Chinese Folk Religion
Chinese folk religion: The '''Chinese folk religion''' or '''Chinese traditional religion''' ( or |s=中国民间宗教 or 中国民间信 仰|p=Zhōngguó mínjiān zōngjiào or Zhōngguó mínjiān xìnyăng), sometimes called '''Shenism''' (pinyin+: ''Shénjiào'', 神教),refn|group=note| * The term '''Shenism''' (神教, ''Shénjiào'') was first used in 1955 by anthropologist+ Allan J. A. Elliott, in his work ''Chinese Spirit-Medium Cults in Singapore''. * During the history of China+ it was named '''Shendao''' (神道, ''Shéndào'', the "way of the gods"), apparently since the time of the spread of Buddhism+ to the area in the Han period+ (206 BCE–220 CE), in order to distinguish it from the new religion. The term was subsequently adopted in Japan+ as ''Shindo'', later ''Shinto+'', with the same purpose of identification of the Japanese indigenous religion. The oldest recorded usage of ''Shindo'' is from the second half of the 6th century. is the collection of grassroots+ ethnic+ religious+ traditions of the Han Chinese+, or the indigenous religion of China+.Lizhu, Na. 2013. p. 4. Chinese folk religion primarily consists in the worship of the ''shen+'' (神 "gods+", "spirit+s", "awarenesses", "consciousnesses", "archetype+s"; literally "expressions", the energies that generate things and make them thrive) which can be nature deities+, city deities or tutelary deities+ of other human agglomerations, national deities+, cultural+ hero+es and demigods, ancestor+s and progenitor+s, deities of the kinship. Holy narratives+ regarding some of these gods are codified into the body of Chinese mythology+. Another name of this complex of religions is '''Chinese Universism''', especially referring to its intrinsic metaphysical+ perspective. The Chinese folk religion has a variety of sources, localised worship forms, ritual and philosophical traditions.
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