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Forms of religion in China throughout history have included animism during the Xia dynasty, which evolved into the state religion of the Shang and Zhou.Alongside an ever-present undercurrent of Chinese folk religion, highly literary, systematised currents related to Taoism and Confucianism emerged during the Spring and Autumn period.
Chinese popular or folk religion, usually referred to as traditional faith (chuantong xinyang) [197]: 49 is the "background" religious tradition of the Chinese, whose practices and beliefs are shared by both the elites and the common people. This tradition includes veneration of forces of nature and ancestors, exorcism of harmful forces, and a ...
The religion of the Predynastic and Western Zhou was a complex set of religious beliefs and activities adhered to by the early Zhou dynasty in China (c. 13th century BCE – 771 BCE). Strongly influenced by the Shang dynasty 's religion , it developed gradually throughout the Predynastic Zhou period and flourished during the Western Zhou period.
Han calls for the acknowledgment of the ancient Chinese religion for what it really is, the 'core and soul of popular culture' (俗文化的核心與靈魂). [37] According to Chen Jinguo (陳進國), the ancient Chinese religion is a core element of Chinese 'cultural and religious self-awareness' (文化自覺，信仰自覺). [36]
Certain characteristics of the Shang state religion have been identified as prefiguring later elements of Chinese bureaucratic culture. [16] [17] The Shang articulated an image of a supreme being that simultaneously led a body of lesser deities, including both ancestor and nature spirits, while also being a composite of all of them.
The five elements, cosmic deities, historical incarnations, chthonic and dragon gods, and planets, associated to the five sacred mountains. This Chinese religious cosmology shows the Yellow Emperor, god of the earth and the year, as the centre of the cosmos, and the four gods of the directions and the seasons as his emanations.
Chinese tradition describes the first Shang king, Tang as a religious and perspicacious figure in Chinese history. There is a story recorded by both the philosopher Xunzi and the historian Sima Qian about Tang's religious sentiments. For seven years after Tang's accession to the throne, (1766−1760 BCE according to the traditional chronology ...
The following outline is provided as an overview of and topical guide to ancient China: Ancient China – China under the rule of the Xia, Shang, and Zhou dynasties, beginning around 2070 B.C. and extending until approximately 256 B.C.