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After lunch, we visited another tourist spot, the Palace of Heaven. This was interesting mostly because we asked our tour guide a lot about religious observance in old and new China. AS best I can remember here is what she explained to us. Historically, the emperor was known as the Son of Heaven. So he was a “son” of deity. Therefore he had the ability and sometimes the responsibility to pray on behalf of his people to his “father” or in other words, the Heavenly Father. Twice a year ( I think during the summer and winter solstice), the emperor would make a ceremonial visit to the special temple where he would pray to the Heavenly Father on behalf of his people. But the more interesting part was how this played into the politics of the time. Since the emperor was the only one who could pray on behalf of the people to the Heavenly Father, it also meant the emperor had a lot of responsibility on their behalf. If there was a natural disaster, the people could also blame the emperor, since it could be assumed that the natural disaster happened because the Heavenly Father was displeased with the emperor. When a natural disaster occurred, a special prayer ceremony would be held, where the emperor would approach the Heavenly Father on behalf of his people. In this situation, if a natural disaster occurred after the emperor’s prayer, it was definitely a sign of displeasure and could be a sign of the people needing to get a new emperor. It looks like this was an ancient implementation of a system of checks and balances between the people and the emperors.
I laughed when she told us about thresholds. Each of the entrances always had a raised threshold to step over. This was because the Chinese believed these would keep out the evil spirits. Evidently the evil spirits were believed to be pretty small, not that bright, and could only jump. If you had a high enough threshold, that would keep the evil spirits out and protect the family.
Then; I asked our guide about religious and cultural belief systems in China. Her opinions were interesting. She said most of the cultural and somewhat superstitious beliefs are taught in the home by the family, and only somewhat reinforced in the school systems. She talked about 3 major belief systems: Confucianism, Buddhism, and Taoism. I asked her about how they balance these different beliefs and she said that at one level –they learn about this from the family, and then the school teachers tell them that “it is all a lie”. But at another level, she said the Chinese say that all of the beliefs can intermingle well. In the first half of your life, one follows more the teachings of Confucianism which is more a life philosophy. After middle age (after 40s), then people switch to more Buddhist teachings because as health and other problems start to mount up, they need/want more help from the Buddhist gods to help with different ailments.
I also asked her about the ancient beliefs of heaven given that the emperor was a “son of heaven”. As best as I remember, she explained that the people believed when they died there was a judgment – with three things that could happen. First you would take a drink of something like alcohol, with the intent that it would erase your life memories. Then you would cross a bridge to be judged. If you had been a good person without big mistakes, you would go to heaven. If you were a bad person and had made a lot of mistakes you would go to hell. Each of these places had 9 levels of heaven or hell to which you would be assigned according to your level of goodness or badness. Then there was a middle state. If you took a drink of the offering but could still remember some of your mistakes, then that meant you needed to still pay for your mistakes – and that you would need to be reborn and live again to make up for those mistakes.
I laughed when she told us about thresholds. Each of the entrances always had a raised threshold to step over. This was because the Chinese believed these would keep out the evil spirits. Evidently the evil spirits were believed to be pretty small, not that bright, and could only jump. If you had a high enough threshold, that would keep the evil spirits out and protect the family.
Then; I asked our guide about religious and cultural belief systems in China. Her opinions were interesting. She said most of the cultural and somewhat superstitious beliefs are taught in the home by the family, and only somewhat reinforced in the school systems. She talked about 3 major belief systems: Confucianism, Buddhism, and Taoism. I asked her about how they balance these different beliefs and she said that at one level –they learn about this from the family, and then the school teachers tell them that “it is all a lie”. But at another level, she said the Chinese say that all of the beliefs can intermingle well. In the first half of your life, one follows more the teachings of Confucianism which is more a life philosophy. After middle age (after 40s), then people switch to more Buddhist teachings because as health and other problems start to mount up, they need/want more help from the Buddhist gods to help with different ailments.
I also asked her about the ancient beliefs of heaven given that the emperor was a “son of heaven”. As best as I remember, she explained that the people believed when they died there was a judgment – with three things that could happen. First you would take a drink of something like alcohol, with the intent that it would erase your life memories. Then you would cross a bridge to be judged. If you had been a good person without big mistakes, you would go to heaven. If you were a bad person and had made a lot of mistakes you would go to hell. Each of these places had 9 levels of heaven or hell to which you would be assigned according to your level of goodness or badness. Then there was a middle state. If you took a drink of the offering but could still remember some of your mistakes, then that meant you needed to still pay for your mistakes – and that you would need to be reborn and live again to make up for those mistakes.
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