Way of Former Heaven

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The Way of Former Heaven, or Hsien-t'ien tao or Xian Tian Tao (先天道) encompasses five religious groups of Chinese origin. They claim to strive for unification of Christianity, Islam, Confucianism, Taoism, and Buddhism. They were violently suppressed by the People's Republic of China. The sum of adherents of these groups possibly exceeded 5 million in 1947.

The sect can be traced up to the Yuan dynasty (1271-1368). It is usually referred as White Lotus or 'Motherist' or 'Maternist sectarianism'. The term White Lotus religion (Bai Lian Jiao) has a negative meaning in Taiwan and is associated with secret, illegal, rebellious sects. Xian Tian Tao doctrine believes the creator of the universe was Wu Sheng Lao Mu 無生老母 (The Unborn or Venerable Mother) which created all live beings, 9.6 billion in total. These children went astray and ended up in the earthly world where they forgot their divine origin. The wheel of reincarnation started and the return to heaven was no longer possible. For this reason, the merciful Venerable Mother sent a range of envoys to bring Her children back to Heaven. The Dipankara (or Dipamkara) Buddha 燃燈佛 (Ran Teng Fo) saved 200 million suffering children as the first salvage. Sakyamuni or Gautama Buddha afterwards saved another 200 million. The remaining 9.2 billion live beings will be saved by the Buddha of the future, Maitreya Buddha. See Three periods according to historical Buddha's passing.

The founder of Xian Tian Dao is Huang Dehui 黃德輝 (1624-1690). Both I Kuan Tao and Xian Tian Tao considered him the 9th patriarch. Some of the teachings are derived from Luo Sect 羅教 with founder Luo Qing 羅清 (1442-1527). Huang Dehui adopted him as his teacher saying that a mandate was transferred to him by the spirit. The patriarch lineage of Xian Tian Tao continued for 4 more generations until the 13th patriarch around 1828. From then many sub-sects emerged including I Kuan Tao.