Chinese deities

Chinese traditional religion is polytheistic; many deities are worshipped in a pantheistic view where divinity is inherent in the world. The gods are energies or principles revealing, imitating and propagating the way of Heaven (''Tian'' ), which is the supreme godhead manifesting in the northern culmen of the starry vault of the skies and its order. Many gods are ancestors or men who became deities for their heavenly achievements; most gods are also identified with stars and constellations. Ancestors are regarded as the equivalent of Heaven within human society, and therefore as the means connecting back to Heaven, which is the "utmost ancestral father" ( ''zēngzǔfù'').

Gods are innumerable, as every phenomenon has or is one or more gods, and they are organised in a complex celestial hierarchy. Besides the traditional worship of these entities, Confucianism, Taoism and formal thinkers in general give theological interpretations affirming a monistic essence of divinity. "Polytheism" and "monotheism" are categories derived from Western religion and do not fit Chinese religion, which has never conceived the two things as opposites. Since all gods are considered manifestations of ''qì'', the "power" or ''pneuma'' of Heaven, some scholars have employed the term "polypneumatism" or "(poly)pneumatolatry", first coined by Walter Medhurst (1796–1857), to describe the practice of Chinese polytheism. In the theology of the classic texts and Confucianism, "Heaven is the lord of the hundreds of deities". Modern Confucian theology compares them to intelligence, substantial forms or entelechies (inner purposes) as explained by Leibniz, generating all types of beings, so that "even mountains and rivers are worshipped as something capable of enjoying sacrificial offerings".

Unlike in Hinduism, the deification of historical persons and ancestors is not traditionally the duty of Confucians or Taoists. Rather depends on the choices of common people; persons are deified when they have made extraordinary deeds and have left an efficacious legacy. Yet, Confucians and Taoists traditionally may demand that state honour be granted to a particular deity. Each deity has a cult centre and ancestral temple where he or she, or the parents, lived their mortal life. There are frequently disputes over which is the original place and source temple of the cult of a deity.

Terminology

In Chinese language there is a terminological distinction between ''shén'', ''dì'' and '' xiān''. Although the usage of the former two is sometimes blurred, it corresponds to the distinction in Western cultures between "god" and "deity", Latin ''genius'' (meaning a generative principle, "spirit") and ''deus'' or 'Deva' (Sanskrit) and ''divus''; ''dì'', sometimes translated as " thearch", implies a manifested or incarnate "godly" power. It is etymologically and figuratively analogous to the concept of ''di'' as the base of a fruit, which falls and produces other fruits. This analogy is attested in the ''Shuowen Jiezi'' explaining "deity" as "what faces the base of a melon fruit". The latter term ''xiān'' unambiguously means a man who has reached immortality, similarly to the Western idea of "hero".

God of Heaven

Chinese traditional theology, which comes in different interpretations according to the classic texts, and specifically Confucian, Taoist and other philosophical formulations, is fundamentally monistic, that is to say it sees the world and the gods who produce it as an organic whole, or cosmos. The universal principle that gives origin to the world is conceived as transcendent and immanent to creation, at the same time. The Chinese idea of the universal God is expressed in different ways; there are many names of God from the different sources of Chinese tradition.

The radical Chinese terms for the universal God are ''Tiān'' and '' Shàngdì'' (the "Highest Deity") or simply ''Dì'' ("Deity"). There is also the concept of ''Tàidì'' (the "Great Deity"). ''Dì'' is a title expressing dominance over the all-under-Heaven, that is all things generated by Heaven and ordered by its cycles and by the stars. ''Tiān'' is usually translated as "Heaven", but by graphical etymology it means "Great One" and a number of scholars relate it to the same ''Dì'' through phonetic etymology and trace their common root, through their archaic forms respectively ''*Teeŋ'' and ''*Tees'', to the symbols of the squared north celestial pole godhead (''Dīng'' ). These names are combined in different ways in Chinese theological literature, often interchanged in the same paragraph if not in the same sentence.

Names of the God of Heaven

Besides ''Shangdi'' and ''Taidi'', other names include ''Yudi'' ("Jade Deity") and ''Taiyi'' ("Great Oneness") who, in mythical imagery, holds the ladle of the Big Dipper (Great Chariot) providing the movement of life to the world. As the hub of the skies, the north celestial pole constellations are known, among various names, as ''Tiānmén'' ("Gate of Heaven") p. 190. and ''Tiānshū'' ("Pivot of Heaven"). p. 343, note 17.

Other names of the God of Heaven are attested in the vast Chinese religio-philosophical literary tradition:
* ''Tiāndì'' —the "Deity of Heaven" or "Emperor of Heaven": "On Rectification" (''Zheng lun'') of the '' Xunzi'' uses this term to refer to the active God of Heaven setting in motion creation;
* ''Tiānzhǔ'' —the "Lord of Heaven": In "The Document of Offering Sacrifices to Heaven and Earth on the Mountain Tai" (''Fengshan shu'') of the ''Records of the Grand Historian'' it is used as the title of the first God from whom all the other gods derive.
* ''Tiānhuáng'' —the "August Personage of Heaven": In the "Poem of Fathoming Profundity" (''Si'xuan fu''), transcribed in "The History of the Later Han Dynasty" (''Hou Han shu''), Zhang Heng ornately writes: «I ask the superintendent of the Heavenly Gate to open the door and let me visit the King of Heaven at the Jade Palace»;
* ''Tiānwáng'' —the "King of Heaven" or "Monarch of Heaven".
* ''Tiāngōng'' —the "Duke of Heaven" or "General of Heaven";
* ''Tiānjūn'' —the "Prince of Heaven" or "Lord of Heaven";
* ''Tiānzūn'' —the "Heavenly Venerable", also a title for high gods in Taoist theologies;
* ''Tiānshén'' —the "God of Heaven", interpreted in the ''Shuowen Jiezi'' as "the being that gives birth to all things";
* ''Shénhuáng'' —"God the August", attested in ''Taihong'' ("The Origin of Vital Breath");
* ''Lǎotiānyé'' ()—the "Olden Heavenly Father".

''Tian'' is both transcendent and immanent, manifesting in the three forms of dominance, destiny and nature of things. In the ''Wujing yiyi'' (, "Different Meanings in the Five Classics"), Xu Shen explains that the designation of Heaven is quintuple:
* ''Huáng Tiān'' —"August Heaven" or "Imperial Heaven", when it is venerated as the lord of creation;
* ''Hào Tiān'' —"Vast Heaven", with regard to the vastness of its vital breath (''qi'');
* ''Mín Tiān'' —"Compassionate Heaven", for it hears and corresponds with justice to the all-under-Heaven;
* ''Shàng Tiān'' —"Highest Heaven" or "First Heaven", for it is the primordial being supervising all-under-Heaven;
* ''Cāng Tiān'' —"Deep-Green Heaven", for it being unfathomably deep.

All these designations reflect a hierarchical, multiperspective experien