The Gateway Chronicle 2020

34
which is often the way popular religions
find followers.
perhaps the most notable common aspect
was the ‘hygiene schools’ which were installed
in most temples. These were places
where the religious could come to learn
how to take care of themselves and live a
Another important aspect of early Chinese
religions was the practices of worship and
the specific way in which these changed
over time. Even during the Shang dynasty,
there were many different variations
of religious practices, and different types
of services were held in different types of
temples. These temples were looked after
by monks, who – despite the origins of
Chinese religion suggesting the im-
Yuantong Temple – an ancient
Buddhist temple in Kunming, portance of women – were
Yunnan, China
always male. Indeed, as religion
became popular, it was
enforced that women had no spiritual authority
over men, and therefore they were
not entitled to any positions of power in
temples. This was one of few consistencies
across all types of spiritual worship, yet
healthy life. The idea of this was that temples
would provide not only spiritual but
a physical cleansing – to the extent that
some schools taught Tai Chi as a way to
prevent rapid ageing and immobility.
Other important elements included incense
and music which, though not uncommon,
were particularly important to
the image of religion, which was built up
even more by the extravagance of temple
architecture. These features of religion became
integrated into Chinese culture very
quickly and were the cornerstones to the
mixture of faiths across East Asia today.
However, over the course of the millennia