The Religion of The Chinese #369166

In "The Religion of The Chinese", scholarly book published in 1910, Jan Jakob Maria de Groot details the history, rituals, and beliefs of the major traditional religions of China:  universal animism, polydemonism, specters, ancestral worship, Confucianism, Taoism, and Buddhism. He thought that one spiritual essence could be detected beneath a great variety of religious, philosophical, and even political expressions in China, and his lifework was the discovery and exposition of that essence.  

"The Religion of The Chinese" was written while China was still under its imperial system of government with an emperor at its head, prior to the revolutions which established a republic and later a communist system that eschewed any state religion.  Currently, China is officially an atheist country.  However, at present China's religions are "Daoist (Taoist), Buddhist, Christian 3%-4%, Muslim 1%-2%". Hence, although this book was written more than 100 years ago, it is still relevant to modern China's culture and traditions.