Ancient and Pre-historic

Prior to the advent of Chinese civilization and World religion in the region generally known today as East Asia including the territorial boundaries of modern-day China; tribal or primal religious practices were the way in which prayers, sacrifices or offerings were communicated to the spiritual world by groups or mediatory individuals such as shamans. Following the dawn of Chinese civilization, an early indigenous form of religious practice in Chinese history began to develop from the more primitive elements of animism, folk religions and Shamanism; known as Taoism, and is considered a Traditional Chinese Religion along with Confucianism and other Chinese folk religions with a constituency of almost 400 million followers in China alone. Animism in China and Shamanism which has the longest recorded history in China,[36] is still practiced formally by numerous ethnic groups around China, including the Han Chinese, but whose historic text and literature usually neglect this religious aspect of the Han people's history.

Modern history

The People's Republic of China was established October 1, 1949. Its government is officially atheist, having viewed religion as emblematic of feudalism and foreign colonialism, and maintained separation of state and the church. This changed during the Cultural Revolution, in 1966 and 1967. The Cultural Revolution led to a policy of elimination of religions; a massive number of places of worship were destroyed.

This policy relaxed considerably in the late 1970s at the end of the Cultural Revolution and more tolerance of religious expression has been permitted since the 1980s. The 1978 Constitution of the People's Republic of China guarantees "freedom of religion" in Article 46. The policy regarding religious practice in China states that "No state organ, public organization or individual may compel citizens to believe in, or not to believe in, any religion; nor may they discriminate against citizens because they do, or do not believe in religion. The state protects normal religious activities", and continues with the statement that: "nobody can make use of religion to engage in activities that disrupt social order, impair the health of citizens or interfere with the educational system of the state." Since the mid-1980s there has been a massive program to rebuild Buddhist and Taoist temples. In recent times, the government has expressed support for Buddhism and Taoism, organizing the World Buddhist Forum in 2006 and the International Forum on the Daodejing in 2007. The government sees these religions as an integral part of Chinese culture.

There are five recognized religions by the state, namely Buddhism, Taoism, Islam, Catholicism, and Protestantism. To some degree, the government also controls the institutions in the religions it recognizes. In October 2007, the new statute of China cites religion as an important element of citizens' life. However, the Chinese government has also banned certain new religious movements.

Temple economy

Scholars have studied how Chinese folk religion-based society, elastic and polytheistic in spirit, provided the groundwork for the development of dynamic grassroots capitalism with Chinese characteristics in Song Dynasty China and modern capitalism in contemporary Taiwan.[49][50][51][52] The revival of Chinese folk religion with its ritual economy or temple economy, studied by on-ground researches, is also the key of the contemporary economic development in rural Mainland China.