Chinese Folk Religion

China is huge, but it has some strong factors that bond it into unity. One thing that bonds common people and high government officials alike is the amalgamation of traditions, myths, and culture that is Chinese Folk religion. It’s hard to pin a finger on what is Chinese Folk Religion, as the practices are so diverse from province to province and village to village. In each of its diverse manifestations, institutional and ritual behavior are highly organized.

Along with an overlying belief in a natural order, worship is devoted to a multiplicity of gods and immortals, who can be deities of phenomena or of human behavior, ancestors, and natural forces. Taking historic influences from Buddhism and Taoism, here is a common core of 6 theological, cosmological, and moral concepts within Chinese Folk Religion:

Tian: Heaven, the transcendent source of moral meaning.
Qi: The breath or energy that animates the universe
Jingzu: The veneration of ancestors
Bao Ying: moral reciprocity
Ming Yun: personal destiny
Yuan Fen: fateful coincidence

Most westerners have also heard about Yin and Yang, the polarity that describes the order of the universe. The sacred medium of the two states on Yin (“receptiveness”) and Yang (“act”) is also thought of as the order of creation, “Ling”. [1]

A Way of Community

Unlike Western religions in which the religion and its organizational structure, a “church”, is separate from civic life, Chinese Folk religion pervades all aspects of social life and is deeply embedded in family.Chinese religion also does not require “conversion” for participation. [2]It’s not about “believing” in a certain doctrine or dogma, but rather “belonging” to a local unit, “associtation, village, or kinship” with their gods and rituals. [3]

In History

After the fall of the Chinese empire in 1911, Chinese Folk Religion was eradicated and undermined by the government and elites, which fragmented and thinned its followers. However the late 20th and 21st centuries are seeing a revival of these religions in mainland China and Taiwan. [4]

Confucianism and Taoism

While these more concrete and familiar belief systems are considered a part of Chinese Folk Religion, some may distinguish them as “folk religion” compared to others tenets being “folk beliefs”. [5] Still, they may also be called a system of philosophical and “ethical socio-political teachings”. [6]

The Chinese philosopher Confucius lived 551-479 BCE
Confucian theology instructs to uphold the moral order through the worship of gods and ancestors. The core of Confucianism is humanistic, regarding ordinary human activities and relationships as sacred. Its core revolves around unifying the self with “Tian” which can loosely be translated to Heaven or God, though it is non-theistic.

This might be compared with the Tao in Taoism: the natural flow and cosmic structure of the Universe. Heavily influenced by the I Ching (the oldest Chinese classic) it diverged from Confucianism by scorning rigid rituals and social classes [7] and now uses the Tao Te Ching by Laozi as its keystone work. Taoism emphasizes detachment from desires, simplicity, and Wu Wei: action through inaction. The goal of a Toaist is to align themselves with a natural way of being, as effortless as the planets revolving around the sun.

General

Taoism

Confucianism