moral reciprocity; together with two traditional concepts of fate and meaning: ming yun (), the personal destiny or burgeoning; and yuan fen (), “fateful coincidence”, good and bad chances and potential relationships. Yin and yang () is the polarity that describes the order of the universe, held in balance by the interaction of principles of “extension” () and principles of “returning” (), with yang ("act") usually preferred over yin ("receptiveness") in common religion. Ling (), "numen" or "sacred", is the "medium" of the two states and the inchoate order of creation. Terminology The Chinese language historically has not had a concept or overarching name for "religion". In English, the terms "popular religion" or "folk religion" have long been used to mean local religious life. In Chinese academic literature and common usage "folk religion" () refers to specific organised folk religious sects. Contemporary academic study of traditional cults and the creation of a government agency that gave legal status to this religion have created proposals to formalise names and deal more clearly with folk religious sects and help conceptualise research and administration. The terms that have been proposed include "Chinese native religion" or "Chinese indigenous religion" (), "Chinese ethnic religion" (), or "Chinese religion" () viewed as comparable to the usage of the term "Hinduism" for Indian religion. In Malaysia, reports the scholar Tan Chee-Beng, Chinese do not have a definite term for their traditional religion, which is not surprising because "the religion is diffused into various aspects of Chinese culture". They refer to their religion as bai fo or bai shen, which prompted Allan A. J. Elliott to suggest the term "shenism" (). Tan however, comments that is not the way the Chinese refer to their religion, which in any case includes worship of ancestors, not shen, and suggests it is logical to use "Chinese Religion". "Shenxianism" (, literally, "religion of deities and immortals"), is a term partly inspired by Elliott's neologism, "Shenism". In the late Qing dynasty scholars Yao Wendong and Chen Jialin used the term shenjiao not referring to Shinto as a definite religious system, but to local shin beliefs in Japan. Other terms are "folk cults" (), "spontaneous religion" (), "lived (or living) religion" (), "local religion" (), and "diffused religion" (). "Folk beliefs" (), is a seldom used term taken by scholars in colonial Taiwan from Japanese during Japan's occupation (1895–1945). It was used between the