Tiandiism is a group of Chinese salvationist sects, namely the Holy Church of the Heavenly Virtue and the Lord of Universe Church, which emerged respectively from the teachings of Xiao Changming and Li Yujie, disseminated in the early 20th century.Vermander, 1999. The Lord of Universe Church is actually a later development of the former, established in the 1980s. These religions focus on the worship of the "Heavenly Deity" or "Heavenly Emperor" (''Tiāndì'' 天帝), on health through the proper cultivation of qi, and teach a style of

qigong ''Qigong'' (), ''qi gong'', ''chi kung'', ''chi 'ung'', or ''chi gung'' () is a system of coordinated body-posture and movement, breathing, and meditation used for the purposes of health, spirituality, and martial-arts training. With roots in ...

named ''Tianren qigong''. According to scholars, the doctrines of Li Yujie are traceable to the

Taoist Taoism (, ) or Daoism () refers to either a school of philosophical thought (道家; ''daojia'') or to a religion (道教; ''daojiao''), both of which share ideas and concepts of Chinese origin and emphasize living in harmony with the '' Tao ...

tradition of Huashan, where he studied for eight years. The Lord of Universe Church is active both in Taiwan and mainland China, where it has high-level links.

Tiandiist bodies

Holy Church of the Heavenly Virtue

The origins of the Holy Church of the Heavenly Virtue (天德聖教 ''Tiāndé shèngjiào'') go back to

Sichuan Sichuan (; zh, c=, labels=no, ; zh, p=Sìchuān; alternatively romanized as Szechuan or Szechwan; formerly also referred to as "West China" or "Western China" by Protestant missions) is a province in Southwest China occupying most of t ...

in 1899, with the alleged resurrection of a young boy named Xiao Changming (蕭昌明, 1896-1943) who had apparently died three days earlier. After his revival, he declared that he had received Heaven's mandate (''tianming'') to save humanity from suffering. He embarked on a successful religious career and attracted a large following. In 1937 he established his headquarters on Mount Huang in southern

Anhui Anhui , (; formerly romanized as Anhwei) is a landlocked province of the People's Republic of China, part of the East China region. Its provincial capital and largest city is Hefei. The province is located across the basins of the Yangtze Riv ...

province where he died in 1943. Like other sects, Xiao Changming's movement was suppressed in

China China, officially the People's Republic of China (PRC), is a country in East Asia. It is the world's List of countries and dependencies by population, most populous country, with a Population of China, population exceeding 1.4 billion, slig ...

after 1949, but survives in

Taiwan Taiwan, officially the Republic of China (ROC), is a country in East Asia, at the junction of the East and South China Seas in the northwestern Pacific Ocean, with the People's Republic of China (PRC) to the northwest, Japan to the no ...

and

Hong Kong Hong Kong ( (US) or (UK); , ), officially the Hong Kong Special Administrative Region of the People's Republic of China (abbr. Hong Kong SAR or HKSAR), is a List of cities in China, city and Special administrative regions of China, special ...

. In Taiwan, one of Xiao's disciples, Li Yujie, eventually decided to walk his own path and founded a new group called the Lord of Universe Church in 1978, which diverges doctrinally in several aspects from the mother group, yet also sees itself in the tradition of Xiao Changming's teachings. Currently, there exist two regional organizations for this religion. Its

headquarters is located at Castle Peak in the New Territories. In

the religion's situation is characterized by disunity, with several separate organizations claiming to continue original Xiao's teachings.

Lord of Universe Church

The Lord of Universe Church (天帝教 ''Tiāndì jiāo'') is based in

and is devoted to the Tiandist beliefs as proclaimed by Li Yujie. It is an offshoot of the Holy Church of the Heavenly Virtue and it emphasizes chanting, traditional medicine, and a form of meditation which it calls "quiet sitting" in English. Li Yujie (1901-1994) was born in

Suzhou Suzhou (; ; Suzhounese: ''sou¹ tseu¹'' , Mandarin: ), alternately romanized as Soochow, is a major city in southern Jiangsu province, East China. Suzhou is the largest city in Jiangsu, and a major economic center and focal point of trad ...

. He worked in the

Kuomintang The Kuomintang (KMT), also referred to as the Guomindang (GMD), the Nationalist Party of China (NPC) or the Chinese Nationalist Party (CNP), is a major political party in the Republic of China, initially on the Chinese mainland and in Ta ...

but left in 1958 to ensure political independence for his fledgling newspaper. In 1980 he claimed he was given permission by God to retransmit the message of the Heavenly Deity, which emphasize

nuclear disarmament Nuclear may refer to: Physics Relating to the nucleus of the atom: *Nuclear engineering *Nuclear physics *Nuclear power *Nuclear reactor *Nuclear weapon *Nuclear medicine *Radiation therapy *Nuclear warfare Mathematics * Nuclear space * Nuclea ...

and

Chinese unification Chinese unification, also known as the Cross-Strait unification or Chinese reunification, is the potential unification of territories currently controlled, or claimed, by the People's Republic of China ("China" or "Mainland China") and the ...

. His book, ''The Ultimate Realm'', was translated into Japanese and English under his guidance.Ownby, 2020.

Bibliography

* * * * * *

Footnotes

References

{{reflist

External links

;Tiande Church
Holy Church of the Heavenly Virtue

Holy Church of the Heavenly Virtue Report
;Tiandi Church
Li Yujie's Heavenly Deity teachings

Lord of Universe Church

Taiwan's Lord of Universe Church

"Tenteikyo" - Japan's Lord of Universe Church
Chinese salvationist religions Religion in Taiwan