# Yiguandao · The Cult Dossier · The Atlas · The Congregation of Tomorrow

Source: https://congregationoftomorrow.org/atlas/library/cults/137-yiguandao/ · The Congregation of Tomorrow · the Atlas · language: en
The same words a person sees on this page, nothing more and nothing hidden.
Our own words are free to use under CC BY 4.0 (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/), naming the Congregation of Tomorrow. Words of others keep their own terms.
Every page of the site, listed: https://congregationoftomorrow.org/ai/pages.json · the whole site in one file: https://congregationoftomorrow.org/llms-full.txt

← The Cult Dossier: all 182
The Cult Dossier · No. 137 · Syncretic / Other Nrm
Yiguandao
I-Kuan Tao; the Way of Pervading Unity
1930s – present · China; Taiwan; Southeast Asia; worldwide
XIII. FILLING THE GAPS — ASIA, AFRICA AND LATIN AMERICA
Fully religious — syncretic Chinese salvationist religion
### Who led it
### What it worshipped and taught
### Who was in it
### How it ended, or where it stands
### The dead
### Of note
### Its timeline
- 1930s–40s Explosive growth in mainland China; a claimed 12 million adherents.
- 1950–53 THE CCP LAUNCHES ITS FIRST NATIONWIDE CAMPAIGN AGAINST A RELIGION, targeting Yiguandao as a counter-revolutionary secret society. Hundreds of thousands are arrested; leaders executed; the movement is destroyed on the mainland.
- 1951 TOTALLY BANNED IN TAIWAN by the Kuomintang, across every branch, on suspicion of Communist infiltration — persecuted by both sides of the Chinese civil war simultaneously, as reactionary in Beijing and as Communist in Taipei.
- 1981 When the Taiwanese government begins considering lifting the ban, BAROC — the BUDDHIST ASSOCIATION OF THE REPUBLIC OF CHINA — ORGANISES A LOBBYING CAMPAIGN TO KEEP IT BANNED. One religion actively working to keep another illegal.
- 1987 Martial law ends; Yiguandao obtains legal status, and the Kuomintang government under CHIANG CHING-KUO ISSUES AN OFFICIAL APOLOGY for the previous persecution.
- 2005 810,000 FOLLOWERS IN TAIWAN — about 3.5 PER CENT OF THE ENTIRE POPULATION.
- OCTOBER 2024, REPORTED 4 DECEMBER CHINA DETAINS THREE TAIWANESE I-KUAN TAO FOLLOWERS, all in their seventies, in a raid on a scripture reading in a private house in ZHONGSHAN, Guangdong. They are held on suspicion of ORGANISING AND PRACTISING AS MEMBERS OF A CULT THAT UNDERMINES LAW ENFORCEMENT — the xie jiao offence of entry 150. Taiwan’s Mainland Affairs Council asks for their release.
- SEPTEMBER 2025 Chinese state media publishes a lengthy 'investigation' alleging Yiguandao infiltration of Chinese classrooms and politics — the 1950s campaign restated in contemporary language.
- 1990s–present Spreads through Southeast Asia and the Chinese diaspora; several million adherents worldwide.
The Atlas The Door