|
Xiwangmu
The Queen Mother of the West, known by various local names, is a mother goddess in Chinese religion and mythology, also worshipped in neighbouring Asian countries, and attested from ancient times. From her name alone some of her most important characteristics are revealed: she is royal, female, and is associated with the west. The first historical information on her can be traced back to oracle bone inscriptions of the 15th century BCE that record sacrifices to a "Western Mother". Even though these inscriptions illustrate that she predates organized Taoism, she is most often associated with Taoism. The growing popularity of the Queen Mother of the West, as well as the beliefs that she was the dispenser of prosperity, longevity, and eternal bliss, took place during Han dynasty, in the 2nd century BCE, when the northern and western parts of China were able to be better known because of the opening of the Silk Road. Names ''Queen Mother of the West'' is a calque of Xiwangmu i ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Kunlun (mythology)
The Kunlun () or Kunlun Shan is a mountain or mountain range in Chinese mythology, an important symbol representing the ''axis mundi'' and divinity. The mythological Kunlun is based on various sources — mythologic and geographic — of the modern so-called Kunlun Mountains of the Tibetan Plateau and Mount Kailash (as an archetypal ''omphalos''). The term "Kunlun" has also been applied to Southeastern Asian lands or islands and seemingly even Africa — although the relationship to the mountain is not clear beyond the nomenclature. In any case, Kunlun refers to distant, exotic, and mysterious places. Different locations of Kunlun have been ascribed in the various legends, myths, and semi-historical accounts in which it appears. These accounts typically describe Kunlun as the dwelling place of various gods and goddesses where fabled plants and mythical creatures may also be found. Many important events in Chinese mythology were based around Kunlun. Historical development As th ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
King Father Of The East
King Father of the East, also known as Dongwanggong (東王公), is the tutelary deity of the Taoist immortals. Legends say that the King Father of the East is the consort of Queen Mother of the West. He is the manifestation of yang energy. Legends When the Queen Mother of the West (Xiwangmu) was a mountain demon, she was in love with the King Father of the East (Dongwanggong). Xiwangmu ruled the west and Dongwanggong ruled the east. In some versions of the Chinese creation myth, the two lovers created humanity through their union. According to one text in the ''Classic of Mountains and Seas'', there was a bronze pillar on Kunlun Mountain that was so tall that it reached the sky. On top of this column, there was a huge bird named Xiyou (literally meaning "rare"). Under its left-wing, it held Dongwanggong and under its right wing, it held Xiwangmu. When Xiwangmu first met Dongwanggong, she had to climb onto the bird's wing to reach him. In another account, Dongwanggong lived in ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Chinese Folk Religion
Chinese folk religion, also known as Chinese popular religion comprehends a range of traditional religious practices of Han Chinese, including the Chinese diaspora. Vivienne Wee described it as "an empty bowl, which can variously be filled with the contents of institutionalised religions such as Buddhism, Taoism, Confucianism, the Chinese syncretic religions". This includes the veneration of ''shen'' (spirits) and ancestors, exorcism of demonic forces, and a belief in the rational order of nature, balance in the universe and reality that can be influenced by human beings and their rulers, as well as spirits and gods. Worship is devoted to gods and immortals, who can be deities of places or natural phenomena, of human behaviour, or founders of family lineages. Stories of these gods are collected into the body of Chinese mythology. By the Song dynasty (960-1279), these practices had been blended with Buddhist doctrines and Taoist teachings to form the popular relig ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Chinese Mythology
Chinese mythology () is mythology that has been passed down in oral form or recorded in literature in the geographic area now known as Greater China. Chinese mythology includes many varied myths from regional and cultural traditions. Much of the mythology involves exciting stories full of fantastic people and beings, the use of magical powers, often taking place in an exotic mythological place or time. Like many mythologies, Chinese mythology has in the past been believed to be, at least in part, a factual recording of history. Along with Chinese folklore, Chinese mythology forms an important part of Chinese folk religion. Many stories regarding characters and events of the distant past have a double tradition: ones which present a more historicized or euhemerized version and ones which present a more mythological version. Many myths involve the creation and cosmology of the universe and its deities and inhabitants. Some mythology involves creation myths, the origin of things ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Lake Heihai
Lake Heihai is a small meso saline lake in Golmud County, Haixi Prefecture, Qinghai Province, in western China. Names "Lake Heihai" is an English clarification of the pinyin romanization of the Chinese name meaning . (As with Qinghai Lake, the Chinese word for "sea" is sometimes used to translate the Mongolian ''naɣur'' (), which was once used ambiguously for all large bodies of water.) The lake is also known as ("Jade Pond of the Queen Mother of the West") from an old legendary location in the Kunlun Mountains and sometimes confused with Lake Hala in the Qilian Mountains. Geography Lake Heihai is located about south of the city of Golmud in Golmud County, Haixi Prefecture, Qinghai Province, at an elevation of or above sea level in western China. It lies in a valley roughly long and wide between the Kunlun Mountains (highest elevation about ) to the south and the Burhan Buda (highest elevation about ) to the north. Earthquakes are common, as the lake lies near t ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Peaches Of Immortality
In Chinese mythology, Peaches of Immortality ( or ) are consumed by the immortals due to their mystic virtue of conferring longevity on all who eat them. Peaches symbolizing immortality (or the wish for a long and healthy life) are a common symbol in Chinese art, appearing in depictions or descriptions in a number of fables, paintings, and other forms of art, often in association with thematically similar iconography, such as certain deities or immortals or other symbols of longevity, such as deer or cranes. Peach banquets The Jade Emperor and his wife Xi Wangmu (Queen Mother of the West) ensured the deities' everlasting existence by feasting them with the peaches of immortality. The immortals residing in the palace of Xi Wangmu were said to celebrate an extravagant banquet called the "Feast of Peaches" (, or ), celebrated on earth in honor (birthday) of Xi Wangmu on the 3rd day of the 3rd moon month. The immortals wait six thousand years before gathering for this magnificent ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Zhou Dynasty
The Zhou dynasty ( ; Old Chinese ( B&S): *''tiw'') was a royal dynasty of China that followed the Shang dynasty. Having lasted 789 years, the Zhou dynasty was the longest dynastic regime in Chinese history. The military control of China by the royal house, surnamed Ji, lasted initially from 1046 until 771 BC for a period known as the Western Zhou, and the political sphere of influence it created continued well into the Eastern Zhou period for another 500 years. The establishment date of 1046 BC is supported by the Xia–Shang–Zhou Chronology Project and David Pankenier, but David Nivison and Edward L. Shaughnessy date the establishment to 1045 BC. During the Zhou dynasty, centralized power decreased throughout the Spring and Autumn period until the Warring States period in the last two centuries of the dynasty. In the latter period, the Zhou court had little control over its constituent states that were at war with each other until the Qin state consolidated power ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Classic Of Mountains And Seas
The ''Classic of Mountains and Seas'', also known as ''Shan Hai Jing'', formerly romanized as the ''Shan-hai Ching'', is a Chinese classic text and a compilation of mythic geography and beasts. Early versions of the text may have existed since the 4th century BCE, but the present form was not reached until the early Han dynasty. It is largely a fabulous geographical and cultural account of pre- Qin China as well as a collection of Chinese mythology. The book is divided into eighteen sections; it describes over 550 mountains and 300 channels. Authorship The exact author(s) of the book and the time it was written are still undetermined. It was originally thought that mythical figures such as Yu the Great or Boyi wrote the book. However, the consensus among modern Sinologists is that the book was not written at a single time by a single author, but rather by numerous people from the period of the Warring States to the beginning of the Han dynasty. The first known editor o ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Qing Dynasty
The Qing dynasty ( ), officially the Great Qing,, was a Manchu-led imperial dynasty of China and the last orthodox dynasty in Chinese history. It emerged from the Later Jin dynasty founded by the Jianzhou Jurchens, a Tungusic-speaking ethnic group who unified other Jurchen tribes to form a new "Manchu" ethnic identity. The dynasty was officially proclaimed in 1636 in Manchuria (modern-day Northeast China and Outer Manchuria). It seized control of Beijing in 1644, then later expanded its rule over the whole of China proper and Taiwan, and finally expanded into Inner Asia. The dynasty lasted until 1912 when it was overthrown in the Xinhai Revolution. In orthodox Chinese historiography, the Qing dynasty was preceded by the Ming dynasty and succeeded by the Republic of China. The multiethnic Qing dynasty lasted for almost three centuries and assembled the territorial base for modern China. It was the largest imperial dynasty in the history of China and in 1790 ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Kalpa (aeon)
A ''kalpa'' is a long period of time (aeon) in Hindu and Buddhist cosmology, generally between the creation and recreation of a world or universe. Etymology ''Kalpa'' ( sa, कल्प, , a formation or creation) in this context, means "a long period of time (aeon) related to the lifetime of the universe (creation)." It is derived from ''कॢप्'' (kḷp) + -अ (-a, nominalizing suffix) ( sa, कॢप्, kḷp, to create, prepare, form, produce, compose, invent). Hinduism In Hinduism, a ''kalpa'' is equal to 4.32 billion years, a "day of Brahma" (12-hour day proper) or one thousand '' mahayugas'', measuring the duration of the world. Each ''kalpa'' is divided into 14 ''manvantara'' periods, each lasting 71 ''Yuga Cycles'' (306,720,000 years). Preceding the first and following each ''manvantara'' period is a juncture (''sandhya'') equal to the length of a ''Satya Yuga'' (1,728,000 years). A ''kalpa'' is followed by a ''pralaya'' (dissolution) of equa ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Numina
Numen (plural numina) is a Latin term for " divinity", "divine presence", or "divine will." The Latin authors defined it as follows:For a more extensive account, refer to Cicero writes of a "divine mind" (''divina mens''), a god "whose numen everything obeys," and a "divine power" (''vis divina'') "which pervades the lives of men." It causes the motions and cries of birds during augury. In Virgil's recounting of the blinding of the one-eyed giant, Polyphemus, from the Odyssey, in his Aeneid, he has Odysseus and his men first "ask for the assistance of the great numina" (''magna precati numina''). Reviewing public opinion of Augustus on the day of his funeral, the historian Tacitus reports that some thought "no honor was left to the gods" when he "established the cult of himself" (''se ... coli vellet'') "with temples and the effigies of numina" (''effigie numinum''). Pliny the younger in a letter to Paternus raves about the "power," the "dignity," and "the majesty;" in shor ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Big Dipper
The Big Dipper ( US, Canada) or the Plough ( UK, Ireland) is a large asterism consisting of seven bright stars of the constellation Ursa Major; six of them are of second magnitude and one, Megrez (δ), of third magnitude. Four define a "bowl" or "body" and three define a "handle" or "head". It is recognized as a distinct grouping in many cultures. The North Star (Polaris), the current northern pole star and the tip of the handle of the Little Dipper (Little Bear), can be located by extending an imaginary line through the front two stars of the asterism, Merak (β) and Dubhe (α). This makes it useful in celestial navigation. Names and places The constellation of ''Ursa Major'' (Latin: Greater Bear) has been seen as a bear, a wagon, or a ladle. The "bear" tradition is Indo-European (appearing in Greek, as well as in Vedic India), but apparently the name "bear" has parallels in Siberian or North American traditions. European astronomy The name "Bear" is Homeric, and ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
.jpg "Click for more on -> Chinese Folk Religion")
