During the "Cultural Revolution", Taoism became the object of "breaking the capitalism", many Taoists were persecuted, many temples were demolished, and the ancient Taoism came to the brink of destruction.
After the Third Plenary Session of the Eleventh Central Committee, the activities of bringing order out of chaos in Taoist circles began, and the Chinese Taoist Association resumed its work at 1980. China Taoist College was founded in 1990. For the first time, Taoism has a school to train senior professionals. The study of Taoist culture continued, with the resumption of the ceremony of "giving lectures" in Quanzhen Taoism and "awarding medals" in Zhengyi Taoism, the restoration of new temples in various places, and the development of various fasting and charitable activities in Taoism, and Taoism ushered in a new period of development.
A survey of China people's spiritual life conducted by Zero Company in 20 10 shows that about 654.38+73 million people claim to believe in Taoism, of which about120,000 people are confirmed Taoists. About 200 million people believe in the ancestor god, about 1.4 1 100 million people believe in the Taoist god of wealth, and about 200 million people believe in the sea god Mazu; About 654.38+45 million people believe in Feng Shui, and about 362 million people believe in fortune-telling Daoism. The survey did not cover a large number of folk religions with deep roots in Taoism, but all kinds of folk religions are undoubtedly the religious choices of China people. According to the data of Pew Research Center in 20 12 years, there are more than 300 million followers of Taoism (including folk beliefs).
According to the introduction of Nanyue International Taoist Forum 20 1 1, there are 26 Taoist associations at the provincial, municipal and autonomous levels and more than 300 at the county and municipal levels. According to preliminary statistics, there are nearly 30,000 Taoist priests living in the temple, and there are about 60,000 Taoist priests scattered in the orthodox church. There are more than 30,000 registered places for Taoist activities, including about 9,000 Taoist temples and a large number of temples with folk beliefs.