The book, for the first time, publishes in its entirety in Russian the first part of a fundamental study devoted to the relationship between the main religious movements and the nature of the societies that developed under their influence. The value systems and socio-ethical attitudes that arose within the framework of the ancient Chinese teachings of Confucianism and Taoism are considered. Weber compares both movements and analyzes their impact on the social and, above all, economic activities of their followers. Here, a taxonomy of ideal types of religiously motivated economic ethics is being developed, characterizing the socio-economic orientation of various strata. Published in 1904, the work “Protestant Ethics and the Spirit of Capitalism” largely revolutionized the idea of the role of religion in social and economic processes and gave its creator the right to be called one one of the fathers of modern sociology. Until now, the domestic reader could only perceive it as an independent, separate work. However, for Weber himself, it was an introduction to a full-scale project of studying world religions and their relationship with the system of economics and social life. This book, written ten years after the publication of “The Protestant Ethic,” analyzes the religious and philosophical concepts of China and reveals their participation in the formation of a unique social structure that allows the Celestial Empire to remain an independent and deeply distinctive power today.