Chinese Folk Religion - Overview

Overview

Chinese folk religion holds aspects of ancestral belief systems such as animism and shamanism, which include the veneration of (and communication with) ancestors, and energetic streams such as Qi, but also physical phenomena such as the Sun, the Moon, the Earth, the Heaven, and various stars, as well as communication with animals, such as Auspices from birds. Related practices have been held by the Chinese people for over three thousand years (such as written in Oracle bone scripts), and alongside Buddhism, Taoism, and various other religions for the past two thousand years.

Rituals, devotional worship, myths sacred reenactment, festivals and various other practices associated with different folk gods and goddesses form an important part of Chinese culture and Chinese spiritual world concepts today. The veneration of secondary gods does not conflict with an individual's chosen religion, but is accepted as a complementary adjunct, particularly to Taoism. Some mythical figures in folk culture have been integrated into Chinese Buddhism, as in the case of Miao Shan. She is generally thought to have influenced the beliefs about the Buddhist bodhisattva Guanyin. This Bodhisattva originally was based upon the Indian counterpart Avalokiteśvara. Androgynous in India, this Bodhisattva over centuries became a female figure in China and Japan. Guanyin is one of the most popular Bodhisattva to which people pray.

There are many free folk religion texts such as Journeys to the Underworld distributed in temples, or sold in gods material shops or vegetarian shops. Temples for Shenist worship are different from Taoist temples and Buddhist monasteries, being administered by local managers, associations and worship communities.