Folk Religion and Practice in Imperial China

Beneath the literate traditions of the Confucians, the Daoists, and the Buddhists, the great majority of Chinese — including a great many of the educated and the elite — practiced a religion that was in some sense all of them and none of them. The religion of the village, the neighborhood, the household, and the lineage hall was the religion of the gods, the ancestors, and the ghosts. It had no canonical creed and no unified body of doctrine; what it had, instead, was an inherited repertoire of rituals, deities, sacred sites, stories, festivals, and divination techniques that varied by region but shared a common structure.

This page treats folk religion and everyday religious practice in depth. The first section introduces the pantheon. The second examines ancestor worship. The third surveys the great festivals. The fourth turns to divination, healing, and the religious specialists. A final section addresses the boundary between folk and elite religion. The larger context is set by the overview of Chinese philosophy and religion, the three teachings, and the imperial cult.

The Pantheon: Gods of the Locality and the Household

The Chinese pantheon was enormous. It included gods of the city, the village, the mountain, the river, the sea, the hearth, the door, the granary, the well, and the latrine. It included gods of wealth, longevity, medicine, childbirth, and the dangerous transition of the newborn. It included the great mother goddesses — the Tianhou and the Mazu — who protected sailors and fishermen; the Guanyin, who became in China a goddess of mercy and childbirth; the City Gods (chenghuang); the Earth Gods (Tudigong); the kitchen god (Zaojun); and the dragon kings of the four seas, who controlled the rain and the storms.

These gods and goddesses were not the objects of a systematic theology. They were worshipped at local temples, on family altars, and at neighborhood shrines. Some had been imported from Buddhism (Guanyin), some from Daoism (the Tudi and many of the immortals), some from the state cult (the City Gods), some from popular legend (the Eight Immortals, the dragon kings, the goddess Mazu). The religious system was syncretic in practice and largely uninterested in drawing the doctrinal lines that preoccupied the literati.### City Gods, Earth Gods, and the Territorial Gods

The City God (chenghuang) was, in theory, the territorial god of a particular city or county. The state appointed the City God in a ritual in which a living official was symbolically identified with the god, and the City God’s temple (chenghuang miao) was a regularized institution in every county and prefecture town of the empire. The City God cult was a kind of local state cult, performed by the local officials in the name of the central government, and the City God’s temple was the site of a regular ritual calendar that included the announcement of the new year, the offering of the first fruits, and the expulsion of disease and misfortune.

The Earth God (Tudigong) was the territorial god of the village. Every village had its Earth God shrine, often a small structure at the side of the road, where incense and offerings were made at the new year, at the start of the agricultural cycle, and at the major festivals. The Earth God shrine was the most ubiquitous of all the religious institutions of the Chinese village.

Mother Goddesses: Mazu, Guanyin, and the Cult of the Sea

The great mother goddesses of late imperial China were among the most popular of the folk deities. The most important was Mazu (妈祖, “Ancestral Mother”), the goddess of the sea, who was especially venerated along the southeast coast. The historical Mazu was Lin Mo (c. 960–987), a young woman from Putian in Fujian who was said to have performed miracles of rescue at sea. The Mazu cult grew from a local cult of the Fujian coast to a national and overseas cult, with Mazu temples in coastal cities, in inland river ports, and in the Chinese diaspora of Southeast Asia.

Guanyin (观音), the bodhisattva of compassion Avalokiteshvara, was the most popular Buddhist figure in late imperial China. Originally a male Indian bodhisattva, Guanyin had been transformed in China into a female figure, the Goddess of Mercy, venerated for her protection of women in childbirth, of travelers, of the sick, and of those in danger. The goddess was worshipped in a wide range of forms: the Guanyin of the South Sea at Mount Putuo, the Guanyin of the White Robe, and the Guanyin of the Thousand Arms and the Thousand Eyes.

The Gods of Wealth, Longevity, and Medicine

The gods of wealth (Caishen), longevity (Shoulao), and medicine (Yaowang) were the most popular of the late imperial folk deities. The God of Wealth was worshipped at the new year, at the opening of a business, and at the major festivals; the God of Longevity was a central figure in birthday celebrations and in the art of the late imperial period; the God of Medicine was a complex figure that combined historical personages, Daoist immortals, and the bodhisattvas of healing. The cult of the God of Medicine was institutionalized in a network of temples and in an annual cycle of festivals.

The Kitchen God (Zaojun) was the most important of the household gods. He was believed to reside in the kitchen of every household, observe the conduct of the family throughout the year, and report to Heaven at the new year. The most important ritual was the annual farewell on the twenty-third day of the twelfth month, when the family would offer sweet foods (to “sweeten” the Kitchen God’s report) and burn a paper image of the god, sending him off to Heaven. The Kitchen God would then return, often on the first day of the new year, to take up his post in the kitchen.

Ancestor Worship

The cult of the ancestors was the foundation of the religious life of the Chinese household. Every household kept tablets of the recent ancestors — the parents, grandparents, and great-grandparents — on the family altar. Every lineage maintained a hall where the tablets of more distant ancestors received offerings at the major festivals. The ancestor cult was, in the Confucian view, the foundation of filial piety (xiao), the cardinal Confucian virtue, and the household ritual of offering food, wine, and incense at the family altar was the most basic religious act of Chinese life.

The household cult of the ancestors centered on the family altar (shen zhu), placed in the central room of the house. The tablets of the ancestors — small wooden plaques inscribed with the name and title of the deceased — were placed on the altar, along with images of the household gods (the Kitchen God, the Earth God, the God of Wealth, the Goddess of Mercy) and an incense burner. Offerings were made at the altar at the new year, at the major festivals, and on the birthdays and death anniversaries of the ancestors.

The lineage cult of the ancestors was a larger and more public version of the household cult. Every lineage maintained an ancestral hall (ci tang), where the tablets of the more distant ancestors of the lineage received offerings at the major festivals, especially the Qingming and the winter solstice. The lineage hall was the site of the lineage’s corporate ritual life: the announcement of births, the recording of deaths, the meeting of the lineage elders, the punishment of wayward members, and the celebration of the lineage’s corporate identity.

Festivals and the Ritual Calendar

The Chinese ritual year was a cycle of festivals, observed by the state, by the lineages, and by the households. The two great festival clusters were the New Year period, anchored by the lunar new year and running through the first month, and the harvest period in the autumn. The winter solstice and the summer solstice were the two great ritual occasions of the state cult, and the Qingming, the Double Ninth, and the Mid-Autumn were the most important of the folk festivals.

The New Year and the Lantern Festival

The Chinese New Year (Nian, Spring Festival) was the most important festival of the year, and the one around which the entire social and economic life of the Chinese household was organized. The central rituals were the family reunion dinner on New Year’s Eve, the visits to the family altar and the ancestral hall on the first day of the year, the giving of red envelopes (hong bao) to children, the eating of special foods, and the explosion of firecrackers to drive away the spirit of the old year.

The Lantern Festival (Yuanxiao jie) on the fifteenth day of the first month marked the end of the New Year period. The festival was characterized by the display of colored lanterns, the eating of rice balls (yuanxiao), the solving of lantern riddles, and the performance of lion and dragon dances. It had a long history, going back at least to the Han.

The Qingming and the Cold Food Festival

The Qingming Festival on the third day of the third lunar month was, together with the Cold Food Festival (Hanshi jie, traditionally the day before Qingming), the most important festival of the ancestor cult. The Qingming was the time of the spring visit to the ancestral graves: the family would clean the graves, sweep the tomb mounds, repair the stone markers, and offer food, wine, and incense. The Cold Food Festival, traditionally a day of abstaining from fire, was associated with the story of the loyal minister Jie Zhitui of the Spring and Autumn period, who had died in a fire. The two festivals were eventually merged in the late medieval period, and the Qingming came to be the principal festival of the spring ancestor cult.

The Dragon Boat Festival, the Double Seventh, and the Mid-Autumn

The Dragon Boat Festival (Duanwu jie) on the fifth day of the fifth month was the most athletic of the Chinese festivals, characterized by dragon boat races, the eating of rice dumplings (zongzi), and the wearing of mugwort and calamus. The festival was associated in the medieval period with the memory of the loyal official and poet Qu Yuan (c. 340–278 BCE), who had drowned himself in the Miluo River. The Double Seventh (Qixi jie) on the seventh day of the seventh month was the festival of the cowherd and the weaver girl, the Chinese equivalent of Valentine’s Day. The Mid-Autumn Festival (Zhongqiu jie) on the fifteenth day of the eighth month was the festival of the harvest moon, characterized by the eating of moon cakes and the gathering of the family to admire the full moon.

The Double Ninth, the Winter Solstice, and the New Year

The Double Ninth (Chongyang jie) on the ninth day of the ninth month was the festival of the high and was associated with the ascent of a height, the drinking of chrysanthemum wine, and the wearing of the dogwood. The winter solstice (Dongzhi) in the eleventh month was, with the summer solstice, the most important occasion of the state cult, and it was the occasion of the great family gathering and the eating of dumplings in the north and rice balls in the south. The New Year’s Eve dinner, the New Year’s Day visits, the farewell to the Kitchen God, the cleaning of the house, the buying of new clothes, and the return to the ancestral home were the central rituals of the New Year period.

Divination, Healing, and the Religious Specialists

The folk religious system was concerned above all with practical life: health, fertility, wealth, longevity, and the proper ordering of human relations with the natural and the supernatural world. The great majority of Chinese, including the educated and the elite, made use of the services of specialists in divination and healing. The boundary between folk religion and the elite traditions was porous: the Daoist priests, the Buddhist monks, and the Confucian officials were all part of the same religious world.

Divination and the Day-Book

The Chinese almanac (tong shu) was the most widely printed and the most used book of the imperial era. It fixed the auspicious and inauspicious days for the major activities of life — marriage, travel, business, construction, burial — and it was consulted by virtually every Chinese household at the start of the year and on the occasion of any important decision. The almanac was based on the inherited Yin-Yang and Five Phases cosmology.

The day-book (ri shu) was a related but more specific document, used for the choice of auspicious days for particular activities: the founding of a house, the burial of a parent, the opening of a business, the launch of a boat. The day-book was used in conjunction with the almanac, and the choice of an auspicious day was a routine part of Chinese practical life.

Geomancy, Spirit Mediums, and Other Specialists

The specialists in feng shui (geomancy) were consulted on the site and orientation of houses, graves, temples, and important buildings. Feng shui was based on a complex system of correlative cosmology that drew on the Yin-Yang and Five Phases doctrines, the I Ching, and a long tradition of geomantic practice. The choice of a grave site was especially important, since the fortune of the descendants depended on the location and orientation of the tomb.

Spirit mediums (wu, tongji) were men and women who were believed to be possessed by gods, ancestors, or other spirits, and who gave oracles, performed healing rituals, and identified the causes of misfortune. The spirit medium was a feature of every Chinese village and market town, and the mediums were sometimes associated with particular deities — the Goddess of Mercy, the City God, the God of the Soil. The spirit medium cult was, in some sense, the most “shamanic” of the Chinese religious traditions.

Healing and the Religion of the Body

The folk religion had a close relation to healing. The major gods of medicine were the God of Medicine (Yaowang), the Sun Star (Taiyi), and a long list of famous physicians, immortals, and bodhisattvas of healing. The folk healers drew on a wide range of techniques: herbal medicine, acupuncture, moxibustion, massage, divination, talismans, ritual, and the invocation of the gods.

The Boundary Between Folk and Elite Religion

The boundary between folk religion and the elite traditions was, in practice, very porous. The Confucian official who performed the sacrifices at the state temple also made offerings at the family altar; the Buddhist monk who chanted the sutras in the monastery also consulted the almanac; the Daoist priest who performed the jiao at the village temple also wore the proper robes for the new year. The syncretic culture of late imperial China was the practical realization of the integration of the three teachings, and the folk religion was the medium in which the integration took place.

The imperial state took a complex and ambivalent attitude toward the folk religion. On the one hand, the state recognized and incorporated many of the popular cults: the City God cult, the God of the Soil, the Kitchen God, and a long list of gods of merit and virtue were officially recognized. On the other hand, the state also drew a sharp line between the “three teachings” and the “sectarians” (xie jiao), and it periodically suppressed the popular religious movements that it considered heterodox. The White Lotus, the Luo Teaching, and a long list of related movements were the object of periodic persecution.

The syncretic culture of late imperial China was the most distinctive feature of Chinese religious life. It was a vast repertoire of practices, deities, ritual techniques, and stories shared by the elite and the common people. It was the medium in which the three teachings were actually lived, and it was, in the end, the most enduring of the Chinese religious traditions.