Northeast China folk religion
Northeast China folk religion is the variety of Chinese folk religion of northeast China, characterised by distinctive cults original to Hebei and Shandong, transplanted and adapted by the Han Chinese settlers of Liaoning, Jilin and Heilongjiang since the Qing dynasty. It is characterised by terminology, deities and practices that are different from those of central and southern Chinese folk religion. Many of these patterns derive from the interaction of Han religion with Manchu shamanism.
Prominence is given to the worship of zoomorphic deities, of a "totemic" significance. In the region the terms shen 神 and xian 仙 are synonymous. Figures of ritual specialists or shamans perform various ritual functions for groups of believers and local communities, including chūmǎxiān, dances, healing, exorcism, divination, and communication with ancestors.
History
The formation of northeast China's folk religion and shamanism can be traced back to the Qing dynasty, when a large number of Han Chinese settled in the northeast of China mixing with Manchus. Either in the Qing period, and in the later Republic of China and subsequent People's Republic, the worship of zoomorphic deities and the practice of chumaxian had bad relationship with the governments, which considered it "feudal superstition" and banned through different decrees.The popular worship of animal gods began to resurface in the 1980s, and soon also the chumaxian practice was revived. In the 2010s there have been attempts to protect chumaxian under the policy of "intangible cultural heritage".
Japanese scholarship and Shinto similarities
The study of northeast China's folk religion owes much to the scholarly enterprise that the Japanese conducted on the subject during the period of Manchukuo that they established after they occupied Manchuria. Unlike Japanese-occupied Korea and occupied Taiwan, Manchuria was conceived as an autonomous nation, not to be assimilated into Japan, but rather to be modeled after the latter's social and religious structure keeping an independent identity.Ōmachi Tokuzo, a pupil of Yanagita Kunio, conducted field research on local religion in Manchuria through the war years. He later acted as the head of the Society for the Study of Manchurian Customs, producing an impressive body of research on local religion in Manchuria and north China. Ōmachi identified the rural village, each with a Tudishen shrine, as the fundamental unit of northeast China's local religion and of the religious character of the Han Chinese race. He also studies local Chinese goddess worship and the great similarity and integration of the Han and the Manchus. Ōmachi does not appear to have supported the institution of Shinto shrines in Manchurian villages, which in Korea and Taiwan were intended for the spiritual transformation of the locals into Japanese citizens by their integration into Shinto communities.
Another scholar, Tokunaga Takeshi, sought to demonstrate the spiritual unity of Japan, Manchuria and China by highlighting the similarities between ancient religious structures of the three nations:
Japanese ancient shrines are of the kannabi shape. There are many of these in Manchuria, as well... develop from the same agrarian culture and philosophy as Japanese Shinto ... Modern matron temples have these elements, as well. Therefore, since the temples were built later, it is thought that matron worship was grafted onto this earlier pattern of belief.
Other scholars studied the similarities between local and Japanese shamanisms. The Manchukuo generally promoted a racially centered spiritual revival, that is an ethnic religion for each of the races inhabiting Manchuria. For example, under the suggestions of Ogasawara Shozo that the Mongols "need a new religion, specifically a new god" they promoted the worship of Genghis Khan that continues today in northern China. The Shinto shrine of Kalgan incorporated Genghis Khan worship and was opened to local Mongols.
Characteristics
Deities
Besides common Chinese deities such as Guāndì, people of north China and Manchuria have distinctive zoomorphic deities, and the worship of clusters of goddesses is popular. The gods are ordained in hierarchies, a pattern inherited from the Chinese Confucian lineage system. Fox deities have a very important position, with evident parallels in the Japanese cult of Inari Ōkami. Usually at the head of the pantheon are placed the "Great Lord of the Three Foxes" and the "Great Lady of the Three Foxes".The Five Great Immortals Húxiān or Húshén Huángxiān Shéxiān, also called Liǔxiān Báixiān Hēixiān who can be the Wūyāxiān or the Huīxiān.
While the Fox God and the Weasel God always remain the two prominent members of the cult of the zoomorphic deities, the other positions vary in some regions including the Tiger, the Wolf, the Hare and the Turtle Gods. Other areas host the worship of the Leopard, the Mole, the Toad and the Rabbit Gods. In certain counties of Hebei they are reduced to four including the Fox, the Weasel, the Hedgehog and the Snake Gods.
Common Chinese deities are associated to the cult of the zoomorphic gods. For instance, Huáng Dàxiān is popular in north and northeast China, although he has no relation to Taoism as in southeastern China,
Shamanism
Northeastern shamans consider themselves to be "disciples" of the gods rather than mere channels of communication between the gods and the human world. Another name used to refer to these ritual masters is xiāngtóu. Their practice is generally called chumaxian, which means "the gods who take action" or more literally "riding for the immortals", a definition which implies that the gods and their disciples act as an organic whole, and in their action, form and content they express themselves together.There are two types of possession that the northeastern shamans experience in terms of consciousness: quánméng and bànméng.
They also practise a communication with ancestors through an ecstatic experience called guòyīn. This is part of the practices of both chumaxian and related communal rites of broader Chinese local religion.
Northeastern Chinese shamanism shares similarities with southern Chinese mediumship, Japanese Shinto practices, and various other shamanisms in the region. Historically it is the result of the encounter of Han Chinese and Manchu cultures, especially the Han cult of the fox and Manchu "wild ritual".
Northeastern Chinese shamans are predominantly women, like the shamans of Northeast Asian shamanism, while southern Chinese mediums are almost exclusively men. Moreover, while northeastern shamans are usually independent from formal religious institutions, southern medium specialists often collaborate with Taoist priests. Another distinction is that while southern mediums can acquire their role through training, and they are possessed mostly by Taoist and strictly Chinese gods, northeastern shamans are "chosen" or "ordained" by gods themselves as in other shamanic traditions, and their gods are animal totems. When a future disciple is chosen, she experiences mo.
Places of worship and shaman halls
In northeast China terminology for religious places and groups may follow the common Chinese model, with miao defining any "sacred precinct" dedicated to a god. However, a different terminology exists and temples may be called xiāntáng or tángzi, the latter name inherited from the temples of the bolongzi of Manchu shamanism. Shamans also hold "immediate halls" of worship in their houses.Folk religious sects
Since Chinese Buddhism and professional Taoism were never well developed in northeast China, the religious life of the region has been heavily influenced by networks of folk salvationist sects and Confucian churches, characterised by a congregational structure and a scriptural core. During the Japanese occupation they weren't studied, but their role as a moral catalyser for the Han race was emphasised.The Yiguandao had a strong presence in the area, but were especially the Guiyidao and the Shanrendao to have millions of followers in Manchuria alone. Shanrendao remains widespread even after the Maoist period and the Cultural Revolution, and headquarters of the Church of the Way and its Virtue have been re-established in Beijing in the 2010s. In more recent decades northeast China has also seen the rise of the Falun Gong, which was founded in the 1990s in Jilin.
During the period of Manchukuo also many Japanese new religions, or independent Shinto sects, proselytised in Manchuria establishing hundreds of congregations. Most of the missions belonged to the Omoto teaching, the Tenri teaching and the Konko teaching of Shinto. The Omoto teaching is the Japanese near equivalent of Guiyidao, as the two religions have common roots and history.