Concept
In the study of comparative religion, the East Asian religions or Taoic religions, form a subset of the Eastern religions. This group includes Chinese religion overall, which further includes Ancestral Worship, Chinese folk religion, Confucianism, Taoism and popular salvationist organisations (such as Yiguandao and Weixinism), as well as elements drawn from Mahayana Buddhism that form the core of Chinese and East Asian Buddhism at large. The group also includes Japanese Shinto, Tenrikyo, and Korean Muism (Korean shamanism similar to Chinese Wuism), all of which combine Shamanistic elements and indigenous ancestral worship with various influences from Chinese religions. Chinese salvationist religions have influenced the rise of Japanese new religions such Tenriism and Korean Jeungsanism; as these new religious movements draw upon indigenous traditions but are heavily influenced by Chinese philosophy and theology. All these religious traditions, more or less, share core Chinese concepts of spirituality, divinity and world order, including Tao, 道 ("Way", Pinyin dào, Japanese tō or dō, and Korean do) and Tian, 天 ("Heaven", Japanese ten, and Korean cheon'''). Early Chinese philosophies defined the Tao and advocated cultivating the de, "virtue", which arises from the knowledge of such Tao. Some ancient Chinese philosophical schools merged into traditions with different names or became extinct, such as Mohism (and many others belonging to the ancient Chinese Hundred Schools of Thought), which was largely subsumed into Taoism. East Asian religions include many theological stances, including polytheism, nontheism, henotheism, monotheism, pantheism, panentheism and agnosticism. The place of Taoic religions among major religious groups is comparable to the Abrahamic religions found in Europe and the Western World as well as across the Middle East and the Muslim World, and Dharmic religions across the Indian subcontinent, Tibetan plateau and Southeast Asia.
