Chapter 16: every tradition · Chinese religion

Daoist temple

Daoism is China's own organised religion, with its scriptures, its gods (the Three Pure Ones, the Jade Emperor, Lü Dongbin) and a priesthood of two orders: Zhengyi priests, who marry and live at home, and Quanzhen monastics, celibate and vegetarian. A Daoist temple with ordained priests barely exists in America as a local congregation. Daoist priests here are mostly ritual specialists hired by Chinese families and folk temples for funerals and great rites; the Western side of American Daoism is chiefly tai chi. The temple as written follows the pattern of the Fung Loy Kok Institute of Taoism and its Taoist Tai Chi Society, by far the largest body: tai chi classes several times a week are the gathering and the way nearly everyone comes in, taught by unpaid volunteer instructors; most who come do so for their health and never look at the altar, and a few stay on for the chanting, which is held on the 1st and 15th of the lunar month and at the festivals of the Daoist year (the Three Officials' days, All Souls, Lord Lao's festival). The Institute is a central international body: it holds the property, accredits the instructors and keeps the set as its own, and its branches are run by volunteers. Here a priest leads the rites the temple offers: memorial plaques for the dead in its memorial hall and rites at funerals, for fees. Members are mostly Western converts, with Chinese families among them. Its variant is a priest's temple serving Chinese families: a Zhengyi priest, ordained by register after an apprenticeship (often to a father or uncle), whose temple is open daily for incense and lives on the rites for the dead, merit rites, Tai Sui and lamps, and the yearly ceremonies. How far the Fung Loy Kok pattern fits any temple with priests is uncertain, and both forms are drafts for a consultant to correct.

All 80 traditions · its profile in Faiths and traditions, with how to play it and what sets its faith apart; How people feel, what every factor is.

At a glance

Faith	Chinese religion
Its words	temple, temple, practice hall; the priest leads the practice; the talk; Sunday; the scriptures
Worship	image focus, reserved, low formality (0.33 of 1); seated on standing
Music	organ discouraged; gospel organ discouraged; piano discouraged; choir discouraged; band discouraged; brass discouraged; handbells discouraged; song leader discouraged
The room's sound	no strong preference
Its year	daoist; full observance; fasts none
Leans	neutral on moral questions, neutral on economic ones
Polity	hierarchical; leaders come by appointment; property denomination
Leaders	one leader, bivocational, trained by in house; marriage any
Belonging	low commitment, none discipline, admitted by board
Giving	tithing not emphasised; collected by dues, boxes, online
Way of life	alcohol moderation, dress casual, sabbath relaxed

The week's services

Day	Time	Service	Led by	People look for it
Sunday	9:30 am	Sunday practice	the laity	expected
Tuesday	7:00 pm	Tai chi class (short, and plays quickly: people come 30% as often as to a main service)	the laity	expected
Thursday	7:00 pm	Tai chi class (short, and plays quickly: people come 30% as often as to a main service)	the laity	expected
Saturday	9:00 am	Beginners' class (tai chi class, short, and plays quickly: people come 20% as often as to a main service)	the laity	optional

Leader: none needed: the laity lead every service, so no priest is missed.

Rites

Memorial tablet (on request, +0.015 to those there, $50 from the household, asked for 0.2 times a year by a household, 20 minutes): A family asks the temple to set up a tablet for one who has died, a paper one for a ceremony or a lasting one on the memorial wall; the nuns or monks chant before it, the name is read, and the merit is dedicated to the one who died. The family gives the offering the temple lists.
Merit rite for the dead (on request, +0.03 to those there, $300 from the household, asked for 0.05 times a year by a household, 120 minutes): A family asks the Daoist priest to perform a gongde (merit) rite for one who has died, on a seventh day after the death, the forty-ninth, or an anniversary: scriptures of repentance chanted before the soul's tablet, a written memorial burned, and offerings and paper money sent after it. The family pays the priest's fee.
Daoist rites for the dead (on request, +0.03 to those there): A Daoist priest and musicians chant at the funeral, most often at a funeral home: the soul is summoned, its sins confessed and pardoned, and it is led across the bridge out of the underworld, while paper money, a paper house and paper goods are burned for its use. The family kneels through it, and pays the priests and the paper.

Joining

Joining: a content regular is received as a member after about 8 weeks.
Joining age: 16.
Kinds of belonging: members (may hold office); received by its board.
What it means: being received is worth +0.1 to the person, +0.05 to family there, and +0.03 to everyone else at the service. It roots them: a rooted household drifts away only 0.6 times as often, and if it does fall away, it has a 25% chance of coming home at each of its great days (at most once a month) for ten years.

Giving, and what goes up

How its people give and what else comes in, as Money explains it for every faith.

How it's given: the donation, by dues, boxes, and giving online. With no plate passed, members give a tenth less at the boxes than they would into one, and visitors give nothing at the service. Those who give online give whether or not they come (8% more a month).
Tithing isn't emphasised: people give 10% less.
Dues: each November member households take up their dues, about 70% of what they could give (±15%), with the chance a pledge would be made (0.9 × engagement), and pay them monthly, nearly always; regulars who haven't joined pay none, so membership is most of the income.
Rites asked for: households book 2 rites at the prices it lists, from $50 to $300 (below), members half as often again as regulars; the fees go to the Rite fees line, in place of a flat stipend.
Fundraisers: any it allows (below).
Owed above: nothing.

The priest, the staff, and who decides

How the priest comes: sent by the Taoist Tai Chi Society of the USA, which moves them on; you can't advertise for or dismiss one, but can ask for a move.
Paid: part time, alongside other work (a bivocational leader).
Who they are: trained in-house (they ask 90%); women among them (about a third); most married.
Tenure: settled, then may be called elsewhere.
Staff it can hire or name (see Staff and volunteers):
- Bivocational priest ($22,000–$38,000; cares for 75)
- Associate priest ($42,000–$62,000 + $15,000 benefits, full time; cares for 100 more)
- Fortune-slip interpreter (unpaid; from the members; cares for 15 more)
- Tai chi instructor (unpaid; from the members; cares for 20 more)
- Daoist priest ($6,000–$20,000; leads worship; performs the rites families book)
- Temple keeper ($15,000–$30,000; slows the building's wear; cares for 20 more)
- Caretaker ($18,000–$30,000; slows the building's wear)
- Temple secretary ($20,000–$35,000; runs the office (+50 to the leader's reach, once))
- Youth director ($20,000–$40,000; up to +0.08 for households with young people)
Its boards: the branch board (deciding, over everything).
Renovations: The branch board votes, then the Taoist Tai Chi Society of the USA must consent.
New construction: The Taoist Tai Chi Society of the USA decides, consulting the branch board.
Who votes: no kind of belonging votes, so what would go to the members goes to the board.

Life together

What its Community screen offers it, with the dilemmas only its own faith or family meets; see The congregation in its community.

Ministries of its own: Health recovery class, Morning qigong, Tai chi classes, The chanting group.
Ministries every tradition can run that it's offered: Blood drive, Food pantry, Health clinic, Preschool, Youth group.
Fundraisers of its own: Mid-Autumn mooncakes, Pudu tables, The autumn jiao.
Shared fundraisers it may hold: Auction, Bake sale, Bingo night, Car wash, Raffle, Rummage sale.
Tenants it can take: A Masonic lodge, A scout troop, A twelve-step group, Dance classes, Parties and receptions.
Outreach: invitation Sunday (Community → Evangelism).
Dilemmas of its own faith (besides those every congregation meets): A funeral for strangers, Just the exercise, Who may ordain.
Dilemmas its code of life brings: A raffle for the roof, A recruiter asks for the hall, Champagne at the reception.

What the building needs

required Deity altarThe temple's god sits on the main altar, with others beside, before whom incense and offerings are placed.
expected Lamps of brightnessFamilies keep a lamp lit before the gods for a year, renewed each New Year, for health and good fortune.
expected Incense burnerIncense is offered before the altar at every service.
expected Temple censerVisitors plant their incense in the great censer, sending their prayers up with the smoke.
discouraged Drum kitA band and drum kit do not belong in this tradition's worship.
discouraged Hammond organA gospel organ doesn't suit this tradition's worship.
discouraged Upright pianoA piano doesn't suit this tradition's worship.
discouraged Pipe organAn organ doesn't suit this tradition's worship.

What people here feel

Architectural style: Colonial brick +0.052; Modern synagogue +0.034; Gurdwara +0.028; Japanese temple +0.016; Islamic +0.01; Shinto shrine +0.01; Chinese temple +0.004; Dravidian temple -0.002; Nagara temple -0.002; Thai temple -0.002; Jain marble -0.008; Gothic -0.014.
Building fit: up to ±0.15 for everyone, the average fit of the characterful items in its worship rooms (the table below).
Acoustics: it wants a room between ringing and dry, about 2.2 seconds of reverberation: neither bare stone nor a carpeted low room. Up to ±0.05.
Seasonal decor: in their seasons, the bon lanterns and new year couplets are worth up to ±0.013 (missing them, the minus); out of season, nothing is called for.
The talk lands by its topic and the tradition's leaning (below); the priest's preaching adds or costs up to 0.08 more.
The daily services move no one's satisfaction: no offering, sermon, or welcome; people come one by one, the retired twice as often, those of working age half as often on a weekday from nine to five.

How each talk lands

The topics its leader can choose from (some are only for one faith or family), and what each is worth.

Gratitude+0.015
Hope & Comfort+0.015
Nourishing Life+0.015
Stewardship & Generosity+0.015
The Daodejing+0.015
Wu Wei: Acting Without Forcing+0.015
Care for Creation-0.02
Faith & Family-0.02
Faith of Our Fathers-0.02
Healing for All-0.02
Interfaith Understanding-0.02
Reading Scripture in Context-0.02
Resisting Temptation-0.02
Swords into Ploughshares-0.02
The Eight Virtues-0.02
Welcome the Stranger-0.02
Racial Justice & Reconciliation-0.03
Radical Inclusion-0.03
Sanctity of Life-0.03
Social Justice Call-0.03

Every item, for this tradition

Fit runs from −1 (jars) to +1 (just right); the building fit is the average over the characterful items in the worship rooms. An item with no character (a table, a toilet) has no fit. A rule applies wherever the item is.

Item	Fit	Rule
Seating
Box pew	-0.333
Meeting bench	no fit
Oak pew	no fit
Row of chairs	+0.333
Liturgical furniture
Columbarium niches	-0.333
Deity altar	+0.5	required The temple's god sits on the main altar, with others beside, before whom incense and offerings are placed.
Incense burner	+0.5	expected Incense is offered before the altar at every service.
Lectern	no fit
Mother lamp altar	0
Pulpit	no fit
Music
Drum kit	-0.333	discouraged A band and drum kit do not belong in this tradition's worship.
Electronic organ	-1
Grand piano	-1
Hammond organ	-1	discouraged A gospel organ doesn't suit this tradition's worship.
Handbell table	-1
Pipe organ	-0.667	discouraged An organ doesn't suit this tradition's worship.
Sound system	-0.333
Upright piano	-1	discouraged A piano doesn't suit this tradition's worship.
Decor
Ancestor tablets	0
Banner	0
Bon lanterns	0
Eternal flame	no fit
Great dome	-0.333
Guanyin statue	0
Lamps of brightness	+0.5	expected Families keep a lamp lit before the gods for a year, renewed each New Year, for health and good fortune.
Memorial plaque	no fit
National flag	0
New Year couplets	0
Red lanterns	0
Small dome	no fit
Stained glass window	-0.333
Furnishings
Alms box	no fit
Amulet counter	0
Coffee pot	no fit
Commercial coffee pot	no fit
Computer	no fit
Crib	no fit
Desk	no fit
Desk chair	no fit
Divination table	0
Folding table	no fit
Full-length mirror	no fit
Pillar	-0.333
Projection screen	+0.333
Vestment cabinet	-0.333
Wooden table	no fit
Utility
A/V rack	no fit
Camera	no fit
Cast-iron boiler	no fit
Central air conditioner	no fit
Commercial HVAC plant	no fit
Commercial stove	no fit
Congregation van	no fit
Ductless heat pump	no fit
Electric wall heater	no fit
Gas furnace	no fit
Hearing loop	no fit
Lift	no fit
Packaged heat pump	no fit
Plumbing stack	no fit
Ramp	no fit
Shuttle bus	no fit
Sink	no fit
Solar panels	no fit
Stairs	no fit
Toilet	no fit
Used school bus	no fit
Wall camera	no fit
Window air conditioner	no fit
Grounds
Evergreen tree	no fit
Flower bed	no fit
Fountain	no fit
Garden bench	no fit
Guardian lions	0
Hedge	no fit
Joss paper furnace	0
Paifang	0
Playground	no fit
Shade tree	no fit
Temple censer	+0.5	expected Visitors plant their incense in the great censer, sending their prayers up with the smoke.

Variants

Chosen when you found the temple:

Priest's temple: its own services: Scripture and offering, sunday at 10:00 am; Open for incense, every day at 9:00 am; its own formality, expression, preaching; its own music; its own lifestyle; its own giving; its own leaders

Sources

Elijah Siegler, How Daoism Became American (lecture, ASIAR, University of Hong Kong, 2025) (link)
Daoshi, Zhengyi Dao and Quanzhen School, Wikipedia (link)
Taoist Tai Chi Society, Wikipedia; Moy Lin-shin, Wikipedia (link)
Taoist Tai Chi Society of the USA: Centers; Temples and Shrines; Chanting for the World (link)
Ching Chung Taoist Association of America, GuideStar profile (link)
Kenneth J. Guest, God in Chinatown (NYU Press, 2003) (link)
Ma-Tsu Temple USA, Lingbao jiao and Pudu posts (link)