On a cold night in Beijing two decades ago, Yan Li's curiosity led her to a place she had never been before.

She walked past the large Roman Catholic Church countless times before, but she had never ventured inside. So on Christmas Eve, in 1985, Li and a few of her friends followed parishioners streaming inside to worship.

When they got to the entrance, a stern door man blocked their path, asked why they were there, then turned them away.

After she immigrated to Canada in 1987, Li visited various congregations.

Unlike her failed adventure in China, Canadian parishioners gave her a huge welcome.

"Very warm," she said, smiling as she flung her arms open.

While the Communist government of the People's Republic of China is officially atheist, Chinese people practise many different faiths and philosophies.

Christianity and Islam have been in China since the seventh century. But the four cornerstones of traditional Chinese religion and philosophy -- or "teachings" as the they are called -- are folk religions, Taoism, Confucianism and Buddhism, said Darrol Bryant, religious studies professor at Renison College in Waterloo.

People throughout Asia tend to access different philosophies and religious practices for specific purposes, said Bryant, who teaches a course on East Asian religions.

It's a kind of spiritual division of labour.

"They're complementary to one another," he said.

Over thousands of years, Confucianism, Taoism and Buddhism have woven their way into the fabric of everyday life. If you ask a person from Asia if they are religious, they will probably answer "no," Bryant said.

But before embarking on a long trip, he added, they might visit local temples to pray for good luck.

The Chinese practised traditional religions long before Taoism and Confucianism (native to China) and Buddhism (imported from India) emerged 2,500 years ago, Bryant said.

Folk religions involved fortune-telling by divining turtle shells or casting bones to figure out what the gods might be saying to them.

People conducted rituals to ensure successful planting and plentiful harvests. They also venerated their ancestors in order to make sure their spirits remained in the proper place, wherever that might be.

Some of those practices were incorporated into Taoism and Confucianism.

Lao-tzu, who might have been a legendary figure, is considered the founder of Taoism.

Taoism doesn't teach that there is a supernatural Creator in the sense of a monotheistic God, Bryant said.

"The universe is one big pulsating interactive reality," he said, explaining Taoist teachings.

"The Tao is the primary process that's unfolding throughout the universe, throughout the natural world, throughout the human world," he explained. "In some sense, society has gotten off track because it's not paying enough attention to the Tao as it's operating in the natural world and in ourselves."

Water is often used as a metaphor for the way the Tao urges people to live. Water flows downhill and, rather than coming into conflict with obstacles, water flows around them.

According to Taoism, "that's the way that the human being should follow, too," Bryant said. "But we don't."

Some believe that Confucius, like Lao-tzu, might have been a legendary figure, said Bryant.

Few Confucian teachings address the issue of God or the afterlife.

"Confucius felt that was a realm of speculation -- 'We just don't really know.' "

So Confucius concentrated on codifying behaviour to keep relationships harmonious in five areas -- husband/wife, parent/child, older child/younger child, older friend/younger friend and ruler-/subject. By the sixth century, Confucian teaching became the bedrock of social relations in China.

Entrance exams for higher learning, the gateway to civil service jobs such as teaching or public administration , were based on Confucian teaching.

The system enabled a huge population to function relatively smoothly.

Confucianism retained the pre-existing practice of ancestor veneration. But because Confucianism only vaguely addressed questions about the afterlife, Asians turned to Buddhism for answers.

Migrating from India to China around the second century BC, Buddhist teachings provided spiritual comfort with the promise of potential enlightenment (a form of salvation), detailed teachings about the afterlife and funeral rites.

Buddhism wasn't immediately accepted by the Asians who were raised with extremely strong family ties taught by Confucius, Bryant said, because Buddhism idealizes the renunciation of attachments.

The ideal for a person's journey to enlightenment was to renounce the world, and relationships, for life as a celibate monk in the temple.

But eventually Buddhism made headway throughout China.

By the 11th or 12th century, the trinity of founders -- Lao-tzu, Confucius and the Buddha -- were often portrayed together in images of art.

All three schools of teaching still have their own temples.

Confucianism became the prevailing value system for social relations in China for two millennia.

But as the Bolshevik Revolution took control of Russia in the early 20th century, Communism spread through Europe and Asia.

In China, some intellectuals tried to displace old Confucian teachings with more Western culture and beliefs.

After Mao Zedong's Communist forces took control of China in 1949, and during the Cultural Revolution from 1966 to 1976, thousands of Taoist, Confucian and Buddhist temples were destroyed.

Marxism became the prevailing doctrine. But after Mao's death, the government loosened its restrictions on faith groups.

Churches and temples were allowed to reopen, as long as they registered themselves with the government.

These days, various groups which advocate for human rights and religious freedom report that Chinese authorities still repress small non-registered Christian churches, Buddhists in Tibet and members of Falun Gong.

But in Beijing, on that Christmas Eve in 1985, Li and her friends were able to follow Chinese Catholics who streamed back into their church.

During the 1980s, after Mao's death, the Chinese government slowly replaced Marxism with capitalism, said Li, who is executive director of the Confucius Institute in Waterloo.

The institute, one of 140 around the world which promotes Chinese culture, opened at Renison College, at the University of Waterloo, last week.

Li said peoples' love for materialism spread quickly in China and after two decades, some became extremely wealthy while many remain poor.

The rampant materialism has left people feeling spiritually empty, Li said.

Confucianism and Marxism, the ideologies that grounded society by preaching harmonious social relations and self-sacrifice, collapsed and left people without a value system, Li said.

After losing Marxism as her guide, Li said she was looking for a more "reasonable" value system.

So after immigrating to Canada, she investigated different churches.

Like Marxism and Confucianism, Christianity also calls individuals to self-sacrifice in an effort to benefit others and, according to many Christians, build a paradise on Earth, Li noted.

Despite "admiring" Christian culture, Li said she has not decided to get baptized. The atheism ingrained by thousands of years of Confucianism is the biggest obstacle to believing in God, she said.

Many other Chinese are also searching for a value system.

"The Chinese people have been hungry, for 20 years, for spiritual food," Li said. "People cannot be hungry for spiritual food for too long."

So it seems a revival of Confucianism is underway in China.

In the past year a Beijing scholar, Dan Yu, has revived classic Confucian teachings and applied them to contemporary life and situations in China.

Millions of Chinese have snapped up her books and regularly tune in to her TV lectures.

"This is the time people are rethinking the meaning of life," Li said.

The article above was found on Google and was published originally on The Record.com