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Concept
Xuanyuan teaching
Summary
Xuanyuandao (軒轅道 "Way of Xuanyuan"), also known as Xuanyuanism (軒轅教) or Huangdiism (黄帝教), is a Confucian folk religion of China which was founded in Taipei, Taiwan, in 1952. The founder was Wang Hansheng (王寒生) (1899–1989), a legislator. The Church of Xuanyuan aims to restore the "national religion" of archaic (pre-Han dynasty) China, with Huangdi as the universal God.
The Church of Xuanyuan subsumes all the ways of worship to local deities under one national god, Xuanyuan Huangdi (軒轅黄帝 "Xuanyuan the Yellow Deity"). According to the Shiji, Xuanyuan was the name of Huangdi, and he is traditionally considered the thearch (progenitor god) of the Han Chinese race.
Xuanyuanism is based on Confucian rationalism, and therefore rejects practices it considers superstitious that are found in other sects of Chinese folk religion, such as scripture writing through god mediumship.
As of 2013 the Xuanyuandao has 200,000 adherents in Taiwan and is also active in China, where it runs temples, schools, and members take part in the sacrifices celebrated at the Xuanyuan Temple, the largest temple dedicated to Huangdi in the world. Huangdi is also worshipped in Chinese folk religion by millions of people who do not necessarily belong to the Church of Xuanyuan.
Christian Jochim, "Carrying Confucianism into the Modern World: The Taiwan Case". In Philip Clart, Charles Brewer Jones. Religion in Modern Taiwan: Tradition and Innovation in a Changing Society. University of Hawaii Press, 2003. ), pp. 48–83.
Goossaert, Vincent, David Palmer. The Religious Question in Modern China. University of Chicago Press, 2011.
Patricia Eichenbaum Karetzky. Journal of Chinese Religions. Fall 1997, No. 25.
Official source
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Related concepts (4)
Chinese salvationist religions
Chinese salvationist religions or Chinese folk religious sects are a Chinese religious tradition characterised by a concern for salvation (moral fulfillment) of the person and the society. They are distinguished by egalitarianism, a founding charismatic person often informed by a divine revelation, a specific theology written in holy texts, a millenarian eschatology and a voluntary path of salvation, an embodied experience of the numinous through healing and self-cultivation, and an expansive orientation through evangelism and philanthropy.
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Shangdi
Shangdi (), also called simply Di (), is the Chinese term for "Supreme Deity" or "Highest Deity" in the theology of the classical texts, especially deriving from Shang theology and finding an equivalent in the later Tian ("Heaven" or "Great Whole") of Zhou theology. Although the use of "Tian" to refer to the absolute God of the universe is predominant in Chinese religion today, "Shangdi" continues to be used in a variety of traditions, including certain philosophical schools, certain strains of Confucianism, some Chinese salvationist religions (notably Yiguandao) and Chinese Protestant Christianity.