Chinese folk religion

===''Yin'' and ''yang''—''gui'' and ''shen''===
{{Main|Yin and yang|Shen (Chinese religion)}}
{{Infobox
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| above            = <small>''Yīnyáng'' {{lang-zh|陰陽}} motifs</small>
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| image1 = Natürlich gewachsenes yin-yang-.jpg
| image2 = Yinyang, heaven + squared earth (+ circumpolar seven stars + mountain) --- colour.svg
}}
| below            = Yin and yang naturally formed in a log in [[Germany]], and in a cosmological diagram as {{lang-zh|地}} ''[[Di (Chinese concept)|Dì]]'' (a mountain growing to Heaven and a square as its order) and ''[[Tian|Tiān]]'' as the [[Big Dipper]].{{refn|group=note|In common Chinese cosmology, the world is not created ''ex nihilo'' from an external god, but evolves from the primordial chaos (''[[Hundun]]''). One way this has been commonly expressed is in terms of the ''[[Taiji (philosophy)|Taiji]]'' symbol of yin and yang. The outer circle represents the primordial chaos out of which spontaneously emerges the fundamental polarity of yin (dark) and yang (light), which then produce the "myriad things" or "ten thousand things" (''wàn'' {{lang-zh|卍}}) by combination and recombination".<ref>Adler, 2011. p. 22</ref>}}
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}}

[[File:Quanjunxi Linggong - DSCF8614.JPG|thumb|{{lang-zh|泉郡溪靈宮}} ''Quánjùnxī línggōng'', the "Numinous Palace by the Brook in the Land of Springs", in [[Quanzhou]], [[Fujian]].{{refn|group=note|Temples are usually built in accordance with ''[[feng shui]]'' methods, which hold that any thing needs to be arranged in equilibrium with the surrounding world in order to thrive. Names of holy spaces often describe, [[poetry|poetically]], their collocation within the world.}}]]

''Yin'' {{lang-zh|陰}} and ''yang'' {{lang-zh|陽}}, whose root meanings respectively are "shady" and "sunny", or "dark" and "light", are modes of manifestation of the ''qi'', not material things in themselves. Yin is the ''qi'' in its dense, dark, sinking, wet, condensing mode; yang denotes the light, and the bright, rising, dry, expanding modality. Described as ''[[Taiji (philosophy)|Taiji]]'' (the "Great Pole"), they represent the polarity and complementarity that enlivens the [[cosmos]].<ref name="Adler, 2011. p. 13"/> They can also be conceived as "disorder" and "order", "activity" or "passivity", with act (''yang'') usually preferred over receptiveness (''yin'').<ref name="Thien Do, 2003, pp. 10-11">Thien Do, 2003, pp. 10–11</ref>

The concept {{lang-zh|神}} "''shén''" (cognate of {{lang-zh|申}} ''shēn'', "extending, expanding"<ref name="Adler, 2011. p. 16">Adler, 2011. p. 16</ref>) is translated as "gods" or "spirits". There are ''shén'' of nature; gods who were once people, such as the warrior [[Guan Gong]]; household gods, such as the [[Kitchen God|Stove God]]; as well as ancestral gods (''zu'' or ''zuxian'').<ref name="Adler, 2011. p. 14"/> In the domain of humanity the ''shen'' is the "psyche", or the power or agency within humans.{{sfnb|Teiser|1996|p=31}} They are intimately involved in the life of this world.{{sfnb|Teiser|1996|p=31}} As spirits of stars, mountains and streams, ''shen'' exert a direct influence on things, making phenomena appear and things grow or extend themselves.{{sfnb|Teiser|1996|p=31}} An early Chinese dictionary, the ''[[Shuowen jiezi]]'' by [[Xu Shen]], explains that they "are the spirits of Heaven" and they "draw out the ten thousand things".{{sfnb|Teiser|1996|p=31}} As forces of growth the gods are regarded as ''yang'', opposed to a ''yin'' class of entities called {{lang-zh|鬼}} "''[[ghosts in Chinese culture|guǐ]]''" (cognate of {{lang-zh|歸}} ''guī'', "return, contraction"),<ref name="Adler, 2011. p. 16"/> chaotic beings.{{sfnb|Teiser|1996|p=32}} A disciple of [[Zhu Xi]] noted that "between Heaven and Earth there is no thing that does not consist of yin and yang, and there is no place where yin and yang are not found. Therefore, there is no place where gods and spirits do not exist".{{sfnb|Teiser|1996|p=32}} The [[Chinese dragon|dragon]] is a symbol of ''yang'', the principle of generation.<ref name="Libbrecht 2007. p. 43"/>

In [[Taoism|Taoist]] and [[Confucianism|Confucian]] thought, the supreme God and its order and the multiplicity of ''shen'' are identified as one and the same.<ref name="Zongqi Cai, 2004. p. 314">Zongqi Cai, 2004. p. 314</ref> In the ''[[Yizhuan]]'', a commentary to the ''[[Yijing]]'', it is written that "one ''yin'' and one ''yang'' are called the Tao ... the unfathomable change of ''yin'' and ''yang'' is called ''shen''".<ref name="Zongqi Cai, 2004. p. 314"/> In other texts, with a tradition going back to the [[Han dynasty|Han period]], the gods and spirits are explained to be names of ''yin'' and ''yang'', forces of contraction and forces of growth.<ref name="Zongqi Cai, 2004. p. 314"/>

While in popular thought they have conscience and personality,<ref>Adler, 2011. p. 17</ref> Neo-Confucian scholars tended to rationalise them.<ref>Adler, 2011. p. 15</ref> Zhu Xi wrote that they act according to the ''li''.<ref name="Adler, 2011. p. 16"/> [[Zhang Zai]] wrote that they are "the inherent potential (''liang neng'') of the two ways of ''qi''".<ref>Adler, 2011. pp. 15–16</ref> [[Cheng Yi (philosopher)|Cheng Yi]] said that they are "traces of the creative process".<ref name="Adler, 2011. p. 16"/> [[Chen Chun]] wrote that ''shen'' and ''gui'' are expansions and contractions, going and coming, of ''yin'' and ''yang''—''qi''.<ref name="Adler, 2011. p. 16"/>