Yiguandao

Yiguandao (Chinese: 一貫道; pinyin: Yīguàn Dào; Wade–Giles: I-Kuan Tao), meaning the Consistent Way or Persistent Way is a Chinese religion that emerged from the Xiantiandao group of sects in 1930, in Shandong. Another name of the faith is Zhenli Tiandao (Chinese: 真理天道 "True Heavenly Way") or simply Tiandao (天道, "Way of Heaven"). Yiguandao was led by Zhang Tianran, who proclaimed himself as the eighteenth patriarch of the Xiantiandao lineage, among thousands of other sects that thrived since the collapse of the Qing dynasty in 1911.

In the 1930s Yiguandao was a local religion of Shandong with a few thousand followers, but under Zhang Tianran's leadership and with missionary work the group grew to become the biggest sect in China in the 1940s with millions of followers. After 1949, Xiantiandao sects were proscribed as illegal secret societies and heretical cults. While still banned in China, Yiguandao was legally recognised in Taiwan in 1987 and has flourished since then. Currently it is the third largest religion in the island.