Chinese folk religion

==Demographics==
===Mainland China and Taiwan===
[[File:河北梅花圣地师祖殿.jpg|thumb|Temple of the Founding Father ({{lang-zh|師祖殿}} ''Shīzǔdiàn'') of the principal holy see ({{lang-zh|聖地}} ''shèngdì'') of the [[Meihuaism|Plum Flower]] folk religious sect in [[Xingtai]], [[Hebei]].]]
According to Yang and Hu (2012):
{{blockquote|Chinese folk religion deserves serious research and better understanding in the social scientific study of religion. This is not only because of the sheer number of adherents—several times more adherents than Christians and Buddhists combined, but also because folk religion may have significant social and political functions in China's transition.{{sfnb|Yang|Hu|2012|p=505}}}}

According to their research, 55.5% of the adult population (15+) of China, or 578 million people in absolute numbers, believe and practise folk religions, including a 20% who practice ancestor religion or communal worship of deities, and the rest who practise what Yang and Hu define "individual" folk religions like devotion to specific gods such as [[Caishen]]. Members of folk religious sects are not taken into account.{{sfnb|Yang|Hu|2012|p=514}} Around the same year, Kenneth Dean estimates 680 million people involved in folk religion, or 51% of the total population.{{refn|group=note|Scholar Kenneth Dean estimates 680 million people involved in folk temples and rituals. Quote: "According to Dean, 'in the rural sector... if one takes a rough figure of 1000 people per village living in 680,000 administrative villages and assume an average of two or three temples per village, one arrives at a figure of over 680 million villagers involved in some way with well over a million temples and their rituals'."<ref>{{harvp|Fan|Chen|2013|p=8}} Citing: Dean, Kenneth. ''Local Ritual Traditions of Southeast China: A Challenge to Definitions of Religion and Theories of Ritual''. In: ''Social Scientific Study of Religion in China: Methodology, Theories, and Findings'', eds. Fenggang Yang and Graeme Lang, 133–165, Leiden: Brill, 2011. p. 134</ref>}} At the same time, self-identified folk religion believers in Taiwan are 42.7% of the adult (20+) population, or 16 million people in absolute numbers, although devotion to ancestors and gods can be found even among other religions' believers or 88% of the population.{{sfnb|Yang|Hu|2012|p=514}} According to the 2005 census of [[Taiwan]], Taoism is the statistical religion of 33% of the population.<ref>{{cite web |title = Taiwan Yearbook 2006 |publisher = Government of Information Office |year= 2006 |url = http://www.gio.gov.tw/taiwan-website/5-gp/yearbook/22Religion.htm |access-date = 2007-09-01 |archive-url = https://web.archive.org/web/20070708213510/http://www.gio.gov.tw/taiwan-website/5-gp/yearbook/22Religion.htm |archive-date = 8 July 2007}}</ref>

The Chinese Spiritual Life Survey conducted by the Center on Religion and Chinese Society of [[Purdue University]], published in 2010, found that 754 million people (56.2%) practise ancestor religion, but only 216 million people (16%) "believe in the existence" of the ancestor.{{refn|group=note|However, there is considerable discrepancy between what Chinese and Western cultures intend with the concepts of "belief", "existence" and "practice". The Chinese folk religion is often considered one of "belonging" rather than "believing" (see: {{harvp|Fan|Chen|2013|p=5}})}} The same survey says that 173 million (13%) practise Chinese folk religion in a Taoist framework.<ref name="CSLS2010">2010 Chinese Spiritual Life Survey, Anna Sun, Purdue University's Center on Religion and Chinese Society. Statistics published in: Katharina Wenzel-Teuber, David Strait. "[http://www.china-zentrum.de/fileadmin/redaktion/RCTC_2012-3.29-54_Wenzel-Teuber_Statistical_Overview_2011.pdf People's Republic of China: Religions and Churches Statistical Overview 2011]". ''Religions & Christianity in Today's China''. II.3 (2012) {{ISSN|2192-9289}}. pp. 29–54. {{webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160303184353/http://www.china-zentrum.de/fileadmin/redaktion/RCTC_2012-3.29-54_Wenzel-Teuber_Statistical_Overview_2011.pdf |date=3 March 2016 }}</ref>

The [[China Family Panel Studies]]' survey of 2012,<ref name="CFPS2012-013CGSS-b">[[China Family Panel Studies]]'s survey of 2012. Published in ''The World Religious Cultures'' issue 2014: [http://iwr.cass.cn/zjwh/201403/W020140303370398758556.pdf]{{lang-zh|卢云峰：当代中国宗教状况报告——基于CFPS（2012）调查数据}}. {{webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20140809051625/http://iwr.cass.cn/zjwh/201403/W020140303370398758556.pdf|date=9 August 2014}}</ref> published in 2014, based on the Chinese General Social Surveys which are held on robust samples of tens of thousands of people, found that only 12.6% of the population of China belongs to its [[religion in China|five state-sanctioned religious groups]], while among the rest of the population only 6.3% are [[atheism|atheists]], and the remaining 81% (1 billion people) pray to or worship gods and ancestors in the manner of the traditional popular religion. The same survey has found that 2.2% (≈30 million) of the total population declares to be affiliated to one or another of the many [[Chinese salvationist religions|folk religious sects]]. At the same time, reports of the Chinese government claim that the sects have about the same number of followers of the five state-sanctioned religions counted together (≈13% ≈180 million).<ref name="Phoenix Weekly">{{lang-zh|大陆民间宗教管理变局}} ''Management change in the situation of mainland folk religion''. ''Phoenix Weekly'', July 2014, n. 500. Pu Shi Institute for Social Science: [http://www.pacilution.com/ShowArticle.asp?ArticleID=4867 full text of the article]. {{webarchive |url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160304070046/http://www.pacilution.com/ShowArticle.asp?ArticleID=4867 |date=4 March 2016 }}</ref>

====Economy of temples and rituals====
[[File:Temple on the rooftop of a commercial building in Lucheng, Wenzhou, Zhejiang, China.jpg|thumb|Folk temple on the rooftop of a commercial building in the city of [[Wenzhou]].]]
Scholars have studied the [[economy|economic]] dimension of Chinese folk religion,<ref>Graeme Lang, Selina Ching Chan, Lars Ragvald. ''[http://www2.kenyon.edu/Depts/Religion/Fac/Adler/Reln270/Folk%20Temples.pdf Folk Temples and the Chinese Religious Economy] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20171230114438/http://www2.kenyon.edu/Depts/Religion/Fac/Adler/Reln270/Folk%20Temples.pdf |date=30 December 2017 }}''. On ''Interdisciplinary Journal of Research on Religion'', 2005, Volume 1, Article 4.</ref> whose rituals and temples interweave a form of [[grassroots]] socio-economic capital for the well-being of local communities, fostering the circulation of wealth and its investment in the "sacred capital" of temples, gods and ancestors.{{sfnb|Yang|2007|p=226}}

This religious economy already played a role in periods of imperial China, plays a significant role in modern [[Taiwan]], and is seen as a driving force in the rapid economic development in parts of rural [[China]], especially the southern and eastern coasts.{{sfnb|Yang|2007|pp=226–230}}

According to Law (2005), in his study about the relationship between the revival of folk religion and the reconstruction of patriarchal civilisation:
{{blockquote|Similar to the case in Taiwan, the practice of folk religion in rural southern China, particularly in the Pearl River Delta, has thrived as the economy has developed.&nbsp;... In contrast to [[Max Weber|Weberian]] predictions, these phenomena suggest that drastic economic development in the Pearl River Delta may not lead to total disenchantment with beliefs concerning magic in the cosmos. On the contrary, the revival of folk religions in the Delta region is serving as a countervailing re-embedding force from the local cultural context, leading to the coexistence of the world of enchantments and the modern world.{{sfnb|Law|2005|p=90}}}}

[[Mayfair Yang]] (2007) defines it as an "embedded capitalism", which preserves local identity and autonomy, and an "ethical capitalism" in which the drive for individual accumulation of money is tempered by religious and kinship ethics of generosity which foster the sharing and investment of wealth in the construction of civil society.{{sfnb|Yang|2007|p=223}}

===Overseas Chinese===
{{Main|Chinese folk religion in Southeast Asia}}
[[File:Yokohama Masobyo 2013-05-05.JPG|thumb|[[Temple of Mazu, Yokohama|Temple of Mazu]] in [[Yokohama]], serving the [[Chinese people in Japan|Chinese of Japan]].]]

Most of the [[overseas Chinese]] populations have maintained Chinese folk religions, often adapting to the new environment by developing new cults and incorporating elements of local traditions. In [[Southeast Asia]], Chinese deities are subject to a "re-territorialisation" and maintain their relation to the ethnic associations (i.e. the Hainanese Association or the Fujianese Association, each of them has a patron deity and manages one or more temples of such a deity).<ref name="Tan">Tan, Chee-Beng. ''Tianhou and the Chinese in Diaspora''. Chapter in the ''Routledge Handbook of the Chinese Diaspora''. Routledge, 2013. {{ISBN|1136230963}}. pp. 417–422</ref>

The most important deity among Southeast Asian Chinese is [[Mazu (goddess)|Mazu]], the Queen of Heaven and goddess of the sea. This is related to the fact that most of these Chinese populations are from southeastern provinces of China, where the goddess is very popular.<ref name="Tan"/> Some [[Chinese salvationist religions|folk religious sects]] have spread successfully among Southeast Asian Chinese. They include especially [[De religion|Church of Virtue]] (Deism),<ref>Bernard Formoso. ''De Jiao – A Religious Movement in Contemporary China and Overseas: Purple Qi from the East''. National University of Singapore, 2010. {{ISBN|9789971694920}}</ref><ref>Kazuo Yoshihara. ''[https://www.jstor.org/discover/10.2307/30233386?uid=3738296&uid=2&uid=4&sid=21103277983863 Dejiao: A Chinese Religion in Southeast Asia]''. In ''Japanese Journal of Religious Studies'', Vol. 15, No. 2/3, ''Folk Religion and Religious Organizations in Asia'' (June–September 1988), Nanzan University. pp. 199–221</ref><ref>Chee Beng Tan. ''[http://nirc.nanzan-u.ac.jp/nfile/1407 The Development and Distribution of Dejiao Associations in Malaysia and Singapore, A Study on a Religious Organization] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160303212951/http://nirc.nanzan-u.ac.jp/nfile/1407 |date=3 March 2016 }}''. Institute of Southeast Asian Studies, Occasional Paper n. 79. Singapore: Institute of Southeast Asian Studies, 1985. {{ISBN|9789971988142}}</ref> [[Zhenkongdao]]{{sfnb|Goossaert|Palmer|2011|p=108}} and [[Yiguandao]].{{sfnb|Goossaert|Palmer|2011|p=108}}