| Universal Church of the Way and its Virtue 善人道 Shànréndào | |
|---|---|
 | |
| Type | Confucian-Taoism Church |
| Classification | Chinese salvationist religion |
| Founder | Jiang Shoufeng |
| Origin | 28 September 1921 Tai'an, Shandong |
| Members | 1930s: 8 million (25% of Northeast China's population)[1] |
| Other name(s) | World Morality Society / Ethical Society |
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| Chinese folk religion |
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Shanrendao (Chinese: 善人道; pinyin: Shànréndào; lit. 'Way of the Virtuous Man') is a Confucian-Taoist religious movement in northeast China. Its name as a social body is the Universal Church of the Way and its Virtue (万国道德会; Wànguó Dàodéhuì) or simply the Church of the Way and its Virtue (道德会; Dàodéhuì), which is frequently translated as the Morality Church. Shanrendao can be viewed as one of the best examples of the jiaohua (教化; jiàohuà; 'spiritual transformation') movements.[2]
It is one of the most prominent religions of redemption of China,[3] and was formally established as the Universal Church of the Way and its Virtue in Shandong in 1921 by Jiang Shoufeng (1875–1926), a member of the Confucian Church (孔教会; Kǒngjiàohuì) of Kang Youwei.[4] Kang Youwei himself was the president of the church during the last year of his life.[4] The movement was concerned with a reconstitution of morality, at a time in which people no longer understood what morality means because of the decline of religion.[4] By the 1930s the religion had a strong presence in Manchuria,[5] where it persists to the present day.[6]: 10 [7][8]
A great contribution came from Jiang Shoufeng's son, Jiang Xizhang (1907–2004), an intellectual prodigy who composed commentaries on the Confucian classics before the age of ten.[9] Father and son composed vernacular versions of the classics in order to disseminate Confucianism among the Chinese masses.[9] After the World War I, Xizhang wrote a leaflet, the Xizhanlun with anti-war teachings inspired by the content of the world religions.[9]
The strongest impetus in the social importance of the movement, however, came from Wang Fengyi (王凤仪; 1864–1937), a charismatic healer and preacher of peasant origins who led the Universal Church of the Way and its Virtue in the 1930s.[10] He is celebrated as a peasant saint throughout northeast China, a shànrén (善人; 'virtuous man') with the epithet "Wang the Good"[11] or "Virtuous King" (王善人), a wordplay as his surname means "king" or "ruler".[2]
- ^ Ownby (2008). § 23: «the Daodehui eight million in Manchukuo alone (a quarter of the total population) in 1936–1937.»
- ^ a b Duara (2014), p. 182.
- ^ Billioud & Thoraval (2015), p. 27, 79.
- ^ a b c Billioud & Thoraval (2015), p. 130.
- ^ Kiely, Goossaert & Lagerwey (2015), p. 688.
- ^ Heiner Fruehauf, Ph.D. All Disease Comes from the Heart: The Pivotal Role of the Emotions in Classical Chinese Medicine. § "The Power of Ritual and the Emotional Therapy System of the Confucian Educator Wang Fengyi (1864–1937)" (7–13). chineseclassicalmedicine.org. Archived on 31 December 2017.
- ^ Billioud & Thoraval (2015), p. 298.
- ^ Kiely, Goossaert & Lagerwey (2015), p. 45, 786.
- ^ a b c Kiely, Goossaert & Lagerwey (2015), p. 696.
- ^ Kiely, Goossaert & Lagerwey (2015), p. 697.
- ^ Billioud & Thoraval (2015), p. 79.