Does Taoism believe in the Supreme Deity/Highest Emperor/Shangdi 上帝?

[Rakovsky]

Shang Dynasty China worshiped Shangdi, and passed this practice on. This raises three questions:

1. What were the basic beliefs about Shang Di in ancient China?
2. How was Shang Di worshiped in ancient China?
3. Have some ancient Chinese been monotheists?
4. Do Taoists worship Shang Di?

Here is what I've found. Please feel free to give your own answers.

1. Basic beliefs on Shang Di

A. The China Blogspot gives some basic information:

Shangdi (上帝)
Alternative Names (異名)

Shangdi... is the Supreme God in the original religious system of the Han Chinese people , a term used from the second millennium BC to the present day, as pronounced according the modern Mandarin dialect. Literally the term means "Above Emperor" or "Above Sovereign", which is taken to mean "Lord On High", "Highest Lord", "the God above", "the Supreme God", "Above ", or "Celestial Lord". Its meaning is similar to the term dyeus used by Indo-European peoples. Another title of Shangdi is simply Di (帝). Shangdi is chiefly associated with Heaven. From the earliest times of Chinese history, and especially from the Zhou Dynasty (周朝)(1122 BC to 256 BC) onwards, another name, Tian (天), is also used to refer to the Supreme God of the Chinese people. Tian is a word with multiple meanings in the ancient Chinese language, it can either mean the physical sky or the presiding God of Heaven. When Tian is used in the latter sense, it has the same meaning as Shangdi. By the time of the Han dynasty, the influential Confucian scholar Zheng Xuan declared that "Shangdi is another name for Tian".

First mention

The earliest references to Shangdi are found in Oracle Bone inscriptions of the Shang Dynasty (ca. 1600 BC - ca. 1046 BC). Shangdi is first mentioned in Chinese Literature in the Five Classics, (五經, pinyin: Wujing) allegedly compiled by Confucius in the 6th century BC. The Wujing was a collection of five books that represented the pinnacle of Chinese culture at that time. The oldest parts of the Wujing were first written around 1000 BC, apparently relying on older texts. All of the five classics include references to Shangdi... Another "Classic" collection, the Four Books (四書, pinyin: SiShu), mentions Shangdi also, but it is a later compilation and the references are much more sparse and abstract. The highest amount of occurrences appear to be in the earliest references; and this may reflect the cultural development (or rejection) towards ShangDi as a whole over time. One of the five books in the Wujing is the Classic of History, ... aka Esteemed Book. The Shujing is possibly the earliest narrative of China, and may predate the European historian Herodotus (about 440 BC) as a history by many centuries. This implies that Shangdi is the oldest deity directly referenced in China by any Chinese narrative literature.

http://chichina1.blogspot.com/2007/08/shangdi.html

Two questions about this passage:
Can you read or explain the Alternative name above: 異名
Were the Shang, Xia, and Zhou dynasties Han people?

One of the interesting correlations between ancient Mesopotamian thought and Chinese religion is that for the Sumerians, the deity "An" was the heavens' god, and his sign in Sumerian script was the same for either the heavens or for the word "god". In Chinese we also see Tian/Tien being used to express either God or the heavens.

The essay next talks about how the Chinese perceived Shang Di:

Attributes

Uniquely, Chinese traditions do not appear to have a narrative for Shangdi in the earliest texts; nor are there physical representations of him. However, the many references to Shangdi do assign attributes to his character, including: maleness, emotion, compassion, intellect, judgement, mastery, and greatness.
The ShuJing (書經), the earliest of Chinese narratives (described above), represents Shangdi as a good god who punishes evil and rewards goodness. "Shangdi is not invariant [for he judges a person according to his actions]. On the good-doer He sends down blessings, and on the evil-doer He sends down miseries."
The Shijing (詩經), the earliest of Chinese poetries, attributes speech to him in poem... The Wujing (五經), and the official sacrificial rituals show people praying to Shangdi

The China Blogspot essay next describes how Shang Di is a Creator: http://chichina1.blogspot.com/2007/08/shangdi.html

B. Wikipedia's article on Shang Di is also interesting:

Shangdi (上帝), also written simply as Di (帝), is the Chinese term for "Supreme Deity" or "Highest Deity". Along with Tian ("Heaven" or "Great Whole"), it is one of the terms used to refer to the absolute God of the universe in philosophy,[1] Confucianism,[2] the Chinese traditional religions and its various sects (such as Yiguandao)

Annual heavenly sacrifice (祭天 jìtiān) in honour of the Heavenly Ruling Highest Deity (皇天上帝 Huángtiān Shàngdì) is held at the Temple of Heaven in Beijing. State pomp and a variety of Confucian religious groups have contributed in the reviving of worship of the Highest Deity in the 2000s.

Etymology
The first – 上, Shàng – means "high", "highest", "first", "primordial"; the second – 帝, Dì – is the same character used in the name of Huangdi—the Yellow Emperor or Yellow Deity, incarnation of Shangdi and originator of the Chinese civilisation—and the homonymous huangdi, title of the emperors of China, and is usually translated as "emperor", but it properly means "deity" (manifested god). The name Shangdi is thus generally translated as "Highest Deity", but also "Primordial Deity" or "First Deity". The deity preceded the title and the emperors of China were named after him in their role as Tianzi, the sons of Heaven.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Shangdi

The photo above is curious for me. Is Chinese society performing ritual animal sacrifice nowadays at the Temple of Heaven in Beijing?

Wikipedia next discusses the history of Shangdi worship:

Shang Dynasty
The earliest references to Shangdi are found in oracle bone inscriptions of the Shang Dynasty in the 2nd millennium BC, although the later work Classic of History claims yearly sacrifices were made to him by Emperor Shun, even before the Xia Dynasty. Shangdi was regarded as the ultimate spiritual power by the ruling elite of the Huaxia during the Shang dynasty: he was believed to control victory in battle, success or failure of harvests, weather conditions such as the floods of the Yellow River, 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.These ideas were later mirrored or carried on by the Taoist Jade Emperor and his celestial bureaucracy.

Shangdi was probably more transcendental than immanent, 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.

Oracle bone script, the earliest known form of Chinese.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Shangdi

It then proposes that the Shang rulers and officials were brought into the Zhou dynasty as a priestly and bureaucratic group of servants who developed into Confucian court officials.

C. One book that discusses a renewed interest in Shangdi in later Chinese history is Thomas Reilly's The Taiping Heavenly Kingdom: Rebellion and the Blasphemy of Empire:

the di syllable is written with the same character in both Shangdi and Huangdi and it can be translated as either god or emperor.

The book shows that Shangdi was above the level of a spirit, the shen, because the altar for sacrifice had a level for Shangdi at the top, while the level for the spirits was at medium height. Likewise, the emperor was by rule (in the Zhou period) required to wear more felicitous robes when worshiping Shangti than when worshiping the spirits of nature like those of rivers and hills.

 

[Rakovsky]

D. The Buddhist "Source of Light" website makes some interesting comments:

Circular Mound ~ Beijing

“Shang Ti”, translates into English as "Supreme Lord" or "Lord Above." All things were made by Him, all punishments and rewards were ultimately traceable to Him. ...
"The Heavenly Master" is a Taoist term denoting the governor, and judge of the world. He is also called the "Pearly Emperor" and is identified with "Shang Ti", the Lord on High.Confucius (511-479 BC) remarked that regardless of whether God exists or not, his worship is good for the people. ...

The Chinese classics that were ancient even in the time of Confucius have nothing to say of hell but have much to say of the rewards and punishments meted out in the present life by the all-seeing Heaven. There are numbers of texts that show plainly that he did not depart from the traditional belief in the supreme Heaven-god and subordinate spirits, in Divine Providence and retribution, and in the conscious existence of souls after death.

http://sourceoflightmonastery.tripod.com/webonmediacontents/1139579.jpg?1352279372583

E. Ulrich Theobald in his essay on the 2nd millenium Shang Dynasty presents a fact that reminds me of the use of the word for God, NTR, in ancient Egypt from the same period:

Chinese History - Shang Dynasty 商 (17th to 11th cent. BC) religion

The highest god was Di or Shangdi 上帝 who was especially responsible for natural powers like wind and rain. The highest deity was able to send down fortune and disaster (inundation, draught, sickness) on people below. The rulers and people of Yin also believed in other natural gods like the Earth, the Yellow River, the god of Mount Song 嵩山/Henan and the Sun. Like Shangdi controlled nature as highest deity, while the king as highest person controlled his domain. Deceased kings were deified as gods and received the title of di 帝 (like Di Xin 帝辛; di is here also acting as component of a binome). Nevertheless, Shangdi as the highest deity of nature was venerated differently from the royal ancestors that were adressed more directly for consultation. Except dynastic ancestors there were also predynastic ancestors and former lords who were treated differently from the direct ancestral line.

Towards the end of the Yin period the belief in the highest deity Shangdi and the natural powers became more indifferent and was overshadowed by the growing importance of the ancestral spirits. At the same time, the king took over the position of the divining shaman himself, a task that was hitherto filled by a group or staff of specialized shamans. ... Shang thinking can not be divided from divination. The use of divination by pyromancy, exposing bones or turtle plastrons to the fire and divining by the resulting cracks in the bone's surface, was not only limited to the Shang period - as often is read, but was still in use during the early Zhou Dynasty.
http://www.chinaknowledge.de/History/Myth/shang-religion.html

What I note here is that for ancient Egyptians, NTR (pronounced Neter) was their word for god, but it was also used for deceased kings, who became NTRs.
In Egypt, the king or pharaoh was also seen as having a special unique spiritual connection to God.

 

[Rakovsky]

2. Worship of and Devotions to Shang Di

A. Ed Holroyd shows some impressive photos of the Temple of Heaven complex and the altar in Beijing:

The worship of Shang Di degenerated into the ceremonial Border Sacrifice annually performed by the Emperor until 1911 A.D. ... About five hundred years ago the Temple of Heaven complex was built in Beijing for the performance of the Border Sacrifice.

[The tablet] says (Huang Tian Shang Di / Supreme Lord of the Great Heaven). There are no idols or other gods represented in this complex.

The last photo above is from one of the central buildings in the first photo.
Click here for more photos: http://www.edholroyd.info/Beginning/BorderSacrifice.htm


B. The Russian Orthodox Christian Hieromonk Damascene describes the ceremony in more detail:

The earliest account of religious worship in China is found in the Shu Jing (Book of History of Book of Documents), the oldest Chinese historical source. This book records that in the year 2230 B.C., the Emperor Shun “sacrificed to Shangdi.” ... This ceremony came to be known as the “Border Sacrifice,” because at the summer solstice and Emperor took part in ceremonies to the earth on the northern border of the country, and at the winter solstice he offered a sacrifice to heaven on the southern border. ... The oldest text of the Border Sacrifice that we have dates from the Ming Dynasty. It is the exact text of the ceremony that was performed in A. D. 1538, which was based on the existing ancient records of the original rituals.

The Emperor, as the high priest, was the only one to participate in the service. The ceremony began: “Of old in the beginning, there was the great chaos, without form and dark. The five elements [planets] had not begun to revolve, nor the sun and the moon to shine. In the midst thereof there existed neither forms for sound. Thou, O spiritual Sovereign, camest forth in Thy presidency, and first didst divide the grosser parts from the purer. Thou madest heaven; Thou madest earth; Thou madest man. All things with their reproductive power got their being.”

http://www.orthodox.cn/localchurch/200406ancientcnhist_en.htm
I would expect earlier sources with details on the Border Sacrifice than the one mentioned from the 16th century. But the Hieromonk could be right on this.

C. Tamra Andrews writes about the motive for the annual sacrifice in her Dictionary of Nature Myths: Legends of the Earth, Sea, and Sky:

The Chinese considered order a balance of yin and yang, and, every year, the emperor made a sacrifice to Shang Di to ensure he maintained that balance. Shang di was considered Emperor on high, and... was believed to be the ancestor of the earthly emperor and his family. Shang di was ... also the celestial counterpart of the emperor, and his celestial abode was the counterpart of the imperial palace. Shangdi's palace sat at the height of the heavens, in the area of the circumpolar stars, those that circles around the north celestial pole and never set. Shang do himself represented the north celestial pole , and the undying stars surrounding him were his imperial court.

...The Taoists worshiped him as the August Jade Emperor, who lives in the highest level of heaven and controlled all the natural powers, the spirits of the earth and the air below him.

If this is true about the ancient period, it means that the yin yang concept predates what seems to me to be the more recent development of Taoism as we understand it today.

 

[Rakovsky]

D. Edward Werner writes about Worship of Shang Di in Myths and Legends of China:

The people could not worship Shang Ti, for to do so would imply a familiarity or a claim of relationship punishable with death. The emperor worshipped his ancestors, the officials theirs, the people theirs. But, in the same way and sense that the people worshipped the emperor on earth, as the ‘father’ of the nation, namely, by adoration and p. 95 obeisance, so also could they in this way and this sense worship Shang Ti... So the ‘worship’ of Shang Ti by the people was not done officially or with any special ceremonial or on fixed State occasions, as in the case of the worship of Shang Ti by the emperor. .. In these official sacrifices, which formed part of the State worship, the people could not take part; nor did they at first offer sacrifices to Shang Ti in their own homes or elsewhere.

Do you agree with his description of how restricted ancient worship of Shang Di was?

He then says that the common Chinese did revere heaven instead:

Worship of T’ien
Owing to T’ien, Heaven, the abode of the spirits, becoming personified, it came to be worshipped not only by the emperor, but by the people also. But there was a difference between these two worships, because the emperor performed his worship of Heaven officially at the great altar of the Temple of Heaven at Peking whereas the people worshipped Heaven, .... usually at the time of the New Year, in a simple, unceremonious way, by lighting some incense-sticks and waving them toward the sky in the courtyards of their own houses or in the street just outside their doors.

Do you think this makes sense as an explanation: That ancient China's emperor was the only one allowed to worship Shang Di directly and so people eventually came to worship just "the heavens"?


E. The book Finding God in Ancient China by Chan Kei Thong, Charlene L. Fu is interesting. It goes through ancient Chinese literature in describing attributes of God, including prayers.

One prayer it records is: "O almighty Shang Di you come to us in your majesty, you discern all that is happening for the peace of the people."

So far we can see several aspects of worship and rites of Shang Di: prayers, sacrifices made by the emperor, ancient shamanism before the emperor took over the rites, oracle bones (divination), incense to honor the Heavens, and a few vaulted, idol-less temple buildings with vaulted ceilings that represent the heavenly layers. In ancient Sumerian thought, the heavens were a firm layer, particularly one made of tin. This is interesting to me because roofs in America are sometimes made of tin:

Is that true for ancient China or Sumeria too with roofs made of tin?

 

[Rakovsky]

3. Did Ancient Chinese people include monotheists?

A. Wikipedia says that worship of Shangdi

has features of monotheism in that Heaven is seen as an omnipotent entity, a noncorporeal force with a personality transcending the world. ... However, this faith system was not truly monotheistic since other lesser gods and spirits, which varied with locality, were also worshiped along with Shangdi. Still, later variants such as Mohism (470 BC–c.391 BC) approached true monotheism, teaching that the function of lesser gods and ancestral spirits is merely to carry out the will of Shangdi, akin to angels in Western civilization.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Monotheism#Chinese_view

So the existence of "lesser gods" makes the above writer think that China was not "truly" monotheistic.

B. Filippo Marsili writes in "The Ghosts of Monotheism" that the Confucians intentionally discouraged the populace from spirit worship and to refocus on worship of the Heavens:

It was at the end of the first century BCE that the Han rulers began to legitimize their authority by institutionalizing a view that, in keeping with Confucian prejudices against the direct involvement of society with spirits and ghosts (i.e., popular religion), embraced (or recreated) the moral rule of the Zhou as a model and integrated the notion of the Mandate of Heaven with Warring State traditions

http://quod.lib.umich.edu/f/frag/97...rtune-and-universalism?rgn=main;view=fulltext

C. Frank Ellinwood in The Traces of a Primitive Monotheism takes the view that references to inferior gods in the early recorded rituals simply refer to customs performed arbitrarily, while worship of Shangdi was customary, from which Ellinwood concludes that Shangdi's worship was an original monotheism:

The records of the Shu-king which Confucius compiled, and from which unfortunately his agnosticism excluded nearly all its original references to religion, nevertheless retain a full account of certain sacred rites performed by Shun on his accession to the full imperial power. In those rites the worship of One God as supreme is distinctly set forth as a “customary service,” thereby implying that it was already long established. Separate mention is also made of offerings to inferior deities, as if these were honored at his own special instance. It is unquestionably true that in China, and indeed in all lands, there sprang up almost from the first a tendency to worship, or at least to fear, unseen spirits. This tendency has coexisted with all religions of the world—even with the Old Testament cult—even with Christianity... Professor Legge, of Oxford, has claimed, from what he regards as valid linguistic proofs, that at a still earlier period than the dynasty of Yao and Shun there existed in China the worship of one God. He says: “Five thousand years ago the Chinese were monotheists—not henotheists, but monotheists”—though he adds that even then there was a constant struggle with nature-worship and divination.

The same high authority cites a remarkable prayer of an Emperor of the Ming dynasty (1538 A.D.)... The Emperor was about to decree a slight change in the name of Shangte to be used in the imperial worship. He first addressed the spirits of the hills, the rivers, and the seas, asking them to intercede for him with Shangte. ... But very different was the language used when he came to address Shangte himself. “Of old, in the beginning,” he began,--“Of old in the beginning, there was the great chaos without form, and dark. The five elements had not begun to revolve nor the sun and moon to shine. In the midst thereof there presented itself neither form nor sound. Thou, O spiritual Sovereign! earnest forth in thy presidency, and first didst divide the grosser parts from the purer. ...All living things are indebted to Thy goodness. But who knows whence his blessings come to him? It is Thou, O Lord! who art the parent of all things.”

http://www.worldspirituality.org/primitive-monotheism.html

The author goes on to point out that there are no idols or mention of other gods in the Temple of Heaven, whose roof is blue like the sky. The same writer sees reference to the one true God in a Taoist prayer from the “Taou Teh King”: “O thou perfectly honored One of heaven and earth, the rock, the origin of myriad energies, the great manager of boundless kalpas, do Thou enlighten my spiritual conceptions. Within and without the three worlds, the Logos, or divine Taou, is alone honorable, embodying in himself a golden light. May he overspread and illumine my person. He whom we cannot see with the eye, or hear with the ear, who embraces and includes heaven and earth, may he nourish and support the multitudes of living beings.”
What is particularly relevant to Christian concepts of God is the mention of the Logos above. It sounds as if the Tao is being deified and personalized.

 

[Rakovsky]

4. Shang Di in Taoism

As I understand it, Taoism associates Shang Ti with the Jade Emperor.

A. Ed Werner in Myths and Legends of China proposes that the story of the Jade Emperor is a medieval invention:

Yü Huang
Yü Huang means ‘the Jade Emperor,’ or ‘the Pure August One,’ jade symbolizing purity. He is also known by the name Yü-huang Shang-ti, ‘the Pure August Emperor on High.’

The history of this deity, who later received many honorific titles and became the most popular god, a very Chinese Jupiter, seems to be somewhat as follows: The Emperor Ch’êng Tsung of the Sung dynasty having been obliged in A.D. 1005 to sign a disgraceful peace with the Tunguses or Kitans, the dynasty was in danger of losing the support of the nation. In order to hoodwink the people the Emperor constituted himself a seer, and announced with great pomp that he was in direct communication with the gods of Heaven. In doing this he was following the advice of his crafty and unreliable minister Wang Ch’in-jo, who had often tried to persuade him that the pretended revelations attributed to Fu Hsi, Yü Wang, and others were only pure inventions p. 131 to induce obedience. The Emperor, having studied his part well, assembled his ministers in the tenth moon of the year 1012, and made to them the following declaration: “In a dream I had a visit from an Immortal, who brought me a letter from Yü Huang, the purport of which was as follows: ‘I have already sent you by your ancestor Chao [T’ai Tsu] two celestial missives. Now I am going to send him in person to visit you.’” A little while after his ancestor T’ai Tsu, the founder of the dynasty, came according to Yü Huang’s promise, and Ch’êng Tsung hastened to inform his ministers of it. This is the origin of Yü Huang. He was born of a fraud, and came ready-made from the brain of an emperor.

...Both Buddhists and Taoists claim [Yu Huang] as their own.

http://www.sacred-texts.com/cfu/mlc/mlc06.htm

B. Frank Ellinwood in Traces of a primitive Monotheism sees monotheism in a Taoist writing about the Tao as the Logos. For Christians, references to Logos as a being bring to mind ideas of Trinitarianism and Theology.

Dr. Medhurst has translated from the “Taou Teh King” this striking Taouist prayer: “O thou perfectly honored One of heaven and earth, the rock, the origin of myriad energies, the great manager of boundless kalpas, do Thou enlighten my spiritual conceptions. Within and without the three worlds, the Logos, or divine Taou, is alone honorable, embodying in himself a golden light. May he overspread and illumine my person. He whom we cannot see with the eye, or hear with the ear, who embraces and includes heaven and earth, may he nourish and support the multitudes of living beings.”

SOURCE:The Traces of a Primitive Monotheism By Frank F. Ellinwood

http://www.worldspirituality.org/primitive-monotheism.html

C. In World Religions, Warren Matthews writes about how Daoists came to associate the Jade Emperor with the Supreme God Shang Di:

During the Song dynasty, shortly after 1000 CE, Daoists, claiming a recent revelation, identified the Shang Di ruler of heaven with Huang Di, the Jade Emperor. Ling Bao, leader of supernatural beings, was added to Laozi and the Jade Emperor to form the Three Purities of Daoism.

D. The 2005 Encyclopedia of Religion explains how the title Shang Di became attached to multiple deities starting at least with the Daoist period (which can make a bit of confusion between Shang Di and the gods with the title included in their names, like Xuan Tian Shang Di).

With the development of the organized religion of Daoism around the end of the Latter Han dynasty (third century CE), the term Shangdi took on new prominence. As a Daoist term, however, it rarely appears alone; rather it has the general meaning "high god" in the elaborate compound titles given to the numerous divinities in the hierarchical, bureaucratically organized Daoist pantheon. Yuhuang Shangdi ("jade sovereign high god") is a characteristic example of such a divine title of nobility.

Meanwhile, the old sense of Shangdi was preserved through the officially sponsored study of classical texts by the Confucian bureaucratic elite. Every examination candidate knew by heart such stock phrases from the classics as "[King Wen] brilliantly served Shangdi and secured abundant blessings." With the development of the state cult of Confucianism and the imperial worship of and sacrifice to Heaven (Tian), Shangdi came to be regarded as a virtual synonym, perhaps somewhat more concretely conceived, of Heaven.

http://ic.galegroup.com/ic/whic/Ref...ak30216&jsid=c2949c9059f2a995933c0459c51361c6

D. The essay "Tao Bedrock of Chinese Culture" is an example of using Shangdi in a name for the Jade Emperor:

YU-HUANG-SHANG-TI

“Father Heaven – the August Supreme Emperor of Jade, whose court is the highest level of heaven, originally a sky god. ” The Jade Emperor made men, fashioning them from clay. His heavenly court resembles the earthly court in all ways, having an army, a bureaucracy, a royal family and parasitical courtiers. The Jade Emperor’s rule is orderly and without caprice. The seasons come and go as they should, yin is balanced with yang, good is rewarded and evil is punished. As time went on, the Jade Emperor became more and more remote to men, and it became customary to approach him through his doorkeeper, the Transcendental Dignitary. “The Jade Emperor sees and hears everything;” even the softest whisper is as loud as thunder to the Jade Emperor.

...
Yet the Chinese thinkers did believe that the world existed as an integrated organic system in an ordered system. What was above Man was Heaven, “tian,” and what was below Man was Earth, “di.”

https://mbplee.wordpress.com/2011/12/26/tao-bedrock-of-chinese-culture/
I am confused by the underlined part. It says the earth is DI, but I thought that DI referred to "emperor", as in the name of Shang Di.
Can you explain the difference?

E. The essay Genesis of the Jade Emperor talks about the New Year's association with the Jade Emperor:

The Jade Emperor, himself a variant of the ancient, thunder-wielding sky deity Shang Di, is the most revered god of the Taoist faith. On the ninth day of the New Year celebrations, it is said that the myriad deities of heaven and earth lay aside their duties to celebrate this day, the birth of the Jade Emperor.


On this day, fireworks would be set off at midnight, and grand ceremonies would be held at Taoist temples. Townspeople would offer a rooster in sacrifice to the Jade Emperor. Family members would bathe, but it was taboo to hang wet clothes or empty the trash as both were inauspicious activities.

http://www.theepochtimes.com/n3/1961781-gods-of-the-chinese-new-year/

What do you think the relation of the Jade Emperor to Shang Di is and how did it develop?

 

[GoodbyeDave]

I've made a few comments on your other post, so here are a few reflections on this one. I hasten to say I'm no expert on China!

One point to make is that paganism is a broad church, and one cannot expect all Chinese to agree today, let alone over time. China is also a great place for intellectual snobbery: on my shelves, I have a Confucian scholar expressing disdain for Daoist priests, and a Daoist priest expressing disdain for popular beliefs!

I find the question about "monotheism" unhelpful, as the word is ambiguous: a monotheist can be one who believes in a supreme being (a common enough position) or one who believes that there is only one divinity (as category which excludes Christianity). Many Western scholars, either Christian or raised on the 19th century evolutionary ideas about religious history, tend to identify religions as monotheist or not depending on whether they think them "advanced" or not. Personally, I avoid all books on religions not written by their practitioners.

As I understand it, the Jade Emperor (Yu Huang) is the "lord of this world" and a created being. Superior to him are the Three Pure Ones (Sanqing) who are the first emanations from (or creations of, according to taste) Tian.

On the question of deified emperors and the Egyptian ntr, one must remember that not all gods are on the same level. Christianity teaches that humans are destined to become gods, but not that they will become the equals of the Trinity! The Japanese word kami is relevant here: it's an honorific term for any spiritual being, from the Sun Goddess down to your deceased grandfather. The Chinese have a strong belief in the capacity of humans to become divine, like the Greek heroes. In everyday worship, there are probably more of them (ren xian "human spirits") than of original gods (tian xian "celestial spirits").