Ancestor veneration in China
Chinese ancestor veneration, also called Chinese ancestor worship, is an aspect of the Chinese traditional religion which revolves around the ritual celebration of the deified ancestors and tutelary deities of people with the same surname organised into lineage societies in ancestral shrines. Ancestors, their ghosts, or spirits, and gods are considered part of "this world". They are neither supernatural nor transcendent in the sense of being beyond nature. The ancestors are humans who have become godly beings, beings who keep their individual identities. For this reason, Chinese religion is founded on veneration of ancestors. Ancestors are believed to be a means of connection to the supreme power of Tian as they are considered embodiments or reproducers of the creative order of Heaven. It is a major aspect of Han Chinese religion, but the custom has also spread to ethnic minority groups.
Tong kin's ancestral sacrifice, in Qiantong, Zhejiang
Tāng kin's temple and cultural centre of Jinxiang village, Cangnan, Zhejiang
An ancestral worship ceremony led by Taoist priests at the pyramidal-shaped Great Temple of Zhang Hui (张挥公大殿 Zhāng Huī gōng dàdiàn), the central ancestral shrine dedicated to the progenitor of the Zhang lineage, located at Zhangs' ancestral home in Qinghe, Hebei.
A stone tortoise with the "Stele of Divine Merits and Saintly Virtues" (Shengong Shende), erected by the Yongle Emperor in 1413 in honor of his father, the Hongwu Emperor in the Ming Xiaoling Mausoleum ("Ming Mausoleum of Filial Piety").
Chinese folk religion, also known as Chinese popular religion, comprehends a range of traditional religious practices of Han Chinese, including the Chinese diaspora. Vivienne Wee described it as "an empty bowl, which can variously be filled with the contents of institutionalised religions such as Buddhism, Taoism, Confucianism and Chinese syncretic religions". This includes the veneration of shen (spirits) and ancestors. Worship is devoted to deities and immortals, who can be deities of places or natural phenomena, of human behaviour, or founders of family lineages. Stories of these gods are collected into the body of Chinese mythology. By the Song dynasty (960–1279), these practices had been blended with Buddhist, Confucian, and Taoist teachings to form the popular religious system which has lasted in many ways until the present day. The present day government of mainland China, like the imperial dynasties, tolerates popular religious organizations if they bolster social stability but suppresses or persecutes those that they fear would undermine it.
Qing dynasty painting of the Chinese pantheon.
Xuanyuan Temple in Huangling, Shaanxi, dedicated to the worship of the Yellow Emperor.
The Temple of the City God of Wen'ao, Magong, Taiwan.
Temple of Hebo ("River Lord"), the god (Heshen, "River god") of the sacred Yellow River, in Hequ, Xinzhou, Shanxi.