China has a long history of 5,000 years. So it has inherited a lot from the long history, except on religions. Those religions popular in China , such as Buddhism, Christian, Islam, are all spread from abroad. The only native religions Taoism, is not like other religions on the world.
It was first appeared as a thought of philosophy. It didn't become a real kind of religions until 200 years after its first appearance. And it had no engagement after all.
Chinese had never believed in a very god. Their believe is a strange mixture. It's a mixture of either eastern or western religions. And the point changed frequently. In Sui Dynasty, the emperors loved Buddhism, but in the early period of Tang Dynasty, emperors preferred Taoism.
It was recorded by a writer of Ming Dynasty, that the famous Tang emperor LiLongji once had made an interesting competition between a monk and a Taoism. The emperor wanted to know whose magic is more operative. In the story, Taoism won the game. The story sent us some interesting messages, religions in ancient China was just regarded as magic.
In another novel of Ming Dynasty Journey to the West, things came to a limit. The main character Wukong,Sun, a monkey born in the rock, first learnt his magician with a god of Taoism. But then destiny made him became the student of a monk. At last, the monkey king saw Gaotama Buddha, and he himself became one of the Buddhas. Maybe the novel showed that Taoism lost the competition with Buddhism at last.
In the long history of China, there was not a single religions be quantified as the religions of the country. Even in the 4th century, when the Buddhism was in its most booming period in southern China, emperor had never announced it as the religions of the whole country. And there was not a single religious war in the history. Although the war in end of Han Dynasty and the war of Taiping were in the name of Taoism and Christian, the aim of these wars was not religious.
