Religion

Is very unlike western religion. It's closer to a naturalistic spirit religion, just with ancestor worship and spirits of things. It's millennia old, so it has varied over time, and has both rural, urban, and intellectual variations. Confucianism and Taoism seem to be a synthesis of all of it, in a way, but are more urban, imperial formalizations. The cultural diversity of China complicates things, too.

In its simplest form, it lends itself to being compatible with a centralized government. Western religions, on the other hand, are alien to the philosophical nature of traditional Chinese religious beliefs and practices. It all seems like philosophy more than theism.

I'm still trying to digest it.