Chinese folk religion

====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}}