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Chinese salvationist religions or Chinese folk religious sects are a Chinese religious tradition characterised by a concern for salvation (moral fulfillment) of the person and the society. [1] They are distinguished by egalitarianism, a founding charismatic person often informed by a divine revelation, a specific theology written in holy texts, a millenarian eschatology and a voluntary path of salvation, an embodied experience of the numinous through healing and self-cultivation, and an expansive orientation through evangelism and philanthropy. [2]
Some scholars consider these religions a single phenomenon, and others consider them the fourth great Chinese religious category alongside the well-established Confucianism, Buddhism and Taoism. [3] Generally these religions focus on the worship of the universal God (Shangdi), represented as either male, female, or genderless, and regard their holy patriarchs as embodiments of God.
"Chinese salvationist religions" (救度宗教jiùdù zōngjiào) is a contemporary neologism coined as a sociological category [5] and gives prominence to folk religious sects' central pursuit that is the salvation of the individual and the society, in other words the moral fulfillment of individuals in reconstructed communities of sense. [1] Chinese scholars traditionally describe them as "folk religious sects" (民间宗教mínjiān zōngjiào, 民间教门mínjiān jiàomén or 民间教派mínjiān jiàopài) or "folk beliefs" (民间信仰mínjiān xìnyǎng). [6] [7]
They are distinct from the Chinese folk religion consisting in the worship of gods and ancestors, [8] although in English language there is a terminological confusion between the two. The 20th-century expression for these salvationist religious movements has been "redemptive societies" (救世团体jiùshì tuántǐ), coined by scholar Prasenjit Duara. [9]
A collective name that has been in use possibly since the latter part of the Qing dynasty is huìdàomén (会道门 "churches, ways and gates"), as their names interchangeably use the terms huì (会 "church, society, association, congregation"; when referring to their corporate form), dào (道 "way") or mén (门 "gate[way], door").
Their congregations and points of worship are usually called táng (堂 "church, hall") or tán (坛 "altar"). Western scholars often mistakenly identify them as "Protestant" churches. [10]
The Vietnamese religions of Minh Đạo and Caodaism emerged from the same tradition of Chinese folk religious movements. [11]
A category overlapping with that of the salvationist movements is that of the "secret societies" (秘密社会mìmì shèhuì, or 秘密结社mìmì jiéshè), [12] religious communities of initiatory and secretive character, including rural militias and fraternal organisations which became very popular in the early republican period, and often labeled as "heretical doctrines" (宗教异端zōngjiào yìduān). [13]
Recent scholarship has begun to use the label "secret sects" (秘密教门mìmì jiàomén) to distinguish the peasant "secret societies" with a positive dimension of the Yuan, Ming and Qing periods, from the negatively viewed "secret societies" of the early republic that became instruments of anti-revolutionary forces (the Guomindang or Japan). [13]
Many of these religions are traced to the White Lotus tradition [14] ("Chinese Maternism", as mentioned by Philip Clart [15] ) that was already active in the Song dynasty; [16] others claim a Taoist legacy and are based on the recovery of ancient scriptures attributed to important immortals such as Lü Dongbin and Zhang Sanfeng, and have contributed to the popularisation of neidan ; [17] other ones are distinctively Confucian and advocate the realisation of a "great commonwealth" (datong大同) on a world scale, as dreamt of in the Book of Rites. [18] Some scholars even find influences from Manichaeism, Mohism and shamanic traditions. [19] [20]
In the Ming and Qing dynasties many folk religious movements were outlawed by the imperial authorities as "evil religions" (邪教xiéjiào). [21] With the collapse of the Qing state in 1911 the sects enjoyed an unprecedented period of freedom and thrived, and many of them were officially recognised as religious groups by the early republican government. [22]
The founding of the People's Republic in 1949 saw them suppressed once again, [23] although since the 1990s and 2000s the climate was relaxed and some of them have received some form of official recognition. [24] In Taiwan all the still existing restrictions were rescinded in the 1980s.
Folk religious movements began to rapidly revive in mainland China in the 1980s, and now if conceptualised as a single group they are said to have the same number of followers of the five state-sanctioned religions of China taken together. [25] Scholars and government officials have been discussing to systematise and unify this large base of religious organisations; in 2004 the State Administration of Religious Affairs created a department for the management of folk religions. [25] In the late 2015 a step was made at least for those of them with a Confucian identity, with the foundation of the Holy Confucian Church of China which aims to unite in a single body all Confucian religious groups.
Many of the movements of salvation 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, [26] advocating an "Eastern solution to the problems of the modern world", [27] or even interacting with the modern discourse of an Asian-centered universal civilisation. [27]
The Chinese folk religious movements of salvation are mostly concentrated in northern and northeastern China, although with a significant influence reaching the Yangtze River Delta since the 16th century. [28] The northern provinces have been a fertile ground for the movements of salvation for a number of reasons: firstly, popular religious movements were active in the region already in the Han dynasty, and they deeply penetrated local society; secondly, northern provinces are characterised by social mobility around the capital and weak traditional social structure, thus folk religious movements of salvation fulfill the demand of individual searching for new forms of community and social network. [28]
According to the Chinese General Social Survey of 2012, approximately 2.2% of the population of China, which is around 30 million people, claim to be members of folk religious sects. [29] The actual number of followers may be higher, about the same as the number of members of the five state-sanctioned religions of China if counted together. [25] In Taiwan, recognised folk religious movements of salvation gather approximately 10% of the population as of the mid-2000s.
Religion in Japan is manifested primarily in Shinto and in Buddhism, the two main faiths, which Japanese people often practice simultaneously. According to estimates, as many as 70% of the populace follow Shinto rituals to some degree, worshiping ancestors and spirits at domestic altars and public shrines. An almost equally high number is reported as Buddhist. Syncretic combinations of both, known generally as shinbutsu-shūgō, are common; they represented Japan's dominant religion before the rise of State Shinto in the 19th century.
Religion in China is diverse and most Chinese people are either non-religious or practice a combination of Buddhism and Taoism with a Confucian worldview, which is collectively termed as Chinese folk religion.
Chinese folk religion comprises a range of traditional religious practices of Han Chinese, including the Chinese diaspora. This includes the veneration of shen ('spirits') and ancestors, and worship devoted to deities and immortals, who can be deities of places or natural phenomena, of human behaviour, or progenitors of family lineages. Stories surrounding these gods form a loose canon 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. The government of China generally tolerates popular religious organizations, but has suppressed or persecuted those that they fear would undermine social stability.
The Xiantiandao, also simply Tiandao is one of the most productive currents of Chinese folk religious sects such as the White Lotus Sect, characterised by representing the principle of divinity as feminine and by a concern for salvation of mankind.
Shengdao, best known by its corporate name Tongshanshe is a Confucian salvation sect part of the Xiantiandao lineage.
Religion in Taiwan is characterised by a diversity of religious beliefs and practices, predominantly those pertaining to the continued preservation of the ancient Chinese culture and religion. Freedom of religion is inscribed in the constitution of the Republic of China (Taiwan). The majority of Taiwanese people practice a combination of Buddhism and Taoism often with a Confucian worldview, which is collectively termed as Chinese folk religion.
Xuanyuandao, also known as Xuanyuanism (軒轅教) or Huangdiism (黄帝教), is a Confucian folk religion of China which was founded in Taipei, Taiwan, in 1952. The founder was Wang Hansheng (王寒生) (1899–1989), a legislator. The Church of Xuanyuan aims to restore the "national religion" of archaic China, with Huangdi as the universal God.
Zailiism or Liism (理教), also known as the Baiyidao or Bafangdao, is a Chinese folk religious sect of north China, founded in the 17th century by Yang Zai. It claims a Taoist identity and is centered on the worship of Guanyin as the incarnation of the principle of the universe, the "Only God of the Unlimited".
The Chinese religions of fasting are a subgroup of the Chinese salvationist religions. Their name refers to the strict vegetarian fasting diet that believers follow. This subgroup originated as the Lǎoguān zhāijiào sect that departed from the eastern "Great Vehicle" proliferation of Luoism in the 16th century and adopted features of the White Lotus tradition.
The Harmonious Church of the Three-in-One, or Sanyiism and Xiaism, is a Chinese folk religious sect of Confucian character founded in the 16th century by Lin Zhao'en, in Putian. In 2011, it was officially recognised by the government of Fujian.
Luodao or Luoism (罗教), originally Wuweiism (无为教), refers to a Chinese folk religious tradition, a wide range of sect organisations flourishing over the last five hundred years, which trace their origins back to the mystic and preacher Luo Menghong (1443–1527), the Patriarch Luo and the revelation contained in his major scripture, the Wǔbùliùcè, the official title of which is The Scroll of Apprehending the Way through Hard Work and that marked the beginning of the precious scrolls' tradition.
The doctrine of the Three Suns or three stages of the end-time, or Three Ages, is a teleological and eschatological doctrine found in some Chinese salvationist religions and schools of Confucianism.
The Confucian church is a Confucian religious and social institution of the congregational type. It was first proposed by Kang Youwei (1858–1927) near the end of the 19th century, as a state religion of Qing China following a European model.
The associations of good-doing are organised groups of the indigenous religion of Hebei province, or the "Pear Area" of China. The Congregation of the Dragon's Name is one of these movements of good-doers.
The Maitreya teachings or Maitreyanism, also called Mile teachings, refers to the beliefs related to Maitreya practiced in China together with Buddhism and Manichaeism, and were developed in different ways both in the Chinese Buddhist schools and in the sect salvationist traditions of Chinese folk religion.
The Way of the Gods according to the Confucian Tradition, also called the Luandao or Luanism or—from the name of its cell congregations—the phoenix halls or phoenix churches, is a Confucian congregational religious movement of the Chinese traditional beliefs.
The predominant religions in Northeast China are Chinese folk religions led by local shamans. Taoism and Chinese Buddhism were never well established in this region of recent Han Chinese settlement. For this reason the region has been a hotbed for folk religious and Confucian churches, which provide a structure, clergy, scriptures and ritual to the local communities. The Way of the Return to the One, the Universal Church of the Way and its Virtue (Shanrendao), and more recently the Falun Gong, have been the most successful sects in Manchuria, claiming millions of followers. Schools of Tibetan Buddhism, traditionally transmitted by the region's Mongol minorities, have made inroads also among Han Chinese.
Baguadao or Eight Trigram Teaching (八卦教) is a network of Chinese folk religious sects, one of the most extended in northern China. The tradition dates back to the late 17th century Ming dynasty, and was heavily persecuted during the following Qing dynasty when affiliated sects organised an uprising in 1813, led by Lin Qing. Affiliated sects appeared under various names, but during the latter half of the 18th century they adopted Bagua Jiao as their common designation.
Huangtiandao, also known as Huangtianism or Xuanguism, is a Chinese folk religious sect of northern China. It was founded by Li Bin (李賓), a former soldier who retired after losing an eye, in 1553 in Xuanhua, Hebei.
The Chinese Folk Temples' Management Association is an organisation for the registration, standardisation and administration of the folk religious temples of China; such temples are considered the primary carriers of traditional culture. It was formally established at the end of 2015, with the approval of the government of China, with the purpose of creating a "Harmonious Society" realising the "Chinese Dream" with Chinese characteristics (gods). In its function, the organisation may be compared to Japan's Association of Shinto Shrines.