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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 , [ 1 ] and worship devoted to deities and immortals , who can be deities of places or natural phenomena, of human behaviour, or progenitors of family lineages .
Analysing Chinese traditional religions is further complicated by discrepancies between the terminologies used in Chinese and Western languages. While in the English current usage "folk religion" means broadly all forms of common cults of gods and ancestors, in Chinese usage and in academia these cults have not had an overarching name.
Shén (in rising 2nd tone) is the Modern Standard Chinese pronunciation of 神 "god, deity; spirit, spiritual, supernatural; awareness, consciousness etc". Reconstructions of shén in Middle Chinese (ca. 6th-10th centuries CE) include dź'jěn (Bernhard Karlgren, substituting j for his "yod medial"), źiɪn (Zhou Fagao), ʑin (Edwin G. Pulleyblank, "Late Middle"), and zyin (William H. Baxter).
Chinese gods and immortals are beings in various Chinese religions seen in a variety of ways and mythological contexts. Many are worshiped as deities because traditional Chinese religion is polytheistic , stemming from a pantheistic view that divinity is inherent in the world.
Chinese theology, which comes in different interpretations according to the Chinese classics and Chinese folk religion, and specifically Confucian, Taoist, and other philosophical formulations, [1] is fundamentally monistic, [2] that is to say it sees the world and the gods of its phenomena as an organic whole, or cosmos, which continuously emerges from a simple principle. [3]
In the early 2000s, the Chinese government became open especially to traditional religions such as Mahayana Buddhism, Taoism and folk religion, emphasising the role of religion in building a "Harmonious Society", [75] a Confucian idea. [76] [77] The government founded the Confucius Institute in 2004 to promote Chinese culture.
Chinese folk religion is sometimes seen as a constituent part of Chinese traditional religion, but more often, the two are regarded as synonymous. With around 454 million adherents, or about 6.6% of the world population, [30] Chinese folk religion is one of the major religious traditions in the world. In the People's Republic of China, more ...
For example, Chinese Buddhists may practice qigong, tai chi, and gongfu, venerate native Chinese deities (like Guan Yu, Mazu, and Monkey King), engage in ancestor veneration, practice traditional Chinese medicine, and make use of Feng shui and Chinese talismans. Chinese religions like Taoism and Confucianism were also, in turn, influenced by ...