儒家的宗教性源於西周以來的宗法倫理。人倫道德係天倫天秩，「天」是君權及人的先驗道德本性之根源。在天人性命相貫通的形上信仰下，如何將天命之德性自覺地修養成仁人君子及聖賢之德行而實現人的圓滿人格是儒家安身立命的終極價值問題。因此，儒家具有天人合德的內在體驗性、靈修實踐性及精神之究極價值托付性的宗教實質精神。道教是中國較具形式及內涵的本土宗教。儒學及道家、道教分別派於上古之魯學和齊學，在各自縱貫的發展中也一直有橫向的聯繫和相互吸收、擴充。儒家和道教皆具有宗教哲學不同程度的合理性及實存實現性。本文從歷史的脈絡分別從先秦儒學宗教的人文化及漢代政教化、宗教化的轉折，魏晉時期道教對儒家傳統倫理之吸收；以阮籍、嵇康為範例藉以解說魏晉名士如何在儒家倫理的信仰在現實黑暗政局的重挫後，一方面仍堅持對儒家倫理本真性的信仰，另方面則在時代的罪惡、痛苦及愧對自己未能實現使命之責任下，隨順魏晉玄風，不但儒道兼綜的轉折於道家的天真自然，也轉向於道教真、善、美及永恆性的生命與希望之企求，在儒教與道教互融雙攝下，魏晉名士身陷罪惡與痛苦的現實中，卻因心中有了信仰的生命而使生活有核心價值，於是在超越性的精神生活中喚起希望，產生解脫罪惡與痛苦的勇氣、信心、生命力和新希望。

The religiousness of Confucianism could be traced to the patriarchal ethics that originated in the Western Zhou Dynasty. Ethical morality was the ethics and order of heaven, while "heaven" entailed monarchial power and man's transcendental moral nature. With the metaphysical belief in the correspondence between heaven and man, the fundamental and ultimate issue for Confucianism was how to self-consciously cultivate the virtue of heavenly mandate into the virtue of gentlemen, sages and saints and then fulfill man's perfect personality. Therefore, with its unity of the virtues of heaven and man, its spiritual cultivation and the ultimate values of its spirituality, Confucianism was genuinely religious. Taoism was a domestic religion richer in form and content. Confucianism and Taoism originated respectively in Lu's learning and Qi's learning of the ancient time, while there were always associations, absorption and expansion in between during their developments. To different degrees, Confucianism and Taoism had the reasonableness and realism of religious philosophy. Informed by the historical contexts of how Confucianism was humanized in the Pre-Qin Period and religionized in the Han Dynasty as well as how Taoism absorbed traditional Confucian ethics in the Wei and Jin Dynasties, here we take Ruan Ji and Ji Kang as examples to demonstrate how the Wei and Jin scholars stuck to their belief in the true nature of Confucian ethics while, after such belief was seriously frustrated by real and dark politics, they followed the Wei and Jin metaphysics because of the evils and pains of their time as well as their inability to fulfill their missions. With the mutual absorption and assimilation between Confucianism and Taoism, the Wei and Jin scholars discovered the central values of their life through their belief, found hope in the transcendental spiritual life and came up with the courage, faith and vitality to relieve themselves of sins and pains, even when they were drowned in the reality of sins and pains.