Is Confucianism a religion? And if it isn´t, why is it included in virtually all basic text books on world religions? (A staggering 0.2% of the world´s population identify as Confucian.) The very short story is that Confucianism "shouldn´t" be a religion on standard modern Western definitions of that term.
Rather, it´s a social and political philosophy set in a matrix of traditional Chinese religion, including the ubiquitous ancestor worship. Specifically Confucian rituals were carried out by imperial officials for the benefit of the state, and only a certain class of people who worked for the government were considered "Confucians". There was no Confucian clergy. The great mass of people might not even have been aware of the special Confucian rituals! Today, the government of China doesn´t consider Confucianism to be a religion, and its historical sites are administered by the ministry of culture rather than the ministry of religious affairs.
The Jesuits considered Confucianism to be a philosophy rather than a religion, and apparently dressed as Confucian scholars during their missionary activities in China. However, they also believed that Confucianism was in some sense a survival of a primordial monotheist religion, while Taoism and Buddhism were condemned as "idolatry". When the papacy condemned Confucian ancestor worship as equally idolatrous, Christian Europeans began to look upon Confucianism as a "Chinese pagan religion".
Apparently, some Protestant missionaries in China during the 19th century also appealed to the primordial monotheism concept, and tried to cast Confucianism in a "Christian" mold to make conversion easier. Meanwhile, Max Müller and other pioneers of comparative religion included Confucianism in their studies. In this way, Confucianism became enshrined - pun intended - as a "real" religion, at least in the minds of Western barbarians.
And there, it´s probably set to stay for some time to come.
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