Yiguandao
Yiguandao / I-Kuan Tao, 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, and Sun Suzhen, the first matriarch of the Lineage.
Yiguandao started off with a few thousand followers in Shandong in the 1930s, but under the Patriarch and Matriarch's leadership and with missionary work the group grew to become the biggest movement in China in the 1940s with millions of followers. In 1949, Yiguandao was proscribed in mainland China as an illegal secret society and heretical cult as part of the greater antireligious campaign that took place. Yiguandao has since flourished in Taiwan, despite decades of persecution by the Kuomintang that officially ended in 1987 with the legalization of Yiguandao and a government apology. Yiguandao is still not able to be officially promoted in the mainland, but there are many members who live and practice there.
According to Sebastien Billioud, Yiguandao can be viewed as a synthesis between an updated version of the tradition unity of the three teachings that also incorporated Christianity, Islam and millenarianism's eschatology that emphasizes end-time catastrophes and salvation missions.
Yiguandao is characterized by an eschatological and soteriological doctrine, presenting itself as a way to salvation. It also encourages adherents to engage in missionary activity. Yiguandao is the worship of the source of the universal reality personified as the Eternal Venerable Mother, or the Splendid Highest Deity. The highest deity is the primordial energy of the universe, identified in Yiguandao thought with the Tao in the wuji or "unlimited" state and with fire. The name used in contemporary Yiguandao scriptures is the "Infinite Mother" and the "lantern of the Mother" —a flame representing the Mother—is the central focus of Yiguandao shrines.
Beliefs
Eternal Venerable Mother
Yiguandao focuses on the worship of the Infinite Mother, also known as the Eternal Venerable Mother, which is also a feature of other Chinese folk religions. The source of things, It is neither male nor female, though it is called "Mother" or "Heavenly Mater". It is the primordial force of the universe, the fire, that animates all things. It is the Tao, as Yiguandao doctrines explain.In the 16th century, the Eternal Mother began to take the place of the Holy Patriarch. A mythology surrounding the Mother began to form, integrating the beliefs about Maitreya, which had been widespread since the Yuan dynasty. The Maitreya belief is millenarian, claiming that the world would come to an end soon and Maitreya would incarnate himself in the physical plane to save humanity.
In the Mother belief, the Maitreya is one of the three enlightened beings sent by the Mother herself to bring salvation. Further myths explained the creation of the world and mankind: the Eternal Venerable Mother gave birth to yin and yang and two children, Fuxi and Nüwa, who begot auspicious stars and all sentient beings. The human beings were sent to the east and lost their memory of the Mother. The myth of Fuxi and Nüwa is found also in orthodox Chinese mythology.
The figure of the Eternal Mother derives from that of Xiwangmu, the "Queen Mother of the West", the ancient mother goddess of China, related to the mythical Kunlun, the axis mundi, and thus to the Hundun. The Infinite Mother is thought as omnipotent, and regarded by Yiguandao followers as merciful, worried by her sons and daughters who lost their true nature, and for this reason trying to bring them back to the original heaven. Through its development, the Eternal Mother belief has shown the qualities of the three goddesses Xiwangmu, Nüwa and Guanyin.
Rituals, Gods and teachers
In all Yiguandao temples, there are three lamps situated on an altar. The central lamp represents the Eternal Mother, while the two sides lamps, both known as the Sun and Moon lamps evenly situated at a lower level, represent Yin and Yang. Generally, in larger public temples, a statue of Maitreya is placed in the central position, accompanied by the Holy Teachers, Jigong on the right, and Yue Hui Bodhisattva on the left, while in Tiandao temples, the statue of Matrieya is flanked by Guanyin on the right and Jigong on the left. In private temples, there is no required configuration. Members can choose statues of other deities, such as Guanyin, Guangong or Lu Dongbin, or they can even choose to have none at all. To invoke rituals, the Welcoming of the Deities ritual marks the beginning of the ritual by lightening the three lamps using a lighter or incense torch, and concluded by the Departure of the Deities by extinguishing the lamps using a candle snuffer or a hand fan, depending on the sect's requirement.As Yiguandao's written material explains:
The patriarchs of the faith are Zhang Tianran and Sun Suzhen. They are considered the final patriarchs of the divine revelation and are revered as divine entities, despite a minority faction only recognized Zhang's patriachate and disputed Sun's patriachate.
Cosmology
Yiguandao conceives the cosmos as tripartite, consisting of litian, qitian and xiangtian. Litian is the heaven of the Eternal Mother, where there's no cycle of rebirth; qitian is the plane imbued by the gods and spirits who despite being in a higher realm than human beings, can still incarnate as matter. Xiangtian is the physical world that is composed of all visible things, with colors and shapes, including all the stars and the sky. Only litian is eternal, and qitian and xiangtian will be re-absorbed into litian.Salvation
Yiguandao involves an eschatological—soteriological belief: Grieving over the loss of her children, the Eternal Mother sent to the material world three enlightened beings over the "Three Eras". Accordingly, the human history is divided into "Three Eras": Qingyang Qi or Green Yang Era, Hongyang Qi or Red Yang Era, and Baiyang Qi or White Yang Era. Dipankara Buddha presided over salvation in the Green Yang Era, Gautama Buddha in the Red Yang Era, and Maitreya Buddha will preside over the third period of salvation, the White Yang Era, which began in 1912 and continues even now.Extreme ruthlessness and craftiness in human behavior and disasters are associated with the end of the third period and final salvation. Cultivation of the Tao is the opportunity for repentance and purification during the White Yang Era. Those who devote their efforts to the spread of the Tao will be repaid for their merits, regardless of their societal status.
Vegetarianism
is one of the core teachings of Yiguandao. Vegetarianism is taught from a variety of perspectives including health, ecology, environmental sustainability, reducing animal suffering and spiritual development. Yiguandao followers are said to operate 90% of Taiwan's vegetarian restaurants.Practices and writings
Three Treasures
The rite of initiation involves the "offering of the Three Treasures", which are the xuanguan, the koujue, and hetong. The Three Treasures are the saving grace offered by the Eternal Mother to people who received the initiation. They enable Yiguandao members to transcend the circle of birth and death and directly ascend to Heaven after they die.Yiguandao followers regard the initiation ceremony as the most important ritual. The full meaning of the Three Treasures is a secret of Yiguandao followers and is strictly prohibited from being spread openly to those who have not gone through the initiation process. The Three Treasures are also used in daily life as a form of meditation.
Yiguandao Canon
A unitary anthology of Yiguandao's writings, the Yiguandao Canon, was published in the 2010s with the purpose of offering a systematic overview of the religious doctrines.History
19th century origins
Yiguandao originated in the late 19th century in Shandong as a branch of Xiantiandao, which in turn was founded in Jiangxi as an offshoot of the Venerable Officials' teaching of fasting, a branch of the Dacheng or Yuandun eastern proliferation of Luoism. It has also been traced to the White Lotus tradition.In the 1870s, under persecutions from the Qing, Xiantiandao fragmented into several independent groups. One branch led by the Shandong native Wang Jueyi later developed into Yiguandao. According to Yiguandao records, Wang Jueyi was designated as the 15th patriarch of Xiantiandao through a divine revelation through writing. Wang renamed his sect the "Final Salvation" and deeply contributed to the development of its theology and ritual, now being regarded as the real founder of modern Yiguandao.
After a persecution started in 1883 because the Qing suspected that the sect intended to organize a rebellion, Wang was forced to live secretly until his death. Liu Qingxu succeeded the leadership becoming the 16th patriarch. In 1905, borrowing a Confucius saying that "the way that I follow is the one that unifies all", he gave the religion the name Yiguandao.
Under Liu the Yiguandao remained small. Things changed after Lu Zhongyi became the 17th patriarch in 1919. Claiming to be the incarnation of Maitreya, Lu gathered thousands of members in Shandong. When Lu died in 1925 one group of the followers he left was led by Zhang Tianran, the man who became the 18th patriarch in following years.
Zhang Tianran's leadership and spread in the 1930s
Between the late years of Qing regime and 1945, China went through a period of crisis, civil unrest and foreign invasion. The Confucian orthodoxy and the empire crumbled quickly. In the republican China between 1912 and 1949 folk religious sects mushroomed and expanded rapidly.Zhang Tianran, whose secular name was Zhang Guangbi, was born in 1889 in Jining, Shandong. In 1915, he was initiated into Yiguandao by Lu Zhongyi, the 17th patriarch of the sect. After the death of Lu in 1925 the movement fragmented due to strife over the leadership. One of the subgroups that formed was led by Zhang Tianran.
In 1930, Zhang Tianran became the 18th patriarch of Yiguandao. He took Sun Suzhen as his partner, proclaiming that their marriage was a message from the Eternal Mother, and that he was the incarnation of Jigong, a deified miracle monk that lived between the late 12th and the 13th century. However, few members welcomed the new claims; many challenged the validity of the revelation and left the group. For this reason, Zhang Tianran and his wife moved to Jinan in 1931. There, different religious groups were competing with each other, and Zhang Tianran began preaching Yiguandao himself.
Zhang Tianran recruited hundreds of followers, and Jinan became the main base of Yiguandao. Many initiated members began preaching in other big cities, where Yiguandao was well received. From 1934 Yiguandao missionaries were sent to Tianjin and Qingdao. To facilitate the spread Zhang Tianran restructured Yiguandao, that since then had preserved the nine-levels structure of Xiantiandao. The new structure had four levels, Zhang as the patriarch, and below him the leaders of the way, the initiators, and further below the masters of the altars. The initiators functioned as missionaries, while the masters of altars were managers of administrative units composed of multiple congregations.
With the rapid growth of Yiguandao, Zhang Tianran's status as a divine patriarch was strengthened, with a large number of pamphlets published to justify his divinity.