Chinese Folk Religion may be understood as the broad, indigenous religious life of the Chinese people, a polytheistic and syncretic tradition that both predates and coexists with Confucianism, Daoism, and Buddhism. Rather than a single, unified institution, it is a complex, locally varied field of practice that draws on ancient Chinese traditions while also incorporating Buddhist, Daoist, and Confucian elements. It lacks a central organization or fixed doctrine, and instead lives through customs, festivals, and family and community rituals transmitted across generations. In this sense, it forms the everyday religious fabric of much of the Chinese world, shaping how communities relate to the unseen dimensions of existence.

At the heart of this tradition lies the veneration of a vast pantheon of deities and spirits. Practitioners honor nature gods, city gods, wealth gods, war gods, local spirits, and deified historical figures such as Mazu or Guan Yu, alongside figures like the Jade Emperor and other traditional deities. Buddhist buddhas and bodhisattvas and Daoist immortals may also be revered, reflecting the syncretic character of the tradition. These beings are approached for protection, guidance, prosperity, and assistance with the concrete concerns of daily life, and are believed to inhabit a spirit-filled cosmos that includes heaven, earth, and an underworld populated by gods, ghosts, demons, and ancestral spirits.

Equally central is ancestor veneration, which binds the living and the dead into a single moral and spiritual community. Families maintain ancestral tablets in homes or temples, offer incense, food, and paper money, and observe festivals dedicated to deceased relatives. Ancestors are regarded as active presences who can influence the fortune of their descendants, and ritual offerings are a way of sustaining reciprocity and gratitude across generations. Through these practices, family continuity, social harmony, and moral responsibility are woven together with the maintenance of right relations with the spirit world.

The ritual life of Chinese Folk Religion is rich and varied, encompassing seasonal festivals, temple fairs, processions, and life‑cycle rites surrounding birth, marriage, and death. Common practices include burning incense and paper offerings, making food sacrifices, consulting divination and fortune‑telling, and engaging spirit‑mediumship or geomancy. These rites are not merely ceremonial; they are oriented toward maintaining harmony between human and spiritual realms, securing health, wealth, and relational well‑being, and aligning communities with a cosmos understood to be responsive to moral conduct and ritual exchange. Because practices differ markedly from region to region, shaped by local deities, customs, and geography, Chinese Folk Religion appears less as a rigid system and more as a living, adaptive tapestry of belief and devotion.