Ccot Essay: East Asia

CCOT Essay: East Asia

Since 1800, the countries of East Asia have experience major infiltration by Westerners and their philosophies, which has influenced their religion, intellectual advancements, and politics. However, even through all the westernization, the countries of East Asia have retained their national identity by staying strong to their religions, social organization, and moral codes.

From the year 1800 to present times, East Asia has been through many religious changes, especially with the arrival of Christianity. That being said, though, the Asian people have remained extremely devoted to their original beliefs of Confucianism, Buddhism, and Daoism. One of the beginning markers for religious change in China was the questioning and challenging of the mandate of heaven. The mandate of heaven is the idea that the ruling family was given the right to rule by the gods, and if they became corrupt or bad rulers, then the gods were supposed to take away their rule. Before these times, the people didn’t know any better and thought it was a good idea, but with better education and the rise of Christianity, people began opposing this theory. As soon as this opposition began, the percentage of those participating in ancestor worship dropped immensely. However, even though this immense change of belief, there was still one main continuity; the blatant fact that the Asian society revolved around Confucian belief. To this day, China still stresses the importance of Confucian beliefs, as filial piety remains hugely important in Chinese life. Another major religious change in East Asia was the arrival of Christianity. Early records indicate that Christianity was present in East Asia in the early A.D. times, but it didn’t take off until the 1500s. That being said, Christian belief never took too many followers in the East, which can be attributed to the iron fisted Confucian system already in place. Specifically in China, Christianity didn’t take hold until the early 19th century when Protestant missionaries such as Hudson Taylor came, and even then the Chinese strongly resisted the faith. However, several of the Eastern Asian countries did adopt Christianity, but mostly those with smaller, weaker governments. A final religious continuity is the practice of Buddhism and Daoism. To this day, these two religions are heavily practiced in the East. In fact, Buddhism is currently the most popular religion in the East, but it is usually paired with Confucianism and Daoism. Clearly the Asians experienced heavy pressure to alter their fundamental values on religion, but due to the strictness of the rulers and the isolation of the countries from much of the rest of the world, the East Asians continued to resort back to their ancient belief systems.

Currently, East Asia is one of the most intellectually forward places on the planet. This was not