Nanwen

Nanwen(南文) officially the Federal Democratic Republic of Nanwen(南文民主联邦共和国) is a sovereign state located in Eastern Kesh. It is a federation consisting of 17 federal subjects. It borders Heydar to the North, Prabhat to the South, and Qingcheng to the East. The country has a coastline along the Tethys Ocean. The country has a population of nearly 90 million making it the XX largest in the world. The coastal regions are the most habitable and host to Nanwen's largest city and capital of Yunnan. The interior of the country is dominated by the Sipsongchau rainforest and Jinyang savanna. Nanwen's population consists of a mixture of Hanzu populating the coastal lowlands, Dzhong people in the interior, the Qi in the North, and a variety of smaller ethnic groups along the Southern frontiers.

Nanwen was initially populated by Qi and Dzhong confederacies, with a small population of Han on the northern part of the coast. The small Han principalities eventually unified into the state of Wu, while the U Confederacy united the Dzhong peoples. The monarchy of U was eventually able to seize control of Wu, establishing the state of U-Wu in 328. U-Wu is considered the first Nanwenese state, though it covered only a third of modern Nanwen's territory. U-Wu was able to establish hegemonic dominance over the Qi states, but did not actually take political control. By the 8th century U-Wu's power had faded and most of its vassals existed in name only. After defeating Yan, the Xie dynasty of Kodeshia invaded and destroyed U-Wu. After brieftly regaining independence, the Min dynasty was able to fully defeat U-wu, establishing the Southern Protectorate in its place and a number of newly independent post-Uwu states. Nanwen would remain under loose Kodeshian control the next seven centuries, undergoing increased Kodeshian influence in its culture as well as migration by Kodeshian peoples and the Han in particular further South. After Qingcheng gained independence, Kodeshian control of Nanwen similarly evaporated. Nanwen collapsed into the warring states period, until it was reunified in 1644 by the Later Wu dynasty that renamed itself the Ji dynasty upon taking power and was the first state to call itself "Nanwen". The Ji saw a period of economic growth and a second Golden age, however by the 19th century, it began to fall behind the rest of world in technology. The Ji Dynasty would remain in power until 1917 when it was overthrown by the Hetuanhui. A series of civil wars followed until the People's Revolutionary Front took power under Yang Kui. He was suceeded by Wei Leifeng who turned the country in a Volkovist direction. After Wei's death Nanwen was governed by a collective presidency, however a series of economic crises in the late 1980s saw the nation descend into a brief civil war. The country was reunified in 1993 by the NRF-DSU, which has led the country since then. Nanwen is considered a developed middle-upper income country. It has a mixed economy driven by mass industrialization under the PRF. The state, though ostensibly democratic is functionally a one-party state. Nanwen today has a strong economy driven by a growing service sector and increased opening to the outside world. The countries grapples with the transition from a centrally-planned industrial economy to a high-tech post-industrial mixed economy. Nanwen has faced struggles in protecting the unity of the multi-ethnic state as well as severe regional inequalities.

Early History
Some stuff about the paleolithic/neolithic. Some shit about agriculture, will write later.

Nanwen was not a united state for most of its early history. Instead, most of the constituent ethnic groups of the country organized their own polities. The Dzhong confederacies in the South, the Qi states in the North, and the Han states in the East formed distinct cultures. The earliest to form into an organized state were the Han. The first Han states were organized as feudal societies. Due to the monsoon climate and long dry seasons, control over water was required to maintain sustainable agriculture. The first Han states were hydraulic societies that build large dykes and earthworks to store water during the dry season and maintain consistent irrigation for their fields. The early Han states were led by Priest-Kings who claimed divine connection to the rain gods and magical control over water. Han legend speaks of a three-way war between the Iron King, the Crane King, and the Sand King. According to the myth, during the decisive battle near modern Yunnan, a dragon swallowed the sun striking fear into the hearts of all three rulers who chose peace instead. Together they formed the Wu state. The Wu state was organized into three parts, Mo, Hu, and Meng representing the realms of the three Kings, and a capital on the island of Dayun. A ruler named the Water Dragon Emperor was chosen by the three kings, allegedly a random commoner at the battlefield. Wu state was governed by the rulers of the three kingdoms whom could oversee the decisions of the Water Dragon Emperor. The Wu state quickly absorbed all remaining Han states and became the dominant state of Eastern Nanwen.

In the ???? mountains of southern Nanwen, the Dzhong people formed a number of tribal confederacies ruled by an elected High Chief. The largest were the U and Kang confederacies. The Dzhong confederacies had a strict caste system including a ruler-warrior caste, a priest caste, and a caste of workers. Power in the confederacies was shared between the priests and warriors. Conflict was very prevalent between Dzhong chiefdoms and warriors served as military command. Domestic rulership was exerted by the priestly caste who oversaw the storage of grain. A defining characteristic of the Dzhong societies were major granaries that were required due to climatic instability. The Kang confederacy was initially dominant over the ???? region. However, the U Confederacy was able to secure an alliance with the Wu state in the 1st century. At the battle of Xiling they routed the Kang army and wiped out much of its warrior caste. The Kang confederacy quickly imploded and U established control over the ???? mountains.

In the Sipsongchau rainforest, Qi tribes also coalesced into more centralized societies. In contrast to the Han state and Dzhong confederacies, the Qi tribes governed themselves as largely stateless societies. While the Qi developed relatively large populations for a stateless society, the geography of the Sipsongchau meant that they did not initially form large settlements like the Dzhong or Han.

Nanyang Revolution
Despite the mixed Dzhong and Han origins of the imperial family itself, since the foundation of the Ji dynasty, the administration was dominated by the Han. Always a frontier region of the Kodeshian sphere, Nanwen had developed an economy dependent on international trade. Throughout the 19th century, an increasingly isolationist Ji Dynasty had undermined the Nanwenese economy by closing off the country to the outside world intermittently. In 1904, the Hexie Emperor attempted to rectify the economic and technological decline of the Ji Empire by dispatching dozens of the most promising Nanwenese youth to the outside world to study foreign technology. While the program succeeded in bringing back foreign knowledge, it also began the import of radical revolutionary ideas. Continued attempts to industrialize the Nanwenese economy were generally a failure as the divided and poorly governed country failed to attract foreign investment. The Hexie Emperor's attempts to impose reforms and establish a modernized bureaucratic administration were undermined by his own court. As his attempts became more aggressive, a group of reactionary officials carried out a coup removing most reformists from government and putting the emperor under house arrest. This would prove to be a fatal blow to the Ji Empire as the sudden purge of officials combined with a weakening economy led to the central government rapidly losing control of the Northern rainforests. At the same time, a series of anti-imperial revolutionary groups started for form in secret. These included the Dark Ocean Society, a Great Forest Society, and most importantly the Harmonious Union Society or Hetuanhui led by Zhang Siping. The Great War further reduced the trade that Nanwen was so dependent on, such that by 1917 the economy had declined to less than half of what it was in 1900. Rising inflation led to riots erupting in many major cities, including Yunnan. Hetuanhui agents organized militias against the imperial government and stormed the Nanyang fortress in Nanhaiguan on December 9th 1917. This date is regarded as the start of the Nanyang Revolution. The Hetuanhui was initially dominated by the "Rightist" faction - supporters of a constitutional monarchy modeled after ????. However, as the Hetuanhui's National Restoration Army(NRA) marched on Yunnan, the Hexie Emperor suddenly died, likely assassinated by counter-revolutionary officials. In response, the Hetuanhui proclaimed a "Republic of Nanwen" with Nanhaiguan as its provisional capital. The NRA's march on Yunnan was abruptly halted on March 18th, 1918 as General Dai Yun carried out a coup against the remnants of the imperial government on the grounds that they had murdered the Hexie Emperor. Dai Yun signed an agreement with the Hetuanhui to make himself provisional President of the Republic of Nanwen in on May 8th 1918, re-uniting the country after the brief civil war.

However, this peace was short-lived as Dai Yun grew increasingly dictatorial and side-lined the revolutionaries in favor of a clique of former imperial officers. In 1919, he even had Zhang Siping arrested on charges of being a foreign spy. This led to the February 8th incident as a group of Hetuanhui members raided the prison Zhang Siping was imprisoned in, freed him, and brought him back to their stronghold of Nanhaiguan. Nanwen quickly collapsed into a second civil war between Zhang's government in Nanhaiguan and Dai's government in Yunnan. The pro-Zhang National Restoration Army and pro-Dai Harmonious Army clashed in a series of large battles along the East coast of Nanwen. The second civil war led to a collapse of government authority in the north, which was never really brought back under government control since 1912. The Autumn Harvest uprising led by Ngawang Dorji erupted in the northern provinces after the particularly disastrous series of floods. The rebels declared the "Federal State of Nanwen" with its capital in the highland city of Semkyinyida. Things were only further complicated with Zhang's sudden death in early 1920, leading to a splinter in the Hetuanhui. A moderate faction led by Ling Qiming formed the Constitutional Democratic Party(CDP) while the more radical faction associated with Long Meng and Cui Cao formed the National Revolutionary Party(NRP). The NRP quickly allied itself with the Semkyinyida-based government as well as the nascent Communist Party of Nanwen. Together they declared the formation of the National Unity Front of Nanwen and its National Liberation Army. The NLA clashed with both pro-CDP and pro-Dai forces throughout 1920. By 1921, the CDP had been crushed by Dai's Harmonious Army who held most of southern Nanwen against the NLA. In spring of 1922 the NLA launched its Southern Expedition, defeating Dai in the Beihai campaign. They took Yunnan on October 8th, 1922 declaring the formation the Federal Republic of Nanwen. Dai Yun fled into exile shortly after Yunnan was taken.

Politics
Nanwen is officially a federal multi-party semi-presidential republic. It is divided into 17 federal sujects consisting of 14 states, two municipalities, and a special territory. The constitution declares the country to be based in the unity of all national ethnic groups and classes, as well as the country's dedication to "overcoming the exploitation of man by man" and being "on the path to modern socialism". The country was a single-party state for most of the 20th century and continues to be one de facto. Nanwen has been variously described as corporatist and authoritarian. The government is based on the representation and inclusion of interest groups with a goal of maintaining order and sustained growth.

National Social Revolutionary Party
The government of Nanwen is effectively controlled by the National Revolutionary Front of Democratic Social Unity(NRF-DSU). It is also commonly referred to as the National Social Revolutionary Party(NSRP). While many parties are represented in the SPA, most are either satellite parties of the NRF-DSU or otherwise marginal. The NRF-DSU has held a super-majority in the SPA since its foundation. The party has also controlled the Premiership and Presidency since its foundation. The party is a result of the merger of the military-backed Democratic Unity Party and ex-Volkovist National Revolutionary Front in the aftermath of the Nanwenese Civil War. The party is an expansive organization that registers nearly a quarter of the population as members and has been characterized as a state within a state. The Chairman of the NRF-DSU is often reckoned as the true power in Nanwen, above both the President and Prime Minister. Since the foundation of the NRF-DSU, it has practiced a policy of collective leadership with high-level party leaders generally not holding state positions. The NRF-DSU's influence on Nanwen is pervasive and has been characterized as totalitarian, despite the ostensibly democratic functioning of the state. The NRF-DSU does not practice active manipulation of voter. However, elections are considered unfair as practically all media, schools, and workplaces are under NRF-DSU influence. In many electoral seats, the NRF-DSU or its allies are the only parties presenting candidates at all. The NRF-DSU has been accused of carrying out voter suppression and political persecution against its opponents through para-legal means.

The NRF-DSU is governed by its General Party Congress. The Party Congress is elected by all party cells across the country, it convenes once every three years. The General Congress elects the Central Committee, Censorate, Secretariat, and Chairman. The former three function as the executive, judicial, and judicial branches of the Party respectively, while the Chairman oversees activities of the other bodies. The Secretariat oversees a number of bureaus that shadow the state institutions of Nanwen and inform party policy in those areas ex. Party Foreign Affairs Research Office. It also oversees the Corporate Planning Council, consisting of representatives from all party cells in major firms and exerting de facto planning control over the Nanwenese Economy. The Central Committee is in charge of actually implementing policy and directly controls the party cells in every institution, it controls the shadow bureaus consisting of all nomenklatura in each institution. The most notable is the Politburo that effectively controls the Nanwenese government. The Censorate is considered the real court system of Nanwen and is able to censure and remove any members from the party with removal from state institutions being a rubber-stamp.

The NRF-DSU's own ideology is relatively vague. It is broadly nationalist and populist. The party also supports social corporatism and the unity of the ethnic groups of the nation. As a result of it being an amalgamation of various political movements, a number of currents exist within the party. They span from fascist groups to Neo-Volkovist ones. Internal elections within the NRF-DSU are extremely competitive and there fierce conflict between the factions. Liberals and developmentalist conservatives currently dominate the party. Despite this, in recent years the NRF-DSU has shifted towards the extreme. An Ignatovist influenced movement called the New People's Platform has also become increasingly influential alongside the ultranationalist National Revival Movement.

Government
The President of Nanwen serves as the head of state, convenes and dissolves the Supreme People's Assembly, and may veto legislation. The President rarely acts without the agreement of the Prime Minister. The position is usually held by an older party leader who is mainly tasked with maintaining the stability of the government and preventing chaos. It is currently held by Feng Lizheng who was the NRF-DSU leader from 1997 to 2005. The Prime Minister and State Council are elected by the Supreme People's Assembly at the recommendation of the President. The Prime Minister is in charge of the executive branch on a day-to-day basis and coordinates the work of the State Council. The state council consists of the heads of the various Commissariats of the Nanwenese Government. It may issue decrees by a majority vote of its members, though the decree must be reviewed and may be rejected by the Supreme People's Assembly.

The Supreme People's Assembly consists of the Council of Nationalities and the Council of People's Deputies. The former is elected by ethnic groups by ethnic voter rolls, proportional to the size of the rolls. The Council of the People's Deputies is the standing committee of the Congress of People's Deputies. The Congress of People's Deputies is a five part body that consists of the Committee of the Masses, the Committee of Corporations, the Committee of Social Organizations, Committee of Defense, and the Committee of Experts. The first three are elected by geographic electoral constituencies, employer organizations and trade unions, and social mass organizations respectively. The Committee of Defense is appointed by the military while the Committee of Experts is appointed by the State Council at the suggestion of the President or academic organizations. The Congress of People's Deputies is the ultimate power in the Nanwenese government. It is regularly convened every two years for a three week period where it reviews the activities of the government, denounces and removes unsatisfactory officials, issues pardons, amends the constitution, and elects the Council of People's Deputies. The Congress also has the power to revoke any legislation passed in the previous years. Each Committee of the Congress is convened somewhat more regularly to address issues relevant to their own constituents.

The Judicial branch consists of the Supreme Court and local courts appointed by the State Council at the suggestion of the President. Judicial independence in Nanwen is considered weak as judges are often tied to the party. The Chief Justice of the Supreme Court is elected by its members and oversees the entire judicial system. The Supreme Court is the second-highest court of appeals. However, with the approval of the State Council, a case may be presented to the Congress of People's Deputies.

Administrative Divisions
Nanwen is divided into 17 federal subjects. They include States, Municipalities, and Special Territories. The most common are the states, of which there are 14. States are meant to grant ethnic autonomy to a region and ethnic group. Most states trace their borders to the provinces of the Ji dynasty, however some are much younger. States have a large degree of political autonomy, they maintain state militias and have extensive regulatory power. States have the authority to form second-level administrative divisions as they wish, but all are divided into prefectures or prefectural cities. Nanwen has two municipalities, Semkyin and Yunnan, which is also the capital. Both have urban districts as second-level administrative divisions. Semkyin also has rural districts covering its non-urban area. The only special territory is Ninghui, a Hui and Muslim majority region in the north of the country. Ninghui was once known as the Northern Frontier Territory where it was the setting of the Northern Frontier War and Nanwen-Hydar War. During the war it was renamed Ninghui, but remained a territory with its own political status. Unlike states, Ninghui is governed in part by the Northern Development Corp, a militarized corporation that owns most economic enterprises in the are as well as providing a large paramilitary garrison. Prefectural divisions exist in Ninghui on paper only, in practice Ninghui is divided into operational zones, developmental zones, and urban zones with corporate officials in place.

Economy
Nanwen is characterized as "social market economy" and includes aspects of central planning, private ownership, and cooperative ownership. Nanwen is considered an upper-middle income economy with a GDP of 1.995 trillion(PPP) and 1.17 trillion nominally. The GDP per capita(PPP) is 18,949 and the nominal GDP is 11,322. The industrial sector is the largest with service marginally smaller, agriculture contributes the least to the GDP. Nanwen was historically an impoverished country owing to its lack of modernization until the mid 20th century. A period of strong economy growth under the single-party rule of the People's Revolutionary Front(PRF) was cut off by the brief Nanwenese Civil War, but the economy has since recovered and exceeded pre-war strength.

Despite no longer espousing communism, the Nanwenese government maintains strongly leftist economic policies in some areas. Certain industries considered of national importance remain in the hands of the state. This includes petroleum, metallurgy, shipping, a number of state insurance companies, and the state defense conglomerates. Another defining feature of the Nawenese economy is the presence of cooperatives at all levels of the economy. While PRF-era industrialization was spearheaded by state-owned firms, light industry and less centralized industries were filled by cooperatives established under the "Gonghe" system. Gonghe cooperatives continue to dominate some types of light industry, they are particularly influential in rural regions. During the privatizations in the 1990s, a number of large conglomerates with strong connections to the state were formed. These have become the titans of the consumer goods sector. Nanwen also has a relatively generous welfare state on paper, promising free healthcare and education, as well as cheap housing and insurance.

Nanwen's rapid technological advancement since the 1980s and especially since the 2000s have turned it from a nation based in heavy industry to one based in high-tech manufacturing and services. Nonetheless, heavy industry, particularly metallurgy remains one of the key industries of Nanwen. Exploitation of primary resources was a major industry until the 1980s, but it has increasingly been superseded by secondary industry. Nanwen is naturally not particularly rich in natural resources besides timber. Logging of rainforests was a major industry, but an increasingly environmentally conscious public has led to a decline in the industry in favor of tree plantations. With few exceptions, the large coastal cities are the linchpins of the Nanwen economy where factories produce secondary goods like electronics, chemicals, and automobiles. Stemming from its electronics production, information technology has become a key industry in Nanwen. As the country transitioned into an upper-middle class economy, the service industry has grown substantially, particularly in entertainment. The government has sought to promote Nanwenese culture overseas and support the culture industry in general through state-sponsored pop music and animation.

Economic Reforms
Economic reforms in Nanwen began in the aftermath of the Nanwenese Civil War. After the National Restoration Council seized power in 1992, it quickly issued a series of economic reforms based around the "shock therapy" doctrine. The start of the economic reforms saw aggressive austerity policies and mass privatization. Millions of workers were laid off and the economic decline only accelerated. A massive wave of unrest in early 1993 led to the formation of the NRF-DSU that subsequently took power over the state via an alliance with the NRC. The NRF-DSU reversed some of the economic reforms in favor of large-scale spending and re-nationalization of property of capitalists accused of "counter-revolutionary treason". Nonetheless, the NRF-DSU economy was far more liberalized compared to the pre-war economy.

One of the defining results of the Nanwenese reform were the caifa. These have become the titans of the consumer goods sector. These conglomerates have integrated with each other and the state into caifa or financial cliques. One of the dominant conflicts of the Nanwenese economy has been the question of the vertical integration of state-owned capital goods production and caifa controlled consumer good production. The caifa are particularly influential in the large Han-majority coastal cities. Caifa are typically dominated by a single family with each subdivision controlled by different family members. The parts of the caifa hold substantial shares in every other part, and the whole conglomerate is centered on a single bank. Unsurprisingly, the caifa families are mostly ethnically Han, of the seven largest, only one is not. The largest caifa are the ???(think of names here later). In recent years, the caifa have been accused of rent-seeking behavior and substantial violations of basic labor rights. There have been calls to restrain their behavior and even re-nationalization. However, the NRF-DSU is heavily dependent on the caifa for support and have not moved against them. The families that control the caifa are increasingly an economic nobility in Nanwen and wield significant power in the DSU-NRF.

Marketization of the Nanwenese economy has led to a rise in unemployment that was previously unknown as the state guaranteed employment. Newly unemployed workers supported the formation of a large informal economy of small merchants selling household goods and grey market goods from neighboring countries. As the Nanwenese economy recovered in the early 2000s and mass unemployment was alleviated, the existence of a large economy of small private businesses has persisted. Small business in Nanwen has struggled against the powerful caifa and state-owned industries, mainly competing against the cooperatives for market share. Due to the highly decentralized nature of independent small businesses, they are not as integrated into the social corporatist structure as other types of firms. As a result, the NRF-DSU has instituted a policy of "systematization" to convert small private businesses into cooperative federations or pressuring them to sell to SOEs and caifa.

Rural Economy
Agriculture has long been the biggest sector of the Nanwenese economy as the country had largely failed to industrialize in the 19th century. In contrast to the modernized urban economy, rural Nanwen remains highly socialist in its economic structure. This process started during the Yang-Wei era as part of the mass industrialization program. In light of the Guoist regime's industrialization and fear of conflict with Qingcheng and Hydar, Yang Kui favored a plan for aggressive expansion of production and population. To quickly centralize and expand rural production, the government organized cottage industry and agriculture in rural areas into cooperatives. While there was initially unrest and a decline in productivity, the introduction of more better agriculture technology and the end of feudalism relations quickly led to an increase in overall production. The green revolution only further increased production. Agriculture in Nanwen today is heavily mechanized and uses substantial amounts of synthetic chemicals to maintain a high output. However, the industrialization campaign was heavily centered on heavy industry and arms manufacturing. This left the countryside largely outside the scope of development plans and is started falling behind the cities in income. During the reform period, there was initially a movement to dissolve cooperative farms into private plots, however this was canceled by the NRF-DSU before it was implemented. As a result most rural cooperatives remain in place. In more connected rural areas of the Jinyang Savannah these rural cooperatives co-exist with SOEs and caifa, however, in the Sipsongchau where towns are much more isolated from each other and the coast, rural cooperatives are sometimes the sole firm. This results in the formation of cooperative villages, often called "People's Communes" or derogatorily as "socialism in one village". These villages effectively function as communist societies where all property is collectively owned and work is managed by the village council that also serves as the board of the village cooperative. Profits are usually directly used to purchase goods in bulk that are distributed for free as rations or simply free to take. People's Communes are usually centered on the specialized production on a small set of goods and are heavily dependent on exporting these goods to caifa or SOEs for external distribution. In recent years, People's Communes have banded together to mutually share goods as well as to collectively negotiate better bargains with urban distributers. As a result of the efficiency of their specialized production and lower prices, some People's Communes are relatively profitable enterprises. Some like the Deqen People's Commune known for its jade production are among the richest in all of Nanwen, though others that are more focused on agriculture goods remain among the poorest. Nonetheless, in recent years there has been a re-collectivization movement particularly in smaller villages that produce luxury goods.

Wealth Inequality
Since the economic reforms, Nanwen has become increasingly unequal.

The economic liberalization of Nanwen has led to a mass migration into the cities in search of work, however this has been limited by the residency system. People may only receive the benefits they are legally entitled to in their home districts, meaning rural migrants in the cities do not recieve free healthcare and education. The process of obtaining legal residency can only be achieved with five years of stable urban employment, therefore an underclass of unskilled migrant laborers have become a cornerstone of the Nanwen economy.

Religion
Nanwen is multi-religious country with no single religious group forming the majority. The Nanwenese Constitution guarantees freedom of religion and declares the state secular. During the rule of Yang Kui and Wei Leifeng, there were some state atheist measures mainly targeted at the Muslim Hui during the Northern Frontier War, however the state is relatively religiously tolerant today. Religious affairs are overseen by the Department of Spiritual Affairs in the Ministry of the Interior.

The oldest religion in Nanwen is the traditional religions practiced by the various ethnic groups of the region. Religious traditions among the same ethnic group remained diverse. Nonetheless, Nanwenese folk religion shares some commonalities such as worship of ancestors, animism, and pantheistic heaven worship. Both the Han and Qi worship heaven, which is called tian or Mubyasei respectively. The Han religion holds that the highest emanation of heaven is the Great Jade Emperor. The Jade Emperor, due to his particularly strong relation to the heavens, was able to command all the spirits of the world into the divine way or shendao and end the cosmic chaos that preceded him. The Jade Emperor created a pair of snake twins that gave birth to humanity. A universal conflict is waged between spirits that follow the divine way and those that seek to unseat the Jade Emperor by rejecting the divine way. A particularity of the Han traditional religion is that it does not explicitly establish which side is good in this struggle. Most worship is in service of the immediate material needs of the worshipper and is therefore ambivalent to this conflict. While most sects advocate spiritual cultivation in the service of the Jade Emperor, it is also prophesized that the Jade Emperor will one day be replaced and a new divine order established. Han religion is largely led by male priests and involves extensive prayer and rituals in honor of various deities. While animal sacrifices were once common in Han religion, it declined in the 7th century and was never restored, sacrifices of food or fake luxury goods remains common however.

While the Qi folk religion has similarities with the Han religion, it holds that the highest emanation of heaven is instead the Sun, which is recognized as a female deity. The Qi believe that people were born when the sun goddess mated with a mountain god and the first human came out of a cave in the Sipsongchau. As a result of worshipping a high goddess as the central deity of their religion, Qi religion is heavily centered on female shamans that also act as spiritual mediums. The Qi religion also believes that the essence of heaven exists in a semi-material form known as Chi. Chi can be passed from person to person based on objects and locations. By occupying a location of great Chi, a person may absorb some of the Chi there. The Qi religion involves worshipping elaborate stone totems which are imbued with significant Qi by priestesses. Every Qi clan has a totem