Model humanity:
76-467: Main philosophical traditions: Ritual traditions: Devotional traditions: Salvation churches and sects : Confucian churches and sects: Chinese theology , which comes in different interpretations according to the Chinese classics and Chinese folk religion , and specifically Confucian , Taoist , and other philosophical formulations, is fundamentally monistic , that is to say it sees
152-544: 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 . Some scholars consider these religions
228-563: A Confucian identity, with the foundation of the Holy Confucian Church of China which aims to unite in a single body all Confucian religious groups. Many of the movements of salvation of the 20th and 21st century aspire to become the repository of the entirety of the Chinese tradition in the face of Western modernism and materialism, advocating an "Eastern solution to the problems of the modern world", or even interacting with
304-601: A hundred books and corresponded with dozens of other scholars. He acted as a teacher to groups of students, many of whom chose to study under him for years. He built upon the teachings of the Cheng brothers and others, further developing their metaphysical theories in regards to principle ( li ) and vital force ( qi ). His followers recorded thousands of his conversations in writing. Zhu Xi, whose family originated in Wuyuan County , Huizhou (in modern Jiangxi province),
380-426: A long Western connotation of creation ex nihilo , modern Chinese theologians prefer to speak of "evolution" ( 化 huà ) to describe the begetting of the cosmos; even in modern Chinese language the two concepts are frequently held together, zàohuà ("creation-evolution"). Such ordering power, which belongs to deities but also to humans, expresses itself in rites ( 礼 lǐ ). They are the means by which alignment between
456-507: A single group they are said to have the same number of followers of the five state-sanctioned religions of China taken together. Scholars and government officials have been discussing to systematise and unify this large base of religious organisations; in 2004 the State Administration of Religious Affairs created a department for the management of folk religions. In the late 2015 a step was made at least for those of them with
532-416: A single phenomenon, and others consider them the fourth great Chinese religious category alongside the well-established Confucianism , Buddhism and Taoism . Generally these religions focus on the worship of the universal God ( Shangdi ), represented as either male, female, or genderless, and regard their holy patriarchs as embodiments of God. "Chinese salvationist religions" ( 救度宗教 jiùdù zōngjiào )
608-530: A thousand brave people attended his funeral. After the death of Han Tuozhou, Zhu's successor Zhen Dexiu , together with Wei Liaoweng , made Zhu's branch of Neo-Confucianism the dominant philosophy at the Song Court. In 1208, eight years after his death, Emperor Ningzong of Song rehabilitated Zhu Xi and honored him with the posthumous name of Wen Gong ( 文公 ), meaning "Venerable gentleman of culture". Around 1228, Emperor Lizong of Song honored him with
684-507: Is a contemporary neologism coined as a sociological category and gives prominence to folk religious sects' central pursuit that is the salvation of the individual and the society, in other words the moral fulfillment of individuals in reconstructed communities of sense. Chinese scholars traditionally describe them as "folk religious sects" ( 民间宗教 mínjiān zōngjiào , 民间教门 mínjiān jiàomén or 民间教派 mínjiān jiàopài ) or "folk beliefs" ( 民间信仰 mínjiān xìnyǎng ). They are distinct from
760-404: Is called ... the gǔi-shén with respect to its operation, the shén with respect to its wonderful functioning. Another Neo-Confucian, Zhu Xi , says: The shén is expansion and the gǔi is contraction. As long as it is blowing wind, raining, thundering, or flashing, [we call it] shén , while it stops, [we call it] gǔi . The Chinese dragon , associated with the constellation Draco winding
836-521: Is literally a title expressing dominance over the all-under-Heaven , that is all created things. It is etymologically and figuratively analogous to the concept of di as the base of a fruit, which falls and produces other fruits. This analogy is attested in the Shuowen Jiezi explaining "deity" as "what faces the base of a melon fruit". Tiān is usually translated as "Heaven", but by graphical etymology it means "Great One" and scholars relate it to
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#1732787970121912-529: Is quintuple: Other names of the God of Heaven include: Attributes of the supreme God of Heaven include: Shàngdì ( 上帝 "Highest Deity"), sometimes shortened simply to Dì ( 帝 "Deity"), is another name of the supreme God inherited from Shang and Zhou times. The Classic of Poetry recites: "How vast is the Highest Deity, the ruler of men below!". Dì is also applied to the name of cosmic gods besides
988-575: Is the Thearch's carriage. It revolves around the central point and majestically regulates the four realms. The distribution of yin and yang, the fixing of the four seasons, the coordination of the five phases, the progression of rotational measurements, and the determining of all celestial markers—all of these are linked to the Dipper. In 113 BCE, Emperor Wu of Han , under the influence of prominent fangshi —Miu Ji and later Gongsun Qing—officially integrated
1064-471: Is the impersonal God of philosophical inquiry. Together they express an "integrated definition of the monistic world". Interest in traditional Chinese theology has waxed and waned over the various periods of the history of China. For instance, the Great Leap Forward enacted in the mid-20th century involved the outright destruction of traditional temples in accordance with Maoist ideology. From
1140-515: Is therefore a continuous ordering; it is not a creatio ex nihilo . Yin and yang are the invisible and the visible, the receptive and the active, the unshaped and the shaped; they characterise the yearly cycle (winter and summer), the landscape (shady and bright), the sexes (female and male), and even sociopolitical history (disorder and order). The gods themselves are divided into yin forces of contraction, 鬼 guǐ ("demons" or "ghosts") and yang forces of expansion 神 shén ("gods" or "spirits"); in
1216-591: The Book of Rites . Some scholars even find influences from Manichaeism , Mohism and shamanic traditions . In the Ming and Qing dynasties many folk religious movements were outlawed by the imperial authorities as "evil religions" ( 邪教 xiéjiào ). With the collapse of the Qing state in 1911 the sects enjoyed an unprecedented period of freedom and thrived, and many of them were officially recognised as religious groups by
1292-457: The Chinese folk religion consisting in the worship of gods and ancestors, although in English language there is a terminological confusion between the two. The 20th-century expression for these salvationist religious movements has been "redemptive societies" ( 救世团体 jiùshì tuántǐ ), coined by scholar Prasenjit Duara . A collective name that has been in use possibly since the latter part of
1368-535: The Proto-Indo-European Dyeus . Medhurst (1847) also shows affinities in the usage of "deity", Chinese di , Greek theos and Latin deus , for incarnate powers resembling the supreme godhead. Ulrich Libbrecht distinguishes two layers in the development of early Chinese theology, traditions derived respectively from the Shang and subsequent Zhou dynasties. The religion of the Shang was based on
1444-484: The early republican government . The founding of the People's Republic in 1949 saw them suppressed once again, although since the 1990s and 2000s the climate was relaxed and some of them have received some form of official recognition. In Taiwan all the still existing restrictions were rescinded in the 1980s. Folk religious movements began to rapidly revive in mainland China in the 1980s, and now if conceptualised as
1520-471: The jiao festivals in which sacrificial offerings of incense and other products are set up by local temples, with participants hoping to renew the perceived alliance between community leaders and the gods. As explained by the scholar Stephan Feuchtwang , in Chinese cosmology "the universe creates itself out of a primary chaos of material energy" ( hundun and qi ), organising as the polarity of yin and yang which characterises any thing and life. Creation
1596-671: The "Yellow God of the Northern Dipper " ( 黄神北斗 Huángshén Běidǒu ), or "Heavenly Venerable Supreme Unity" ( 太一天尊 Tàiyī Tiānzūn ), is a name of the supreme God of Heaven that had become prominent besides the older ones during the Han dynasty in relation to the figure of the Yellow Emperor . It harkens back to the Warring States period , as attested in the poem The Supreme Oneness Gives Birth to Water , and possibly to
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#17327879701211672-419: The 1980s onward, public revivals have taken place. The Chinese believe that deities or stars, are arranged in a "celestial bureaucracy" which influences earthly activities and is reflected by the hierarchy of the Chinese state itself. These beliefs have similarities with broader Asian Shamanism . The alignment of earthly and heavenly forces is upheld through the practice of rites and rituals ( Li ), for instance
1748-529: The Confucians and the fāngshì ( 方士 "masters of directions"), regarded as representatives of the ancient religious tradition inherited from previous dynasties, concurred in the formulation of the Han state religion. Tàiyī ( 太一 ; also spelled 太乙 Tàiyǐ or 泰一 Tàiyī ; "Great Oneness" or "Great Unity"), also known as "Supreme Oneness of the Central Yellow" ( 中黄太乙 Zhōnghuáng Tàiyǐ ), or
1824-419: The Dipper. When the handle of the Dipper points to the east at dawn, it is spring to all the world. When the handle of the Dipper points to the south it is summer to all the world. When the handle of the Dipper points to the west, it is autumn to all the world. When the handle of the Dipper points to the north, it is winter to all the world. As the handle of the Dipper rotates above, so affairs are set below. Dì
1900-522: The God of Heaven, not in the sense of addition but in the sense of belonging. In the Confucian tradition, the perfect government is that which emulates the ordering of the starry vault of Heaven: To conduct government by virtue may be compared to the North Star: it occupied its place, while the myriad stars revolve around it. Tian is dian 顛 ("top"), the highest and unexceeded. It derives from
1976-504: The Han dynasty it was still common to represent the stars as small squares. The Shang conducted magnificent sacrifices to these ancestor-gods, whose altar mimicked the stars of the north celestial pole. Through this sympathetic magic, which consisted of reproducing the celestial centre on earth, the Shang established and monopolised the centralising political power. The emperors of the Qin dynasty (221–206 BCE) are credited with an effort to unify
2052-561: The Huang–Lao theology of Taiyi with the Confucian state religion and theology of the Five Forms of the Highest Deity inherited from the erstwhile dynasties. Chinese salvationist religions Model humanity: Main philosophical traditions: Ritual traditions: Devotional traditions: Salvation churches and sects : Confucian churches and sects: Chinese salvationist religions or Chinese folk religious sects are
2128-533: The Qing dynasty is huìdàomén ( 会道门 "churches, ways and gates"), as their names interchangeably use the terms huì ( 会 "church, society, association, congregation"; when referring to their corporate form), dào ( 道 "way") or mén ( 门 "gate[way], door"). Their congregations and points of worship are usually called táng ( 堂 "church, hall") or tán ( 坛 "altar"). Western scholars often mistakenly identify them as " Protestant " churches. The Vietnamese religions of Minh Đạo and Caodaism emerged from
2204-703: The Shang dynasty as Dàyī ( 大一 "Big Oneness"), an alternative name for the Shangs' (and universe's) foremost ancestor. Taiyi was worshipped by the social elites in the Warring States, and is also the first god described in the Nine Songs, shamanic hymns collected in the Chuci ("Songs of Chu"). Throughout the Qin and the Han dynasties, a distinction became evident between Taiyi as the supreme godhead identified with
2280-861: The Song dynasty, Zhu Xi's teachings were considered to be unorthodox . Rather than focusing on the I Ching like other Neo-Confucians, he chose to emphasize the Four Books : the Great Learning , the Doctrine of the Mean , the Analects of Confucius , and the Mencius as the core curriculum for aspiring scholar officials. For all these classics he wrote extensive commentaries that were not widely recognized in his time; however, they later became accepted as
2356-533: The Zhou transformed this claim into a legitimacy based on moral power, the Mandate of Heaven . In Zhou theology, Tian had no singular earthly progeny, but bestowed divine favour on virtuous rulers. Zhou kings declared that their victory over the Shang was because they were virtuous and loved their people, while the Shang were tyrants and thus were deprived of power by Tian. Tian is both transcendent and immanent as
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2432-467: The characters yi 一 , "one", and da 大 , "big". Since the Shang (1600–1046 BCE) and Zhou dynasty 1046–256 BCE), the radical Chinese terms for the supreme God are Tiān 天 and Shangdi 上帝 (the "Highest Deity") or simply Dì 帝 ("Deity"). Another concept is Tàidì 太帝 (the "Great Deity"). These names are combined in different ways in Chinese theological literature, often interchanged in
2508-512: The concept of Taiyi became part of the imperial sect , and at the same time it was the central concept of Huang–Lao, which influenced the early Taoist Church; in early Taoism, Taiyi was identified as the Dào 道 . The "Inscription for Laozi" ( Laozi ming ), a Han stela, describes the Taiyi as the source of inspiration and immortality for Laozi . In Huang-Lao, the philosopher-god Laozi was identified as
2584-517: The cults of the Wǔfāng Shàngdì ( 五方上帝 "Five Forms of the Highest Deity"), which were previously held at different locations, into single temple complexes. The Five Deities are a cosmological conception of the fivefold manifestation of the supreme God, or his five changing faces, that are elaborated in the classic texts and may originate from the Neolithic . They "reflect the cosmic structure of
2660-559: The early Taoist Church, and focused on a conceptualisation of the supreme God of the culmen of the sky as the Yellow God of the centre, and its human incarnation, the Yellow Emperor or Yellow Deity. Unlike previous Shang concepts of human incarnations of the supreme godhead, considered exclusively as the progenitors of the royal lineage, the Yellow Emperor was a more universal archetype of the human being. The competing factions of
2736-405: The equivalent of Heaven within human society, and therefore as the means connecting back to Heaven which is the "utmost ancestral father" ( 曾祖父 zēngzǔfù ). Chinese theology may be also called Tiānxué 天學 ("study of Heaven"), a term already in use in the 17th and 18th centuries. The universal principle that gives origin to the world is conceived as transcendent and immanent to creation, at
2812-404: The forces of the starry sky, of earthly phenomena, and the acts of human beings (the three realms of Heaven - Earth -humanity, 天地人 Tiāndìrén ), is established. Such harmonisation is referred to as "centring" ( 央 yāng or 中 zhōng ). Rituals may be performed by government officials, family elders, popular ritual masters, and Taoists, the latter cultivating local gods to centre the forces of
2888-465: The human being they are the hun and po (where hun ( 魂 ) is yang and po ( 魄 ) is yin; respectively, the rational and emotional soul, or the ethereal and the corporeal soul). Together, 鬼神 guishen is another way to define the twofold operation of the God of Heaven, its resulting dynamism being called itself shen , spirit. By the words of the Neo-Confucian thinker Cheng Yi : [Heaven]
2964-442: The identification of their ancestor-gods as part of Di. Together they were called 下帝 xiàdì , "lower deities" part of the "Highest Deity" of the Shang. With the supreme God identified as the pivot of the skies, all the lesser gods were its stars 星 xīng , a word which in Shang script was illustrated by a few grouped 口 dīng (cf. jīng 晶 , "perfect [celestial, i.e., star] light", and 品 pǐn , originally "starlight"); up to
3040-531: The incompetency and corruption of some influential officials. There were several instances of receiving an appointment and subsequently being demoted. Upon dismissal from his last appointment, he was accused of numerous crimes and a petition was made for his execution. Much of this opposition was headed by Han Tuozhou , the Prime Minister, who was a political rival of Zhu's. Even though his teachings had been severely attacked by establishment figures, almost
3116-605: The label "secret sects" ( 秘密教门 mìmì jiàomén ) to distinguish the peasant "secret societies" with a positive dimension of the Yuan, Ming and Qing periods, from the negatively viewed "secret societies" of the early republic that became instruments of anti-revolutionary forces (the Guomindang or Japan ). Many of these religions are traced to the White Lotus tradition ("Chinese Maternism", as mentioned by Philip Clart ) that
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3192-506: The modern discourse of an Asian -centered universal civilisation. The Chinese folk religious movements of salvation are mostly concentrated in northern and northeastern China, although with a significant influence reaching the Yangtze River Delta since the 16th century. The northern provinces have been a fertile ground for the movements of salvation for a number of reasons: firstly, popular religious movements were active in
3268-425: The moon has been split. In his terminology, the myriad things are generated as effects or actualities ( 用 yòng ) of the supreme principle, which, before in potence ( 體 tǐ ), sets in motion qi . The effects are different, forming the "myriad species" ( 萬殊 wànshū ), each relying upon their myriad modifications of the principle, depending on the varying contexts and engagements. Difference exists not only between
3344-431: The multiplicity of gods of nature and ancestors were viewed as parts of Shangdi, and the four fāng ( 方 ; 'directions') and their fēng ( 風 ; 'winds') as his cosmic will. The Zhou dynasty, which overthrew the Shang, emphasised a more universal idea of Tian ( 天 "Heaven"). The Shang dynasty's identification of Shangdi as their ancestor-god had asserted their claim to power by divine right;
3420-498: The myriad things, is notably explained by Zhu Xi through the "metaphor of the moon": Fundamentally there is only one Great Pole ( Tàijí ), yet each of the myriad things has been endowed with it and each in itself possesses the Great Ultimate in its entirety. This is similar to the fact that there is only one moon in the sky, but when its light is scattered upon rivers and lakes, it can be seen everywhere. It cannot be said that
3496-453: The north ecliptic pole and slithering between the Little and Big Dipper (or Great Chariot), represents the "protean" primordial power, which embodies both yin and yang in unity, and therefore the awesome unlimited power ( qi ) of divinity. In Han-dynasty traditions, Draco is described as the spear of the supreme God. Heaven continuously begets—according to its own manifest model which is
3572-857: The north celestial pole in other cultures, including the Mesopotamian An ("Heaven" itself), and Enlil and Enki / Marduk , the Vedic Indra and Mitra–Varuna , the Zoroastrian Ahura Mazda , as well as the Dyeus of common Proto-Indo-European religion . Throughout the Chinese theological literary tradition, the Dipper constellations, and especially the Big Dipper ( 北斗星 Běidǒuxīng , "Northern Dipper"), also known as Great Chariot, within Ursa Major, are portrayed as
3648-410: The northern culmen of the sky and its spinning stars, and a more abstract concept of Yī (一 "One"), which begets the polar godhead bringing into existence the principles of Yin and Yang , the pivot san bao , then "the myriad of beings" and "the ten thousand things"; the more abstract Yi was an "interiorisation" of the supreme God which was influenced by the Confucian discourse. During the Han dynasty,
3724-531: The population of China, which is around 30 million people, claim to be members of folk religious sects. The actual number of followers may be higher, about the same as the number of members of the five state-sanctioned religions of China if counted together. In Taiwan, recognised folk religious movements of salvation gather approximately 10% of the population as of the mid-2000s. Zhu Xi Zhu Xi ( [ʈʂú ɕí] ; October 18, 1130 – April 23, 1200), formerly romanized Chu Hsi ,
3800-1291: The posthumous noble title Duke of (State) Hui ( 徽國公 ). In 1241, a memorial tablet to Zhu Xi was placed in the Confucian Temple at Qufu , thereby elevating him to Confucian sainthood . Today, Zhu Xi is venerated as one of the " Twelve Philosophers " of Confucianism . Modern Sinologists and Chinese often refer to him as Zhu Wen Gong ( 朱文公 ) in lieu of his name. Confucianism Persons Topics Neo Confucianism New Confucianism Daoism Persons Topics Legalism Mohism Military and Strategy Han Buddhism Tibetan Buddhism Maoism General topics Vedic philosophy Mimamsa Vedanta Samkhya Yoga Nyaya Navya-Nyāya Vaisheshika Nāstika (heterodox) Tamil Other General topics Jainism Buddhism Traditions Topics Japanese Buddhism Japanese Confucianism Kokugaku Modern Thought Statism Kyoto School Korean Buddhism Korean Confucianism Persons Topics Donghak Modern Thought Persons Topics During
3876-494: The potent symbols of spirit, divinity, or of the activity of the supreme God regulating nature . Examples include: The Dipper is the Deity’s carriage. It revolves about the centre, visiting and regulating each of the four regions. It divides yin from yang, establishes the four seasons, equalises the five elemental phases, deploys the seasonal junctures and angular measures, and determines the various periodicities: all these are tied to
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#17327879701213952-437: The process of the 'investigation of things' ( 格物 ; géwù ), and his development of meditation as a method for self-cultivation. Zhu was a scholar with a wide learning in the classics, commentaries, histories and other writings of his predecessors. In his lifetime, he was able to serve multiple times as a government official, although he avoided public office for most of his adult life. He also wrote, compiled and edited almost
4028-552: The region already in the Han dynasty , and they deeply penetrated local society; secondly, northern provinces are characterised by social mobility around the capital and weak traditional social structure, thus folk religious movements of salvation fulfill the demand of individual searching for new forms of community and social network. According to the Chinese General Social Survey of 2012, approximately 2.2% of
4104-510: The same Dì through phonetic etymology and trace their common root, through their archaic forms respectively *Teeŋ and *Tees , to the symbols of the celestial pole and its spinning stars. Other words, such as 顶 dǐng ("on top", "apex") would share the same etymology, all connected to a conceptualisation—according to the scholar John C. Didier—of the north celestial pole godhead as cosmic square ( Dīng 口). Zhou (2005) even connects Dì , through Old Chinese *Tees and by phonetic etymology, to
4180-451: The same as the Yellow Emperor, and received imperial sacrifices, for instance by Emperor Huan (146–168). In Han apocryphal texts, the Big Dipper is described as the instrument of Taiyi, the ladle from which he pours out the primordial breath ( yuanqi ), and as his heavenly chariot. A part of the Shiji by Sima Qian identifies Taiyi with the simple name Di (Deity) and tells: The Dipper
4256-666: The same paragraph if not in the same sentence. One of the combinations is the name of God used at the Temple of Heaven in Beijing, which is the "Highest Deity the Heavenly King" ( 皇天上帝 Huángtiān Shàngdì ); others are "Great Deity the Heavenly King" ( 天皇大帝 Tiānhuáng Dàdì ) and "Supreme Deity of the Vast Heaven" ( 昊天上帝 Hàotiān Shàngdì ). God is considered manifest in this world as the northern culmen and starry vault of
4332-399: The same time. The Chinese idea of the universal God is expressed in different ways; there are many names of God from the different sources of Chinese tradition, reflecting a "hierarchic, multiperspective" observation of the supreme God. Chinese scholars emphasise that the Chinese tradition contains two facets of the idea of God: one is the personified God of popular devotion, and the other one
4408-494: The same tradition of Chinese folk religious movements. A category overlapping with that of the salvationist movements is that of the "secret societies" ( 秘密社会 mìmì shèhuì , or 秘密结社 mìmì jiéshè ), religious communities of initiatory and secretive character, including rural militias and fraternal organisations which became very popular in the early republican period, and often labeled as " heretical doctrines" ( 宗教异端 zōngjiào yìduān ). Recent scholarship has begun to use
4484-532: The significance of the Classic of Filiality ( Xiaojing ). As a youth, he was inspired by Mencius' proposition that anyone could become a sage. Upon his father's death in 1143, he studied with his father's friends Hu Xian, Liu Zihui, and Liu Mianzhi. In 1148, at the age of 19, Zhu Xi passed the Imperial Examination and became a presented scholar ( jinshi ). Zhu Xi's first official dispatch position
4560-399: The skies which regulate nature. As its see, the circumpolar stars (the Little and Big Dipper , or broader Ursa Minor and Ursa Major) are known, among various names, as Tiānmén 天門 ("Gate of Heaven") and Tiānshū 天樞 ("Pivot of Heaven"), or the "celestial clock" regulating the four seasons of time. The Chinese supreme God is compared to the conception of the supreme God identified as
4636-599: The standard commentaries. The Four Books served as the basis of civil service examinations up until 1905, and education in the classics often began with Zhu Xi's commentaries as the cornerstone for understanding them. The sources of Zhu Xi's new approach to the Confucian curriculum have been found in several works of the Cheng brothers. Zhu Xi "codified the Cheng brothers' teachings and reworked them into his own philosophical program," moving "from philology to philosophy." Zhu Xi maintained that all things are brought into being by
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#17327879701214712-467: The starry vault revolving around the northern culmen ( 北極 Běijí )—and reabsorbs, the temporal things and worlds. As explained in modern Confucian theology: ... the historical Heaven, namely the generated Heaven, [is] one particular form or modification (marked by the emergence of celestial bodies) of the eternal Heaven. This eternal Heaven was embodied in pure qì before its historical form had been realized. Rather than "creation" ( 造 zào ), which has
4788-523: The starry vault, manifesting in the three forms of dominance, destiny, and nature. There are many compounds of the name Tian , and many of these clearly distinguish a "Heaven of dominance", a "Heaven of destiny", and a "Heaven of nature" as attributes of the supreme cosmic God. In the Wujing yiyi ( 五經異義 , "Different Meanings in the Five Classics "), Xu Shen explains that the designation of Heaven
4864-471: The supreme godhead, and is used to compose titles of divinity; for instance Dìjūn 帝君 ("Divine Ruler", Latin: Dominus Deus ), used in Taoism for high deities in the celestial hierarchy. In the Shang dynasty, as discussed by John C. Didier, Shangdi was the same as Dīng ( 口 , modern 丁 ), the "square" as the north celestial pole , and Shàngjiǎ ( 上甲 "Supreme Ancestor") was an alternative name. Shangdi
4940-466: The time, every little creation is also participated by one particular thing which was previously created by the Creator. That is to say, each creature plays both the roles of creature and creator, and consequently is not only a fixed constituent of, but also a promoter and author of, the diversity or richness of the world. The relationship between oneness and multiplicity, between the supreme principle and
5016-496: The union of two universal aspects of reality: qi ( 氣 , sometimes translated as vital – or physical, material – force); and li ( 理 , sometimes translated as rational principle or law). The source and sum of li is the taiji , meaning the Supreme Ultimate. The source of qi is not so clearly stated by Zhu Xi, leading some authorities to maintain that he was a metaphysical monist and others to maintain that he
5092-426: The universe upon a particular locality. Since humans are capable of centering natural forces, by the means of rites, they are themselves "central" to creation. Human beings participate in the ongoing creation-evolution of the God of Heaven, acting as ancestors who may produce and influence other beings: The involvement of an evolution in the divine creation hints that, although the Creator functions everywhere and all
5168-411: The various categories of beings, but among individuals belonging to the same category as well, so that each creature is a unique coalescence of the cosmic principle. The qi of kindred beings accord and communicate with one another, and the same happens for the qi of worshippers and the god receiving sacrifice, and for the qi of an ancestor and his descendants. All beings are, at different levels, "in"
5244-530: The world and the gods of its phenomena as an organic whole, or cosmos, which continuously emerges from a simple principle. This is expressed by the concept that "all things have one and the same principle" ( wànwù yīlǐ 萬物一理 ). This principle is commonly referred to as Tiān 天 , a concept generally translated as "Heaven", referring to the northern culmen and starry vault of the skies and its natural laws which regulate earthly phenomena and generate beings as their progenitors. Ancestors are therefore regarded as
5320-444: The world" in which yin, yang, and all forces are held in balance, and are associated with the four directions of space and the centre, the five sacred mountains , the five phases of creation , and the five constellations rotating around the celestial pole and five planets. During the Han dynasty (206 BCE–220 CE), the theology of the state religion developed side by side with the Huang–Lao religious movement which in turn influenced
5396-416: The worship of ancestors and god-kings, who survived as unseen divine forces after death. They were not transcendent entities, since the cosmos was "by itself so", not created by a force outside of it but generated by internal rhythms and cosmic powers. The royal ancestors were called dì ( 帝 ; 'deities'), and the utmost progenitor was Shangdi, identified with the dragon. Already in Shang theology,
5472-562: Was a Chinese calligrapher, historian, philosopher, poet, and politician of the Southern Song dynasty . Zhu was influential in the development of Neo-Confucianism . He contributed greatly to Chinese philosophy and fundamentally reshaped the Chinese worldview. His works include his editing of and commentaries to the Four Books (which later formed the curriculum of the imperial examinations in China between 1313 and 1905), his writings on
5548-459: Was already active in the Song dynasty ; others claim a Taoist legacy and are based on the recovery of ancient scriptures attributed to important immortals such as Lü Dongbin and Zhang Sanfeng , and have contributed to the popularisation of neidan ; other ones are distinctively Confucian and advocate the realisation of a "great commonwealth" ( datong 大同 ) on a world scale, as dreamt of in
5624-472: Was as Subprefectural Registrar of Tong'an ( 同安縣主簿 ), which he served from 1153 - 1156. From 1153 he began to study under Li Tong, who followed the Neo-Confucian tradition of Cheng Hao and Cheng Yi , and formally became his student in 1160. In 1179, after not serving in an official capacity since 1156, Zhu Xi was appointed Prefect of Nankang Military District ( 南康軍 ), where he revived White Deer Grotto Academy . and got demoted three years later for attacking
5700-529: Was born in Fujian , where his father worked as the subprefectural sheriff. After his father was forced from office due to his opposition to the government appeasement policy towards the Jurchen in 1140, Zhu Xi received instruction from his father at home. Many anecdotes attest that he was a highly precocious child. It was recorded that at age five he ventured to ask what lay beyond Heaven, and by eight he understood
5776-449: Was conceived as the utmost ancestor of the Shang royal lineage, the Zi ( 子 ) lineage, also called Ku (or Kui) or Diku (" Divus Ku"), attested in the Shiji and other texts. The other gods associated with the circumpolar stars were all embraced by Shangdi, and they were conceived as the ancestors of side noble lineages of the Shang and even non-Shang peripheral peoples who benefited from
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