Chinese folk religion

====Wuism and shamanic traditions====
{{Main|Chinese shamanism|Nuo folk religion}}
[[File:Yard leading to the Temple of the White Sulde of Genghis Khan, in Uxin, Inner Mongolia, China.jpg|thumb|left|Temple of the [[Sülde Tngri|White Sulde]] of [[Genghis Khan]] in the town of [[Uxin Banner|Uxin]] in [[Inner Mongolia]], in the [[Ordos Desert|Mu Us Desert]]. The worship of Genghis is shared by Chinese and [[Mongolian folk religion]].{{refn|group=note|The White Sulde (White Spirit) is one of the two spirits of Genghis Khan (the other being the Black Sulde), represented either as his white or yellow horse or as a fierce warrior riding this horse. In its interior, the temple enshrines a statue of Genghis Khan (at the center) and four of his men on each side (the total making nine, a symbolic number in Mongolian culture), there is an altar where offerings to the godly men are made, and three white suldes made with white horse hair. From the central sulde there are strings which hold tied light blue pieces of cloth with a few white ones. The wall is covered with all the names of the Mongol kins. The Chinese worship Genghis as the ancestral god of the [[Yuan dynasty]].}}]]
"The extent to which shamanism pervaded ancient Chinese society", says Paul R. Goldin (2005), "is a matter of scholarly dispute, but there can be no doubt that many communities relied upon the unique talents of shamans for their quotidian spiritual needs".<ref>{{cite book | last1 = Mair | first1 = Victor H. | first2 = Nancy Shatzman | last2 = Steinhardt | first3 = Paul Rakita | last3 = Goldin | year = 2005 | title = Hawai'i Reader in Traditional Chinese Culture | url = https://books.google.com/books?id=XdouAQAAIAAJ&q=China+shamanic+tradition | publisher = University of Hawai'i Press | location = Honolulu | isbn = 978-0824827854 | ref = none | access-date = 9 August 2015 | archive-date = 15 February 2024 | archive-url = https://web.archive.org/web/20240215111722/https://books.google.com/books?id=XdouAQAAIAAJ&q=China+shamanic+tradition | url-status = live }}, p. 99</ref> The Chinese usage distinguishes the [[Chinese shamanism|Chinese ''wu'' tradition]] or "Wuism" as it was called by [[Jan Jakob Maria de Groot]]{{sfnb|De Groot|1892|pp=''passim'' vol. 6}} ({{lang-zh|巫教}} ''wūjiào''; properly shamanic, with control over the gods) from the [[tongji (spirit medium)|''tongji'' tradition]] ({{lang-zh|童乩}}; mediumship, without control of the godly movement), and from non-Han Chinese Altaic shamanisms ({{lang-zh|薩滿教}} ''sàmǎnjiào'') that are practised in northern provinces.

According to Andreea Chirita (2014), Confucianism itself, with its emphasis on hierarchy and ancestral rituals, derived from the shamanic discourse of the [[Shang dynasty]]. What Confucianism did was to marginalise the "dysfunctional" features of old shamanism. However, shamanic traditions continued uninterrupted within the folk religion and found precise and functional forms within Taoism.<ref name="Chirita2014">Andreea Chirita. ''[http://aflls.ucdc.ro/I_2014/2Ant.pdf Antagonistic Discourses on Shamanic Folklore in Modern China] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20150527231650/http://aflls.ucdc.ro/I_2014/2Ant.pdf |date=27 May 2015 }}''. On: ''Annals of Dimitrie Cantemir Christian University'', issue 1, 2014.</ref>

In the Shang and [[Zhou dynasty]], shamans had a role in the political hierarchy, and were represented institutionally by the Ministry of Rites ({{lang-zh|大宗伯}}). The emperor was considered the supreme shaman, intermediating between the three realms of heaven, earth and man. The mission of a shaman ({{lang-zh|巫}} ''[[wu (shaman)|wu]]'') is "to repair the dis-functionalities occurred in nature and generated after the sky had been separated from earth":<ref name="Chirita2014"/>

{{blockquote|The female shamans called ''wu'' as well as the male shamans called ''xi'' represent the voice of spirits, repair the natural dis-functions, foretell the future based on dreams and the art of divination ... "a historical science of the future", whereas shamans are able to observe the yin and the yang&nbsp;...}}

Since the 1980s the practice and study of shamanism has undergone a massive revival in Chinese religion as a means to repair the world to a harmonious whole after industrialisation.<ref name="Chirita2014"/> Shamanism is viewed by many scholars as the foundation for the emergence of civilisation, and the shaman as "teacher and spirit" of peoples. The Chinese Society for Shamanic Studies was founded in [[Jilin City]] in 1988.<ref name="KunShi2006">Kun Shi. ''[http://buddhabookclub.weebly.com/uploads/4/2/6/4/4264863/survey_of_shamanic_studies_in_china-1993-updated_2007.pdf "Shamanistic Studies in China: A Preliminary Survey of the Last Decade"] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20170926115658/http://buddhabookclub.weebly.com/uploads/4/2/6/4/4264863/survey_of_shamanic_studies_in_china-1993-updated_2007.pdf |date=26 September 2017 }}''. On: ''Shaman'', vol. 1, nos. 1–2. Ohio State University, 1993, updated in 2006. pp. 104–106</ref>

Nuo folk religion is a system of the Chinese folk religion with distinct institutions and cosmology present especially in central-southern China. It arose as an [[exorcism|exorcistic]] religious movement, and it is interethnic but also intimately connected to the [[Tujia people]].{{sfnb|Li|2016}}