
Shangdi (), also written simply, "
Emperor
An emperor (from la, imperator, via fro, empereor) is a monarch, and usually the sovereign ruler of an empire or another type of imperial realm. Empress, the female equivalent, may indicate an emperor's wife ( empress consort), mother ( e ...
" (), is the Chinese term for "Supreme Deity" or "Highest Deity" in the
theology of the classical texts, especially deriving from
Shang
The Shang dynasty (), also known as the Yin dynasty (), was a Chinese royal dynasty founded by Tang of Shang (Cheng Tang) that ruled in the Yellow River valley in the second millennium BC, traditionally succeeding the Xia dynasty and f ...
theology and finding an equivalent in the later ''
Tian
''Tiān'' () is one of the oldest Chinese terms for heaven and a key concept in Chinese mythology, philosophy, and religion. During the Shang dynasty (17th―11th century BCE), the Chinese referred to their supreme god as '' Shàngdì'' (, "L ...
'' ("Heaven" or "Great Whole") of
Zhou theology.
Although in Chinese religion the usage of "Tian" to refer to the
absolute Absolute may refer to:
Companies
* Absolute Entertainment, a video game publisher
* Absolute Radio, (formerly Virgin Radio), independent national radio station in the UK
* Absolute Software Corporation, specializes in security and data risk manag ...
God
In monotheistic thought, God is usually viewed as the supreme being, creator, and principal object of faith. Swinburne, R.G. "God" in Honderich, Ted. (ed)''The Oxford Companion to Philosophy'', Oxford University Press, 1995. God is typically ...
of the
universe
The universe is all of space and time and their contents, including planets, stars, galaxies, and all other forms of matter and energy. The Big Bang theory is the prevailing cosmological description of the development of the universe. A ...
is predominant, "Shangdi" continues to be used in a variety of traditions, including certain
philosophical schools
{{Horizontal TOC, nonum=on
A
* Absurdism
* Academic skepticism
* Achintya Bheda Abheda
* Advaita Vedanta
* Agnosticism
* Ajātivāda
* Ājīvika
* Ajñana
* Alexandrian school
* Analytic philosophy
* Analytical Thomism
* Anarchist schools of t ...
, certain strains of
Confucianism
Confucianism, also known as Ruism or Ru classicism, is a system of thought and behavior originating in ancient China. Variously described as tradition, a philosophy, a religion, a humanistic or rationalistic religion, a way of governing, or ...
, some
Chinese salvationist religions
Chinese salvationist religions or Chinese folk religious sects are a Chinese religious tradition characterised by a concern for salvation (moral fulfillment) of the person and the society.; ''passim'' They are distinguished by egalitarianism, a ...
(notably
Yiguandao
Yiguandao / I-Kuan Tao (),; ko, 일관도, Ilgwando; th, อนุตตรธรรม, . meaning the Consistent Way or Persistent Way, is a Chinese salvationist religious sect that emerged in the late 19th century, in Shandong, to become ...
) and
Chinese Protestant Christianity. In addition, it is common to use such term among contemporary Chinese (both mainland and overseas) and East Asian religious and secular societies, typically for a singular universal deity and a non-religion translation for
God in Abrahamic religions
The concept of God in Abrahamic religions is centred on monotheism. The three major monotheistic religions of Judaism, Christianity, and Islam, alongside the Baháʼí Faith, Samaritanism, Druze, and Rastafari, are all regarded as Abrahamic reli ...
.
Etymology
"Shang Di" is the
pinyin
Hanyu Pinyin (), often shortened to just pinyin, is the official romanization system for Standard Mandarin Chinese in China, and to some extent, in Singapore and Malaysia. It is often used to teach Mandarin, normally written in Chinese fo ...
romanization
Romanization or romanisation, in linguistics, is the conversion of text from a different writing system to the Roman (Latin) script, or a system for doing so. Methods of romanization include transliteration, for representing written text, an ...
of two
Chinese characters
Chinese characters () are logograms developed for the writing of Chinese. In addition, they have been adapted to write other East Asian languages, and remain a key component of the Japanese writing system where they are known as '' kan ...
. The first , ''Shàng'' means "high", "highest", "first", "primordial"; the second , ''Dì'' is typically considered as shorthand for ''huangdi'' () in modern Chinese, the title of the
emperors of China
''Huangdi'' (), translated into English as Emperor, was the superlative title held by monarchs of China who ruled various imperial regimes in Chinese history. In traditional Chinese political theory, the emperor was considered the Son of Heaven ...
first employed by
Qin Shi Huang
Qin Shi Huang (, ; 259–210 BC) was the founder of the Qin dynasty and the first emperor of a unified China. Rather than maintain the title of "king" ( ''wáng'') borne by the previous Shang and Zhou rulers, he ruled as the First Emperor ( ...
, and is usually translated as "emperor". The word itself is derived from
Three "Huang" and Five "Di", including
Yellow Emperor
The Yellow Emperor, also known as the Yellow Thearch or by his Chinese name Huangdi (), is a deity ('' shen'') in Chinese religion, one of the legendary Chinese sovereigns and culture heroes included among the mytho-historical Three Sovereig ...
(Huangdi ), the mythological originator of the
Chinese civilization and the ancestor of the Chinese race. However, refers to the High God of Shang, thus means "deity" (manifested god), . Thus, the name ''Shangdi'' should be translated as "Highest Deity", but also has the implied meaning of "Primordial Deity" or "First Deity" in Classical Chinese. The deity preceded the title and the emperors of China were named after him in their role as ''
Tianzi'', the sons of Heaven. In the classical texts the highest conception of the heavens is frequently identified with Shang Di, who is described somewhat anthropomorphically. He is also associated with the pole star. The conceptions of the Supreme Ruler (Shang Di) and of the Sublime Heavens (Huang-t'ien) afterward coalesce or absorb each other.
History
Shang dynasty

The earliest references to Shangdi are found in
oracle bone
Oracle bones () are pieces of ox scapula and turtle plastron, which were used for pyromancy – a form of divination – in ancient China, mainly during the late Shang dynasty. '' Scapulimancy'' is the correct term if ox scapulae were used fo ...
inscriptions of the
Shang Dynasty
The Shang dynasty (), also known as the Yin dynasty (), was a Dynasties in Chinese history, Chinese royal dynasty founded by Tang of Shang (Cheng Tang) that ruled in the Yellow River valley in the second millennium BC, traditionally suc ...
in the 2nd millennium BC, although the later work ''
Classic of History
The ''Book of Documents'' (''Shūjīng'', earlier ''Shu King'') or ''Classic of History'', also known as the ''Shangshu'' (“Venerated Documents”), is one of the Five Classics of ancient Chinese literature. It is a collection of rhetoric ...
'' claims yearly sacrifices were made to him by
Emperor Shun
Emperor Shun () was a legendary leader of ancient China, regarded by some sources as one of the Three Sovereigns and Five Emperors being the last of the Five Emperors. Tradition holds that he lived sometime between 2294 and 2184 BC. Tradition al ...
, even before the
Xia Dynasty
The Xia dynasty () is the first dynasty in traditional Chinese historiography. According to tradition, the Xia dynasty was established by the legendary Yu the Great, after Shun, the last of the Five Emperors, gave the throne to him. In tradi ...
.
Shangdi was regarded as the ultimate spiritual power by the ruling elite of the
Huaxia
''Huaxia'' (華夏, ) is a historical concept representing the Chinese nation, and came from the self-awareness of a common cultural ancestry by the various confederations of pre-Qin ethnic ancestors of Han people.
Etymology
The earliest ...
during the
Shang dynasty
The Shang dynasty (), also known as the Yin dynasty (), was a Dynasties in Chinese history, Chinese royal dynasty founded by Tang of Shang (Cheng Tang) that ruled in the Yellow River valley in the second millennium BC, traditionally suc ...
: he was believed to control victory in battle, success or failure of harvests, weather conditions such as the floods of the
Yellow River
The Yellow River or Huang He (Chinese: , Mandarin: ''Huáng hé'' ) is the second-longest river in China, after the Yangtze River, and the sixth-longest river system in the world at the estimated length of . Originating in the Bayan ...
, and the fate of the kingdom. Shangdi seems to have ruled a
hierarchy of other gods controlling nature, as well as the
spirits of the deceased.
[Zhao, Yanxia. ''Chinese Religion: A Contextual Approach.'' 2010. p. 154] These ideas were later mirrored or carried on by the
Taoist
Taoism (, ) or Daoism () refers to either a school of philosophical thought (道家; ''daojia'') or to a religion (道教; ''daojiao''), both of which share ideas and concepts of Chinese origin and emphasize living in harmony with the '' Ta ...
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 thre ...
and his
celestial bureaucracy
Chinese theology, which comes in different interpretations according to the classic texts and the common religion, and specifically Confucian, Taoist and other philosophical formulations, is fundamentally monistic, that is to say it sees the w ...
.
Shangdi was probably more
transcendent than
immanent
The doctrine or theory of immanence holds that the divinity, divine encompasses or is manifested in the material world. It is held by some philosophical and metaphysical theories of divine presence. Immanence is usually applied in monotheism, m ...
, only working through lesser gods.
Shangdi was considered too distant to be worshiped directly by ordinary mortals. Instead, the Shang kings proclaimed that Shangdi had made himself accessible through the souls of their royal ancestors, both in the legendary past and in recent generations as the departed Shang kings joined him in the afterlife. The emperors could thus successfully entreat Shangdi directly. Many of the oracle bone inscriptions record these petitions, usually praying for rain but also seeking approval from Shangdi for state action.
Zhou dynasty
In the later
Shang
The Shang dynasty (), also known as the Yin dynasty (), was a Chinese royal dynasty founded by Tang of Shang (Cheng Tang) that ruled in the Yellow River valley in the second millennium BC, traditionally succeeding the Xia dynasty and f ...
and
Zhou dynasties, Shangdi was conflated with
Heaven
Heaven or the heavens, is a common religious cosmological or transcendent supernatural place where beings such as deities, angels, souls, saints, or venerated ancestors are said to originate, be enthroned, or reside. According to the bel ...
(, ''
Tiān
''Tiān'' () is one of the oldest Chinese terms for heaven and a key concept in Chinese mythology, philosophy, and religion. During the Shang dynasty (17th―11th century BCE), the Chinese referred to their supreme god as '' Shàngdì'' (, "Lo ...
'').
[.] The
Duke of Zhou
Dan, Duke Wen of Zhou (), commonly known as the Duke of Zhou (), was a member of the royal family of the early Zhou dynasty who played a major role in consolidating the kingdom established by his elder brother King Wu. He was renowned for acting ...
justified
his clan's usurpation through the concept of 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 natur ...
, which proposed that the protection of Shangdi was not connected to their clan membership but by their just governance. Shangdi was not just a tribal but instead an unambiguously good moral force, exercising its power according to exacting standards. Shangdi's favor could thus be lost and even "inherited" by a new dynasty, provided they upheld the proper rituals.
Nonetheless, the connection of many rituals with the
Shang clan meant that Shang nobles continued to rule several locations (despite their rebellions) and to serve as court advisors and priests. The Duke of Zhou even created an
entire ceremonial city along strict cosmological principles to house the Shang aristocracy and the
nine tripods representing Huaxia sovereignty; the Shang were then charged with maintaining 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 ...
''. Likewise, the Shang's lesser houses, the
''shi'' knightly class, developed directly into the learned Confucian gentry and scholars who advised the Zhou rulers on courtly etiquette and ceremony. The
Confucian classics
Chinese classic texts or canonical texts () or simply dianji (典籍) refers to the Chinese texts which originated before the imperial unification by the Qin dynasty in 221 BC, particularly the " Four Books and Five Classics" of the Neo-Confuci ...
carried on and ordered the earlier traditions, including the worship of Shangdi. All of them include references:
The
Four Books
The Four Books and Five Classics () are the authoritative books of Confucianism, written in China before 300 BCE. The Four Books and the Five Classics are the most important classics of Chinese Confucianism.
Four Books
The Four Books () are ...
mention Shangdi as well but, as it is a later compilation, the references are much more sparse and abstract. Shangdi appears most commonly in earlier works: this pattern may reflect increasing rationalization of Shangdi over time, the shift from a known and arbitrary tribal god to a more abstract and philosophical concept, or his conflation and absorption by other deities.
Han dynasty
By the time of the
Han dynasty
The Han dynasty (, ; ) was an Dynasties in Chinese history, imperial dynasty of China (202 BC – 9 AD, 25–220 AD), established by Emperor Gaozu of Han, Liu Bang (Emperor Gao) and ruled by the House of Liu. The dynasty was preceded by th ...
, the influential
Confucian
Confucianism, also known as Ruism or Ru classicism, is a system of thought and behavior originating in ancient China. Variously described as tradition, a philosophy, a religion, a humanistic or rationalistic religion, a way of governing, or ...
scholar
Zheng Xuan
Zheng Xuan (127– July 200), courtesy name Kangcheng (), was a Chinese philosopher, politician, and writer near the end of the Eastern Han Dynasty. He was born in Gaomi, Beihai Commandery (modern Weifang, Shandong), and was a student of Ma R ...
glossed: "''Shangdi'' is another name for
Heaven
Heaven or the heavens, is a common religious cosmological or transcendent supernatural place where beings such as deities, angels, souls, saints, or venerated ancestors are said to originate, be enthroned, or reside. According to the bel ...
".
Dong Zhongshu
Dong Zhongshu (; 179–104 BC) was a Chinese philosopher, politician, and writer of the Han Dynasty. He is traditionally associated with the promotion of Confucianism as the official ideology of the Chinese imperial state. He apparently favored ...
said: "Heaven is the ultimate authority, the king of gods who should be admired by the king".
In later eras, he was commonly known by the name "Heavenly Ruling Highest Deity" (, ''Huángtiān Shàngdì'') and, in this usage, he is especially conflated with the Taoist
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 thre ...
.
Identification
The Shang progenitor
In Shang sources, Di is already described as the supreme ordainer of the events which occur in nature, such as wind, lightning and thunder, and in human affairs and politics. All the gods of nature are conceived as his envoys or manifestations. Shang sources also attest his cosmological
Five Ministries. Di, or Tian, as later texts explain, did not receive
cult
In modern English, ''cult'' is usually a pejorative term for a social group that is defined by its unusual religious, spiritual, or philosophical beliefs and rituals, or its common interest in a particular personality, object, or goal ...
for being too remote for living humans to sacrifice to directly. Instead, an intermediary such as an ancestor was necessary to convey to Di the offerings of the living.
According to some prominent scholars, including Guo Moruo, Shangdi was originally identical to
Ku (or Kui) or Diku ("''
Divus
The vocabulary of ancient Roman religion was highly specialized. Its study affords important information about the religion, traditions and beliefs of the ancient Romans. This legacy is conspicuous in European cultural history in its influence on ...
'' Ku"), the
progenitor
In genealogy, the progenitor (rarer: primogenitor; german: Stammvater or ''Ahnherr'') is the – sometimes legendary progenitor, legendary – founder of a family, Kinship, line of descent, clan or tribe, Nobility, noble house, or ethnic group. ...
(first ancestor) of the Zi () lineage, the founders of the Shang dynasty, attested in the ''
Shiji
''Records of the Grand Historian'', also known by its Chinese name ''Shiji'', is a monumental history of China that is the first of China's 24 dynastic histories. The ''Records'' was written in the early 1st century by the ancient Chinese his ...
'' and other texts. According to this interpretation, this identification had profound political implications, because it meant that the earthly Shang kings were themselves by birth aspects of divinity.
Further evidence from Shang sources suggests that there wasn't a complete identification between the two, as Di controls spirits of nature, while Kui does not; Di is frequently pictured sending down "approvals", while Kui is never so pictured; and Kui received cult, while Di did not. Moreover, Kui is frequently appealed in "horizontal" relationship with other powers, undermining any portrait of him as the apex of the pantheon.
Shangdi as the celestial pole
David Pankenier has studied the astral connections of Shangdi, drawing on a view that interest in the sky was a focal character of the religious practices of the Shang, but also of the earlier
Xia and
Erlitou culture
The Erlitou culture was an early Bronze Age urban society and archaeological culture that existed in the Yellow River valley from approximately 1900 to 1500 BC. A 2007 study of radiocarbon dating proposed a narrower date range of 1750 to 1530 ...
s. Especially intriguing is the fact that palatial and ceremonial structures of these cultures were carefully aligned to the
celestial pole
The north and south celestial poles are the two points in the sky where Earth's axis of rotation, indefinitely extended, intersects the celestial sphere. The north and south celestial poles appear permanently directly overhead to observers a ...
and the procession of
pole star
A pole star or polar star is a star, preferably bright, nearly aligned with the axis of a rotating astronomical body.
Currently, Earth's pole stars are Polaris (Alpha Ursae Minoris), a bright magnitude-2 star aligned approximately with its ...
s. Pankenier notes that the true celestial pole lies in a sky template which is vacant of significant stars, and that the various pole stars are those nearest to this vacant apex which is of crucial importance.
He illustrates how the Shang
oracular script for Di can be projected on the north pole template of the ancient sky in such a way that its extremity points correspond with the visible star, while the intersection of the linear axes at the centre will map to the vacant celestial pole. Pankenier argues that the supreme Di was identified with the celestial pole, an idea familiar in later stages of Chinese religion, linking with the ''Tàiyī'' 太一 ("Great One") fully documented as early as the 4th century BC.
The interpretation of Shangdi as the celestial pole, Taiyi and as Ku the progenitor of the Shang is not contradictory. Feng Shi argues that Ku and Di are indeed identical. The Shang probably deliberately identified their ancestor with a universal god recognized in different regions and local cultures in order to legitimize their power.
Contemporary Confucianism
Contemporary Confucian theologians have emphasised differences between the Confucian idea of Shangdi, conceived as both
transcendent and
immanent
The doctrine or theory of immanence holds that the divinity, divine encompasses or is manifested in the material world. It is held by some philosophical and metaphysical theories of divine presence. Immanence is usually applied in monotheism, m ...
, and act only as a governor of the world, and the Christian idea of God, which they conceived contrary to those of Christian as a deity that is completely otherworldly (transcendent) and is merely a creator of the world.
Worship

As mentioned above, sacrifices offered to Shangdi by the king are claimed by traditional Chinese histories to predate the Xia dynasty. The
surviving archaeological record shows that by the Shang, the
shoulder blades
The scapula (plural scapulae or scapulas), also known as the shoulder blade, is the bone that connects the humerus (upper arm bone) with the clavicle (collar bone). Like their connected bones, the scapulae are paired, with each scapula on either ...
of sacrificed oxen were used to send questions or communication through fire and smoke to the divine realm, a practice known as
scapulimancy
Scapulimancy (also spelled ''scapulomancy'' and ''scapulamancy'', also termed ''omoplatoscopy'' or ''speal bone reading'') is the practice of divination by use of scapulae or speal bones (shoulder blades). It is most widely practiced in China ...
. The heat would cause the bones to crack and royal diviners would interpret the marks as Shangdi's response to the king. Inscriptions used for divination were buried into special orderly pits, while those that were for practice or records were buried in common
middens after use.
Under Shangdi or his later names, the deity received sacrifices from the ruler of China in every Chinese dynasty annually at a great
Temple of Heaven
The Temple of Heaven () is a complex of imperial religious buildings situated in the southeastern part of central Beijing. The complex was visited by the Emperors of the Ming and Qing dynasties for annual ceremonies of prayer to Heaven for a g ...
in the imperial capital. Following the principles of
Chinese geomancy, this would always be located in the southern quarter of the city. During the ritual, a completely healthy bull would be slaughtered and presented as an animal sacrifice to Shangdi. The ''
Book of Rites
The ''Book of Rites'', also known as the ''Liji'', is a collection of texts describing the social forms, administration, and ceremonial rites of the Zhou dynasty as they were understood in the Warring States and the early Han periods. The ''Book ...
'' states the sacrifice should occur on the "
longest day" on a round-mound altar. The altar would have three tiers: the highest for Shangdi and the
Son of Heaven
Son of Heaven, or ''Tianzi'' (), was the sacred monarchical title of the Chinese sovereign. It originated with the Zhou dynasty and was founded on the political and spiritual doctrine of the Mandate of Heaven. Since the Qin dynasty, the secula ...
; the second-highest for the sun and moon; and the lowest for the natural gods such as the stars, clouds, rain, wind, and thunder.
It is important to note that Shangdi is never represented with either images or idols. Instead, in the center building of the Temple of Heaven, in a structure called the "Imperial Vault of Heaven", a "spirit tablet" (, shénwèi) inscribed with the name of Shangdi is stored on the throne, ''Huangtian Shangdi'' (). During an annual sacrifice, the emperor would carry these tablets to the north part of the Temple of Heaven, a place called the "Prayer Hall For Good Harvests", and place them on that throne.
Conflation with singular universal God
It was during Ming and Qing dynasty, when Roman Catholicism was introduced by
Jesuit Priest
Matteo Ricci
Matteo Ricci, SJ (; la, Mattheus Riccius; 6 October 1552 – 11 May 1610), was an Italian Jesuit priest and one of the founding figures of the Jesuit China missions. He created the , a 1602 map of the world written in Chinese characters. ...
, that the idea of "Shangdi" started to be applied to the
Christian conception of God.
While initially he utilized the term ''
Tianzhu'' (), lit. "The Lord of Heaven", Ricci gradually changed the translation into "Shangdi" instead. His usage of Shangdi was contested by Confucians, as they believed that the concept of ''Tian'' and "Shangdi" is different from that of Christianity's God: Zhōng Shǐ-shēng, through his books, stated that Shangdi only governs, while Christianity's God is a creator, and thus they differ. Ricci's translation also invited the displeasure of
Dominicans and that of the Roman Curia: on March 19, 1715,
Pope Clement XI
Pope Clement XI ( la, Clemens XI; it, Clemente XI; 23 July 1649 – 19 March 1721), born Giovanni Francesco Albani, was head of the Catholic Church and ruler of the Papal States from 23 November 1700 to his death in March 1721.
Clement XI w ...
released the Edict ''Ex Illa Die'', stating that Catholics must use "Tianzhu" instead of "Shangdi" for Christianity's God.
When
Protestantism
Protestantism is a Christian denomination, branch of Christianity that follows the theological tenets of the Reformation, Protestant Reformation, a movement that began seeking to reform the Catholic Church from within in the 16th century agai ...
entered China in the middle of the 19th century, the Protestant missionaries also encountered a similar issue: some preferred the term "Shangdi", while some preferred the term ''Shen'' ("god"). A conference held in 1877 in Shanghai, discussing the translation-issue, also believed that "Shangdi" of Confucianism and the Christian concept of God are different in nature.
However, by the 20th century, most British missionaries, some
Catholics
The Catholic Church, also known as the Roman Catholic Church, is the largest Christian church, with 1.3 billion baptized Catholics worldwide . It is among the world's oldest and largest international institutions, and has played a ...
,
Chinese Orthodox Christians, and
Evangelicals
Evangelicalism (), also called evangelical Christianity or evangelical Protestantism, is a worldwide interdenominational movement within Protestant Christianity that affirms the centrality of being " born again", in which an individual expe ...
preferred 'Shangdi' as a connection with Chinese native
monotheism
Monotheism is the belief that there is only one deity, an all-supreme being that is universally referred to as God. Cross, F.L.; Livingstone, E.A., eds. (1974). "Monotheism". The Oxford Dictionary of the Christian Church (2 ed.). Oxford: Oxf ...
, with some furthering the argument by linking it with the
unknown god as described in Biblical passage of .
Catholics preferred to avoid it, due to compromises with the local authority in order to do their missions, as well as fear such translation may associate the Christian God to Chinese polytheism.
Nowadays, through the secular Chinese-language media, the Chinese word of "Shangdi" and "Tian" are frequently used to as a translation for the singular universal deity with minimal religious attachment to the Christian idea of God, while Confucians and intellectuals in contemporary mainland China and Taiwan attempt to realign the term to its original meaning. Catholics officially use the term ''Tianzhu'', while Evangelicals typically use ''Shangdi'' and/or ''Shen'' (, "god" or "spirit").
See also
*
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 thre ...
*
Yuanshi Tianzun
Yuanshi Tianzun (), the ''Celestial Venerable of the Primordial Beginning'' or the ''Primeval Lord of Heaven'', is one of the highest deities of Taoism. He is one of the Three Pure Ones () and is also known as the ''Jade Pure One'' (). He reside ...
*
Taiyi Tianzun
*
Hongjun Laozu
Hongjun Laozu () lit. "Ancestor of the Great Balance" is a deity in Chinese folk religion and Taoism, teacher of the Three Pure Ones in Taoist mythology. ''Hongjun'' is a graphic variant of ''hungjun'' () "primordial nature", as used in the ...
*
Tian
''Tiān'' () is one of the oldest Chinese terms for heaven and a key concept in Chinese mythology, philosophy, and religion. During the Shang dynasty (17th―11th century BCE), the Chinese referred to their supreme god as '' Shàngdì'' (, "L ...
*
Tao
''Tao'' or ''Dao'' is the natural order of the universe, whose character one's intuition must discern to realize the potential for individual wisdom, as conceived in the context of East Asian philosophy, East Asian religions, or any other phil ...
*
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 fill ...
*
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 ...
*
Shen
In other culture and beliefs
*
Śakra (in Buddhism)
*
Haneullim
Haneullim or Haneulnim (하늘님 "Heavenly Lord"/"Lord of Heaven") is the sky God of Cheondoism and Jeungsanism. In the more Buddhist-aligned parts of these religions, he is identified with Indra. In the more Taoist-aligned parts of these relig ...
(in Korea)
*
Amenominakanushi
Ame-no-Minakanushi (アメノミナカヌシ, lit. "Lord of the August Center of Heaven") is a deity (''kami'') in Japanese mythology, portrayed in the ''Kojiki'' and the '' Nihon Shoki'' as the very first or one of the first deities who manifes ...
(in Japan)
*
Tengri
Tengri ( zh, 騰格里; otk, 𐰚𐰇𐰚:𐱅𐰭𐰼𐰃, Kök Teŋri/Teŋiri, lit=Blue Heaven; Old Uyghur: ''tängri''; Middle Turkic: تآنغرِ; ky, теңир; tr, Tanrı; az, Tanrı; bg, Тангра; Proto-Turkic *''teŋri / * ...
(in Mongolia)
*
Indra (in Hinduism)
*
Ông Trời
Ông Trời ( Chữ Nôm: 翁𡗶; "Old Man Sky/Heaven" / "Grandfather Sky/Heaven") commonly referred to as Trời (𡗶; "Sky/Heaven"); Ông Thiên (翁天); also called Ngọc Hoàng Thượng Đế (Chữ Hán: 玉皇上帝; "Highest Deity the J ...
(in Vietnam)
*
Allah
Allah (; ar, الله, translit=Allāh, ) is the common Arabic word for God. In the English language, the word generally refers to God in Islam. The word is thought to be derived by contraction from '' al- ilāh'', which means "the god", ...
*
Brahma
Brahma ( sa, ब्रह्मा, Brahmā) is a Hindu god, referred to as "the Creator" within the Trimurti, the trinity of supreme divinity that includes Vishnu, and Shiva.Jan Gonda (1969)The Hindu Trinity Anthropos, Bd 63/64, H 1/2, pp ...
*
Ishvara
''Ishvara'' () is a concept in Hinduism, with a wide range of meanings that depend on the era and the school of Hinduism. Monier Monier Williams, Sanskrit-English dictionarySearch for Izvara University of Cologne, Germany In ancient texts of ...
Notes
References
Citations
Sources
*
*
*
*
Creel, Herrlee G., The Origins of Statecraft in China.
*
Wu, K. C. (1982). ''The Chinese Heritage''. New York: Crown Publishers. .
External links
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{{Names of God
Chinese gods
God
Names of God
Deities in Chinese folk religion
Sky and weather gods
Supernatural beings identified with Christian saints
Religious Confucianism