Associations of good-doing
The associations of good-doing are organised groups of the indigenous religion of Hebei province, or the "Pear Area" of China. The Congregation of the Dragon's Name is one of these movements of good-doers.
Xinghaode associations organise temple festivals and pilgrimages for the worship of certain deities, as well as other types of collective activities. Their purpose is to make rènào, that is "social living" or "social harmony".
Etymology
The designation of, literally "good-doers" or "those who act well", originated with the spread of the Catholic Church in the Pear Area over the last two hundred years. Local Chinese following the native faith adopted the name in contrast with Catholics, who in the area were called. Catholics nowadays remain less than 3% of the population of the Pear Area.Cooperation with local shamans
In Hebei folk religion, people who have the ability to mediate with the gods are known as, "practitioners of the way of incense", and they cooperate with good-doing groups. The major ritual practice of xiangdaode is provide communities of good-doers with "incense reading", "incense watching" or "incense kindling". They are mostly female and are also called by the general terms or.In the Pear Area, one can acquire the ministry of the way of incense either through afflatus or acquisition. Often they claim that they are spiritual disciples of the Four Great Gates, whose specialists operated in Beijing in the 1940s, thus connecting their practice with the shamanism of northeast China.
Deities
The deities of good-doers are divided into two classes:- generated or natural gods, who are part of nature and produce concrete things. They can be pan-Chinese deities such as Guandi or uniquely local deities such as the goddess of the Nine Lotuses.
- full gods, who sustain the cosmos. They are gods of the three planes of the world.