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Chinese folk religion

Chinese folk religion, also known as Chinese popular religion, comprehends a range of traditional religious practices of Han Chinese, including the Chinese diaspora. Vivienne Wee described it as "an empty bowl, which can variously be filled with the contents of institutionalised religions such as Buddhism, Taoism, Confucianism and Chinese syncretic religions".[1] This includes the veneration of shen (spirits) and ancestors.[2] Worship is devoted to deities and immortals, who can be deities of places or natural phenomena, of human behaviour, or founders of family lineages. Stories of these gods are collected into the body of Chinese mythology. By the Song dynasty (960–1279), these practices had been blended with Buddhist, Confucian, and Taoist teachings to form the popular religious system which has lasted in many ways until the present day.[3] The present day government of mainland China, like the imperial dynasties, tolerates popular religious organizations if they bolster social stability but suppresses or persecutes those that they fear would undermine it.[4]

Chinese folk religion

中國民間信仰

中国民间信仰

Zhōngguó mínjiān xìnyǎng

Zhōngguó mínjiān xìnyǎng

ㄓㄨㄥ ㄍㄨㄛˊ ㄇㄧㄣˊ ㄐㄧㄢ ㄒㄧㄣˋ ㄧㄤˇ

Chung1-kuo2 min2-chien1 hsin4-yang3

Jhongguó mín-jian sìn-yǎng

Jūng gwok màhn gāan seun yéuhng

Zung1 gwok3 man4 gaan1 seon3 joeng5

After the fall of the Qing dynasty in 1911, governments and modernizing elites condemned "feudal superstition" and opposed or attempted to eradicate traditional religious practices which they believed conflicted with modern values. By the late 20th century, these attitudes began to change both in Taiwan and in mainland China, and many scholars now view folk religion in a positive light.[5] In recent times traditional religion is experiencing a revival in both China and Taiwan. Some forms have received official understanding or recognition as a preservation of traditional culture, such as Mazuism and the Sanyi teaching in Fujian,[6] Huangdi worship,[7] and other forms of local worship, for example the Longwang, Pangu or Caishen worship.[8]


Geomancy, acupuncture, and traditional Chinese medicine reflect this world view, since features of the landscape as well as organs of the body are in correlation with the five powers and yin and yang.[9]

Diversity[edit]

Chinese religions have a variety of sources, local forms, founder backgrounds, and ritual and philosophical traditions. Despite this diversity, there is a common core that can be summarised as four theological, cosmological, and moral concepts:[10] Tian (Chinese: ; pinyin: tiān; lit. 'Heaven'), the transcendent source of moral meaning; qi (simplified Chinese: ; traditional Chinese: ; pinyin: ), the breath or energy that animates the universe; jingzu (Chinese: 敬祖; pinyin: jìng zǔ), the veneration of ancestors; and bao ying (Chinese: 報應; pinyin: bàoyìng), moral reciprocity; together with two traditional concepts of fate and meaning:[11] ming yun (Chinese: 命運; pinyin: mìngyùn), the personal destiny or burgeoning; and yuan fen (Chinese: 緣分; pinyin: yuánfèn), "fateful coincidence",[12] good and bad chances and potential relationships.[12]


Yin and yang (Chinese: 陰陽; pinyin: yīnyáng) is the polarity that describes the order of the universe,[13] held in balance by the interaction of principles of "extension" (Chinese: ; pinyin: shén; lit. 'spirit') and principles of "returning" (Chinese: ; pinyin: guǐ; lit. 'ghost'),[14] with yang ("act") usually preferred over yin ("receptiveness") in common religion.[15] The taijitu is used in folk religion, along with the bagua, to represent the natural forces and power that deities like Zhong Kui wield.[16] Ling (Chinese: ; pinyin: líng), "numen" or "sacred", is the "medium" of the two states and the inchoate order of creation.[15]

substance (: ; pinyin: ): religiousness (Chinese: 宗教性; pinyin: zōngjiào xìng);

Chinese

function (: ; pinyin: yòng): folkloricity (Chinese: 民俗性; pinyin: mínsú xìng);

Chinese

quality (: ; pinyin: xiàng): Chineseness (Chinese: 中華性; pinyin: zhōnghuá xìng).

Chinese

History[edit]

Prehistory[edit]

In the beginning of Chinese civilization, "[t]he most honored members of the family were...the ancestors", who lived in a spiritual world between heaven and earth and beseeched the gods of heaven and earth to influence the world to benefit their family.[48]

Imperial China[edit]

By the Han dynasty, the ancient Chinese religion mostly consisted of people organising into shè (Chinese: ["group", "body", local community altars]) who worshipped their godly principle. In many cases the "lord of the she" was the god of the earth, and in others a deified virtuous person (xiān Chinese: , "immortal"). Some cults such as that of Liu Zhang, a king in what is today Shandong, date back to this period.[49]


From the 3rd century on by the Northern Wei, accompanying the spread of Buddhism in China, strong influences from the Indian subcontinent penetrated the ancient Chinese indigenous religion. A cult of Ganesha (Chinese: 象頭神 Xiàngtóushén, "Elephant-Head God") is attested in the year 531.[50] Pollination from Indian religions included processions of carts with images of gods or floats borne on shoulders, with musicians and chanting.[49]

(Chinese: 命運), the personal destiny or given condition of a being in his world, in which ming is "life" or "right", the given status of life, and yun defines both "circumstance" and "individual choice"; ming is given and influenced by the transcendent force Tian (Chinese: ), that is the same as the "divine right" (tianming) of ancient rulers as identified by Mencius.[11] Personal destiny (ming yun) is thus perceived as both fixed (as life itself) and flexible, open-ended (since the individual can choose how to behave in bao ying).[11]

Ming yun

(Chinese: 緣分), "fateful coincidence",[12] describing good and bad chances and potential relationships.[12] Scholars K. S. Yang and D. Ho have analysed the psychological advantages of this belief: assigning causality of both negative and positive events to yuan fen reduces the conflictual potential of guilt and pride, and preserves social harmony.[116]

Yuan fen

Discursive-scriptural: involving the composition, preaching, and recitation of texts (, Taoist scriptures and morality books);

classics

Personal cultivation mode, involving a long-term cultivation and transformation of oneself with the goal of becoming a Chinese: (immortal), zhenren Chinese: 真人 ("true person"), or shengren (wise), through the practice of different "technologies of the self" (qigong Chinese: 氣功, Taoist inner and outer alchemy, charitable acts for merit, memorisation and recitation of texts);

xian

Liturgical: involving elaborate ritual procedures conducted by specialists of rites (Taoist rites, Confucian rites, Nuo rites, Chinese: 風水);

fengshui

Immediate practical: aiming at quick efficacious (ling : ) results through simple ritual and magical techniques (divination, talismans, divine medicine, consulting media and shamans);

Chinese

Relational: emphasising the devotional relationship between men and deities and among men themselves (organising elaborate , making vows, organising temple festivals, pilgrimages, processions, and religious communities) in "social comings and goings" (laiwang Chinese: 來往) and "interconnectedness" (guanxi Chinese: 關係).

sacrifices

China Ancestral Temples Network

Archived 19 October 2018 at the Wayback Machine, a documentary on the reinvention of Chinese religion and Taoism. By Kenneth Dean, 2010, 80 minutes.

Bored in Heaven