China and Europe on Trade Religion and Others

China and Europe have taken divergent views of religion, commercial exchange, and politics. However, there have emerged various points of commonality and intersection. Chinese and European society have both evolved through periods of feudalism and "warring states," and both have generally preferred centralized systems of power. China and Europe have both participated robustly in global trade, and have each developed profitable and enduring routes of trade that facilitate the movement of people, goods, and services.

Imperialism has remained a core strategy for both Chinese and European political and economic leaders. While China has refrained from actively colonizing the regions it has traded with, European societies have prided themselves on their imperial prowess. China's tendency towards imperialism has been selective, strategic, and regional in focus, whereas European colonization has been extensive and geographically expansive. Moreover, the goal of European imperialism merges with the colonial strategy of controlling the local population extensively. Religious missions have therefore been a core strategy of European colonization throughout the world, which is totally different from that of the Chinese policy.

Religion has been infused into political and social affairs in various ways throughout China and Europe. China has a strong foundation in non-religious ethical and political philosophies like that of Confucianism. Avoiding the complications of theology and cosmology, the systems of Confucianism nevertheless provide the underpinnings for law and policy. Both Chinese and European powers have used religion as a means of social control, dictating issues like gender norms and social hierarchies. Both Chinese and European sources indicate the deliberate fusion of religion and politics. For example, Pliny the Younger and Tertullian detail the burgeoning growth of Christianity throughout the late Roman Empire. Confucius's Analects, Laozi's texts on administering empire, and Anecdotes from the Warring States Period show how early Chinese philosophers informed political culture and values in Chinese society.

However, religion in China has been decidedly different from that in Europe. The latter has exhibited a strong tendency toward evangelism and deism, contrary to China. Chinese religion has been more concerned with questions of ethics and social harmony, order and balance, than with issues related to eschatology or even hermeneutics. The spread of Buddhism through East Asia provided an additional dimension to the religious fabric of China and to its social architecture, but as a non-deistic religion, Buddhism plays a different role in social and political life than Christianity has in Europe. Interestingly, though, the edict by Emperor Wuzong on the suppression of Buddhism shows how rulers became cognizant of the power of religion as a means of social control. Religion threatened to deflect power from the centralized political authorities. It became necessary for rulers in both Europe and China to dictate the state religion and mandate that religion become part of the political and social systems.