Chinese folk religion has a variety of sources, local forms, founder backgrounds, and ritual and philosophical traditions. Chinese folk religion is sometimes categorized inadequately as "Taoism" or "folk Taoism",[6] since institutional Taoism acts as a "liturgical framework" of local religions.[7] Zhengyi Taoism is especially intertwined with local cults, with Zhengyi daoshi (道士, "masters of the Tao") often performing rituals for local temples and communities. Various orders of ritual ministers operate in folk religion but outside codified Taoism. Confucianism advocates worship of gods and ancestors through proper rites, which have ethical importance.[8][note 2] Confucian liturgy (儒 rú or 正统 zhèngtǒng, "orthoprax", ritual style) led by Confucian ritual masters (礼生 lǐshēng), is used on occasions in folk temples and by lineage churches.[10] Taoism in its various currents, either comprehended or not within the Chinese folk religion, has some of its origins from Wuism.[11] Chinese religion mirrors the social landscape, and takes on different shades for different people.[12]
Despite their great diversity, all the expressions of Chinese folk religion have a common core that can be summarised as four spiritual, cosmological, and moral concepts[13]—Tian (天), Heaven, the source of moral meaning, the utmost god and the universe itself; qi (气), the breath or substance of the universe; jingzu (敬祖), the veneration of ancestors; bao ying (报应), moral reciprocity—, and two traditional concepts of fate and meaning[14]—ming yun (命运), the personal destiny or burgeoning; and yuan fen (缘分), "fateful coincidence",[15] good and bad chances and potential relationships.[15] Yin and yang is the polarity that describes the order of the universe,[16] held in balance by the interaction of principles of growth (shen) and principles of waning (gui),[17] with act (yang) usually preferred over receptiveness (yin).[18] Ling (numen or sacred) is the "medium" of the bivalency, and the inchoate order of creation.[18]
Both in imperial China and under the modern nation, the state has opposed or attempted to eradicate these practices as "superstition". Yet Chinese folk religions are currently experiencing a revival in both mainland China and Taiwan.[19][20] Various forms of culture have received forms of official recognition by the government of China, such as Mazuism and the Xia teaching in southeastern China,[21] Huangdi worship,[22] and other forms of local worship, for example the Longwang, Pangu or Caishen worship.[23]
Terminology and definition
While in the English language academic literature Chinese "popular religion" or "folk religion" (中国民间宗教 Zhōngguó mínjiān zōngjiào) or "folk belief" (民间信仰 mínjiān xìnyǎng) have long been used to define the complex of Han local indigenous cults of China, the Chinese language historically has not had a concept or overarching name for this.[24] In Chinese academic literature and common usage "folk religion" (minjian zongjiao) defines strictly the organised folk religious sects.[25] "Folk beliefs" (minjian xinyang) is a technical term with little usage outside the academia.[26]
With the rise of the study of traditional cults and the creation of a government agency to give legal status to this religion,[27] intellectuals and philosophers in China have proposed the adoption of a formal name in order to solve the terminological problems of confusion with folk religious sects and conceptualise a definite field for research and administration.[28] The terms that have been proposed include "Chinese native religion" or "Chinese indigenous religion" (民俗宗教 mínsú zōngjiào), "Chinese ethnic religion" (民族宗教 mínzú zōngjiào),[29] or also simply "Chinese religion" (中華教 Zhōnghuájiào) viewed as comparable to the usage of the term "Hinduism" for Indian religion,[30] and "Shenxianism" (神仙教 Shénxiānjiào, "religion of deities and immortals"), partly inspired by the term "Shenism" (神仙教 Shénjiào) that was used in the 1950s by the anthropologist Allan J. A. Elliott[31] and earlier by the Qing dynasty scholars Yao Wendong and Chen Jialin in reference to Japanese Shinto.[32] Other definitions that have been used are "folk cults" (民间崇拜 mínjiān chóngbài),"spontaneous religion" (自发宗教 zìfā zōngjiào), "lived (or living) religion" (生活宗教 shēnghuó zōngjiào), "local religion" (地方宗教 dìfāng zōngjiào), and "diffused religion" (分散性宗教 fēnsàn xìng zōngjiào).[6]
"Shendao" (神道 Shéndào, the "Way of the Gods") is a term already used in the Yijing referring to the divine order of nature.[note 3] Around the time of the spread of Buddhism in the Han period (206 BCE-220 CE), it was used to distinguish the indigenous religion from the imported religion. Ge Hong used it in his Baopuzi as a synonym for Taoism.[33] The term was subsequently adopted in Japan in the 6th century as Shindo, later Shinto, with the same purpose of identification of the Japanese indigenous religion.[34][35] In the 14th century, the Hongwu Emperor (Taizu of the Ming dynasty, 1328-1398) used the term "Shendao" clearly identifying the indigenous cults, which he strengthened and systematised.[36]
"Chinese Universism", not in the sense of "universalism", that is a system of universal application, but in the original sense of "uni-verse" which is "towards the One", that is Shangdi—Tian in Chinese thought, is a coinage of Jan Jakob Maria de Groot that refers to the metaphysical perspective that lies behind the Chinese religious tradition.[note 4]
Contemporary Chinese scholars have also identified what they find to be the essential features of the folk (or indigenous—ethnic) religion of China. According to Chen Xiaoyi 陳曉毅 local indigenous religion is the crucial factor for a harmonious "religious ecology" (zongjiao shengtai 宗教生態), that is the balance of forces in a given community.[39] Professor Han Bingfang 韓秉芳 has called for a rectification of distorted names (zhengming 正名). Distorted names are "superstitious activities" (mixin huodong 迷信活動) or "feudal superstition" (fengjian mixin 封建迷信), that were derogatorily applied to the indigenous religion by leftist policies. Christian missionaries also used the label "feudal superstition" in order to undermine their religious competitor.[40] Han calls for the acknowledgment of folk religion for what it really is, the "core and soul of popular culture" (suwenhua de hexin yu linghun 俗文化的核心與靈魂).[41]
According to Chen Jinguo 陳進國, folk religion is a core element of Chinese cultural and religious self-awareness (wenhua zijue 文化自覺, xinyang zijue 信仰自覺).[40] He has proposed a theoretical definition of Chinese indigenous religion in "three inseparable attributes" (sanwei yiti 三位一體), apparently inspired to Tang Junyi's thought:[42]
- substance (ti 體): religiousness (zongjiaoxing 宗教性);
- function (yong 用): folkloricity (minsuxing 民俗性);
- quality (xiang 相): Chineseness (zhonghuaxing 中華性).
Overview
See also: Chinese spiritual world concepts and Ancestor veneration in China
Chinese folk religion is very diverse, varying from province to
province and even from a village to another, for it is bound to local
communities, kinship, and environments.[43] In each setting, institution and ritual behaviour assumes highly organised forms.[43]
Temples and the gods enshrined acquire symbolic character, with
specific functions involved in the everyday life of the local community.[43] Local religion preserves aspects of natural beliefs such as totemism,[44] animism and shamanism.[45]
The Chinese folk religion is a grassroots, pervasive factor in all aspects of the social life, contributing to the very fabric of Chinese society.[46] It is deeply embedded in family and civic life, rather than expressed in a separate organisational structure like a "church".[46]
Village temple associations and kinship-lineage associations with their temple-congregations, pilgrimage associations and formalised prayers, rituals and expressions of virtues, are the common forms of organisation of Chinese folk religion on the local level.[43] Neither initiation rituals nor official membership into a church organisation separate from one person's native identity are mandatory in order to be involved in religious activities.[43] Contrarywise to institutional religions, Chinese indigenous religion does not require "conversion" for participation.[46]
The prime criterion for participation in Chinese folk religion is not "to believe" in an official doctrine or dogma, but "to belong" to the local unit of Chinese religiousness, that is the "village" or the "kinship", with their gods and rituals.[47] Scholar Richard Madsen describes Chinese religion, adopting the definition of Tu Weiming,[48] as characterised by "immanent transcendence" grounded in a devotion to "concrete humanity", focused on building moral community within concrete humanity.[49]
There are many public-domain folk religion texts such as Journeys to the Underworld, The Peach Blossom Spring, the Shi Yi Ji, the Investiture of the Gods, the Shanhaijing, and notably the Yijing divination book, distributed in temples (often without charge) or sold in religious goods stores.
History
By the Han dynasty, Chinese religion mostly consisted of people organising into shè 社 ("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 仙, "immortal"). Some cults such as that of Liu Zhang, a king in what is today Shandong, date back to this period.[50]From the 3rd century on by the Northern Wei, accompaining the spread of Buddhism in China, strong influences from the Indian subcontinent penetrated the Chinese indigenous religion. A cult of Ganesha (象头神 Xiàngtóushén, "Elephant-Head God") is attested in the year 531.[51] Pollination from Indian religions included processions of carts with images of gods or floats borne on shoulders, with musicians and chanting.[50]
19th—20th century
Since then, Chinese folk religion is exhibiting a dramatic revival throughout China,[53][54] with millions of temples being rebuilt or built from scratch.[54] Since the 1980s the central government moved to a policy of benign neglect or wu wei (无为) in regard to rural community life, and the local government's new regulatory relationship with local society is characterized by practical mutual dependence; these factors have given much space for popular religion to develop.[54] In recent years, in some cases, local governments have taken an even positive and supportive attitude towards indigenous religion in the name of promoting cultural heritage.[54]
Instead of signing the demise of traditional religiousness, China's economic development has brought a spiritual renewal.[55] The worldview of the Chinese indigenous religion is distinctive;[55] its images and practices are shapen by the codes of Chinese culture, helping Chinese people to face the challenges of modernisation.[55]
Core concepts of theology and cosmology
See also: Chinese philosophy and Chinese creation myth
Despite their great diversity, all the expressions of Chinese folk
religion have a common core that can be summarised as four spiritual,
cosmological, and moral concepts:[13] Tian (天), Heaven, the source of moral meaning; qi (气), the breath or substance of which all things are made; the practice of jingzu (敬祖), the veneration of ancestors; bao ying (报应), moral reciprocity.Tian, its li and qi
Tian or Di as the square of the north astral pole.[56]
"Tian is dian 顛 ("top"), the highest and unexceeded. It derives from the characters yi 一, "one", and da 大, "big"."[note 5]
"Tian is dian 顛 ("top"), the highest and unexceeded. It derives from the characters yi 一, "one", and da 大, "big"."[note 5]
Tian is defined in many ways, with many names, the most widely known being Tàidì 太帝 (the "Great Deity") and Shàngdì 上帝 (the "Primordial Deity").[note 6] The concept of Shangdi is especially rooted in the tradition of the Shang dynasty, which gave prominence to the worship of ancestral gods and cultural heroes. The "Primordial Deity" or "Primordial Emperor" was considered to be embodied in the human realm as the lineage of imperial power.[70] Di (帝) is a term meaning "deity" or "emperor" (Latin: imperator, verb im-perare; "making from within"), used either as a name of the primordial god or as a title of natural gods,[71] describing a principle that exerts a fatherly dominance over what it produces.[72] With the Zhou dynasty, that preferred a religion focused on gods of nature, Tian became a more abstract and impersonal idea of God.[70] A popular representation is the Jade Deity (玉帝 Yùdì) or Jade Emperor (玉皇 Yùhuáng)[note 7] originally formulated by Taoists.[76]
The qi 气 is the breath or substance of which all things are made, including inanimate matter, the living beings, thought and gods.[77] It is the continuum energy—matter.[78] Neo-Confucian thinkers such as Zhu Xi developed the idea of li 理, the "reason", "order" of Heaven, that is to say the pattern through which the qi develops,[17] that is the polarity of yin and yang.[79] In Taoism the Tao 道 ("Way") denotes in one concept both the impersonal absolute Tian and its order of manifestation (li).
Yin and yang—gui and shen
Yin and yang as earth (and the mountain) and heaven-sky (and the seven stars of the north astral pole).[note 8]
Main articles: Yin and yang and Shen (Chinese religion)
Yin 阴 and yang 阳, whose root meanings respectively are "shady" and "sunny", or "dark" and "light", are modes of manifestation of the qi, not material things in themselves. Yin is the qi
in its dense, dark, sinking, wet, condensing mode; yang denotes the
light, and the bright, rising, dry, expanding modality. Described as Taiji (the "Great Pole"), they represent the polarity and complementarity that enlivens the cosmos.[79] They can also be conceived as "disorder" and "order", "activity" or "passivity", with act (yang) usually preferred over receptiveness (yin).[18] In Neo-Confucian terminology this polarity is li, the natural order.[79]The concept of 神 shén (cognate of 申 shēn, "expansion, growth"[81]) is translated as "gods" or "spirits" (from Latin spiritus, "insufflation"), as they are the essences or energies that generate and grow the different things and phenomena.[17] In poetic speech "they draw out the ten thousand things"; they make phenomena appear and things extend themselves.[17] As forces of growth the gods are regarded as yang,[17] opposed to a yin class of entities called 鬼 guǐ (cognate of 归 guī, "return, contraction"[81]), chaotic beings.[17] The dragon is a symbol of yang, the principle of generation.[70] There are gods of nature, gods of the place, and ancestral gods (zu or zuxian).[82]
In Taoist and Confucian thought, the supreme God and its order and the multiplicity of shen are identified as one and the same.[83] In the Yizhuan, a commentary to the Yijing, it is written that "one yin and one yang are called the Tao [...] the unfathomable change of yin and yang is called shen".[83] In other texts, with a tradition going back to the Han period, the gods and spirits are explained to be names of yin and yang, forces of contraction and forces of growth.[83]
While in popular thought they have conscience and personality,[84] Neo-Confucian scholars tended to rationalise them.[85] Zhu Xi wrote that they act according to the li.[81] Zhang Zai wrote that they are "the inherent potential (liang neng) of the two ways of qi".[86] Cheng Yi said that they are "traces of the creative process".[81] Chen Chun wrote that shen and gui are expansions and contractions, going and coming, of yin and yang—qi.[81]
Hun and po, and zu and xian
To extend life to its full potential the human shen must be cultivated, resulting in ever clearer, more luminous states of being.[17] It can transform in the pure intelligent breath of deities.[89] In man there's no distinction between rationality and intuition, thinking and feeling: the human being is xin (心), mind-heart.[78] With death, while the po returns to the earth and disappears, the hun is thought to be pure awareness or qi, and is the shen to whom ancestral sacrifices are dedicated.[90]
The shen of men who are properly cultivated and honoured after their death are upheld ancestors and progenitors (zuxian 祖先 or simply zu 祖).[82] When ancestries aren't properly cultivated the world falls into disruption, and they become gui.[82] Ancestral worship is intertwined with totemism, as the earliest ancestors of an ethnic lineage are often represented as animals or associated to them.[44][91]
Ancestors are means of connection with the Tian, the primordial god which does not have form.[44] As ancestors have form, they shape the destiny of humans.[44] Ancestors who have had a significant impact in shaping the destiny of large groups of people, creators of genetic lineages or spiritual traditions, and historical leaders who have invented crafts and institutions for the wealth of the Chinese nation (culture heroes), are exalted among the highest divine manifestations or immortal beings (xian 仙).[92]
In fact, in the Chinese tradition there is no distinction between gods (shen) and immortal beings (xian), transcendental principles and their bodily manifestations.[93] Gods can incarnate with a human form and human beings can reach higher spiritual states by the right way of action, that is to say by emulating the order of Heaven.[94] Humans are considered one of the three aspects of a trinity (三才 Sāncái, "Three Powers"),[95] the three foundations of all being; specifically, men are the medium between Heaven that engenders order and forms and Earth which receives and nourishes them.[95] Men are endowed with the role of completing creation.[95][note 11]
Bao ying and ming yun
The cosmic significance of bao ying is better understood by exploring other two traditional concepts of fate and meaning:[14]
- Ming yun (命运), 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 (天), that is the same as the "divine right" (tianming) of ancient rulers as identified by Mencius.[14] 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).[14]
- Yuan fen (缘分), "fateful coincidence",[15] describing good and bad chances and potential relationships.[15] 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.[100]
These three themes of the Chinese tradition—moral reciprocity, personal destiny, fateful coincidence—are completed by a fourth notion:[102]
- Wu (悟), "awareness" of bao ying. The awareness of one's own given condition inscribed in the ordered world produces responsibility towards oneself and others; awareness of yuan fen stirs to respond to events rather than resigning.[102] Awareness may arrive as a gift, often unbidden, and then it evolves into a practice that the person intentionally follows.[102]
Ling and xianling—holy and numen
Temple of Brahma, or Simianshen (四面神 "Four-Faced God") in Chinese, in Changhua, Taiwan. The Thai-style worship of Simianshen, from its origins among Thai Chinese, has spread over the latest decades among mainland Chinese and other overseas Chinese populations.
Main articles: Ling (Chinese religion) and Xian ling
In Chinese religion the concept of ling (灵) is the equivalent of holy and numen.[103] Ling is the state of the "medium" of the bivalency (yin-yang), and thus it is identical with the inchoate order of creation.[18] At times shen is used as a synonym.[17] Everything inspiring awe or wonder because it is not measured by yin and yang, because it crosses the polarity and therefore can't be conceptualised, is regarded as numinous.[17] These entities possess unusual spiritual characteristics, and possess the power to disrupt the balance of yin and yang.[17]The notion of xian ling (显灵), variously translated as "divine efficacy, virtue" or simply the "numen", is of foremost importance in the Chinese folk religion, in the relationship between men and gods.[104] It describes the manifestation, activity, of the power of a god (灵气 ling qi, "divine energy" or "effervescence"), the evidence of the holy.[105]
The term xian ling may be interpreted as the god revealing his presence in a particular area and temple,[106] through events that are perceived as extraordinary, miraculous.[107] Divine power usually manifests in the presence of a wide public.[106] The "value" of human deities (xian) is judged according to his or her efficacy.[108] The perceived effectiveness of a deity to protect or bless also determines how much he or she should be worshipped, how big a temple should be built in his or her dedication, and what position in the pantheon he or her would gain.[108]
Zavidovskaya (2012) has studied how the incentive of temples restoration since the 1980s in northern China was triggered by numerous instances of gods becoming "active", "returning", and claiming back their temples and place in society.[106] She brings the example of a Chenghuang Temple in Yulin, in Shaanxi, that during the Cultural Revolution was turned into a granary; in the 1980s the temple was restored to its original function because the seeds kept into the temple always rotted, and this event was recognized as god Chenghuang giving signs to empty his residence of grain and let him back in.[106] The ling qi, divine energy, is believed to accumulate in certain places, temples, making them holy.[106] Temples with a longer history are considered holier than newly built ones, which still need to be filled by divine energy.[106]
Another example of Zavidovskaya is that of the cult of god Zhenwu in Congluo Yu, Shanxi;[109] the god's temples were in ruins and the cult inactive until the mid 1990s, when a man with a serious cancer, in his last hope prayed (bai 拜) Zhenwu. The man began to miraculously recover day after day, and after a year he was completely healed.[109] To thank the god, he organised an opera performance in his honour.[109] A temporary altar with a statue of Zhenwu and a stage for performances was set up in an open space at the foots of a mountain.[109] While the opera was being played, large white snakes appeared, not afraid of people and not attacking them, seemingly watching the opera; the snakes were considered by locals as incarnations of Zhenwu, who came to watch the opera held in his honour.[109]
Within temples, it is common to see banners bearing the phrase "if the heart is sincere, the god will reveal his power" (心诚神灵 xin cheng shen ling).[110] The relationship between men and gods is an exchange of favour.[110] This implies the belief that gods respond to the entreaties of the believer, if his or her religious fervor is sincere (cheng xin 诚心).[110] If a person believes in the god's power with all his heart and expresses piety, the gods are confident in his faith and reveal their efficacious power.[110] At the same time, for faith to strengthen in the devout's heart, the deity has to prove his or her efficacy.[110] In exchange for divine favours, a faithful honours the deity with vows (huan yuan 还愿 or xu yuan 许愿), through individual worship, reverence and respect (jing shen 敬神).[110]
The most common display of divine power is the cure of diseases after a faithful asks for aid.[106] Another manifestation is the fulfillment of a request of children.[106] The deity may also manifest through mediumship, entering the body of a shaman-medium and speaking through his or her lips.[106] There have been cases of people curing illnesses "on behalf of a god" (ti shen zhi bing 替神治病).[109] Gods may also speak to people when they are asleep (tuomeng 托梦).[106]
Sociological typology
Types of indigenous—ethnic religion
Worship of local and national deities
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). This type of religion has local and village-based temples or temples with a wider geographical importance (for example the Heilongdawang Temple in Shanbei) and even national importance.
This faith expresses into large-scale festivals participated by members of the whole village or larger community on the occasions of what are believed to be the birthdays of the gods or other events,[54] or to seek protection from droughts, epidemics, and other disasters.[54] Such festivals invoke the power of the gods for practical goals to "summon blessings and drive away harm".[54] Special devotional currents within this framework can be identified by specific names such as Mazuism (Mazujiao),[111] Wang Ye worship, or the cult of the Silkworm Mother.[112]
Lineage religion
The construction of large and elaborate ancestral temples traditionally represents a kin's wealth, influence and achievement.[115] 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.[116]
If their temples and their deities enshrined acquire popularity they are considered worthy of the virtue of ling, "efficacy".[116] Ancestor veneration in China (jingzu 敬祖) is observed nationally with large-scale rituals on Qingming Festival and other holidays.
Philosophical and ritual modalities
Wuism and shamanic traditions
Main articles: Chinese shamanism and Nuo rituals
Temple of the White Sulde 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.[note 12]
According to Andreea Chirita, 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.[118]
In the Shang and Zhou dynasty, shamans had a role in the political hierarchy, and were represented institutionally by the Ministry of Rites (大宗拍). The emperor was considered the supreme shaman, intermediating between the three realms of heaven, earth and man. The mission of a shaman (巫 wu) is "to repair the dis-functionalities occurred in nature and generated after the sky had been separated from earth":[118]
- The female shamans called wu as well as the male shamans called xi represent the voice of spirits, repair the natural dis-functions, foretell the future based on dreams and the art of divination ... "a historical science of the future", whereas shamans are able to observe the yin and the yang ...
Nuo traditions are ritual forms of the Chinese folk religion present especially in central-southern China and representing much of the religious life of the Tujia people. Nuo ceremonies revolve around the worship of gods and ancestors represented by characteristic wooden masks and idols. Ritual performances and dramas are carried out by circles of ritual masters wearing masks of the gods. [120]
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