Holy Church of the Heavenly Virtue The origins of the Holy Church of the Heavenly Virtue (天德聖教
Tiāndé shèngjiào) go back to
Sichuan in 1899, with the alleged resurrection of a young boy named Xiao Changming (蕭昌明, 1896-1943) who had apparently died three days earlier. After his revival, he declared that he had received Heaven's mandate (
tianming) to save humanity from suffering. He embarked on a successful religious career and attracted a large following. In 1937 he established his headquarters on Mount Huang in southern
Anhui province where he died in 1943. Like other sects, Xiao Changming's movement was suppressed in
China after 1949, but survives in
Taiwan and
Hong Kong. In Taiwan, one of Xiao's disciples, Li Yujie, eventually decided to walk his own path and founded a new group called the Lord of Universe Church in 1978, which diverges doctrinally in several aspects from the mother group, yet also sees itself in the tradition of Xiao Changming's teachings. Currently, there exist two regional organizations for this religion. Its
Hong Kong headquarters is located at Castle Peak in the New Territories. In
Taiwan the religion's situation is characterized by disunity, with several separate organizations claiming to continue original Xiao's teachings.
Lord of Universe Church ,
Taiwan. The Lord of Universe Church (天帝教
Tiāndì jiāo) is based in
Taiwan and is devoted to the Tiandiist beliefs as proclaimed by Li Yujie. It is an offshoot of the Holy Church of the Heavenly Virtue and it emphasizes chanting, traditional medicine, and a form of meditation which it calls "quiet sitting" in English. Li Yujie (1901–1994) was born in
Suzhou. He worked in the
Kuomintang but left in 1958 to ensure political independence for his fledgling newspaper. In 1980 he claimed he was given permission by God to retransmit the message of the Heavenly Deity, which emphasize
nuclear disarmament and
Chinese unification. His book,
The Ultimate Realm, was translated into Japanese and English under his guidance. ==See also==