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China

Also Known As Chinese
Asia

Chinese religious life braids Confucian ethics, Daoist cosmology and Mahayana Buddhism, a mixture often called the three teachings, alongside folk temple worship of local and ancestral deities that predates all three. Tibetan Vajrayana Buddhism and the Islam practiced by Uyghur and Hui communities give the country's western regions a religious character distinct from the Han majority east, and independent reporting describes state restrictions on both Tibetan Buddhist institutions and Uyghur Muslim religious practice in Xinjiang, a contested matter the atlas notes rather than resolves. Chan Buddhism, which later shaped Japanese Zen, developed on Chinese soil, and Daoist divinatory traditions including the I Ching originated here and spread across East Asia. The officially atheist state permits worship only within a small number of sanctioned religious associations, a structure that shapes how every tradition inside China is organized.

Facts
Law and State
Establishment Status
No Establishment 3
No established church; religious practice is permitted only through five state-sanctioned associations under the 2004 Regulations on Religious Affairs, and unregistered churches and Tibetan Buddhist reincarnation recognition are tightly restricted.
State Funding Mechanism
China has no state funding channel to religious bodies comparable to a concordat or an endowment system. What it has instead is control: seven state-sanctioned religious associations, supervised by the State Administration for Religious Affairs and the Communist Party's United Front Work Department, that a religious organization must register under to operate, with the 2022 Measures for the Administration of Financial Affairs of Religious Premises imposing state financial oversight on registered venues rather than funding them. 4
Registration or Recognition Regime
Religious practice is permitted only through five state-sanctioned associations under the 2004 Regulations on Religious Affairs; Tibetan Buddhist reincarnation recognition is tightly restricted outside state channels. 3
Ban or Official Watchlist
Criminal law criminalizes organizing or using what it terms a xie jiao, rendered cult organization, sect or superstition, to undermine implementation of the law, carrying a maximum sentence of life imprisonment; the law publishes no criteria for the designation and no procedure to challenge it once made. Groups the government has named as banned xie jiao or illegal organizations include Falun Gong, the Guanyin Method (Guanyin Famen, also called the Way of the Goddess of Mercy), the qigong movement Zhong Gong, the Church of Almighty God and the Shouters, with enforcement against the Christian groups among them varying by region. 3
Concordat Basis
China has no concordat with the Holy See. Relations instead run through a Provisional Agreement on the appointment of bishops, first signed in September 2018 and kept confidential in its exact terms, under which Chinese authorities propose candidates and the pope holds a veto before ordination. Renewed for two years each in 2020 and 2022, it was extended for a full four years in October 2024, and 2024 alone saw more joint episcopal appointments than every previous year of the agreement combined, though the Holy See has also protested unilateral Chinese transfers of bishops outside the process it was meant to govern. 5
Identity
Also Known As
People's Republic of China 1
Classification
State Funding of Religion
State Restriction or Control of Religion 6
Disputed
Legal Status
Religious practice permitted only through five state-sanctioned associations under the 2004 Regulations on Religious Affairs; unregistered churches and Tibetan Buddhist reincarnation recognition are tightly restricted; designated a Country of Particular Concern. 3
China's 2004 Regulations on Religious Affairs permit religious practice only through five state-sanctioned associations, one each for Buddhism, Daoism, Islam, Protestantism and Catholicism, outside which unregistered churches and unrecognised Tibetan Buddhist reincarnation determinations are tightly restricted by the state. The specific dispute the State Department's report highlights concerns Xinjiang, where the Chinese government describes large-scale detention facilities holding Uyghur and other Turkic Muslims as vocational training centres addressing extremism, while international human rights bodies, the United Nations, and Uyghur advocacy groups describe the same facilities as sites of mass internment. The United States designates China a Country of Particular Concern under its own religious freedom law specifically over this and related restrictions. The disagreement is over how to characterise the same documented facilities, extremism prevention against internment, a dispute over intent and legal characterisation that independent international access, which China has restricted, would be needed to help settle.
Demographics
Religious Composition
Roughly half religiously unaffiliated by strict self-identification, alongside widespread folk practice blending Buddhism, Taoism and ancestor veneration; five state-recognized religions (Pew Research Center, Religious Composition of the World, 2010-2020). 1
Government
Capital
Beijing 2
Government Type
communist party-led state 2
Sovereignty Status
Sovereign UN member state 2
Established Year
1949 2
1 October 1949 (People's Republic of China established); notable earlier dates: 221 B.C. (unification under the Qin Dynasty); 1 January 1912 (Qing Dynasty replaced by the Republic of China)
Geography
Latitude
35.9 degrees north 2
Approximate reference point, rounded to one decimal place; a country's extent has no single center, so this coordinate is conventional, not a survey measurement.
Longitude
104.2 degrees east 2
Approximate reference point, rounded to one decimal place; a country's extent has no single center, so this coordinate is conventional, not a survey measurement.
Government type (class)
Communist state 2
Location
Location of China Afghanistan Albania Algeria Angola Argentina Armenia Australia Austria Azerbaijan Bahrain Bangladesh Barbados Belarus Belgium Benin Bhutan Bolivia Bosnia and Herzegovina Botswana Brazil Bulgaria Burkina Faso Burundi Cabo Verde Cambodia Cameroon Canada Chile China Colombia Costa Rica Croatia Cuba Cyprus Czech Republic Democratic Republic of the Congo Denmark Dominican Republic Ecuador Egypt El Salvador Estonia Eswatini Ethiopia Federated States of Micronesia Fiji Finland France French Polynesia Gabon Georgia Germany Ghana Greece Guam Guatemala Haiti Honduras Hong Kong Hungary Iceland India Indonesia Iran Iraq Ireland Israel Italy Ivory Coast Jamaica Japan Jordan Kazakhstan Kenya Kuwait Laos Latvia Lebanon Libya Lithuania Madagascar Malawi Malaysia Mali Malta Mauritius Mexico Moldova Mongolia Morocco Mozambique Myanmar Namibia Nepal Netherlands New Zealand Nigeria North Macedonia Norway Oman Pakistan Palestine Panama Papua New Guinea Paraguay Peru Philippines Poland Portugal Puerto Rico Qatar Romania Russia Rwanda Saint Vincent and the Grenadines Samoa Saudi Arabia Senegal Serbia Sierra Leone Singapore Slovakia Slovenia Solomon Islands South Africa South Korea South Sudan Spain Sri Lanka Sudan Suriname Sweden Switzerland Syria Taiwan Tanzania Thailand Tonga Trinidad and Tobago Tunisia Turkey Uganda Ukraine United Arab Emirates United Kingdom United States Uruguay Uzbekistan Vanuatu Vatican City Venezuela Vietnam Yemen Zambia Zimbabwe
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Religion and History in China

China's religious landscape is shaped by an officially atheist state that recognizes five religions, Buddhism, Taoism, Islam, Catholicism and Protestantism, through state-sanctioned associations, while a large share of the population identifies with no organized religion or practices folk traditions blending ancestor veneration, Buddhism and Taoism without exclusive affiliation. Pew Research's Religious Composition of the World, 2010-2020 places roughly half the population in the religiously unaffiliated category by strict self-identification, though folk religious practice remains widespread outside formal identification.

Buddhism entered China from India via Central Asia in the first centuries CE and developed into Chan and Pure Land schools; Taoism arose indigenously from the Warring States period and was formalized as an organized religion under Zhang Daoling in the second century CE; Confucianism, more a social and ethical system than a religion in the Western sense, structured state ritual for two millennia until the fall of the imperial system in 1912. Islam arrived via Silk Road traders from the seventh century, and Catholic and Protestant missions expanded from the sixteenth and nineteenth centuries respectively, before the 1949 revolution nationalized religious institutions and the Cultural Revolution of 1966 to 1976 suppressed religious practice outright.

State Regulation of Religion in Contemporary China

Since the 1980s reform era, China has permitted regulated religious practice through five state-sanctioned bodies, the Buddhist Association of China, the Chinese Taoist Association, the Islamic Association of China, the Chinese Patriotic Catholic Association and the Three-Self Patriotic Movement for Protestants, registered under the 2004 Regulations on Religious Affairs and its later revisions.

Unregistered house-church Protestant congregations and underground Catholic communities loyal to Rome rather than the state-approved church operate outside this framework and face periodic restriction; a 2018 Sino-Vatican agreement on bishop appointments sought to bridge this divide, though its practical effect remains contested.

The government's treatment of Islam in Xinjiang, including mass internment of Uyghur and other Muslim minorities in what officials call vocational training centers, has drawn sustained international criticism and United Nations scrutiny since 2017. Tibetan Buddhism faces distinct restriction, including state control over the recognition of reincarnate lamas following the disputed 1995 selection of the Panchen Lama. The US State Department's International Religious Freedom Report has for successive years designated China a Country of Particular Concern.

China
Filter Results6 entries
Connections

Ancient and Historical Regions

China, Regions
Source Encyclopaedia Britannica (online academic reference)Encyclopaedia Britannica editors
East Asia, Regions
Source United Nations Statistics Division: UN M49 Standard country or area codes for statistical use: geographic regions
Guizhou, Regions
Source GeoNames: GeoNames search for Guizhou
Himalayas, Regions
Source WorldAtlas: Where Are the Himalayas
Sichuan, Regions
Source GeoNames: GeoNames search for Sichuan
Tibet, Regions
Source GeoNames: GeoNames search results for Tibet
Yunnan, Regions
Source GeoNames: GeoNames search for Yunnan

Associated With

This source names China directly: "Composed and compiled entirely in China more than two centuries before the Japanese monk Saicho studied at Zhiyi's own mountain and founded the Tendai school on the strength of what he learned there..."

Source Donner and Stevenson, The Great Calming and Contemplation (University of Hawaii Press, 1993)Neal Donner and Daniel B. Stevenson

This source names China directly: "and Charles Wong, published by China Books and Periodicals in 1991, is an illustrated popular introduction to Chinese festivals."

Source Mooncakes and Hungry Ghosts: Festivals of ChinaCarol Stepanchuk and Charles Wong

This source names China directly: "house church groups in eastern China, in which more than 70 people were detained and interrogated, over 20 were later fined, and more than 80 house church groups stopped meeting after police visits..."

Source Divinity Atlas Original Articles, Second Edition

This source names China directly: "or city, such as Buddhism Reaches China occurred in China."

Source Atlas Relation Vocabulary

This source names China directly: "the Xinjiang Uyghur Autonomous Region, China, including arbitrary detention, torture and forced labour."

Source Divinity Atlas Original Articles, Second Edition

This source names China directly: "on the 1992 film Once Upon a Time in China II, naming its director, its 1895 Canton setting, and identifying its antagonist faction specifically as "the White Lotus Sect, a xenophobic cult" that..."

Source Once Upon a Time in China II (Wikipedia)

This source names China directly: "Like Bodhi Day, the date belongs to the Mahayana traditions of China, Korea and Japan, which mark birth, enlightenment and death as three separate commemorations."

Source The Princeton Dictionary of BuddhismRobert E. Buswell Jr. and Donald S. Lopez Jr.

This source names China directly: "is travel-feature journalism from China's state international broadcaster describing the Niujie Mosque, one of Beijing's oldest mosques."

Source Plan your next trip to Beijing: Niujie MosqueCGTN

This source names China directly: "resurgence of religious practice in China under Communist Party rule, using sociological method and fieldwork to analyze how religion persisted despite decades of state suppression."

Source Religion in China: Survival and Revival under Communist RuleFenggang Yang

This source names China directly: "noted uncertainty around figures for China."

Source Religious Composition of the World, 2010-2020Pew Research Center

This source names China directly: "the civil bureaucracies of imperial China, Korea, Vietnam and, in a more limited way, Japan, combining scholarly, ritual and administrative functions in a single role."

Source Sources of Chinese Tradition, Volume 1Wm. Theodore de Bary and Irene Bloom (eds)

This source names China directly: "Science and Civilisation in China series published by Cambridge University Press, surveys the history of scientific and philosophical thought in China, including material relevant to Daoist and..."

Source Science and Civilisation in China, Volume 2: History of Scientific ThoughtJoseph Needham

This source names China directly: "14 of 1967, which linked the religion to China and communism and restricted its practice; and restored on 17 January 2000 by President Abdurrahman Wahid's Presidential Decree No."

Source Sejarah Konghucu Jadi Agama Di Indonesia (Klikhukum.id)

He spent his later career in China and died at Beijing in 1939.

Source Psychomental Complex of the TungusS. M. Shirokogoroff

This source names China directly: "movement founded by Li Hongzhi in China in 1992."

Source Wikipedia, "Shen Yun"

This source names China directly: "it is about, such as Buddhism Reaches China spread event of Buddhism."

Source Atlas Relation Vocabulary

Fought within Qing China from 1850 to 1864, the Taiping Heavenly Kingdom under Hong Xiuquan against the Qing dynasty and the regional and foreign-officered forces that eventually suppressed it.

Source God's Chinese Son: The Taiping Heavenly Kingdom of Hong XiuquanJonathan D. Spence
Taoism, Religions

Native Chinese tradition practiced alongside Buddhism and ancestor veneration in a widely shared folk mixture.

Source Religious Composition of the World, 2010-2020Pew Research Center

This source names China directly: "Shawn Eichman's Taoism and the Arts of China is the catalog of a major 2000 Art Institute of Chicago exhibition, written by the show's curators drawing on loaned objects from museums across China..."

Source Taoism and the Arts of ChinaStephen Little with Shawn Eichman

This source names China directly: "Master of Taoism, who fled mainland China with the retreating Nationalist government and brought the religion's own orthodox Zhengyi leadership to the island; not the right source for a single..."

Source Taoism In Taiwan (Wikipedia)Wikipedia contributors

This source names China directly: "The Ancient Na khi Kingdom of Southwest China, Joseph F."

Source The Ancient Na-khi Kingdom of Southwest ChinaJoseph F. Rock

This source names China directly: "on Falun Gong and religious freedom in China, stating that "a reasonable estimate of the minimum number of people in China practicing Falun Gong today would fall in the range of 7 to 10 million..."

Source The Battle for China's Spirit: Falun Gong

This source names China directly: "and adapted within early medieval China, distinct from the historian Erik Jan Zurcher, who separately wrote a history of modern Turkey."

Source The Buddhist Conquest of China: The Spread and Adaptation of Buddhism in Early Medieval ChinaErik Zurcher

This source names China directly: "archaeology, history and thought of China from earliest civilization through 221 BCE, each period and topic written by a specialist working directly with that period's textual and archaeological..."

Source The Cambridge History of Ancient China: From the Origins of Civilization to 221 B.C.Michael Loewe and Edward L. Shaughnessy (eds.)

This source names China directly: "Protestant congregations in China, known as house churches because they meet outside the state sanctioned Three Self Patriotic Movement."

Source More Than 70 Detained in Crackdown on Churches in Eastern ChinaOpen Doors UK and Ireland

This source names China directly: "Temples were shuttered and texts burned elsewhere in China in the same years."

Source Cultural Revolution in Tibet (Wikipedia)Wikipedia contributors

This source names China directly: "The Dalai Lama and the Emperor of China: A Political History of the Tibetan Institution of Reincarnation, Peter Schwieger's 2015 study from Columbia University Press, is a scholarly political..."

Source The Dalai Lama and the Emperor of China: A Political History of the Tibetan Institution of ReincarnationPeter Schwieger

This source names China directly: "Willem de Visser's The Dragon in China and Japan is an early twentieth century scholarly study systematically comparing dragon mythology and religious symbolism across Chinese and Japanese sources..."

Source The Dragon in China and JapanMarinus Willem de Visser

This source names China directly: "studies specifically rather than China specialists writing more generally."

Source The Encyclopedia of TaoismFabrizio Pregadio (ed.)

This source names China directly: "the sutra was actually composed in China, likely by extracting and reworking passages from an earlier Chinese translation of a larger Perfection of Wisdom text, and only later translated back into..."

Source The Heart Sutra: A Chinese Apocryphal Text?Jan Nattier

This source names China directly: "imams serving Muslim women in parts of China, published by Curzon Press, an academic press specializing in Asian studies."

Source The History of Women's Mosques in Chinese Islam: A Mosque of Their OwnMaria Jaschok and Shui Jingjun

This source names China directly: "Practice of Government in Early Han China, translated and edited by John S."

Source The Huainanzi: A Guide to the Theory and Practice of Government in Early Han ChinaJohn S. Major, Sarah A. Queen, Andrew Seth Meyer and Harold D. Roth (trans. and eds.)

This source names China directly: "bodhisattva Guanyin's popular cult in China."

Source The Legend of Miao-shanGlen Dudbridge

This source names China directly: "The game sold roughly two million legitimate copies across Greater China, with widespread piracy estimated to have put as many as twenty million copies into circulation, won the Best Role Playing..."

Source Wikipedia, "The Legend of Sword and Fairy"

This source names China directly: "economy in the world, larger than Qing China or western Europe, with Islam established as the religion of its ruling elite across the subcontinent's north; this hop is distinct from the earlier..."

Source Islam in India (Wikipedia)Wikipedia contributors

This source names China directly: "When the Republic of China government retreated to Taiwan in 1949 after its defeat in the Chinese Civil War, several religious leaders fled with it, among them Zhang Enpu, the 63rd Celestial Master..."

Source Taoism In Taiwan (Wikipedia)Wikipedia contributors

This source names China directly: "conflict surrounding its 1999 ban in China."

Source The Religion of Falun GongBenjamin Penny

This source names China directly: "and Medicinal Uses of Cannabis in China, India and Tibet, published in the Journal of Psychoactive Drugs in 1981, is a peer reviewed survey of the textual evidence for ritual and medical cannabis..."

Source The Religious and Medicinal Uses of Cannabis in China, India and TibetMia Touw

This source names China directly: "Wilhelm's own recognized standing as a China scholar and translator of his era."

Source The Secret of the Golden Flower: A Chinese Book of LifeTrans. Richard Wilhelm; commentary by Carl Jung; English trans. Cary F. Baynes

This source names China directly: "that specializes in coverage of Tibet, China and other Asian regions where information is otherwise tightly controlled."

Source The story of one of Buddhism's most revered figures, long missing, explainedRadio Free Asia

Fought at the governor's yamen in Taiyuan, the capital of Shanxi province, China.

Source Massacre in ShansiNat Brandt

This source names China directly: "period, not Daoism generally across China or across other eras."

Source The Taoists of Peking, 1800-1949: A Social History of Urban ClericsVincent Goossaert

This source names China directly: "during a military campaign in Tang China."

Source Manichaeism (New Catholic Encyclopedia, via Encyclopedia.com)J. Ries

This source names China directly: "across former Uyghur territory in China lost official protection almost overnight, ending the faith's single greatest political success only seventy eight years after it began."

Source Manichaeism (New Catholic Encyclopedia, via Encyclopedia.com)J. Ries

This source names China directly: "Girardot's The Victorian Translation of China, James Legge's Oriental Pilgrimage, published by the University of California Press in 2002, is a scholarly intellectual biography examining the..."

Source The Victorian Translation of China: James Legge's Oriental PilgrimageNorman J. Girardot
Tibetans, Cultures

The Tibetan plateau lies within the People's Republic of China, which annexed Tibet in 1950 and 1951.

Source Tibet: A HistorySam van Schaik

This source names China directly: "from the Mediterranean to India and China."

Source The Church of the East: An Illustrated History of Assyrian ChristianityChristoph Baumer
Uyghurs, Cultures

This source names China directly: "Autonomous Region of northwestern China, historically known to many as East Turkestan."

Source Eurasian Crossroads: A History of XinjiangJames A. Millward

This source names China directly: "Quanzhen teaching across northern China after his death."

Source Wang Chongyang (reference article)Wikipedia contributors

This source names China directly: "(Baiyunguan) in Beijing, seat of the China Daoist Association since 1957, is part of a dedicated, sustained reference project documenting Daoist temples across China."

Source White Cloud Temple (Baiyunguan), Beijing

Showing 51 to 100 of 111 in Associated With, page 2 of 3.

Conducted

Source Falun Gong and the Future of ChinaDavid Ownby
Source Religion in China: Survival and Revival under Communist RuleFenggang Yang
Source Ennin's Diary: The Record of a Pilgrimage to China in Search of the LawEnnin, translated and annotated by Edwin O. Reischauer
Source OHCHR Assessment of Human Rights Concerns in the Xinjiang Uyghur Autonomous Region, ChinaUnited Nations Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights (OHCHR)

Contains

Anyang, Cities
Beijing, Cities
Chang'an, Cities

Chang'an stood on the site of the modern city of Xi'an.

Source Divinity Atlas Entity Records, First Edition
Source Divinity Atlas Entity Records, First Edition
Source Encyclopaedia Britannica (online academic reference)Encyclopaedia Britannica editors
Source Neo-Confucianism in HistoryPeter K. Bol
Jokhang, Sacred Sites
Source Divinity Atlas Entity Records, First Edition
Source Divinity Atlas Entity Records, First Edition
Lhasa, Cities

Lhasa is administered as capital of the Tibet Autonomous Region within the People's Republic of China, a status whose wider legitimacy is disputed.

Source Tibet: A HistorySam van Schaik
Source Divinity Atlas Entity Records, First Edition
Source Divinity Atlas Entity Records, First Edition
Source UNESCO World Heritage ListUnited Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization
Source Divinity Atlas Entity Records, First Edition
Source Divinity Atlas Entity Records, First Edition

Cut into a cliff face near Dunhuang in Gansu province, China.

Source Encyclopaedia Britannica (online academic reference)Encyclopaedia Britannica editors
Source Divinity Atlas Entity Records, First Edition
Source Divinity Atlas Entity Records, First Edition
Source Divinity Atlas Entity Records, First Edition
Source Divinity Atlas Entity Records, First Edition
Source Divinity Atlas Entity Records, First Edition
Source Divinity Atlas Entity Records, First Edition
Source Divinity Atlas Entity Records, First Edition
Source Divinity Atlas Entity Records, First Edition
Source Divinity Atlas Entity Records, First Edition
Source Divinity Atlas Entity Records, First Edition
Source Divinity Atlas Entity Records, First Edition
Source Seeing Through Zen: Encounter, Transformation, and Genealogy in Chinese Chan BuddhismJohn R. McRae
Source Encyclopaedia Britannica (online academic reference)Encyclopaedia Britannica editors
Source Divinity Atlas Entity Records, First Edition
Source Divinity Atlas Entity Records, First Edition
Qufu, Cities
Source Encyclopaedia Britannica (online academic reference)Encyclopaedia Britannica editors
Source Encyclopaedia Britannica (online academic reference)Encyclopaedia Britannica editors
Shaolin, Sacred Sites
Source Divinity Atlas Entity Records, First Edition
Source Encyclopaedia Britannica (online academic reference)Encyclopaedia Britannica editors
Source Encyclopaedia Britannica (online academic reference)Encyclopaedia Britannica editors
Source Divinity Atlas Entity Records, First Edition
Source Divinity Atlas Entity Records, First Edition
Source Divinity Atlas Entity Records, First Edition
Source Encyclopaedia Britannica (online academic reference)Encyclopaedia Britannica editors
Source Encyclopaedia Britannica (online academic reference)Encyclopaedia Britannica editors
Source Divinity Atlas Entity Records, First Edition
Source Encyclopaedia Britannica (online academic reference)Encyclopaedia Britannica editors
Source Neo-Confucianism in HistoryPeter K. Bol

Carved into a sandstone cliff near Datong in Shanxi province, China.

Source Encyclopaedia Britannica (online academic reference)Encyclopaedia Britannica editors
Source Seeing Through Zen: Encounter, Transformation, and Genealogy in Chinese Chan BuddhismJohn R. McRae

Originated Here

Source Neo-Confucianism in HistoryPeter K. Bol
Source Fathoming the Cosmos and Ordering the World: The Yijing (I Ching, or Classic of Changes) and Its Evolution in ChinaRichard J. Smith
Source Caodong school (Wikipedia)

The Chinese lunar new year.

Source Encyclopedia of ReligionMircea Eliade (ed.); Lindsay Jones (ed., 2nd ed.)
Source Dragon Boat Festival (Wikipedia)
Evenki, Cultures
Source Encyclopaedia Britannica (online academic reference)Encyclopaedia Britannica editors

Born near modern Nanjing into the southern gentry whose family traditions his writings preserve.

Source The Encyclopedia of TaoismFabrizio Pregadio (ed.)
Han Chinese, Cultures

The People's Republic of China holds the great majority of Han Chinese today.

Source Religion in China: Survival and Revival under Communist RuleFenggang Yang

The seventh-month festival of the returning dead, kept by Buddhist and Taoist clergy alike.

Source Encyclopedia of ReligionMircea Eliade (ed.); Lindsay Jones (ed., 2nd ed.)
Source Wikipedia: I Ching
Source Jahriyya (Wikipedia)
Source Wikipedia: Khufiyya
Source Lantern Festival (Wikipedia)

The Chinese harvest moon festival of the eighth month.

Source Encyclopedia of ReligionMircea Eliade (ed.); Lindsay Jones (ed., 2nd ed.)

The Chinese tomb-sweeping day of the spring.

Source Encyclopedia of ReligionMircea Eliade (ed.); Lindsay Jones (ed., 2nd ed.)

He taught at Changan, where his commentary and his practice of recitation reached a mass audience.

Source The Princeton Dictionary of BuddhismRobert E. Buswell Jr. and Donald S. Lopez Jr.

He lived at Luoyang, outside office, among the circle of Northern Song scholars there.

Source Neo-Confucianism in HistoryPeter K. Bol
Source The Encyclopedia of TaoismFabrizio Pregadio (ed.)
Source Religion in China: Survival and Revival under Communist RuleFenggang Yang

The tradition places him in Shu, present day Sichuan. The dates given for his life are traditional.

Source The Encyclopedia of TaoismFabrizio Pregadio (ed.)

He settled on Mount Tiantai in Zhejiang, from which the school takes its name.

Source The Princeton Dictionary of BuddhismRobert E. Buswell Jr. and Donald S. Lopez Jr.

Spread Events Here

Source Buddhism in China (Wikipedia)Wikipedia contributors
Source The Buddhist Conquest of China: The Spread and Adaptation of Buddhism in Early Medieval ChinaErik Zurcher
Source OHCHR Assessment of Human Rights Concerns in the Xinjiang Uyghur Autonomous Region, ChinaUnited Nations Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights (OHCHR)
Source Holy Confucian Church (Wikipedia)Wikipedia contributors
Source Criticize Lin, Criticize Confucius (Wikipedia)Wikipedia contributors

The state of Lu, in what is now Shandong province, China; anchored to China, the nearest real place entity, since no dedicated Lu or Spring-and-Autumn-period entity exists in this catalog.

Source Confucius (Wikipedia)Wikipedia contributors
Source Daozang (Encyclopedia of Taoism, Golden Elixir Press)
Source Xi Ping Shi Jing (Library of Congress)
Source Richard B. Mather, "K'ou Ch'ien-chih and the Taoist Theocracy at the Northern Wei Court, 425-451" (Facets of Taoism, Yale University Press, 1979)Richard B. Mather
Source Dong Zhongshu (New World Encyclopedia)New World Encyclopedia contributors
Source Jinshi Examination (Key Concepts in Chinese Thought and Culture)
Source Yuan Zheng, "Local Government Schools in Sung China: A Reassessment," History of Education Quarterly (1994)Yuan Zheng
Source Islam in China (Wikipedia)Wikipedia contributors

Fujian and Zhejiang provinces specifically, where the faith survived longest disguised as a Buddhist sect; anchored to China as the nearest live place entity.

Source Wikipedia: ManichaeismWikipedia contributors
Source A New History of Christianity in ChinaDaniel H. Bays
Source Burning of Books and Burying of Scholars (Wikipedia)Wikipedia contributors
Source Cult of Confucius: Chronology (Hamilton College)Thomas A. Wilson
Source History of Taoism (Wikipedia)Wikipedia contributors
Source Global Capital, Local Conservation, and Ecological Civilization (Lemche and Miller, Religions, 2019)Jennifer Lemche and James Miller

Chang'an, the Tang capital, modern Xi'an.

Source The Church of the East: An Illustrated History of Assyrian ChristianityChristoph Baumer
Source History of Taoism (Wikipedia)Wikipedia contributors
Source Emperor Wuzong's Edict on the Suppression of Buddhism (Asia for Educators, Columbia University)Emperor Wuzong of Tang

Tang China, centred on the capital Chang'an.

Source The Church of the East: An Illustrated History of Assyrian ChristianityChristoph Baumer
Source The Daoist Canon (FYSK Daoist Culture Centre)
Source Ninth Nishan Forum on World Civilizations Opens in Qufu (Global Times)
Source History of Taoism (Wikipedia)Wikipedia contributors
Source First Council Meeting of the World Daoist Federation (Dao World)
Source World Federation of Daoism Established to Promote Unity of Daoists (Xinhua)
Source Ancient Building Complex in the Wudang Mountains (UNESCO World Heritage Centre)
Source UNESCO Confucius Prize for Literacy (UNESCO)
Source The Encyclopedia of TaoismFabrizio Pregadio (ed.)

Sichuan and later Hanzhong specifically; anchored to China as the nearest live place entity.

Source History of Taoism (Wikipedia)Wikipedia contributors
Source Academies (Shuyuan) (New World Encyclopedia)
Sources
1. Religious Composition of the World, 2010-2020
Pew Research Center, Pew Research Center, 2025Report body, China figures
Quote, Report body, China figures
China's 1.3 billion unaffiliated people made up 90% of its total population in 2020.
View the Source
2. The World Factbook (Central Intelligence Agency)
Central Intelligence Agency, Central Intelligence AgencyGovernment, government type: ChinaView the Source
3. International Religious Freedom Report
United States Department of State, Office of International Religious Freedom, US Department of State, 2023View the Source
4. Religious Freedom in China, State-Controlled Religion Factsheet (USCIRF, 2022)
US Commission on International Religious Freedom, US Commission on International Religious FreedomView the Source
5. Vatican and China Renew Provisional Agreement on Bishop Appointments (Crux)
Crux, 2024Article body, Vatican statement
Quote, Article body, Vatican statement
The Holy See and the People's Republic of China have agreed to extend further its validity for four years from the present date.
View the Source
6. The Oxford English Dictionary, 3rd edition
Oxford University Press, Oxford University Press
  • demonym / adjectival form
  • Entity description, state-funding
    The officially atheist state permits worship only within a small number of sanctioned religious associations, a structure that shapes how every tradition inside China is organized.
View the Source
Encyclopaedia Britannica (online academic reference)
Encyclopaedia Britannica editors, Encyclopaedia Britannica, Inc., 2024
  • Originated Here: Evenki
  • Contains: Qufu
  • Ancient and Historical Regions: China, Stored modern-area property on this entity, cited to this source: China
View the Source
Neo-Confucianism in History
Peter K. Bol, Harvard University Asia Center, 2008Originated Here: Ancestral hall, Stored founding-origin property on this entity, cited to this source: China
The Encyclopedia of Taoism
Fabrizio Pregadio (ed.), Routledge, 2008Originated Here: Taijitu, Stored origin-place property on this entity, cited to this source: China.View the Source
Fathoming the Cosmos and Ordering the World: The Yijing (I Ching, or Classic of Changes) and Its Evolution in China
Richard J. Smith, University of Virginia Press, 2008Originated Here: Bagua, Stored origin-place property on this entity, cited to this source: China, in Daoist cosmology and Chinese folk religion.View the Source
Jahriyya (Wikipedia)
Wikimedia FoundationOriginated Here: Jahriyya, Stored origin-place property on this entity, cited to this source: Gansu Province, ChinaView the Source
Religion in China: Survival and Revival under Communist Rule
Fenggang Yang, Oxford University Press, 2011Originated Here: The Cultural Revolution, Opening sentences of the entity description
Quote, Originated Here: The Cultural Revolution, Opening sentences of the entity description
The Cultural Revolution was the campaign launched in China in 1966 in which religious institutions of every tradition were closed, clergy were forced out of their roles, and temples, mosques, churches and monasteries were damaged or destroyed by Red Guard units acting against what the campaign called the four olds.
Wikipedia: Khufiyya
WikipediaOriginated Here: Khufiyya, Opening sentences of the entity description
Quote, Originated Here: Khufiyya, Opening sentences of the entity description
Khufiyya, meaning the silent ones, is a tariqa of Chinese Islam and the first Sufi order to be established in China.
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Caodong school (Wikipedia)
Originated Here: Caodong school, Lead
Quote, Originated Here: Caodong school, Lead
is a Chinese Chan Buddhist branch and one of the Five Houses of Chan
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Dragon Boat Festival (Wikipedia)
Originated Here: Dragon Boat Festival, Lead
Quote, Originated Here: Dragon Boat Festival, Lead
is a traditional Chinese holiday that occurs on
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Lantern Festival (Wikipedia)
Originated Here: Lantern Festival, Lead
Quote, Originated Here: Lantern Festival, Lead
is a Chinese traditional festival celebrated on the fifteenth day
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GeoNames: GeoNames search for Yunnan
GeoNamesAncient and Historical Regions: Yunnan, Search result for Yunnan
Quote, Ancient and Historical Regions: Yunnan, Search result for Yunnan
25.0 101.5 China , Yunnan first-order administrative division
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GeoNames: GeoNames search for Sichuan
GeoNamesAncient and Historical Regions: Sichuan, Search result for Sichuan
Quote, Ancient and Historical Regions: Sichuan, Search result for Sichuan
30.5 102.666667 China , Sichuan first-order administrative division
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GeoNames: GeoNames search for Guizhou
GeoNamesAncient and Historical Regions: Guizhou, Search result for Guizhou
Quote, Ancient and Historical Regions: Guizhou, Search result for Guizhou
27.0 107.0 China , Guizhou first-order administrative division
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WorldAtlas: Where Are the Himalayas
WorldAtlasAncient and Historical Regions: Himalayas, Lead: country 213039
Quote, Ancient and Historical Regions: Himalayas, Lead: country 213039
The Himalayas are the greatest mountain system in Asia and one of the planet’s youngest mountain ranges, that extends for more than 2,400km across the nations of Bhutan , China , India , Nepal , and Pakistan .
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United Nations Statistics Division: UN M49 Standard country or area codes for statistical use: geographic regions
United Nations Statistics DivisionAncient and Historical Regions: East Asia, Geographic regions table, Eastern Asia
Quote, Ancient and Historical Regions: East Asia, Geographic regions table, Eastern Asia
Eastern Asia 030 China 156 CHN China, Hong Kong Special Administrative Region 344 HKG China, Macao Special Administrative Region 446 MAC Democratic People's Republic of Korea 408 PRK Japan 392 JPN Mongolia 496 MNG LLDC Republic of Korea 410 KOR
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GeoNames: GeoNames search results for Tibet
GeoNamesAncient and Historical Regions: Tibet, Search results, matching entry
Quote, Ancient and Historical Regions: Tibet, Search results, matching entry
Tibet Aftonomi Perifereia tou Thivet,Autonomes Gebiet Tibet,Autonomna oblast Tibet,Autonomna regija Tibet,... 31.666667 88.0 China , Tibet first-order administrative division
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Wikipedia: I Ching
WikipediaOriginated Here: I Ching, Lead section
Quote, Originated Here: I Ching, Lead section
The I Ching or Yijing (Chinese: 易經 Mandarin pronunciation:[î tɕíŋ] ), usually translated as the Book of Changes or Classic of Changes, is an ancient Chinese divination text that is among the oldest of the Chinese classics.
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