Chinese Folk Religious Sect

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.; ''passim'' 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.

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. Generally these religions focus on the worship of the universal God (Shangdi) and regard their holy patriarchs as embodiments of God.

Terminology and definition

"Chinese salvationist religions" () is a contemporary neologism coined as a sociological category 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. Chinese scholars traditionally describe them as "folk religious sects" (, or ) or "folk beliefs" ().

They are distinct from the Chinese folk religion consisting in the worship of gods and ancestors, 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" (), coined by scholar Prasenjit Duara.

A collective name that has been in use possibly since the latter part of the Qing dynasty is , as their names interchangeably use the terms when referring to their corporate form, or .

Their congregations and points of worship are usually called or . Western scholars often treat them as a "Protestant" stream in Chinese religion.

The Vietnamese religions of '' Minh Đạo'' and Caodaism emerged from the same tradition of Chinese folk religious movements.

Secret religions

A category overlapping with that of the salvationist movements is that of the "secret societies" (, or ), 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" ( ''zōngjiào yìduān'').

Recent scholarship has begun to use the label "secret sects" () 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).

Origin and history

Many of these religions are traced to the White Lotus tradition ("Chinese Maternism", as mentioned by Philip Clart) that was already active in the Song dynasty; 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''; other ones are distinctively Confucian and advocate the realisation of a "great commonwealth" (, p=datong'' ) on a world scale, as dreamt of in the Book of Rites. Some scholars even find influences from Manichaeism, Mohism and shamanic traditions.

In the Ming and Qing dynasties many folk religious movements were outlawed by the imperial authorities as "evil religions" (). 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.

The founding of the People's Republic in 1949 saw them suppressed once again, although since the 1990s and 2000s the climate was relaxed and some of them have received some form of official recognition. 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. 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. 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, advocating an "Eastern solution to the problems of the modern world", or even interacting with the modern discourse of an Asian-centered universal civilisation.

Geography and diffusion

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. 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.

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. 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. In Taiwan, recognised folk religious movements of salvation gather approximately 10% of the population as of the mid-2000s.

Chronological record of major sects

Earliest influences ( Yuan, 1277–1377)

* White Lotus ()
* Maitreya teachings ()

Ming (1367–1644) and Qing (1644–1911)

* Baguadao ( "Way of the Eight Trigrams") networks
* Denghua ( "Flower of Light") sect
* Hongyang ( "Great Sun") or Hunyuan ( "Original Undetermined") sect
* Huangtiandao ( "Way of the Yellow Sky") or Xuangu ( "Dark Drum") sect
* Luo teaching (, "Luo (Menghong)'s tradition"): Patriarch Luo was reportedly polemical towards the Bailian, Maitreyan, and Huangtian sects
** Dacheng ( "Great Vehicle") or Yuandun ( "Sudden Stillness") sect, the eastern branch of Luoism
*** Sects requiring fasting (), including Xiantiandao dubbed the Qinglian ( "Black [Blue, or Green] Lotus") sect during the Qing
**** Mohou Yizhu ( "Final Salvation") sect founded by Wang Jueyi in the 1870s, renamed Yiguandao in 1905
** Dacheng teaching of Mount Jizu (), a western branch of Luoism founded by Zhang Baotai in Yunnan
* Church of the Highest Supreme (; also known as , the "Gate of the Highest Supreme")
** This sect has many schools, one of them is Xiao Yao Pai ()
* Church of the Heaven and the Earth () or "Gate of the Heaven and the Earth")
* Sanyi teaching ( "Three-One"), founded by Lin Zhao'en on the base of Confucian principles
* Taiping rebellion

Mainland Republican Era (1912–49)

* Zaili teaching (, "Abiding Principle")—registered in 1913
* Daode Xueshe ( "Community for the Study of the Way and its Virtue")—1916
* Xiantiandao ( "Way of the Former Heaven") networks
** Shengdao ( "Holy Way"), best known by its incorporate name of Tongshanshe ( "Community of the Goodness")—1917
** Guiyidao (, "Way of the Return to the One"), best known by its corporate name of School of the Way of the Return to the One or simply School of the Way ()—1921-27
** Yiguandao ( "Consistent Way")—registered in 1947
*** Haizidao ( "Way of the Children")—branched out in the 1980s
*** Miledadao ( "Great Way of Maitreya")—branched out in the 1980s
** Dragon Flower Church of the Heart-bound Heavenly Way ()—1932
** Yuanmingdao ( "Way of the Bright Circle")
** Yaochidao ( "Way of the Jasper Lake")
** Guigendao ( "Way of the Return to the Root")
* Jiushi ( "Life Healing") sect, also known by its corporate name —1919
* Universal Church of the Way and its Virtue ()—1921
* Jiugongdao (, "Way of the Nine Palaces")—1926
* Holy Church of the Heavenly Virtue ()—early form of Tiandiism, recognised in 1930
* Church of Virtue ()—started in 1945
* Zhenkongdao ( "Way of the True Emptiness")—1948
* Confucian Church ()—founded by Kang Youwei
* Xixinshe ( "Community of the Pure Heart")—another organisation of Kang Youwei's idea of a Confucian church
* Yellow Sand Society—rural secret society and millenarian sect

Late 20th century

* Xuanyuandao ( "Way of the Mysterious Origin")—founded in 1952
* Confucian Way of the Gods ()—started in 1853, formally established in 1979
* Lord of Universe Church ()—branch of Tiandiism established in 1979
* Qigong ( "Cultivation of the Spirit")
** Falun Gong ( "Cultivation of the Wheel of Law")
* Zishen Nation () — led by the self-proclaimed emperor Li Guangchang, the sect ruled a small area in Zhejiang from 1981 to 1986
* Weixinism (, "Only Heart") or "Holy Church of the Heart-Only" ()

21st century

* Confucian religious groups in China mainland (Confucian churches)

Other sects

* Changshandao
* Church of Maitreya the King of the Universe ()
* Dadao Hui ( "Church of the Big Sword")
* Dashengdao ()
* Datong Hui ( "Church of the Great Harmony")
* Dayiism (, "Great Simplicity")
* Dongyue Hui
* Gengshen Hui
* Guixiangdao ( "Way of the Kneeling to Incense")
* Holy Church of China ()
* Hongsanism (, "Red Three")
* Hongyangjiao (紅陽教, "Red sun sect")
* Huangjidao ( "Way of the Imperial Pole")
* Huangxiandao ( "Way of the Yellow Immortal")
* Huazhaidao ( "Way of Flowers and Fasting")
* Jiugendao ( "Way of the Old Source")
* Laojundao ( "Way of the Venerable Master")
* Laorendao ( "Way of the Venerable Men")
* Mount Li Maternism ()
* Puhuamen ( "Gate of the Universal Change")
* Pujidao ( "Way of the Universal Help")
* Puduism (, "Universal Judgement"), Pududao ( "Way of the Universal Judgment")
* Qixingism
* Qiugongdao
* Renxuehaodao ( "Way of Men Learning the Goodness")
* Sanfengdao ( "Way of the Three Peaks")
* Shengxiandao ( "Way of the Sages and the Immortals")
* Shenmendao ( "Way of the Godly Gate")
* Sifangdao ( "Way of the Four Manifestations")
* Suibiandao
* Tianguangdao ( "Way of the Heavenly Light")
* Tianhuadao ( "Way of the Heavenly Flower")
* Tianmingdao ( "Way of the Heavenly Bright")
* Tianxianmiaodao ( "Way of the Temple of the Heavenly Immortals")
* Wanquandao ( "Way of the Endless Whole" or "Surefire Way")
* Wugong Hui
* Xiaodao Hui ( "Church of the Small Sword")
* Xuanmen Zhenzong (, "True School of the Mysterious Gate")
* Yinjiezhi Hui
* Yuanshuai Hui
* Yuxumen ( "Gate of the Jade Vacuity")
* Zhongfangdao ( "Way of the Middle Abode")
* Zhongjiao Daoyi Hui
* Zhongyongdao ( "Way of the Golden Mean")
* Zhongxiao Tianfu ( "Heavenly House of Filial Loyalty")
* Zhutian Hui
* Zishenguo ("Zishen nation")

See also

* Ancestor veneration in China
* Chinese Buddhism
* Chinese folk religion
* Chinese folk religion in Southeast Asia
* Chinese Manichaeism
* Chinese religions of fasting
* Confucianism—Confucian church
* Japanese new religions, some of which are related to Chinese sects
* Maitreya teachings
* New religious movement
* Northeast China folk religion
* Taoism—Taoist schools
* White Lotus
; In Vietnam
* Caodaism
* Minh Đạo
; In Indonesia
* Maitreya Religion in Indonesia
; In Philippines
* Bell Church
; In Japan
* Japanese new religions
; In Korea
* Cheondoism

References

Citations

Sources

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** List first published in:
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* Ownby, David (2016). “Redemptive Societies in the Twentieth Century.” In ''Modern Chinese Religion II 1850–2015'', edited by Vincent Goossaert, Jan Kiely and John Lagerwey, Leiden: Brill, vol. 2, 685–727.
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{{religion topics

Chinese secret societies
Chinese folk religion
Religion in China
Religion in Taiwan
East Asian religions