In the Han dynasty, Buddhism spread into China and soon prospered. Buddhism played an important role in Chinese culture and history.

Generally, Buddhism in China can be categorized into Han Buddhism, Tibetan Buddhism and Southern Buddhism. Han Buddhism and Tibetan Buddhism are important divisions of the religion, since they keep many important Buddhist scriptures translatedfrom the Sanskrit editions, which are extinct in India due to demolition happened there many years ago. Namas Amitabha!

At the center of Taoism is the concept of Tao, which is the natural order of things and cannot be explained since it exceeds senses, thoughts and imagination. It needs more meditation and contemplation and can be known only through mystical intuition. Literally Tao means "the path" or "the way". Tao is the natural way of the universe, the driving power in nature, the order behind all life and the driving force behind all living things. It underlies everything and works beyond human logic. Taoists believe Tao is the origin of the universe and creates all living beings, thus they worship all life in the universe and everything else created by nature, thereby worship nature. Taoism encourages cooperating with nature and natural forces instead of against them. The Taoist teaching Wuwei (Non-action) tries persuading people not to try to control nature, to conform with it instead. Taoists realize that nature is constantly in transformation and change and its order and harmony are more stable.

Confucianism was founded by Confucius in the Spring and Autumn period (770 B.C. - 476 B.C.), and further developed by Mencius, thus called The Way of Confucius and Mencius. In the Han dynasty, Confucianism was adopted and other schools suppressed by the Han rulers to consolidate their reign. Then Confucianism flourished and became dominant in the Chinese history and culture for almost 2 millenniums. Later it even spread to Korea and Japan and has been influential in the two cultures.

Confucius and his Confucianism had so great an impact on the Chinese civilization that you can't imagine how Chinese culture and history will be otherwise. In the whole 2,000 years, Confucianism has influenced the Chinese attitude toward life, set the patterns of living and standards of social value, established standards for training government officials, and provided the background for Chinese political theories and institutions.