Chinese Traditional Religion Research Paper

The customary beliefs and practices of Chinese popular religion have constituted an integral part of Chinese civilization throughout the course of its five-thousand-year history. Even today, popular religion remains a vital force in many Chinese ethnic communities, thriving particularly in Taiwan, Hong Kong, and Southeast Asia, where it has never been actively suppressed by the political authorities. In general, the ideas and customs associated with this form of religious expression represent a syncretic popularization of the more literary and institutionalized traditions of Confucianism, Daoism, and Buddhism. Existing in relative harmony with these more established systems of belief, popular religion in China has evolved and flourished much more freely than similar folk traditions in the West, where the established religions, such as Christianity and Islam, are exclusivist and have historically suppressed heterodox religious movements.

The belief in the existence of gods and spirits (shen) that have power over the affairs of this world constitutes the essential feature of the differing forms of popular religion in China. These spirits are variously conceived of as the deceased members of one’s family or community, as deified figures from history or literature, or as the spiritualized embodiments of natural and geographical forces. The most common form of religious practice involves the maintenance of private shrines and community temples, where the prayers and supplications of the believer are frequently accompanied by ritual offerings of food or the ceremonial burning of incense. Various forms of shamanism and divination are practiced in an effort to attain a more sympathetic union between the human and the divine and thereby discern or influence the course of one’s personal or community destiny. In short, the values and aspirations that have sustained popular religion throughout the ages are those related to the survival and preservation of the family and community, along with the desire to maintain the delicate harmony and reciprocity conceived to exist between the human and spiritual realms.

Household Rituals

Ancestor worship is one of the most common rituals associated with Chinese popular religion. Dating back to the ceremonial practices of China’s ancient kings, it has evolved to constitute a popular expression of the deeply rooted Confucian ethic of filial piety. Traditional Chinese households maintained a domestic altar where ancestral tablets of stone, wood, or paper were inscribed with the names of the deceased to serve as the focus of offerings made to their spirits. Today, photographs often take the place of the more traditional tablets, but the desire for blessings, along with the family’s obligation to ensure its deceased members a comfortable existence in the next world, remain the primary motivation of such practices. Those that died with no descendents to maintain their ancestral rites, or who perished under particularly violent or evil circumstances, were of great concern to the community in traditional times. These “hungry ghosts,” as they were known in popular legend, could resort to frightening forms of spiritual mischief if they were not properly propitiated. Many communities therefore established shrines specifically devoted to the ritual commemoration of these orphan spirits.

Another common expression of popular religion at the household level was the worship of the stove god (Zao Jun). Also dating back to very ancient times, this practice represents one of the most enduring cults associated with the Chinese folk tradition and shares many similarities to the worship of fire or kitchen gods in other traditional societies. As the benevolent preserver of the family hearth, the stove god was believed to oversee the moral conduct and ritual propriety of the family unit and to issue a yearly report on such matters to Heaven around the time of the traditional lunar new year. In this respect, the stove god was conceived of as a sort of policeman in a hierarchy of divine officials that ruled the spiritual realm just as the earthly authorities governed the affairs of this world. Worship of the stove god thus reflected the pervasive belief in Chinese popular religion that the spiritual world was organized in a bureaucratic fashion that paralleled the centralized imperial administration of China’s dynastic rulers.

Public Rituals

Many other activities associated with Chinese popular religion served as civic ritual intended to preserve social harmony, reinforce local identity, or ensure the good favor of the gods and spirits in meeting the various challenges of community survival. One particularly prevalent cult associated with this sort of community ritual was the worship of the local earth god (Tudi Gong). A small shrine for this deity was maintained in virtually every neighborhood or rural locality in China, bolstering the sense of regional solidarity so characteristic of traditional society. The earth god was believed to protect the community from the potentially evil influences of wandering ghosts or malevolent spirits (gui), along with overseeing and reporting the activities of those inhabiting his precinct to higher deities. Thus, like the stove god, the earth god was seen as another component of the spiritual hierarchy that constituted what one modern scholar has described as the “imperial metaphor” of popular religion.

The city god (Cheng Huang) was next highest in the rank of divine officials accorded the task of supervising the spiritual affairs of the local community. Enshrined in a temple near the center of his jurisdiction, the city god was normally depicted in the traditional robes of a Confucian scholar-official. Indeed, the various city gods were frequently associated with a deceased notable honored in local history for his righteousness and efficacy as an official of the imperial government. The city god was even believed to be in command of soldiers that could be used to enforce his divine edicts and preserve the moral integrity of the community. These soldiers were themselves the recipients of ritual offerings by the local residents, who occasionally placed small portions of simple food on the thresholds of their homes to reward them for their service and to assuage their ferocity. On key holidays or anniversaries, it was customary to physically convey the statue of the city god on an inspection tour of the region under his command. These ritual processions were often accompanied by great celebration and fanfare as the local residents reconfirmed their sense of community by organizing various festivities.

The Supreme Deity and the Influence of Daoism

The origin and essential nature of the Chinese belief in a supreme deity remains one of the most obscure and debated topics in the study of Chinese philosophy and religion. From the investigation of Shang dynasty (1766–1045 BCE) oracle bone inscriptions dating back to the second millennium BCE, it is clear that the Chinese considered Shangdi (“Ruler on High”) to be the supreme god of the spiritual realm. Because of its awesome and overwhelming powers, this deity could not be supplicated directly, and the divinatory practices of the Shang kings normally consisted of calling upon the spirits of deceased royal ancestors to intercede with Shangdi on their behalf. In the centuries that followed, this supreme deity became increasingly referred to as Tian (“Heaven”) and was regarded somewhat more abstractly, and in a less personified manner, than in earlier times. During the Zhou dynasty (1045–256 BCE), the Chinese ruler became formally regarded as the Son of Heaven (Tianzi), a development that permanently linked the imperial institution with the chief deity of the spirit world. Thus, throughout most of Chinese history, the ruler was regarded as the primary intermediary between Heaven and Earth, and only he was permitted to worship or implore Heaven directly.

From the time of the Northern Song dynasty (960– 1126 CE), the supreme deity of the Chinese has been popularly conceived of as the Jade Emperor (Yu Huang Shangdi), the supreme ruler of the heavens and the underworld and the protector of mankind. According to Daoist legend, the Song emperor Zhen Zong (968–1022; reigned 997–1022) experienced a visitation from the Jade Emperor in a dream, afterwards proclaiming himself the deity’s incarnate descendant. This official acknowledgement of the Jade Emperor placed the god at the pinnacle of the Chinese pantheon and formally sanctioned the popular conception of an elaborate bureaucratic order in the spiritual world that paralleled the imperial institutions of the world below. In Chinese popular religion, the Jade Emperor reigned supreme over all the Daoist, Buddhist, and other popular deities of traditional lore in addition to commanding the various spiritual forces of the natural world. Approached primarily through intermediaries, the Jade Emperor was often implored by the common people for good harvests and protection against natural calamities. He was also turned to for the remission of sins, in the hope that his pardon, as the ruler of the underworld, would secure a more favorable afterlife. This popularized conception of the supreme deity was, therefore, less abstract and more accessible to the masses than the Tian associated with classical Confucianism.

Many of the deities associated with Chinese popular religion, including the Jade Emperor, are derived from the various sects of folk (or religious) Daoism that emerged during and following the Han dynasty (206 BCE–220 CE). Differing significantly from the philosophical Daoism of the earlier classical tradition, folk Daoism placed great emphasis upon mastering the sublime forces of the natural and spiritual worlds with the ultimate goal of attaining everlasting felicity and physical immortality. Daoist immortals (xian) therefore became the primary subjects of religious veneration, and their individual stories provided the legendary basis for an elaborate pantheon of divine beings. These Daoist “saints,” who collectively symbolized happiness and prosperity, included allegedly historical figures from a variety of social and occupational backgrounds, both male and female. The members of an especially noteworthy group, the Eight Immortals, were often venerated as the patron deities of various professions in a fashion quite similar to the veneration of patron saints in Western Catholicism. Daoist deities also included spiritual beings associated with the forces of nature or the agricultural cycle, such as the Lei Gong (the god of thunder), Yu Shen (the god of rain), and Feng Shen (the wind god). Daoist priests trained in the esoteric traditions of their sect were often called upon in times of drought or other natural calamities to perform rituals of exorcism to rid a region of malevolent spirits or to conduct magical ceremonies to restore harmony to the natural forces.

Buddhist Influences

Folk Buddhism was another source of many of the deities and ideas incorporated into Chinese popular religion. The most popular among these are drawn from the Mahayana Buddhist belief in bodhisattvas, supremely compassionate beings that have postponed their attainment of nirvana for the sake of assisting all others in the quest for spiritual salvation. The female bodhisattva Guanyin (called the goddess of mercy) was by far the most widely worshipped of these spiritual beings. Often supplicated in times of personal loss or tragedy, Guanyin was regarded as a benevolent savior for the masses, who in her infinite compassion would never fail to rescue or console her sincere devotees. Statues of Guanyin could be found in many Buddhist shrines and temples throughout China, and households frequently maintained her image on their domestic altar. The spiritual comfort of turning toward the loving goddess Guanyin has many parallels to the deep devotion directed toward the Virgin Mary in Western Catholicism.

Folk Buddhism also influenced popular beliefs pertaining to life after death. One of the mostessential features of popular religion in China is belief in a divine system of rewards and punishments, in which departed individuals are judged according to their merits in this life and sent either to a blissful abode in heaven or a tormenting corner in hell. These visions of heaven and hell, along with other notions regarding ghosts and the afterlife, have served for centuries as one of the most creative subjects in Chinese art and storytelling. In short, popular religion in China has assimilated many of the concepts and deities central to both the Buddhistand Daoist traditions, informally combining and transforming them in a manner that has stimulated and inspired the popular imagination throughout Chinese history.

Tradition of Syncretism

The enduring appeal of popular religion among many ethnic Chinese communities around the world testifies to its lasting importance as a conveyor of China’s accumulated cultural traditions. By incorporating, in syncretic fashion, key elements of the country’s diverse religious and philosophical traditions, it has consistently served to bring a measure of cultural harmony to potentially conflicting systems of belief. Popular religion in China thus illustrates the inherent tolerance and flexibility of Chinese civilization at the level of folk culture. Thus, while sharing some notable similarities with the veneration of saints and other aspects of popular religion in the West, Chinese popular religion has enjoyed a freer course of evolutionary development and has, therefore, more readily assimilated and preserved the diverse influences that have contributed to Chinese civilization throughout its long history.

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