Hungry Ghost Festival Myths

There are a lot of myths during the 7th moon or more commonly referred to as the Hungry Ghost Festival (or Ghost Festival).  The most popular myths are the following and the truths about them with respect to the philosophies and scriptures of Buddhism and Taoism. Myth 1: The gates of Hell are opened during every 7th lunar month. Which means souls leave Hell and freely go to the living world. THE TRUTH: Not all beings will be reborn in hell. Those who have earned strong negative karmas when they were alive will be the ones who will be reborn in hell. Although, when these souls have cleansed and lessen their bad karma they will again have...

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Hungry Ghost Festival

An ancient scroll of the Hungry Ghost Festival  If the west celebrates Halloween, the Chinese also has an eastern version and it is the Hungry Ghost Festival (or simply Ghost Festival). In the lunar calendar the festival falls on the 7th moon and is commonly called as the ghost month. There is a debate on where the festival had originated. For Buddhists and Taoists in China, they claim that the festival is from the scriptures of Buddhism as to which Buddha tells that the gates of hell are opened. Others claim that it is mostly from Chinese folklore, traditions and other folk religions.   During the Hungry Ghost Festival, the Chinese...

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Pan Hu the wonderful dog and China's Sinocentrism

Sinocentrism is an ethnocentric political ideology that regards China to be central or unique relative to other countries or nations.In short, it means that the Chinese race is supreme to all other non-Chinese. There is an ancient Chinese myth/legend that provides the sinocentrism of the Chinese- the tale of the wonderful dog named Pan Hu. Pan Hu's tale made the Chinese regard the uneducated Chinese, Man people(Miao, Mao,Ming, Mang) and the Non-Chinese people (Thai, Burmese, Tibetans) as dog people. Which means they are high-breed half human dogs and because they're half-breed human they are naturally lower than the Chinese people who are "pure...

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Taoism

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Confucianism

The symbol of Confucianism A quick look on some of the philosophies in Confuciani...

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