Xuanyuan teaching
| Church of the Mysterious Origin 轩辕教会 Xuānyuánjiàohuì | |
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| Type | Confucian church |
| Classification | Chinese salvationist religion |
| Scripture | Four Books and Five Classics |
| Founder | Wang Hansheng |
| Origin |
1952 Taiwan |
| Other name(s) | Way of the Mysterious Origin (轩辕道), Huangdiism (黄帝教) |
| Official website | http://huangdi-culture.org/ |
| Part of a series on |
| Chinese folk religion |
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Xuanyuandao (轩辕道 "Way of the Mysterious Origin")[lower-alpha 1], also known as Xuanyuanism (轩辕教[lower-alpha 2]) or Huangdiism (黄帝教[lower-alpha 3]), is a Confucian folk religion of China which was founded in Taipei, Taiwan, in 1952.[1] The founder was Wang Hansheng (1899-1989), a legislator.[2] The Church of the Mysterious Origin aims to restore the "national religion" of archaic (pre-Han dynasty) China,[3] with Huangdi as the universal God.
Theology and practices
The Church of the Mysterious Origin subsumes all the ways of worship to local deities under one national god, Xuanyuan Huangdi (轩辕黄帝 "Yellow Deity of the Mysterious Origin"[lower-alpha 4]). Xuanyuan is the name of Huangdi in his historical life,[4] and he is traditionally considered the thearch (progenitor god) of the Han Chinese race.[5]
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.[6]
Diffusion
As of 2013 the Xuanyuandao has 200.000 adherents in Taiwan and is active in China, where it runs temples, schools, and members take part to the sacrifices celebrated at the Temple of the Mysterious Origin, the largest temple dedicated to Huangdi in the world.[7] Huangdi is also worshipped in Chinese folk religion by millions of people who do not necessarily belong to the Church of the Mysterious Origin.
See also
Footnotes
- ↑ 轩辕道 Xuānyuándào, traditional characters: 軒轅道. It can be translated either as "Way of the Mysterious Origin" or "Way of the Regulator" as Xuanyuan means both.
- ↑ 軒轅教 Xuānyuánjiào
- ↑ 黄帝教 Huángdìjiào, traditional characters: 黃帝教; "faith in the Yellow Deity"
- ↑ The color yellow [huáng 黄] represents earth, the dragon, and the centre of the universe [Shangdi] in Chinese cosmologies, and is used as a revelative character for the homophone huáng 皇 "august, generative".
References
Sources
- 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. ISBN 0824825640), pp. 48–83.
- Goossaert, Vincent, David Palmer. The Religious Question in Modern China. University of Chicago Press, 2011. ISBN 0226304167
- Patricia Eichenbaum Karetzky. Journal of Chinese Religions. Fall 1997, No. 25.
External links
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