Editing China (section)

===Religion===
{{Main|Religion in China}}
[[File:Distribution of religions in China.png|thumb|upright=1.35|Geographic distribution of religions in China:<br/><ref name="map1">{{Cite map |last=Dumortier |first=Brigitte |title=Atlas des religions. Croyances, pratiques et territoires |map=Religions en Chine |language=fr |year=2002 |publisher=Autrement |series=Atlas/Monde |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20170427135523/http://img.webme.com/pic/g/geographie-ville-en-guerre/religions-chine.jpg |archive-date=27 April 2017 |isbn=2-7467-0264-9 |map-url=http://img.webme.com/pic/g/geographie-ville-en-guerre/religions-chine.jpg |p=34}}</ref><ref name="map2">{{Cite map |title=Narody Vostochnoi Asii |trans-title=Ethnic Groups of East Asia |map=Religions in China |year=1965 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20170427135600/http://cybergeo.revues.org/docannexe/image/23808/img-3.jpg |archive-date=27 April 2017 |map-url=http://cybergeo.revues.org/docannexe/image/23808/img-3.jpg}} ''Zhongguo Minsu Dili'' [Folklore Geography of China], 1999; ''Zhongguo Dili'' [Geography of China], 2002.</ref><ref name="map3">{{Cite map |author-mask=Gao Wende (高文德) |editor-last=Gao |editor-first=Wende |script-title=zh:中国少数民族史大辞典 |trans-title=Chinese Dictionary of Minorities' History |map=Religions in China |language=zh |year=1995 |publisher=Jilin Education Press |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20170427135641/http://refbook.img.cnki.net/CRFDPIC/r200608092/r200608092.006.76507a.jpg |archive-date=27 April 2017 |map-url=http://refbook.img.cnki.net/CRFDPIC/r200608092/r200608092.006.76507a.jpg}}</ref><ref name="map4">{{Cite map |editor-last=Yin |editor-last2=Li |editor-last3=Guo |editor-first=Haishan |editor-first2=Yaozong |editor-first3=Jie |editor-mask=Xin Haishan (殷海山); |editor-mask2=Li Yaozong (李耀宗); |editor-mask3=Guo Jie (郭洁) |script-title=zh:中国少数民族艺术词典 |trans-title=Chinese Minorities' Arts Dictionary |map=Religions in China |language=zh |year=1991 |publisher=National Publishing House (民族出版社) |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20170427135713/http://refbook.img.cnki.net/CRFDPIC/r200606014/r200606014.0652.288333.jpg |archive-date=27 April 2017 |map-url=http://refbook.img.cnki.net/CRFDPIC/r200606014/r200606014.0652.288333.jpg}}</ref><br/>{{colorbull|#C00000}} [[Chinese folk religion]] (including [[Confucianism]], [[Taoism]], and groups of [[Chinese Buddhism]])<br/>{{colorbull|#FFFF00}} [[Buddhism]] ''tout court''<br/>{{colorbull|#008000}} [[Islam in China|Islam]]<br/>{{colorbull|#FF00FF}} [[Religion in China#Ethnic minorities' indigenous religions|Ethnic minorities' indigenous religions]]<br/>{{colorbull|#00CCFF}} [[Mongolian folk religion]]<br/>{{colorbull|#00FF00}} [[Northeast China folk religion]] influenced by Tungus and [[Manchu shamanism]]; widespread [[Shanrendao]]]]
[[Freedom of religion]] is guaranteed by China's constitution, although religious organizations that lack official approval can be subject to state persecution.<ref name="Constitution"/> The government of the country is officially [[atheist]]. Religious affairs and issues in the country are overseen by the National Religious Affairs Administration, under the [[United Front Work Department]].<ref>{{Cite web |script-title=zh:国家宗教事务局 |trans-title=National Religious Affairs Administration |url=https://www.sara.gov.cn/ |publisher=Chinese Government |language=zh}}</ref>

Over the millennia, the Chinese civilization has been influenced by various religious movements. The "[[three teachings|three doctrines]]" of [[Confucianism]], [[Taoism]], and [[Buddhism]] have historically shaped Chinese culture,<ref name="Yao2011">{{Cite book |last=Yao |first=Xinzhong |title=Chinese Religion: A Contextual Approach |publisher=A&C Black |year=2010 |isbn=978-1-8470-6475-2 |location=London |pages=9–11 |author-link=Xinzhong Yao}}</ref><ref>{{Cite book |last=Miller |first=James |title=Chinese Religions in Contemporary Societies |publisher=ABC-CLIO |year=2006 |isbn=978-1-8510-9626-8 |page=57}}</ref> enriching a [[Chinese theology|theological and spiritual framework]] of traditional religion which harks back to the early [[Shang]] and [[Zhou dynasty]]. [[Chinese folk religion]], which is framed by the three doctrines and by other traditions,<ref>Tam Wai Lun, "Local Religion in Contemporary China", in {{Cite book |last=Xie |first=Zhibin |title=Religious Diversity and Public Religion in China |publisher=Ashgate |year=2006 |isbn=978-0-7546-5648-7 |page=73}}</ref> consists in allegiance to the ''[[shen (Chinese religion)|shen]]'', who can be [[deities]] of the surrounding nature or [[progenitor|ancestral principles]] of human groups, concepts of civility, [[culture hero]]es, many of whom feature in [[Chinese mythology]] and history.<ref>{{Cite book |last=Teiser |first=Stephen F. |title=Religions of China in Practice |publisher=Princeton University Press |year=1996 |editor-last=Lopez |editor-first=Donald S. Jr. |chapter=The Spirits of Chinese Religion |chapter-url=http://afe.easia.columbia.edu/cosmos/main/spirits_of_chinese_religion.pdf |archive-url=https://ghostarchive.org/archive/20221009/http://afe.easia.columbia.edu/cosmos/main/spirits_of_chinese_religion.pdf |archive-date=9 October 2022 |url-status=live |via=Asia for Educators Online, Columbia University}}. Extracts in ''[http://afe.easia.columbia.edu/cosmos/bgov/cosmos.htm The Chinese Cosmos: Basic Concepts]''.</ref> Amongst the most popular [[cult (religious practice)|cults]] of folk religion are those of the [[Yellow Emperor]], embodiment of the God of Heaven and one of the two [[Yan Huang Zisun|divine patriarchs]] of the Chinese people,<ref name="Laliberte2011">{{Cite journal |last=Laliberté |first=André |year=2011 |title=Religion and the State in China: The Limits of Institutionalization |url=http://journals.sub.uni-hamburg.de/giga/jcca/article/view/415/413 |journal=Journal of Current Chinese Affairs |volume=40 |issue=2 |page=7 |doi=10.1177/186810261104000201 |s2cid=30608910 |doi-access=free}}</ref><ref>{{Cite book |last=Sautman |first=Barry |author-link=Barry Sautman |title=The Construction of Racial Identities in China and Japan: Historical and Contemporary Perspectives |publisher=University of Hawaiʻi Press |year=1997 |isbn=978-9-6220-9443-7 |editor-last=Dikötter |editor-first=Frank |pages=80–81 |chapter=Myths of Descent, Racial Nationalism and Ethnic Minorities in the People's Republic of China}}</ref> of [[Mazu]] (goddess of the seas),<ref name="Laliberte2011" /> [[Guandi]] (god of war and business), [[Caishen]] (god of prosperity and richness), [[Pangu]] and many others. In the early decades of the 21st century, the Chinese government has been engaged in a rehabilitation of folk cults—formally recognizing them as "folk beliefs" as distinguished from doctrinal religions,<ref>{{Cite encyclopedia |year=2019 |title=The Secular in South, East, and Southeast Asia. Global Diversities |publisher=Palgrave Macmillan |last=Wang |first=Xiaoxuan |editor-last=Dean |editor-first=Kenneth |pages=137–164 |doi=10.1007/978-3-319-89369-3_7 |isbn=978-3-0300-7751-8 |contribution='Folk Belief', Cultural Turn of Secular Governance and Shifting Religious Landscape in Contemporary China |editor-last2=Van der Veer |editor-first2=Peter |s2cid=158975292 |contribution-url=https://www.researchgate.net/publication/325765161}}</ref> and often reconstructing them into forms of "highly curated" [[civil religion]]<ref>{{Cite news |last=Johnson |first=Ian |author-link=Ian Johnson (writer) |date=21 December 2019 |title=China's New Civil Religion |url=https://www.nytimes.com/2019/12/21/opinion/sunday/chinas-religion-xi.html |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20200419190905/https://www.nytimes.com/2019/12/21/opinion/sunday/chinas-religion-xi.html |archive-date=19 April 2020 |work=[[The New York Times]]}}</ref>—as well as in a national and international promotion of Buddhism.<ref>{{Cite report |url=https://s3.amazonaws.com/berkley-center/201111TheChineseStatesGlobalPromotionOfBuddhism.pdf |title=The Chinese State's Global Promotion of Buddhism |last1=Ashiwa |first1=Yoshiko |last2=Wank |first2=David L. |publisher=Berkley Center, Georgetown University |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210216051017/https://s3.amazonaws.com/berkley-center/201111TheChineseStatesGlobalPromotionOfBuddhism.pdf |archive-date=16 February 2021 |url-status=live |year=2020 |series=The Geopolitics of Religious Soft Power |number=4}}</ref> China is home to many of the [[list of statues by height|world's tallest religious statues]], representing either deities of Chinese folk religion or enlightened beings of Buddhism; the tallest of all is the [[Spring Temple Buddha]] in [[Henan]].

[[File:中国道教 拜章昇疏 01.jpg|thumb|Taoism has served as a state religion several times throughout Chinese history]]
Statistics on religious affiliation in China are difficult to gather due to complex and varying definitions of religion and the diffusive nature of Chinese religious traditions. Scholars note that in China there is no clear boundary between the three doctrines and local folk religious practices.<ref name="Yao2011" /> Chinese religions or some of their currents are also definable as [[non-theistic]] and [[humanistic]], since they do not hold that divine creativity is completely transcendent, but that it is inherent in the world and in particular in the human being.<ref>{{Cite conference |last=Adler |first=Joseph A. |year=2011 |title=The Heritage of Non-Theistic Belief in China |url=http://www2.kenyon.edu/Depts/Religion/Fac/Adler/Writings/Non-theistic.pdf |conference=Toward a Reasonable World: The Heritage of Western Humanism, Skepticism, and Freethought |archive-url=https://ghostarchive.org/archive/20221009/http://www2.kenyon.edu/Depts/Religion/Fac/Adler/Writings/Non-theistic.pdf |archive-date=9 October 2022 |url-status=live}}</ref> According to studies published in 2023, compiling demographic analyses conducted throughout the 2010s and the early 2020s, 70% of the Chinese population believed in or practiced Chinese folk religion—among them, with an approach of non-exclusivity, 33.4% may be identified as Buddhists, 19.6% as Taoists, and 17.7% as adherents of other types of folk religion.<ref name=religion2023/> Of the remaining population, 25.2% are fully non-believers or atheists, 2.5% are adherents of [[Christianity]], and 1.6% are adherents of [[Islam]].<ref name=religion2023/> Chinese folk religion also comprises a variety of [[Chinese salvationist religions|salvationist doctrinal organized movements]] which emerged since the [[Song dynasty]].<ref>{{Cite journal |last=Broy |first=Nikolas |year=2015 |title=Syncretic Sects and Redemptive Societies. Toward a New Understanding of 'Sectarianism' in the Study of Chinese Religions |url=http://www.nikolas-broy.de/res/Broy%202015%20-%20syncretic%20sects%20and%20redemptive%20societies.pdf |journal=Review of Religion and Chinese Society |volume=2 |issue=4 |page=158 |doi=10.2307/2059958 |jstor=2059958 |s2cid=162946271}}</ref> There are also ethnic minorities in China who maintain their own [[religion in China#Ethnic minorities' indigenous religions|indigenous religions]], while major religions characteristic of specific ethnic groups include [[Tibetan Buddhism]] among [[Tibetans]], [[Mongols in China|Mongols]] and [[Yugurs]],<ref>{{Cite news |date=10 June 2021 |title=Menjumpai etnis Yugur di atas ketinggian 3.830 mdpl puncak Bars Snow |url=https://www.antaranews.com/berita/2202994/menjumpai-etnis-yugur-di-atas-ketinggian-3830-mdpl-puncak-bars-snow |access-date=23 February 2024 |work=[[Antara News]] |language=id |quote=Bedanya lagi, Yugur memeluk agama Buddha Tibet, sedangkan Uighur beragama Islam. Konon, Yugur merupakan orang-orang Uighur yang beragama Buddha yang melarikan diri ke Gansu sejak Kerajaan Khaganate Uighur tumbang pada tahun 840 Masehi.}}</ref> and Islam among the [[Hui]], [[Uyghur people|Uyghur]], [[Kazakhs in China|Kazakh]],<ref name=":2">{{Cite news |last=[[:nl:Lode Vanoost]] |date=10 March 2024 |title=Op bezoek bij de Oeigoeren in Xinjiang |trans-title=Visiting the Uyghurs in Xinjiang |url=https://www.dewereldmorgen.be/artikel/2024/03/10/op-bezoek-bij-de-oeigoeren-in-xinjiang |url-status=live |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20240404054333/https://www.dewereldmorgen.be/artikel/2024/03/10/op-bezoek-bij-de-oeigoeren-in-xinjiang |archive-date=4 April 2024 |work=[[DeWereldMorgen]]}}</ref> and [[Kyrgyz in China|Kyrgyz]] peoples, and other ethnicities in the northern and northwestern regions of the country.