中国民间信仰与宗教关系辨析

The Relationship Between Chinese Folk Belief and Religion

中国民间信仰究竟属不属于宗教的范畴?学术界的争议很大,而其根源主要在于学者们对宗教概念的界定不同。通过对宗教概念的探究,发现民间信仰与宗教在本质上是相同的,都是对"超自然力量"的崇拜和信仰。结合中国实际情况,在研究中国民间信仰时应该采取广义的宗教定义。也就是说,中国民间信仰可以归入宗教的范畴。更进一步说,中国民间信仰就是中国的本土化宗教。

Whether Chinese folk belief is a religion or not？ There is much controversy in the academic field, which is rooted in the different understandings of the religious concept of scholars. By exploring the concept of reli-gion, we find that folk beliefs and religion have the same nature, both of which mean that people worship the ＂su- pernatural power＂. Considering the actual situation in China, we should adopt a broad definition of religion in the study of Chinese folk beliefs. That is to say, Chinese folk beliefs can be classified as religion. Furthermore, Chi-nese folk belief is the Chinese local religion.