Deities and Faith
Can all Taiwanese folk beliefs be treated as Daoism?
English translation draft · Based on the Chinese article. This is not a word-for-word translation approved by Master Shengyuan.
I would not directly treat all Taiwanese folk beliefs as one Daoist system. Local beliefs are often connected with life, customs and migration backgrounds. Even where they later blend, their original spirit and development may differ.
Discussing this, I distinguish faith as ideas and a spirit one believes in from religion’s communities, organisations and doctrines. Having a faith does not mean everyone belongs to the same organisation. Seeing a temple’s exterior also cannot establish that all the content taught inside is the same.
When studying in Shilin, there was a revered tree deity near the school, which I had seen since childhood. I do not know how long worship had continued there. It was a local belief, also showing how faith gradually becomes connected with a place and people’s lives.
So when learning about a place, first understand what it believes in, how it understands deities and what it teaches people. Clarifying each history makes the differences easier to understand than placing every name in one category at the outset.