What is Chinese folk religion?
[[File:Wiki taijo 008.jpg|thumb|250px|Statue of a [[Taizu]] deity ([[deification|deified]] important ancestor) inside a temple in [[Maoming]], [[Guangdong]].]] [[File:Five officials haikou 2010 01.jpg|thumb|200px|Altar to the Five Officials worshipped inside the Temple of the Five Lords in [[Haikou]], [[Hainan]].]] '''Chinese folk religion''' ({{Lang-zh|s=中国 民间 信仰|t=中國 民間 信仰|p=zhōng-guó mín-jiān xìn-yǎng}}) is a [[Polytheism|polytheistic]] [[religion]] that has been practiced in [[China]] and among the Chinese diaspora since the [[Iron Age]] when the Chinese civilization emerged. ==Overview== It is difficult to make a clear distinction between Chinese folk religion and other [[Belief|beliefs]], because Chinese folk religion has elements of [[veneration of the dead]], local [[Spirit|spirits]], [[clan]] spirits and traditional Eastern religions, such as [[Taoism]], [[Confucianism]], [[Buddhism]], but also [[superstition]], [[geomancy]] and [[Feng shui]]. There is no standardized [[mythology]] or [[clergy]]: [[Rite|rites]] are often performed by the father of a [[family]].{{cn|date=January 2025}} Since the 1950s, Chinese folk religion has sometimes been referred to as '''''Shenism''''' or '''''Shénism''''' ({{Lang-zh|c=神教|p=Shén-jiào}}).<ref>{{cite book| last = Kuah-Pearce| first = Khun Eng| title = State, Society, and Religious Engineering: Towards a Reformist Buddhism in Singapore| url = https://books.google.com/books?id=GBdX2ELnkXQC&pg=PA21| year = 2009| publisher = Institute of Southeast Asian Studies| isbn = 978-981-230-865-8| page = 21 }}</ref><ref>{{cite web |url=http://blogs.straitstimes.com/2009/9/7/how-we-came-to-pai-shen |title=How we came to 'pai shen' |publisher=Blogs.straitstimes.com |date=2009-09-07 |access-date=2011-11-20 |archive-date=2013-07-29 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20130729084608/http://blogs.straitstimes.com/2009/9/7/how-we-came-to-pai-shen/ |url-status=dead }}</ref><ref>{{cite book| last = Eng| first = Lai Ah| title = Religious Diversity in Singapore| url = https://books.go