Wu Hsin-Chao (2014) distinguishes four kinds of Chinese traditional religious organisation:
ancestry worship;
deity worship;
secret societies; and folk religious sects.
Types of indigenous—ethnic religion Worship of local and national deities ,
Shanxi. The Bald-headed Grandma is the
divine name for a local virtuous woman who was deified after death in 1944 and worshipped as a patron god of women in the region. . Sacred King of the Three was a legendary figure in
Rui'an and emerged as a local water deity. Chinese religion in its communal expression involves the worship of gods that are the generative power and tutelary spirit (
genius loci) of a locality or a certain aspect of nature (for example
water gods,
river gods,
fire gods,
mountain gods), or of gods that are common ancestors of a village, a larger identity, or the Chinese nation (
Shennong,
Huangdi,
Pangu). The social structure of this religion is the (literally "society of a god"), synonymous with , in which originally meant the altar of a community's earth god, while means "association", "assembly", "church" or "gathering". This type of religious trusts can be dedicated to a god which is bound to a single village or temple or to a god which has a wider following, in multiple villages, provinces or even a national importance.
Mao Zedong distinguished "god associations", "village communities" and "temple associations" in his analysis of religious trusts. In his words: "every kind and type of god [
shen] can have an association [
hui]", for example the Zhaogong Association, the Guanyin Association, the Guangong Association, the Dashen Association, the Bogong Association, the Wenchang Association, and the like.
Wang Ye worship, or the cult of the Silkworm Mother. This type of religion is prevalent in north China, where lineage religion is absent, private, or historically present only within families of southern origin, and patrilineal ties are based on
seniority, Often deity societies incorporate entire villages; this is the reason why in north China there can be found many villages which are named after deities and their temples, for example or .
Lineage religion (left) and Huang
ancestral shrine (right) in
Wenzhou,
Zhejiang Another dimension of the Chinese folk religion is based on family or genealogical worship of deities and ancestors in family altars or private temples ( or ), or
ancestral shrines ( or , or also ).
Kinship associations or churches (), congregating people with the same
surname and belonging to the same
kin, are the social expression of this religion: these lineage societies build temples where the deified ancestors of a certain group (for example the
Chens or the
Lins) are enshrined and worshiped. These temples serve as centres of aggregation for people belonging to the same lineage, and the lineage body may provide a context of identification and mutual assistance for individual persons. The construction of large and elaborate ancestral temples traditionally represents a kin's wealth, influence and achievement. Scholar K. S. Yang has explored the ethno-political dynamism of this form of religion, through which people who become distinguished for their value and virtue are considered immortal and receive posthumous divine titles, and are believed to protect their descendants, inspiring a mythological lore for the collective memory of a family or kin. If their temples and their deities enshrined acquire popularity they are considered worthy of the virtue of
ling, "efficacy". Worship of ancestors () is observed nationally with large-scale rituals on
Qingming Festival and other holidays. This type of religion prevails in south China, where lineage bonds are stronger and the patrilineal hierarchy is not based upon seniority, and access to corporate resources held by a lineage is based upon the equality of all the lines of descent.
Philosophical and ritual modalities Wuism and shamanic traditions of
Genghis Khan in the town of
Uxin in
Inner Mongolia, in the
Mu Us Desert. The worship of Genghis is shared by Chinese and
Mongolian folk religion. "The extent to which shamanism pervaded ancient Chinese society", says Paul R. Goldin (2005), "is a matter of scholarly dispute, but there can be no doubt that many communities relied upon the unique talents of shamans for their quotidian spiritual needs". The Chinese usage distinguishes the
Chinese wu tradition or "Wuism" as it was called by
Jan Jakob Maria de Groot (; properly shamanic, with control over the gods) from the
tongji tradition (; mediumship, without control of the godly movement), and from non-Han Chinese Altaic shamanisms () that are practised in northern provinces. According to Andreea Chirita (2014), Confucianism itself, with its emphasis on hierarchy and ancestral rituals, derived from the shamanic discourse of the
Shang dynasty. What Confucianism did was to marginalise the "dysfunctional" features of old shamanism. However, shamanic traditions continued uninterrupted within the folk religion and found precise and functional forms within Taoism. In the Shang and
Zhou dynasty, shamans had a role in the political hierarchy, and were represented institutionally by the Ministry of Rites (). The emperor was considered the supreme shaman, intermediating between the three realms of heaven, earth and man. The mission of a shaman () is "to repair the dis-functionalities occurred in nature and generated after the sky had been separated from earth": Nuo folk religion is a system of the Chinese folk religion with distinct institutions and cosmology present especially in central-southern China. It arose as an
exorcistic religious movement, and it is interethnic but also intimately connected to the
Tujia people.
Confucianism, Taoism and orders of ritual masters in
Fukang,
Changji,
Xinjiang. It is an example of Taoist temple which hosts various chapels dedicated to popular gods. ,
Wuxi,
Jiangsu. In this temple the enshrined is
Confucius. Confucianism and Taoism—which are formalised, ritual, doctrinal or philosophical traditions—can be considered both as embedded within the larger category of Chinese religion, or as separate religions. In fact, one can practise certain folk cults and espouse the tenets of Confucianism as a philosophical framework, Confucian theology instructing to uphold the moral order through the worship of gods and ancestors that is the way of connecting to the
Tian and awakening to its harmony (
li, "
rite"). Folk temples and ancestral shrines on special occasions may choose Confucian liturgy (that is called , or sometimes , meaning "
orthoprax" ritual style) led by Confucian "sages of rites" () who in many cases are the elders of a local community. Confucian liturgies are alternated with Taoist liturgies and popular ritual styles. There are many organised groups of the folk religion that adopt Confucian liturgy and identity, for example the
Way of the Gods according to the Confucian Tradition or phoenix churches (Luanism), or the
Confucian churches, schools and fellowships such as the of
Beijing, the of
Shanghai, the Confucian Fellowship () in northern Fujian, and ancestral temples of the Kong (Confucius) lineage operating as well as Confucian-teaching churches. Some
currents of Taoism are deeply interwoven with the Chinese folk religion, especially the
Zhengyi school, developing aspects of local cults within their doctrines; Local gods of local cultures are often incorporated into their altars. although the 63rd Celestial Master Zhang Enpu fled to Taiwan in the 1940s during the
Chinese Civil War.
Lineages of ritual masters (), also referred to as practitioners of "Faism", also called "Folk Taoism" or (in southeast China) "Red Taoism", operate within the Chinese folk religion but outside any institution of official Taoism.
Organised folk religious sects ,
Hebi, is the headquarters of the Weixinist Church in
Henan. China has a long history of sect traditions characterised by a
soteriological and
eschatological character, often called "salvationist religions" (). They emerged from the common religion but are not part of the lineage cult of
ancestors and
progenitors, nor the communal deity religion of village temples, neighbourhood, corporations, or national temples.
Prasenjit Duara has termed them "redemptive societies" (), while modern Chinese scholarship describes them as "folk religious sects" (, or ), abandoning the derogatory term used by imperial officials, , "evil religion". They are characterised by several elements, including
egalitarianism; foundation by a charismatic figure; direct divine revelation; a
millenarian eschatology and voluntary path of
salvation; an embodied experience of the numinous through healing and cultivation; and an expansive orientation through good deeds,
evangelism and
philanthropy. Their practices are focused on improving morality, body cultivation, and recitation of scriptures. Many of the redemptive religions of the 20th and 21st century aspire to become the repository of the entirety of the Chinese tradition in the face of Western modernism and materialism. This group of religions includes
Yiguandao and other sects belonging to the
Xiantiandao ( "Way of Former Heaven"), Jiugongdao ( "Way of the Nine Palaces"), various proliferations of the
Luo teaching, the
Zaili teaching, and the more recent
De teaching, Weixinist,
Xuanyuan and
Tiandi teachings, the latter two focused respectively on the worship of
Huangdi and the universal God. Also, the
qigong schools are developments of the same religious context. These folk sectarian offer different world views and compete for influence. To take one example,
Yiguandao focuses on personal salvation through inner work and considers itself the most valid "Way of Heaven" (). Yiguandao offers its own "
Way of Former Heaven" (), that is, a cosmological definition of the state of things prior to creation, in unity with God. It regards the other
Luanism, a cluster of churches which focus on social morality through refined Confucian ritual to worship the gods, as the "Way of Later Heaven" (), that is the cosmological state of created things. These movements were banned in the early
Republican China and later Communist China. Many of them still remain illegal, underground or unrecognised in
China, while others—specifically the De teaching, Tiandi teachings, Xuanyuan teaching, Weixinism and Yiguandao—have developed cooperation with mainland China's academic and non-governmental organisations. A further distinctive type of sects of the folk religion, that are possibly the same as the positive "secret sects", are the martial sects. They combine two aspects: the , that is the doctrinal aspect characterised by elaborate cosmologies, theologies, initiatory and ritual patterns, and that is usually kept secretive; and the , that is the body cultivation practice and that is usually the "public face" of the sect. They were outlawed by Ming imperial edicts that continued to be enforced until the fall of the Qing dynasty in the 20th century. In
Taiwan, virtually all of the "redemptive societies" operate freely since the late 1980s.
Tiandi teachings The Tiandi teachings are a religion that encompasses two branches, the Holy Church of the Heavenly Virtue () and the Church of the Heavenly Deity (), both emerged from the teachings of Xiao Changming and Li Yujie, disseminated in the early 20th century. The latter is actually an outgrowth of the former established in the 1980s. According to scholars, Tiandi teachings derive from the
Taoist tradition of
Huashan, where Li Yujie studied for eight years. The Church of the Heavenly Deity is very active both in Taiwan and mainland China, where it has high-level links. the
Hundred Schools of Thought, and worship of the "three great ancestors" (
Huangdi,
Yandi and
Chiyou). The movement promotes the restoration of the authentic roots of the Chinese civilization and
Chinese unification. and it has also built temples in
Hebei.
Geographic and ethnic variations North and south divides , whose cult is mostly
Fujianese and
Taiwanese Recent scholarly works have found basic differences between north and south folk religion. Folk religion of southern and southeastern provinces is focused on the
lineages and
their churches () focusing on ancestral gods, while the folk religion of central-northern China (
North China Plain) hinges on the communal worship of
tutelary deities of creation and nature as identity symbols by villages populated by families of different surnames. and led by indigenous ritual masters () who are often hereditary and linked to secular authority. Northern and southern folk religions also have a different
pantheon, of which the northern one is composed of more ancient gods of
Chinese mythology. Furthermore,
folk religious sects have historically been more successful in the central plains and in the northeastern provinces than in southern China, and central-northern folk religion shares characteristics of some of the sects, such as the heavy importance of
mother goddess worship and shamanism, as well as their scriptural transmission. Goossaert talks of this distinction, although recognising it as an oversimplification, of a "Taoist south" and a "village-religion/Confucian centre-north", Otherwise, in the
religious context of Inner Mongolia there has been a significant integration of Han Chinese into the traditional folk religion of the region. There has been an assimilation of deities from
Tibetan folk religion, especially wealth gods. In
Tibet, across broader
western China, and in
Inner Mongolia, there has been a growth of the cult of
Gesar with the explicit support of the Chinese government, a cross-ethnic Han-Tibetan, Mongol and Manchu deity (the Han identify him as an aspect of the god of war analogically with
Guandi) and
culture hero whose mythology is embodied as a culturally important
epic poem.
"Taoised" indigenous religions of ethnic minorities (Three Star Gods) represented in
Bai iconographic style at a
Benzhu temple on Jinsuo Island, in
Dali,
Yunnan Chinese religion has both influenced, and in turn has been influenced by,
indigenous religions of ethnic groups that the Han Chinese have encountered along their ethnogenetic history. Seiwert (1987) finds evidence of pre-Chinese religions in the folk religion of certain southeastern provinces such as Fujian and Taiwan, especially in the local
wu and lineages of ordained ritual masters. A process of
sinicization, or more appropriately a "Taoisation", is also the more recent experience of the indigenous religions of some distinct
ethnic minorities of China, especially southwestern people. Chinese Taoists gradually penetrate within the indigenous religions of such peoples, in some cases working side by side with indigenous priests, in other cases taking over the latter's function and integrating them by requiring their ordination as Taoists. On the other hand, it is also true that in more recent years there has been a general revival of indigenous lineages of ritual masters without identification of these as Taoists and support from the state Chinese Taoist Church. An example is the revival of lineages of ("scripture sages") priests among the Yi peoples.
Bimoism has a tradition of theological literature and though clergy ordination, and this is among the reasons why it is taken in high consideration by the Chinese government. Bamo Ayi (2001) attests that "since the early 1980s ... minority policy turned away from promoting assimilation of Han ways". ==Features==