Chinese Theocracy

"Today China is extremely weak. We have only the people's hearts and minds to depend upon. If we cast them aside and lose the people's hearts, what can we use to sustain the country?"

Empress Dowager Cixi

Chinese Theocracy (or Chinese Imperial-Folk Theocracy) is an Authoritarian Center ideology that believes that the Chinese Imperial-Folk Religion should be the state religion. The state would be ruled autocratically, with an emperor at the top. The emperors' roles are "the son of the heaven", the "feudal father" of Chinese world and "ancestors of dynasties" when after death, whose responsibilities include protecting the citizens, ensuring fair taxation, rebuilding infrastructure, treating the people fairly, annually offering sacrifice to Heaven and often worshipping ancestors of dynasties. Failure to do so may result in the loss of the "Mandate of Heaven" and the loyalty of Chinese people, leading to the potential overthrow of the leader.

History

According to the Chinese Folk Religion, the ideology would have started with the Heavenly Sovereign, but secularly it would have started with the feudal unification of China by Zhou, where the title of son of heaven and the mandate of heaven system started. It was also strengthened by the national unification of China by Qin, whose Qin Shihuang create the formal concept "Emperor" (皇帝) as the first one, which be succeeded by the rulers of subsequent dynasties. It would be the ideology of China for 30s centuries (more or less), until 1912 when the emperor resigned and Tridemism took over. While people in China and some other countries still believe in religion, nowadays the theocracy hasn't been very relevant.

Beliefs

• Tian (天): The concept of Heaven
• Ling (靈): The inchoate order of creation, that is the "medium" of the bivalency constituted by the opposite forces of the universe (Yin and Yang)
• Ying and Yang (陰陽): It's a concept of dualism, describing how seemingly opposite or contrary forces may actually be complementary, interconnected, and interdependent in the natural world, and how they may give rise to each other as they interrelate to one another
• Ming Yun (命運): The concept of the personal life and destiny
• Bao Ying (報應): The concept of cosmic and moral reciprocity 
• Shen (神): Gods and Spirits that are intimately involved in the affairs of the world
• Xian Ling (显靈): The notion of a numinous, sacred presence of a god or gods
• Yuanfen (緣分): Destiny, luck as conditioned by one's past
• Wu (悟): The concept of awareness, consciousness, or spiritual enlightenment
• Mandate of Heaven (天命): Heaven has given the emperor the right to rule but can lose it if he over-taxes civilians, stops protecting the people, lets infrastructure decay, and treats people unfairly.

Variants

Chinese Salvationism

Chinese salvationist religions or Chinese folk religious sects are a Chinese religious tradition characterised by a concern for salvation (moral fulfillment) of the person and the society. They are distinguished by egalitarianism, a founding charismatic person often informed by a divine revelation, a specific theology written in holy texts, a millenarian eschatology and a voluntary path of salvation, an embodied experience of the numinous through healing and self-cultivation, and an expansive orientation through evangelism and philanthropy, and many of these religions are traced to the White Lotus tradition which most are claimed by authorities as cultists.

Luoism/Wu-Weiism

Its direct decendent is Xiantiandao.

Luo Teaching (罗教) or Wu-Weiism (無爲教) is one of the most productive currents of Chinese folk religious sects just like the White Lotus Sect, characterised by representing the principle of divinity as feminine (except Daoyuan) and by a concern for salvation (moral completion) of mankind. The doctrine holds that the origin of the universe is Wusheng Laomu (無生老母, "Unborn Ancient Mother"), creatrix of all living beings. These children went astray and ended up in the earthly world where they forgot their divine origin. The wheel of reincarnation started and the return to Heaven was no longer possible. Consequently, a syncretism of features is noticeable in some groups. Most Xiantiandao groups rely heavily on automatic writing as a means of communicating with the Mother and lower-ranking deities.

Yiguandao

Yiguandao (一貫道), meaning the Consistent Way or Persistent Way, is a Chinese salvationist religious sect that emerged in the late 19th century, in Shandong, to become China's most important redemptive society in the 1930s and 1940s, especially during the Japanese invasion. In the 1930s, Yiguandao spread rapidly throughout China led by Zhang Tianran, who is the eighteenth patriarch of the Latter Far East Tao Lineage. They held several main doctrines that includes the revelation of the "three treasures", which are to be kept secret among believers and vegetrianism. Certain subsects, especially the Fayi Group strongly emphasises on Confucian values.

Luanism

The Way of the Gods according to the Confucian Tradition (儒宗神教), also called the Luandao (鸾道, "Phoenix Way"; or 鸾門, "Phoenix Gate") or Luanism (鸾教) or—from the name of its cell congregations—the phoenix halls or phoenix churches (鸾堂), is a Confucian congregational religious movement of the Chinese traditional beliefs.

Falun Gong

• See Reactionaryism#Falun Gong

Personality and Behavior

• He is very calm, generous, and wise but don't get on his bad side or he will go bonkers, whenever he does he usually tries to calm himself eventually, fearing what the gods will do to him.
• He is seen praying to Chinese gods for help on adventures and guidance.
• He likes and hangs out with his good friend Buddhist Theocracy.
• He has a dislike for other Chinese ideologies and doesn't interact with them much, because he thinks these fakers just split parts from him and go away.

How to Draw

Flag of Chinese Theocracy

1. Draw a ball.
2. Fill the top half of the ball with white.
3. Draw the bottom half of the ball with a light shade of black.
4. Then draw a stylized 祿(lù) symbol in the middle of the ball.
5. Color the top half of the symbol in light black and draw the bottom half in white.
6. Draw eyes and you're done!

Color Name		HEX	RGB
	White	#FFFFFF	rgb(255, 255, 255)
	Light Black	#141414	rgb(20, 20, 20)

Relationships

Friends

• Buddhist Theocracy - We go way back, and you were an invaluable trade partner in the Silk Road (絲綢之路).
• Meritocracy - Hey kid, want to take my civil servant test? Please don't lose it and claim you're the Chinese Jesus like that last guy.
• Technocracy - You are sub to the guy above in my system. But if good enough, you can also be hired by the royal.
• Machiavellianism - I seem to be a Chinese version of you, only when the emperor is smart enough.
• Monarchism - There is one Son of Heaven who is entitled to rule until Heaven says "ok fuck you time for someone else".
• Absolute Monarchism - Do not question the Mandate of Heaven.
• Constitutional Monarchism - The Qing Dynasty tried to reform into you, a shame that I was overthrown before I had a chance to try you out.
• Sikh Theocracy - We're both very like-minded.
• Noocracy & Enlightened Absolutism - In the long run, "the mandate of heaven is unpredictable, but only the virtuous can hold it".
• Zoroastrian Theocracy - Great friend and trading partner! The Tang Dynasty gave asylum to the House of Sasan.
• Caesarism - I'm honestly impressed by your Civilisation, now let's do some trading!

Frenemies

• Christian Theocracy - Another cool theocracy, but did you really have to rebel against me?
  • - We swear we want nothing to do with THAT lunatic, heavens no, we would much rather support the Qing than that heretical madman.
• Taoist Anarchism - You respect ancient Chinese traditions but your lack of a state is revolting.
• State Shinto - First Sino-Japanese War never forget! But at least you along with him tried to revive me during the Second Sino-Japanese War by setting up Manchukuo. However, our puppet Puyi ended up regretting the whole thing.
• Dengism - I'm glad you seem to care about Chinese traditions, but I am thinking it might not be legit, you might be virtue-signalling, and you might be hijacking it for your propaganda like with this and your Confucius Institute. But your mandate is solid (for now). Not to mention that you still use Culture Destroyer for Cults of Personality such as the portraits in Tiananmen and on your banknotes. Some of us such as the Falun Gong hate you.
• Imperialism - Depends on whether it's done by me or on me.
• Pagan Theocracy - Taoism and Folk-Religions as White Lotus are great when they serve the state, but I won't forgive you for a series of rebellions and the Mongol Attacks.
• Reactionaryism - You protect tradition, but you also want to regress to previous dynasties. Once they lose their mandate, even their decedents cannot step into the same river twice, because their mandate isn't wholly the same with the original one.
• Isolationism - Depends on my Dynasty and mood.
• Yuan Shikai Thought - Thanks for defending my legacy. But you quickly lost your Mandate, made me lose face and be abandoned, and indirectly caused yet another warlord era.
• Anti-Authoritarianism - The Mandate of Heaven also theoretically includes the right for peasants to revolt, when it comes to tyrants! But if you fail your revolt was illegitimate.

Enemies

• Feudalism - I had tried you like 10 times, but everytime you failed then I fell apart and became agar.io. 0/10, would never try again.
• Corporatocracy - Drug dealer, go find someone else.
• Tridemism - The Qing Dynasty probably lost its mandate, but you didn't have to abolish me and turn China into a republic... you could have formed a new dynasty (like what Yuan Shi-kai tried to do, although it was short lived). You lost your mandate too and were replaced by him. One of the reasons that you overthrew me was to democratize China but I was trying to reform into him, and you became authoritarian in the late 20's, even setting up martial law in Taiwan although you still weren't as authoritarian as him. You are the reason that the Mainland China is authoritarian and the Republic of China is not recognized as a real country, if you did not abolish me, then both Mainland China and Taiwan wouldn't be a mess.
• Maoism - Pfft... anyone can have power these days no matter how despotic they are. At least he didn't destroy traditional Chinese Culture. That's why you lost your Mandate and he replaced you.
• Anarcho-Nihilism - No state or religion? Heathens.
• Kleptocracy. Kakistocracy & Totalitarianism - All of you lost your mandates, your overthrowal is inevitable.
• Tribalism - Submit to the Mandate of Heaven you Barbarians!
• Religious Socialism - You... managed to cause... the single most deadly civil war in history and were so deranged that Christian powers decided to prop up the Qing rather than you. Hong Xiuquan tried to pretend me in a way after he killed Tang Xiuqing, but this heathen was just abandoned by the world.
• Anti-Japaneseism - Yeah... do chill out and calm down. I just want them to return to the tributary status, not to destroy their culture and bring back whoever you claim to have lived on the islands before them. Not to mention your anarchism makes you even more repulsive.

Further Information

Wikipedia

• Chinese Folk Religion
• Mandate of Heaven
• Son of Heaven

YouTube

• China vs India | The State and the Society by Kraut

Gallery

Portraits and Artwork

• 
  "Theocracies compass" By Spade