The rich and unique civilization of China owes much of its cohesion to the widespread influence of Confucianism, Taoism and Buddhism, which are generally regarded as the three roots of Chinese culture. The influence of these three philosophies, especially Confucianism, came to predominate in China for more than two thousand years and also exerted powerful influences in shaping the social and political life of Korea, Japan and Indo-China.

Nowadays, more and more Chinese adopt beliefs in their lifetimes; not only traditional ones such as Confucianism, Taoism and Buddhism, but also religions originating from other countries, principal among them being Christianity and Islam. Then, of course there are the diverse religions of many of China's minority ethnic groups. So although China is officially a non-secular nation, it has millions of devotees following a variety of philosophies and religious beliefs.