in the devotee's heart, the deity has to prove their efficacy. In exchange for divine favours, a faithful honours the deity with vows (huan yuan or xu yuan ), through individual worship, reverence and respect (jing shen ). The most common display of divine power is the cure of diseases after a believer piously requests aid. Another manifestation is granting a request of children. The deity may also manifest through mediumship, entering the body of a shaman-medium and speaking through them. There have been cases of people curing illnesses "on behalf of a god" (ti shen zhi bing ). Gods may also speak to people when they are asleep (tuomeng ). Sociological typology Wu Hsin-Chao (2014) distinguishes four kinds of Chinese traditional religious organisation: ancestry worship; deity worship; secret societies; and folk religious sects. Types of indigenous—ethnic religion Worship of local and national deities Chinese religion in its communal expression involves the worship of gods that are the generative power and tutelary spirit (genius loci) of a locality or a certain aspect of nature (for example water gods, river gods, fire gods, mountain gods), or of gods that are common ancestors of a village, a larger identity, or the Chinese nation (Shennong, Huangdi, Pangu). The social structure of this religion is the shénshè (literally "society of a god"), synonymous with shehui , in which shè originally meant the altar of a community's earth god, while huì means "association", "assembly", "church" or "gathering". This type of religious trusts can be dedicated to a god which is bound to a single village or temple or to a god which has a wider following, in multiple villages, provinces or even a national importance. Mao Zedong distinguished "god associations", "village communities" and "temple associations" in his analysis of religious trusts. In his words: "every kind and type of god [shen] can have an association [hui]", for example the Zhaogong Association, the Guanyin Association, the Guangong Association, the Dashen Association, the Bogong Association, the Wenchang Association, and the like. Within the category of hui Mao also distinguished the sacrifice associations (jiàohuì ) which make sacrifices in honour of gods. These societies organise gatherings and festivals (miaohui ) participated by members of the whole village or larger community on the occasions of what are believed to be the birthdays of the gods or other events, or to seek protection from droughts, epidemics, and other disasters. Such