Chinese Cultural Revolution Marked by Mao Ze-Dong - Term Paper Example

The paper “Chinese Cultural Revolution - Mao Zedong's Authority and Religion's Replacement by Marxism" is a meaty example of a term paper on social science. The current political authority in China derives its principle from the ancient emperor. The charismatic authority peaked during the Cultural Revolution between 1966 and 1976 marked by the near exaltation of Mao Zedong. The China Republic considered itself an atheist nation despite it having a political religion through Marxism. The essay emphasizes the ritual activities of the Chinese in the Cultural Revolution, and the comparison between the current political religion and the ancient religion (Zuo 99).

  The Chinese Traditional ReligionsThe religion held the existence of gods, both popular and official categories. The rest of the population, in household units, was to worship the spirits of their ancestors. The popular and official religions had different levels of practice. The popular religion aimed at achieving a psychological deficit and easing anxiety among other rewards. The official religion was about the code of conduct and society’s social structure. The official category of gods included the Spirit of Heaven and the spirits of the ancestors.

The popular gods were the Gods of Trade and that of War. They believed the emperor to be the son of Heaven’s Son with the authority to talk directly with Heaven’s Spirits and to offer sacrifices. The emperor was to empower deities and make the worship objects, ranking, demoting, and entitling them (Zuo 100). Traditional religious schools such as Confucianism, Taoism, and Buddhism existed. However, Confucianism was more about ethical doctrine and moral code for maintaining the order of patrimony.

The preaching of the Confucian doctrine was by the literati who undermined the popular religions hence were unpopular among the less educated individuals (Zuo 100). The Emergence of Political ReligionMarx in his view believed that religion is an image of the suffering of man and society’s sickness and opium of the masses to justify the legitimate and existing state of affairs. Communist leaders uphold the atheist belief of Marx as a way of self-realization. The belief relieves individuals from unfounded consciousness.

The communists viewed religion as an irrational belief and replaced it with Marxism (Zuo 101). Cultural Revolution eliminated the ancient ideologies, customs, traditions, and values based on superstition of the feudal. It marked the abolition of external religious expression and the demolition of Buddha images and museums. To cover for the resultant religious vacuum, the Communists initiated a new form of religion around the then-chairperson, Mao Ze-dong. The actions saw Mao exalted as a god. Rituals and ceremonies were set for the idol.

The people also worshipped Mao using his Little Red Book, which contained the words of Mao. No one would ever challenge Mao's ideas as such moves would attract an ultimate penalty, death (Zuo 102). The Cause of Political Religion in ChinaThe communist religion in China progressed because of village-based government, patrimonial law structure, and production associations. The social structure provided no room for transformation. Being a communist country, China lags behind in industrialization with agriculture being the major economic activity.

Some of the hindrances were due to the Confucian curriculum of ethics, writing skills, and literature as a way of getting into leadership. Inadequate knowledge and creativity would mean reliance on magical powers to solve their miseries (Zuo 106).ConclusionThe Cultural Revolution relied upon Marxism to abandon the traditional deity religion to a more physical religion headed by the communist party of China. The revolution saw the communist Chairman, Mao Ze-dong, become a god worshipped by the people of China.

Political leaders relied on divine powers for political control. A decade after the abolition Cultural Revolution, the Chinese still relied on the social structure is created.