活躍於套清兩代的民間秘密宗教是由佛道等正信宗教衍化而來的世俗化新興教門，雜糅儒釋道思想而流佈於下層社會，透過治療消災、避禍致福等平易近人的方式招引信眾，也因其異端思想而屢遭政府取締。雖然教門林立、抜派叢生的民間秘密宗教直到近代也沒有發展成為一元性的宗教，但其末劫、彌勒下凡、真空家鄉、無生老母等通俗淺顯的教義卻廣為普通民眾所接受，也深獲學者重視，尤其近十年來海岸兩岸研究成果豐碩，本文就相關研究作一回顧，分為民間秘密宗教綜述、各種秘密教派專述、寶卷研究與思想信仰、官方的禁教與教派的起事、教派人物介紹五個部分進行介紹與評論。

Popular in Ming-Ch’ing, the folk secret religion was a common and new sect. the folk secret religion was transformed form Buddhism; it also combined with Confucianism and Taosim. Using easy ways to attract people, for example, healing diseases and avoiding disasters, it was believed buy low-ranking people. However, it was banned by the government because of its unusual thinking. Thought it had many branches, it has never been united. But people and scholars pay much more attention to some popular literature, such as mo-chieh, Mi-le, chen-k’ung chia-hsiang, and wu-sheng lau-mu. Therefore, there are lots of research papers in Mainland China and Taiwan in the last decade. This article will give introductions and criticism of related research. It is divided into five parts: the summary of the folk secret religion, the specific description of all kinds of secret sects, the research of Pan-chüan and faith, the government’s ban for religions and the sects’ rebellions, and the introduction of sect heads.