[3] It claims a Taoist identity[4] and is centered on the worship of Guanyin as the incarnation of the principle of the universe, the "Only God of the Unlimited" (无极只神 Wújí Zhīshén).

[10] In Tianjin every common house had a single dangjia, who more than parish priests were holy men and moral exemplars, who led few yearly rituals of the sect.

[11] The spread of Zailiism did not go unnoticed, and in the 19th century Qing dynasty officials carried out various investigations to verify the orthodoxy of the sect, always concluding that it was orthodox and contributed to the economy and morality of the population.

[12] In 1891, Zaili lodges led an uprising in Rehe, in a climate of Han Chinese discontent with privileges of the Mongol nobility and the Catholic Church.

[5] By the 1920s the sect had an established presence in all major cities of China, and when Jiangsu province outlawed it in 1929, influential leaders of Beijing, Tianjin and Shanghai appealed to the national government to have the ban lifted.

[18] Zaili followers developed drug rehabilitation centres using herbal medicines and self-cultivation techniques (zhengshen), which were said to fully cure two hundred addicts per year.

[19] Zaili members also founded the "China's General Association for the Prevention of Alcohol and Tobacco According to the Righteously Good Teachings" (中華全國理善勸戒煙酒總會 Zhōnghuá quánguó lǐ shàn quàn jièyān jiǔ zǒng huì), that was recognized by the Yuan Shikai government in June 1913.