The State Religion of the Great Ri (大日國教，alternately 昊天正教 Vast Sky Orthodox Religion） was the state-sponsored syncretic religious system practiced by the imperial family and most of the conquest elite of the Yonggan during their ascendency. The Ri emperors also patronized a variety of other religious faiths, including especially those of the Air Nomad religious tradition and the folk religion of the Earth Kingdom.
At the root of Ri state religion is traditional Yonggan shamanism, as it developed under the pre-dynastic Nara Yonggan khagans. Yonggan religious thought was influenced by cultural contact with the Gan Jin and Abka. By the 1000s BG, it was a henotheistic religion worshiping the heaven-god Abkaiten ("Foundation of Heaven"), which developed into monotheism in which the other divinities and spirits of the Yonggan pantheon were interpreted as aspects or persons of Abkaiten. A hierarchal relationship of divine aspects was postulated, with Abkaiten's four coequal chief aspects being the goddesses Muke and Tuwa, and the gods Na and Edun. Respectively, they personify water, fire, earth, and air. The hierarchy goes much farther down, to the level of clan, family, and personal spiritual beings associated with individual humans; mystical thought, considered orthodox since the Shenxing era, extends this hierarchy to include to humans and animals themselves, who are considered themselves (rather humble) members of the divine hierarchy.
Other major influences include the Air Nomad religious tradition, particularly the traditions of the Southern and Eastern Air Temples, and the indigenous religion of the Central Earth Kingdom.
Except among the Nara in exile, most contemporary Yonggan Shamans consider the Great Ri state religion to be heretical, corrupted by foreign influences and political considerations.
Divinities and Spirits
The state religion postulates a spiritual hierarchy. At the top is Abkaiten, the ultimate divinity of which all others are aspects or persons. Under them are the four elemental gods. Under these are various great spirits, subdivided into three ranks, and then ordinary spirits, of which there are two ranks. At the bottom are mortal such as humans, the lowest ranking of fully ensouled (and hence divine) beings.
Abkaiten, translated as "Heaven" rather than "Foundation of Heaven" under syncretic influence from the contemporary official religion of the Central Earth Kingdom, is the monotheistic God of the state religion. All living things are a part (however humble) of this ineffable, supreme, God. In some Ri thought, Abkaiten is an impersonal source of fate or destiny mediating a principle of karma, or the thought-form of natural law in the minds of all rational creatures. Abkaiten is not a creator god, insofar as their involvement in the creation of the world was not an intended act. (See Cosmology.) Abkaiten does not have a gender; we here translate their pronouns as third-person plural, which is customary in Yonggan as well (though there is not general use of the third person plural for genderless or gender-neutral beings in that language.)
Na is the elemental god of Earth, and is thought to be the patron of the Earth Kingdom. Some Yonggan consider him to be the greatest of the elemental gods, whereas the Abka, who also believe in the four elemental divinities, consider Edun the greatest. Neither of these opinions were accepted by the state religion except in its earliest phase; rather, it firmly considered the elemental divinities coequal. This surprising fact probably reflected ambitions of universal rulership and Air Nomad syncretism.
Muke, the elemental goddess of Water, patron of the Water Tribes (and identified with spiritual figures in their traditions by the state religion, although this identification was never accepted more than ambivalently by the Water Tribes).
Edun, the elemental god of Air, patron of the Air Nomads (as with the Water Tribes, acceptance of this identification was mostly limited to cultural contact with the Great Ri, though given the dynasty's patronage, it gained more currency in the Southern Air Temple.)
Tuwa, the elemental goddess of Fire and patron of the Fire Nation. The State Religion identified Tuwa with a goddess in the religion of the Fire Nation, which was generally accepted by the Fire Nation in intercultural correspondence. Notably, both the dynasty of the Fire Lords and the Nara claimed descent from Tuwa, the former directly, the later through a great mountain volcano spirit borne to Tuwa.
Niohon Abka, an aspect of Edun (in traditional Yonggan religion, he is a great spirit fathered by Edun; in Abka shamanism, Niohon Abka is simply an epithet of Edun), the Eternal Blue Sky. Considered by the state religion as the patron of nomadic peoples, reflecting on a supposed cultural similarity between Abka nomads in the northern and western periphery of the Earth Kingdom, and the Air Nomads.
Foson, a great spirit whose domain is Sunlight, an aspect of Tuwa to the Ri; to Yonggan antecedents, variously the eldest daughter of Abkaiten or Tuwa and the goddess of the sun.
Alin, a great spirit whose domain is mountains, an aspect of Na to the Ri, but in prior Yonggan religion, a son of Na.
Cosmology
At the beginning of time, Abkaiten begat their four chief aspects, and having developed a distinction of personality, they entered into conflict with each other. The creation of the material world was the result of the internal conflict between the chief aspects of Abkaiten, the elemental divinities Muke, Tuwa, Na and Edun.
The world is conceptualized as a sphere, but the surface on which human activity is focused is thought to be circular section of the sphere, dividing it into the sky above and depths below. The sky is the domain of air and water, the depths of earth and fire. Under the Great Ri, it was understood scientifically that the world was a sphere, and the traditional cosmology was interpreted mystically. This is considered a point of disagreement with traditional Yonggan shamanism which interprets the cosmology more literally.
The spirit world is considered to mirror the physical world in terms of its general shape, with the common afterlife (see below) through which rational souls pass on their way to rebirth being underground in the spirit world.
Souls and Afterlife
Living things have up to three souls. The rational soul is processed only by rational creatures such as humans and spirits that talk. The animal soul is possessed by all motile animals (including humans); whether or not spirits have an animal soul is a topic of religious debate. The vegetal soul is possessed by all living things, including plants, fungus, sessile invertebrates, etc.
In the process of reincarnation, each soul goes its way separately; animal and vegetable souls do not have moral responsibility and are reincarnated immediately. The rational soul is subject to spiritual trials in the afterlife before it is reincarnated; this is envisioned as a journey through a twisting, maze-like netherworld inhabited by spirits native to the place as well as transient rational souls. Depending on the karma of the decedent, it may take a longer or shorter time to pass through, with the experience of privations or happiness in the netherworld. However, there are not separate "good" and "bad" afterlives.
Through extinguishment of selfish attachment and knowledge of the illusory nature of individual consciousness, an enlightened being can escape the cycle of reincarnation and be subsumed into a higher level of divine being, ultimately (eschatologically) into Abkaiten.
Reincarnation is generally into the same sort of being; the rational soul of a human can't "come back" as an animal because an animal has no rational soul. (This distinction is a point of contrast with the Air Nomad religion, in which reincarnation of a unitary soul from humans to animals or the reverse is thought to be possible.) However, an animal could get the animal soul of a human or vis-versa. In traditional Yonggan shamanism this belief was tied into a system of totem animals; these beliefs were never repudiated by the state religion but were not emphasized in it. They did remain important in the private religious lives of many of the conquest elite, however. A human rational soul could reincarnate into a spirit, or visa-versa, but spirits rarely die, so this is thought to be unusual.
Ensoulment is thought to occur at different ages for each soul. The vegetal soul is obtained at the beginning of pregnancy. The animal soul arrives at quickening. When the rational soul enters the body is subject to debate but generally thought to be after birth, the orthodox state religion deemed it to occur at the child's first production of an intelligible word or other "rational act," the specifics of which were not agreed upon by various sects. The State Religion taught against infanticide except in cases of mercy-killing seriously deformed infants, but it was common among the pre-conquest Yonggan in lean times. The Jianen Emperor forbade infanticide after three months of age in the dynastic regulations; killing a child after this age was considered murder even if done by the parents. Later, the Shenxing Emperor forbade it altogether except for cases of serious deformity evident at the time of birth, essentially bringing the dynastic regulations into harmony with the religious teaching.
Because of the belief in reincarnation, infanticide was conceptualized as "sending back" the baby, hopefully to be reincarnated in more favorable circumstances elsewhere.
It was thought that sometimes the rational soul failed to associate with a body at all, and that this was the explanation for why some people never become able to speak or otherwise act rationally.
Eschatology
The state religion was generally hostile to millenarian expectations and spoke little of eschatology; none of its public teaching or ritual involved it. Among theologians and elite, there was some eschatological speculation. Generally, they anticipated, in the distant future, universal escape from reincarnation and the progressive subsuming of lower orders of life back into Abkaiten, with the ultimate fate of the universe being a return to perfect, unchanging tranquility.
Philosophical Thought
Strife is considered inherent to personal existence. (Peace is ultimately through the extinguishment of the self and being subsumed into a higher level of divinity, ultimately into the pleroma of Abkaiten, ending the cycle of reincarnation.)
Through the state religion, the Great Ri promoted the idea that different people were inherently suited for different social positions. While not denying that someone could be destined to "move up" (or down) in the world, most people were thought to be incarnated at a level appropriate for their talents. The relative emphasis on these conflicting ideas varied depending on the era. Thought it is considered an extreme view, some early teachers during the Yonggan ascendancy even promoted the idea that some peoples were naturally servile and ought to be subjugated by those who were born to rule; this thinking was abrogated by the Ri emperors attempting to move their regime away from being an occupied conquest state and instead forge a multi-ethnic national identity for the empire.
Military and economic success were considered proof of a Divine mandate to rulership. The idea that a morally worthy ruler could nonetheless be defeated was inimical to the state religion. The Nara in exile are divided about this idea; some have kept to it and see the failure of the Great Ri as punishment for the moral failings of the later rulers in the dynasty, others believe that being overthrown by "treachery" is not proof of immorality. This concept is also considered to apply to individual circumstances to some extent; poverty that is not the conspicuous result of disaster or other external circumstances is often attributed to moral failing or karmic debt.
Praxis and Morality
The State Religion was in many ways centered around large public rituals associated with holidays and life-cycle events in the Imperial family, and more private rituals to mark life events of ordinary people. It concerned itself with maintaining the spiritual connection between the ruling elite and the "grain and soil" of the country. Ritual purity requirements were mostly for direct participants and not a daily matter. There were no taboos on common foods. Pepper-nut chewing, alcohol, and excessively spicy foods were frowned upon by many religious authorities. Under the influence of the Air Nomad religion, particularly during the Shenxing reign, nonviolence and compassion began to be emphasized more.
Virginity was not highly valued by the Yonggan, and premarital sex was the norm. However, sexual continence within marriage was strongly expected, and before the Renxian reign, the dynastic regulations provided for heterosexual adultery as a capital offense for both offenders. Polygamy was practiced and considered a mark of high status. Some state rituals required the participation of the wife of the monarch. There was only one Ri Empress, the Earth Monarch of the Jinglian era. Prior to her ascension to the throne, she had only a husband, but afterward took an additional husband and, later, also a wife (it is unclear if her wife was a female or not, and whether or not this person was a lover of the Empress or if the marriage was for ritual purposes only; while the existence of all of these people is acknowledged in Yonggan records, they do not give details. Conversely, Hao Ting polemicists made much of the Empress' marital situation and it is unclear what, if anything of their writings, was based on reality.)
Among the Nara in exile, monogamy is the norm, with only high-ranking nobles practicing polygamy. Distinction is made between the primary wife/husband and secondary spouses, in terms of inheritance rights of children. Usually, the primary spouse is the first spouse. The State Religion did not allow a primary spouse to be deposed from that position in favor of a later-married spouse, but it could be contractually agreed before the marriage that the first-married spouse would not become the primary spouse, etc. For example, a noble family might wish to secure their succession by marrying their son early so he could give them legitimate grandchildren, but later obtain a favorable political marriage for him as well if the opportunity arose, in which case his original wife would be demoted to secondary spouse and his children from the new marriage would take priority in succession over the secondary wife's children. This could only be done if the original marriage contract provided for it, if it did not, they could only offer the unattractive prospect of being a secondary wife to a political match.
The State Religion did not address homosexuality as such. Homosexual affairs were not considered to be adultery against a spouse. Same sex romance is certainly attested in the literature of the period, but same-sex marriage is not, with the notable exception of the Jinglian earth monarch. She took a wife, possibly because of clerical-scholarly uncertainty as to whether or not a husband could substitute for the "emperor's wife" in state rituals when the monarch was herself a woman. It is not known if the Jingling empress and her legal wife were lovers or not.
Writings
The State Religion has manuals of praxis, and its priests were quite productive in writing down their philosophical and religious thought. However, there is no written canon of belief as opposed to canonical rituals. Which writings practitioners ascribed religious authority to varied significantly, often with the shifting of the sectarian balance of power in the capital. None were considered divinely inspired in the sense of being the very word of (any) God, though many are said to be based on contact with spiritual beings of various sorts or travel in the spirit world and may quote from their purported utterances to the human writers.
The written compilation of Yonggan oral traditions was patronized by the State Religion, but there were active discussions about which material was ancient and authentic, and how this scholarship should affect ritual praxis, if at all.
Symbols
The symbol of the State Religion of the Great Ri is a four-fold symbol similar to the Yin-Yang, ࿌. The symbol is likely inspired by similar symbols used in Angjiao, and represents the harmony between the four elements, and may also be seen with rays implying a solar disc, possibly in reference to the name of the Dynasty or its mythic history. It is not used in Traditional Yonggan or Abka shamanism.
Holy Places
Besides the sacred mountains and other numinous sites of Yonggan shamanism, the most sacred site of the State Religion as such was the Hall of Sublime Earth (崇高土殿) in the Earth-Viewing-Heaven Cave, a large pit cave in the Karst topography of the mountains within the agricultural zone of Ba Sing Se. A small rustic shrine and hermitage predates the Sublime Earth Temple by centuries; the current structure was built by the Jianen Emperor near the end of his life. The Ri structure continued to be used by the Hao Ting after the fall of the Ri dynasty, up until the suppression of the Earth Sages, after which it fell into disrepair. Every monarch of the Great Ri (sensu stricto, excluding the Northern Ri) went through pre-enthronement rites there and worshiped Na, the divine Earth Spirit, supposedly receiving guiding visions. The Earth Kingdom's search for the Yaoping Avatar began at this site, using a geomantic ritual. Much later, a possibly-apocryphal anecdote in the Qindadi Waishi (Unofficial History of Emperor Chin) claims that Qin the Great, during his rebellion, was spirited to the Sublime Earth Hall by the lapsed Air Nomad nun and airbending master Choden. There is only ambiguous evidence in temple records of this visit taking place.