Shengdao

Today, Shengdao "halls of enlightenment" (佛堂 fótáng) remain operational in Taiwan, Hong Kong and Southeast Asia.

For instance, the first Taiwanese enlightenment hall was founded in 1947 and in 1949 it created the "Chinese Confucian Studies Association" (中国孔学会 Zhōngguó Kǒngxué Huì).

This earliest hall is designated as the "provincial church" (省会 shěnghuì), while its later offshoots in other parts of Taiwan are called "branch bodies" (分社 fēnshè).

The picture is complicated by a schism that occurred in the Taiwanese section of the sect in 1978, leading to the establishment of a competing organization, the "National Association of Godly Cultivation" (国民修神协会 Guómín Xiūshén Xiéhuì).

Rituals, sitting meditation, and inner alchemy directly based on orthodox Taoist neidan are part of Shengdao practice and were widely disseminated among the general population in the 1920s.

Zhenkong, "Void of Truth".
Zhenkong, "Void of Truth".