasty rituals and did scholarly work to pass down traditional Zhou "written classics" through the generations. Religious Confucianism includes traditional Chinese patriarchal religion in its practice, leading some scholars to call it Tianzuism (Chinese: 天祖教; pinyin: Tiānzǔjiào; lit. 'Church of Heaven and Ancestors') instead to avoid confusion with non-religious Confucianism...

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