Vermilion Seal Chinese civilisation, from Taiwan

Living tradition

The part of the tradition that is hardest to find in English: not what the texts say, but what people actually do — the festivals, the temple etiquette, the deities with local biographies, the calendar that still organises the year in Taiwan.

Entries here follow the same rule as the rest of the site: an official or scholarly source for the claim, and where the practice varies from town to town, the entry says so instead of flattening it into one national custom.

Start here

Still to come

  • Qingming — tomb-sweeping as it is practised, and the text behind it.
  • Guan Gong and Tudi Gong — who they are, and how their worship differs by region.

Articles