Cāngdì ( "Green Deity" or "Green Emperor") of Dōngyuèdàdì ( "Great Deity of the Eastern Peak") is the manifestation of the supreme God associated with the essence of wood and spring, for which he is worshipped as the god of fertility. The Bluegreen Dragon ( ''Qīnglóng'') is both his animal form and constellation, and as a human, he was ''Tàihào'' ( Fu Xi). His female consort is the goddess of fertility Bixia. His astral body is Jupiter.

Names

Cāngdì ( "Green Deity" or "Green Emperor") goes by several other names, such as Cāngshén ( "Green God"), also known as Qīngdì ( "Blue Deity" or "Bluegreen Deity") or Qīngshén ( "Bluegreen God"), and cosmologically as the Dōngdì ( "East Deity") or Dōngyuèdàdì ( "Great Deity of the Eastern Peak")

Overview

The Confucian text, the

Rites of Zhou The ''Rites of Zhou'' (), originally known as "Officers of Zhou" () is a work on bureaucracy and organizational theory. It was renamed by Liu Xin to differentiate it from a chapter in the ''Book of History'' by the same name. To replace a lost ...

, discusses the concept of the so-called " Wufang Shangdi". The History, quoted in the Kokuyo, refers to the following: Cangdi (or ''Qingdi''),

Huangdi Huangdi () may refer to: *Yellow Emperor (黃帝), a legendary Chinese monarch who supposedly ruled before the Xia dynasty *Emperor of China (皇帝), the imperial title of Chinese monarchs; and the superlative monarchical title in the Sinosphere ...

, Heidi,

Chidi Chidi may refer to: *Chidi (god), an ancient Chinese deity People Given name *Chidi Ahanotu, American American-rule-football player *Chidi Edeh, Nigerian footballer *Chidi Imoh, Nigerian sprinter *Chidi Iwuoma, American American-rule-football pla ...

, and Baidi. The names of the five emperors are not specified in the literature. The name of the Green Emperor is judged to be "Ling Wei Yang".

Dongyue Emperor

As Dōngyuèdàdì ( "Great Deity of the Eastern Peak", which is Mount Tai), Cangdi is worshipped as a Daoist deity of the sacred mountain Mount Tai. He is also considered significant in Chinese Buddhism. Since ancient times, Mount Tai has been seen as a place where the spirits of the dead gather, so the god of Mount Tai was thought to be the supreme deity of the underworld and governs the lifespan and status of humans in this world. 山北篤『東洋神名事典』新紀元社2002年、p.250 In Daoism, it is often said that he is the grandson of the

Jade Emperor The Jade Emperor or Yudi ( or , ') in Chinese culture, traditional religions and myth is one of the representations of the first god ( '). In Daoist theology he is the assistant of Yuanshi Tianzun, who is one of the Three Pure Ones, the three ...

. During the Han dynasty, Emperors performed the Feng Shan ceremony on Mount Tai. At this time, the ceremony was considered highly important and completing Feng Shan allowed the emperor to receive the

mandate of heaven The Mandate of Heaven () is a Chinese political philosophy that was used in ancient and imperial China to legitimize the rule of the King or Emperor of China. According to this doctrine, heaven (天, ''Tian'') – which embodies the natural ...

. It was started in 219 BC, by Qin Shihuang, after unifying China Over time, the role of the Dongyue Emperor expanded, moving from a local deity to a deity associated with life and death as a whole The ritual of the storming of the city (打城) is performed in Taiwan and associated Dongyue Emperor, demonstrating this shift Tai'an_Dai_Miao_2015

Literature

The Beginning of the Ji Zhou Period

The Etiquette and Ceremonial notes state that Jiang Shu, a later concubine of Emperor Xuan, became pregnant when she stepped on the giant footprints of Emperor Qing and gave birth to Huji, who became the founder of the Zhou dynasty.

References

Works cited

* Deities in Chinese folk religion Deities in Taoism Chinese gods Jovian deities Characters in Chinese mythology Wufang Shangdi {{Wufang Shangdi