Names of Religions in Chinese

[tony1343]

Hi,

I'm trying to figure out to say the names of religions (zōng jiào ; 宗教) in Mandarin. Sorry if this has been posted elsewhere, but I couldn't find it with a cursory search.

Budhism = Fó jiào (佛教)

Daosim = dào jiào (道教)

Christianity = Jī dū jiào (基督教)

Catholicism = tiān zhǔ jiào (天主教)

Muslim = Huí jiào (回教)

Hinduism = Yìn dù jiào (印度教)

Judaism = Yóu tài jiào (犹太教)

Shinto = Shén dào (神道) [small Japanese religion I see]

Tenrikyo = Tiān lǐ jiào (天理教) [i've never heard of this]

Zoroastrianism = Bō sī jiào (波斯教) [also have never heard of]

Sikhism = Xí kè jiào (锡克教)

Mormonism = Mó mén jiào (摩门教)

Jainism = qin2 a4 jiao4 (耆那教)

Bahaism = da4 tong2 jiao4 (大同教)

Confucianism = Rú jiào (儒教)

Voodoo = fu2 du1 jiao4 (伏都教)

Deism = zì rán shén lùn (自然神论)

Paganism = yì jiào (异教)

Spiritism = zhao1 hun2 shu4 (招魂术)

Atheism = wú shén lùn (无神论)

Do you have other religions you would like to add. I was trying to just get the major religions at first. I should take Catholic out, but since I was raised one, I looked it up. So then I started adding in small religions that I found. So go ahead and add whatever you want. Could easily add tons of sects, but would probably get out of hand [so I might take Catholic out].

I first started trying to learn these words, because when I was in China, I occassionally visited a Budhist or Daoist temple and ate in Muslim restaurants, so the topic of religion would naturally come up (well at least for me, I'm not sure that a Chinese person ever initiated one of these conversations).

PS: I just copied and pasted the chinese characters, since for right now I am mostly concentrating on speaking and listening, and my reading is almost nil.

[atitarev]

Muslim = Huí jiào (回教)

The above is literally: the religion of Huízú or Huí (回族) - ethnic Muslim minority in China.

Also:

伊斯兰 / 伊斯蘭 Yīsīlán Islam

穆斯林 Mùsīlín Muslim

[skylee]

The orthodox church is 東正教. The egyptian coptic church is 科普特教. The church of England (the anglican/episcopal church), is 聖公會/英國國教.

Brahmanism is 婆羅門教.

[dalaowai]

Scientology - 知觉教 with the pinyin being "tom cruise jiao"

[889]

Zoroastrianism is the religion of the Parsi (Parsee) community. The Parsis are centered in Bombay but have outposts worldwide, including Hong Kong, where the Zoroastrian Temple is located in Causeway Bay.

Prior to 1949, there was also a Parsi community and Zoroastrian temple in Shanghai.

[rezaf]

Zoroastrianism is the root of the persian culture and is iranian's identity. it is based on saying good words, good thoughts and good behaviour(it's difficult for me to translate these three rules). all in all it is a very peacful religion. in the last 30 years our islamic government has done a lot to isolate it and destroy the traditonal iranian(Zoroastrian) festivals. i didn't know it has such a difficult name in english. we persians call it zartosht. in iran they mainly speak some kind of old persian named pahlavi巴拉维语. do you know what language they speak in bombay?

[jhargett]

Jehovah's Witnesses = Ye1 he2 hua2 jian4 zheng4 ren2 (耶和华见证人)

[digchinese.com]

I think most of Japan is Shinto

Zen = chán zōng (禅宗) (?)

[trien27]

Why are people posting denominations as if they're different religions? Jehovah's Witnesses, [Roman] Catholic, Protestant, Mormonism, Scientology, etc... all belong under Christianity [the belief in Jesus Christ], does it not?

If you do that, then Mahayana and Theraveda are both two kinds of different religions, not two sects of the same religion called Buddhism.

[tony1343]

Yeah, that's why I apologized for adding Catholic into the original list. I only did it since I was raised Catholic (and hence interested in how to say it), but that opened up the can of worms for any sect/denomination. Not a big deal though, since this thread isn't getting that many posts anyway.

It's still interesting to see how to say these denominations in Chinese. Plus one someone lists something I've never heard of, I tend to look it up in Wikipedia or Google it and learn something new (though I'm much behind on this).

Also, Scientology is not a denomination of Christianity (though from what I've heard they don't mind if you are also a Christian). On a more comical note, if you ask a Southern Baptist if Catholics are Christian, they will probably tell you no. Mormons believe in Christ, but the religion has many differences that it is often debated whether they are Christians. I don't know enough about it to make a judgment (nor do I think it is actually that important).

But anyway, you make a good point. So perhaps, in a day or two I will edit the first post to create a more comprehensive list of religions (and therefore not include the denominations). If anyone disagrees with me on the Scientology point let me know.

[liuzhou]

The names of different denominations are interesting and valuable. Keep them, I say!

Protestantism is 新教 xīn jiào

[dalaowai]

While on the topic of religions, one of my Chinese teachers told me a story about the importance of intonations and proper pronounciation when speaking Mandarin:

Once there was a woman who asked a man if he was religious and with a thick accent said “你性交吗？” to which the man promptly and enthusiastically replied “当然!”

In fact, what she meant to say was “你信教吗？”

[fireball9261]

I think most of Japan is Shinto

Zen = chán zōng (禅宗) (?)

Sorry, digchinese.com, Shinto in Japan is called 神道教 or simply 神道 in Chinese. It is a Japanese native religion and has nothing to do with Zen or Chan Zong or Buddhism. It is also possible that I misunderstood you, and you are listing two religions instead of one.

[digchinese.com]

Apologies! The two lines weren't meant to be connected.

[muyongshi]

Don't quote me on this too much as it came from subtitles in a movie:

Quakers 贵格教

[LaoZhang]

How about keep all of the "religions" and "major sects" and just rename the list?

Thanks for putting this list together.