Drought bites again, and people are craving for rain but it doesn’t rain. That brings back my childhood memory of people in my native town-officials plus the local gentry and elderly-going to the Dragon King Temple to pray for rain. Before that, they would fast and perform ablution. Once in the temple, they would offer sacrifices to the “Dragon King,” a fierce-looking clay or wooden sculpture, who is said to take charge of distributing rain. Amid smoke that kept rising from an incense burner, people would prostrate three times before the “Dragon King” and knock their heads nine times-the way ancient Chinese would do before an emperor-on the ground while chanting prayers, begging “his majesty” for mercy.

If no rain came immediately after the ritual, however, the same “pilgrims” would remove the sculpture out of the temple and expose it to the scorching sun. The “Dragon King,” so to speak, will be given a “sound beating” if there was still no rain a few days afterwards. The “beating,” of course, was just symbolic and the “Dragon King” would be sent back in the end, to be “worshipped” and, sometimes, “beaten,” as always.

I had thought that the fuss about “Dragon King” was just a folk custom, something concocted by those “country dumplings” to deceive themselves, until I read an article by Liu Zongyuan (773-819), a literary giant of the Tang Dynasty. Entitled “On the Year-End Sacrificial Ceremonies”, the article calls for depriving gods of the privilege to be honored at the sacrificial ceremonies held in the last month of the lunar year if they failed to protect their “domains” from drought, flooding, pests or epidemics for the year. Liu Zongyuan attributed the call to the Book of Rites compiled by Chinese sage Confucius about 2,500 years ago. Some of the sage’s followers were, in fact, much more radical towards gods. The Book of Mencius has this quotation: “The altar for the God of the Earth and Grain should be removed if drought or flooding continues even though sacrificial ceremonies (in his honor) have been held in good time with the sacrificial animals properly slaughtered and sacrificial vessels properly washed.” Well, this amounts to a call for rebellion against the rule by divine right.

Confucius was founder of Confucianism, which dominated the Chinese thinking for well over 2,000 years after he died. Mencius (about 372 BC-289 BC) played a most important role in developing Confucianism as a complete philosophical system. Relative to Mencius, Confucius was somewhat evasive on supernatural forces. He called for “a respectful distance from ghosts and gods while worshipping them.” According to the Analects of Confucius, “Never on the lips of the Master are spirits, supernatural forces and deities of all sorts.” Answering questions from his disciples, Confucius said: “How can one serve the Supernatural since one is not good at serving the Man” and “How can one know one’s life in the nether world since one does not have a clear picture of one’s life in the real world.” Confucian teachings have influenced the Chinese nation for so many centuries, and it won’t be difficult to imagine how strong and far-reaching the impact of this attitude towards the Supernatural can be on the country and its people.

Gods are fabricated by the human race by taking images of individual mortals as models, the difference being that they are deified for worship. While glorifying gods for their divine powers, the Chinese, especially the ethnic Han people, invariably make them assume a kind of personality with human weaknesses and flaws. In dealing with gods, they may resort to promise of gains and even menace, the way they handle those government officials. People can still be found promising to have a temple refurbished or the sculpture of a god or goddess gilded upon fulfillment of their dreams with help of the divine power-promotion by their employers, production of sons by their wives, etc. Bribery, pure and simple, isn’t it?

This approach of utilitarianism toward gods that characterizes Confucianism has been carved deep in the mind of the ethnic Hans who account for more than 90 percent of China’s population. The Han Chinese are ready to embrace whatever religious belief so long they believe that it is useful one way or another. In the past, most Chinese believed in the Supernatural, in gods and deities, but never could an individual be identified as a follower of a specific religion. While a devoted believer of Buddhism, many Chinese worshipped gods and goddess of Taoism, the indigenous Chinese religion, as well. Though a system of philosophy and values, Confucianism was often taken as a quasi-religion and, as such, it was worshipped by a vast majority of the Chinese. Persons who never missed sacrificial ceremonies in honor of Confucius were often seen praying at Buddhist temples or paying homage to Taoist abbeys. After their parents died, people would stay at the side of the graves for the first three years in accordance with Confucian teachings on filial duties. At funerals, however, Buddhist or Taoist monks were invited to chant prayers to bless the dead.

Ever since Buddhism found its way into China some 2,000 years ago, it has coexisted along with Confucianism and Taoism. Emperors of most feudal dynasties held Confucianism in high esteem. In comparison, policies towards Buddhism and Taoism varied from dynasty to dynasty, with one allowed a range of privileges while spreading of the other was restricted or even suppressed. At any account, however, neither religion was banned. In most cases, to be more exact, the governments tried to buy support from both in a bid to make the best use of what could be in their interests. In contesting for adherents, the three beliefs kept learning from one another’s strong points to offset their own weakness. As time went by, their divisions, once clear-cut, became increasingly blurred and their rivalry was melted into mutual tolerance. That explains why we find Buddhist and Taoist deities are worshipped in the same temple. I myself have seen a stone tablet engraved with a figure with three faces, the faces of Confucius, Sakyamuni, and the God of Supreme Heavens of Taoism.

The Chinese, or the Han Chinese to be precise, take an utterly different approach towards religions from some of their counterparts in the West. People in the West just believe in one single God, unlike the Chinese who believe that the universe has more than one supreme ruler. The utilitarian approach taken by the Chinese towards divine authority has given rise to religious tolerance. In contrast, exclusiveness once prompted some Western peoples to demand that all other peoples share their belief in God. All those who refused to do so were regarded as pagans, as irreconcilable enemies, hence the numerous religious wars fought in the West, of which the eastward expeditions of the Crusades were the most representative. In ancient Chinese terminology there was no such a word as “pagan” or “heathen,” and not a single war fought in ancient China can be attributed to religious conflicts.

The question of religion is, more often than not, inseparable from the question of ethnicity. Already complicated enough, the question of ethnicity becomes even more complicated when intertwined with the question of religious beliefs. Numerous wars have been fought because of not only religious but also ethnic conflicts. In some cases, conflicts of the two types are too tangled to ravel up. This has become a chronic malady for the world.

Religious tolerance comes as a blessing for China, in that in most cases, ethnic issues the country has encountered have nothing to do with religious issues. In other words, ethnic issues, if any, are not as complicated as those in other parts of the world and therefore are relatively easy to solve. That, in part, explains why since ancient times, the different ethnic groups in China have been able to live side by side in peace and harmony.

For us Chinese, it is difficult to understand why, in this world, there should be religious antagonism between different countries and peoples or, even worse, why people belonging to different sects of the same religion can also be incompatible as fire and water. In contrast to those fratricides and social chaos that occur frequently in some parts of the world, people in China who belong to different religious beliefs never discriminate against one another, thus contributing to the stability and security of the Chinese society. Some people in the West often challenge or oppose China by using alleged religious issues, accusing the country of depriving its people of the right to religious belief or of suppressing this or that religious belief. Among these people, many have no idea of the traditional Chinese approach towards religious beliefs and this kind of ignorance prompts them to measure what is happening in China by using their own standards.