Shendao shejiao

Shendao teaching (Chinese: 神道设教 or 神道社教; pinyin: shéndào shèjiào; lit. 'by "theistic ways" establishing the [moral] teachings')^[1][a] is a Chinese philosophical perspective on religion. Originally it referred to conduct conforming and in harmony with the principles of Nature, following the subtlety of the path of Heaven's Way; it lays the basis for the teachings of tianxia, a worldview promoting social order and harmony, in which the commoners were unified and compliant, to the benefit of the whole society. It is also translated as "to educate by means of mysticism", the education here referring to moral education.^[2]

The Chinese idea of "Shendao" arose in the early Western Zhou and later became a strategy and method of character education in the Confucianism ideological system, for strengthening integrity or virtue (德, dé) and other socially desirable traits. As it developed, concepts of gods, ghosts and demons were used as a means of character, or moral, education; such training included theories about the effect of fate or fortune, heaven or hell.^[3]

Shendao is considered instrumental in the later adoption of the Western concept of religion in China.^[1]

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