Chinese Folk Religion

The Chinese folk religion or Chinese traditional religion (traditional Chinese: 中國民間宗教 or 中國民間信仰; simplified Chinese: 中国民间宗教 or 中国民间信仰; pinyin: Zhōngguó mínjiān zōngjiào or Zhōngguó mínjiān xìnyăng), sometimes called Shenism (pinyin: Shénjiào, 神教), is the collection of grassroots[1] ethnic religious traditions which have historically comprised the predominant belief system in China and among Han Chinese ethnic groups up to the present day. Chinese folk religions primarily consist in the worship of the shen (神, shén; "deities", "spirits", "awarenesses", "consciousnesses", "archetypes") which can be nature deities, city deities, national deities, cultural heroes and demigods, dragons and ancestors, deities of the kinship. Holy narratives regarding some of these gods are codified into the body of Chinese mythology. Chinese folk religion is sometimes categorized as "Taoism", since over the centuries institutional Taoism has been attempting to assimilate or administer local religions. Confucianism promotes certain aspects of Chinese traditional religion, especially ancestor veneration. According to one statistic, the Chinese folk religion had 454 million people involved, or about 6.6% of the world population, making it one of the major religious traditions in the world. Statistics by the Pew Research Center estimate the number of practitioners in China at 22% of the total population. Another estimate puts it over 30% of the total population. Scholars estimate a higher proportion, confirmed by an extensive 2010 survey that gives the following numbers: Chinese folk religions are practiced by 754,000,000 people (56%)[dubious – discuss], and of these 173,000,000 (13%) adopting "Taoist practices".Chinese religion mirrors the social landscape, and takes on different meanings for different people. 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. Various forms of culture have received support by the Government of the People's Republic of China, such as Mazuism in Southern China, Huangdi worship, Black Dragon worship in Shanbei (Heilongdawang Temple), and other forms of local culture, for example Pangu or Caishen worship.