I don't know that much about Chinese religions so taking what you write about it at face value. My interest more is to try to clarify what we are talking about

I don't know that much about Chinese religions so taking what you write about it at face value. My interest more is to try to clarify what we are talking about wrt religion. I: Confucianism and religion. I think the real challenge here is to define religion. As I define religion there is no question it qualifies. Namely: A religion is a tradition of myths and/or rituals which transmit and encode patterns of meaning which can be flexibly applied to life in order to make sense of what happens all around us. It is not necessary to believe in historical accuracy of myths (this obligation to believe was new with Christianity). Adherents may in fact have complete freedom to make sense of the tradition however they like. Interestingly there are religions (the traditional Hopi religion among Native Americans, for example) which incorporate forms of atheism into them, so a lack of deities isn't fatal. My understanding is that Confucianism would meet this definition. Would you disagree? You have rituals, stories, etc. which create the patterns of society. The same with Taoism in a different way. II: Meaning and function of religion I think our brains work on mythic levels as well as logical levels. I think that religion gives us ways to understand patterns of life which are beyond what we can do in a reductionist approach. I think it has always done this in a way which is deeply tied to culture. That's why I agree with the GP that religious rituals recognizing procreative marriage are entirely universal. If Chinese folk religion created the institution of marriage, then why is it none of the entire process involves religious worship of any sort? I don't know that you would define it as religious worship but at least what little I know of it has religious symbols woven throughout the practice. It is ritualized in a religious context. I don't think all religions demand worship though. For example, why is red so highly associated with weddings? Then there is the tea ceremony. My knowledge of all this is pretty highly abridged because my wife told her family when we got married to abridge the Chinese rituals.