Names of Zeus: Shangdi

Di is the personification of the God of Gods and all Emperors in the Chinese pantheon, the highest deity and central imperial ancestor of the most ancient dynasties of China. He is equivocated with the fate of a country, the skies, the harvest and all manner of weather matters.

The evolution of this supreme being is marked between distinct representations of the Supreme God, such as Shangdi among the ancient dynasties, the Taoist figure of Yuanshi Tianzun of the Three Pure Ones, Taiyi in the Warring States period, the ancestor-figure of the Yellow Emperor who has modern significance, and finally the Jade Emperor whose cult was made the official head cult of the Gods around the Song and Tang Dynasty, continuing up to the Republican period. All of these entities were worshipped by the great ruler of China in elaborate rituals.

One of the biggest issues with the religious scenario in China is that China is a supremely ancient, gargantuan civilization that has undergone many evolutions in religious symbolism and civic values. Different regions and major urban centers of China often have distinctive traditions. Many times, ideologies such as Confucianism came to the fore that are not incompatible with Zevic beliefs but took a central place in Chinese life. Other elements that came to prevail in the Middle Kingdom such as Buddhism from time to time have both hampered and helped understanding of the Gods.

In many cases, the lineage of Taoism tends to represent many of the attributes of the God of Gods in Chinese culture the most.

ANCESTOR OF EMPERORS

The Shang dynasty declared that Shangdi was an immanent and remote God of the cosmos. His expressions and emanations were held to manifest in the dynasty directly itself: he was their great ancestor. Despite the association of Shangdi with the Shang dynasty, evidence has shown he was worshipped very far into Chinese history, as far back as the Xia or even further.

Much like Zeus and Amon, it is iterated that the support of Shangdi depends on the moral and spiritual countenance of a ruler. His rule can make or break any kingdom on Earth. The ancient legendary King Wu elaborates this in a speech to his troops, where he obliges them to be moral beings:

Taoists claim that the deity named Yuanzhi Tianzun (Primordial Lord of Heaven) was consulted through the shoulderblades of oxen since the Xia Dynasty or earlier. The deity would compel the emperor to do rites at the Great Temple of Heaven every year with extreme levels of ceremony. The Book of Rites claimed this was always done on the longest day of the year and continued through the Shang dynasty.

Supporting this correspondence of the two is that in the center building of the Temple of Heaven, in a wing called the Imperial Vault of Heaven, a "spirit tablet" inscribed with the name of Yuanshi Tianzun is stored on the throne of Huangtian Shangdi. During an annual sacrifice, the emperor would carry these tablets to the northern annex of the Temple of Heaven, a place called the Prayer Hall For Good Harvests, placing them on that throne.

Taoist literature also references the one-within-three concept:

ANCIENT SYMBOLISM OF SHANGDI

Many of the first logograms of Shangdi provide certain divine clues.

For example, this demonstrates a diagram of the higher Chakras and the soul. The Crown is represented between the Third Eye and the Back Extension, converging in the Sixth. The three channels of the soul are represented from three directions.

Originally, it is known the worship of this God took on a humanoid form before becoming rather incorporeal in Chinese culture, becoming regarded as Tian, the heavenly order and mandate, as well as the realm of those who passed. The shift towards Tian in Chinese culture seems to parallel the encroaching emphasis of monotheism on all parts of the planet.

THE ARBITER OF THE STARS

The Canon of Yao makes it clear that Shangdi ordered the court to make Astrological calculations and gave them knowledge of the stars. The seasons were calculated due to his intervention, a major link to his patronage of all agriculture:

THE YELLOW EMPEROR (HUANGDI)

The figures of the Yellow Emperor (Huangdi) and an associated ultimate deity named Taiyi who was often equated with him begin to emerge around the Warring States period.

At the same time, many scholars began to anthropomorphize the God into a human-like form due to the rationalist tendencies of the period. One scholar from the 20th century, Yang Kuan, correctly asserted that the Yellow Emperor was a representation of Shangdi, which is now the position of the majority of scholars. This is also the truth.

The Yellow Emperor is represented as the center of the cosmos. He is also referenced as being identical to the punishing and destroying ‘Thunder God’ named Leishen who is given a distinctive terrifying appearance approximate to that of Japanese Raijin. Sometimes this is equated with Indra in the form of Sakra by Buddhists.

Creation is his divine prerogative, the along with operating the wheel of the world which manifests all forms of divine order in physical reality. He is also the patron of immortality and ultimate consciousness, being known also as the ‘Four-Faced God’, an appellation given identically to Brahma in Chinese.

On the other hand, he is also given a distinctly human story of being both a sovereign and a human who undergoes apotheosis. He was located as the third Sovereign of the Chinese. In this recollection, he was a human named Xuanyuan born to Shaodian (possibly a reference to Saturn and Kronos). He defeated the evil spirit Chiyou and the unjust ruler Shennong through strategy:

Later lore links Huangdi to the quest for immortality: one tale recounts his ingestion of the “white jade cream” (白玉之膏), a magic elixir, which we know to be the dew of the Pineal Gland, to achieve eternal life.

Taoist alchemists spoke of Huangdi using magical “Nine Elixirs” or consuming the essence of jade to ascend to heaven, blending his myth with their quest for transcendent life. The esteem for the Yellow Emperor’s esoteric wisdom is evident in the many Taoist scriptures attributed to him (whether genuinely ancient or apocryphal). As noted, texts on medicine (the Inner Canon), military strategy, fengshui, and talismans were given his name, implying he had revealed sacred knowledge to humanity.

Confucian scholars counted Huangdi among the wise ancient sage-kings who exemplified virtue. Although Confucianism traditionally praised Yao and Shun of the Three Sovereigns and Five Emperors more explicitly, Huangdi too was held up as a model of benevolent rulership and moral leadership. A Han-era text attributed to Confucius lauds Huangdi’s lasting influence: “When the Yellow Emperor was alive, the people prospered for a hundred years; after he died, they revered his spirit for a hundred years; after his spirit vanished, they still followed his teachings for a hundred years. Thus people say he ruled for three hundred years.’

Thus, across Classical texts, Huangdi was a versatile symbol: Confucians cast him as a humane sage-king, Daoists as an enlightened immortal and source of secret knowledge, and Legalist-Daoist syncretists as a model of enlightened authority balancing strict governance with cosmic Dao. These varied interpretations in Warring States and Han writings kept the Yellow Emperor at the center of China’s cultural memory, each school anchoring its ideals in his legendary persona.

Although the Jade Emperor assumed precedence by the first millennium AD, by the late Qing, many Chinese nationalists held up the Yellow Emperor as a nationalist and racial symbol in their quest of liberation from Manchu rule. Reformists referenced Huangdi as ‘the ancestor of the Chinese race’. Many works of art were dedicated to him. Annual offerings and commemorations at the Yellow Emperor Mausoleum (黃帝陵) have been endorsed as expressions of patriotism and reverence for Chinese heritage, showing how his mythic spirit endures.

THE JADE EMPEROR (YUDI)

With the passage of time and succession of different rulers, the emphasis in China shifted more towards the representation of the Jade Emperor by the Tang and Song Dynasties. The symbolism may be linked in fact to the Yellow Emperor’s ingestion of jade to become a divine being. Popularity of the Jade cult prompted the Song Dynasty to directly name the Jade Emperor as the official personification of the God of Heaven.

According to popular Tang-Song legend, the Jade Emperor had been a mortal prince of a prehistoric kingdom, famed for his exceptional benevolence and wisdom. Renouncing his throne to live among the people and practice compassion, this prince spent countless kalpas (aeons) in ascetic cultivation of the Dao, gradually ascending spiritual planes.

After 3,200 great eons of practice, he achieved the Golden Immortality and the title “Pure and Tranquil Enlightened King”. Late mythology even syncretized the two Emperors: one theory held that the Yellow Emperor had ascended and become the Jade Emperor.

Nonetheless, some Chinese works hostile to Taoism and the way it has been interpreted in the way Chinese emperors governed over the ages have attacked and lampooned the figure of the Jade Emperor as a figurehead of rigid Taoist ideology, unaware of the divine symbolism he governs over.

The Jade Emperor is also consistently referenced as the minister or secretary of Yuanshi Tianzun who passed control of the skies and time to him. One major element of the Jade Emperor’s myth comes when he contends with the source of great evil, similar to Zeus and the Typhon, told in some of the Taoist texts.

When he was burnishing the land to make it more liveable for men and repelling a variety of monsters, the Jade Emperor, an evil glow radiating from heaven and knew something was amiss. He ascended and saw that the evil entity was too powerful to be stopped by the gods. The Jade Emperor challenged it, and they fought. Mountains shook and rivers and seas toppled. His deep and true cultivation of soul shined through and his benevolence instead of pure power, therefore the Jade Emperor won the battle. After the evil entity was defeated, its army was scattered by the Gods and Demons.

The Jade Emperor with his wife the Queen Mother of the West has seven daughters known as the Seven Fairies, an allusion to the Chakras:

• Red Jacket
• Blue Jacket
• White Jacket
• Black Jacket
• Purple Jacket
• Yellow Jacket
• Green Jacket

SYMBOLISM OF YUDI

Chinese portraiture tends to be heavily symbolic and awash with rich details. Clothing itself in these portraits represents much about rank and duty. All of the symbolism represented in the Jade Emperor’s representation is in other words there for a reason and not at all arbitrarily.

The Jade Emperor is almost always enthroned in his portraits upon grand throne that signifies his dominion over the cosmos, not at all dissimilarly to Zeus. This throne is often depicted as the Dragon Throne, analogous to the seat of Chinese emperors. Dragon motifs typically adorn the throne – carved dragons coiling around the seat or its back – to announce that this is the seat of the supreme ruler. He is united with heaven and earth.

Atop his head is the mian (冕冠), the rectangular imperial crown with a flat board and hanging bead curtains. The Jade Emperor’s crown is shown with twelve strings of beads draping in front and in the back. The twelve or thirteen jade beads represent the twelve zodiacal signs and the months of the year, with thirteen representing spiritual completion. Some depictions of the mian use a rounded form upon a square base representing a square plan of the earth.

Above the crown, the golden dragon is represented staring at the viewer with six other rampant dragons on each side. The dragon motif represents the primacy of the Emperor in the skies, but also the kundalini serpent hitting the Crown Chakra. Occasionally the Sun and Moon are represented of the ida and pingala, generally tied to this serpentine symbol. The dualistic, symmetrical imagery of the tassel of clothing is also tied to the dual function of Zeus expressing Satya, along with representing the Tao itself.

Billowing clouds fill the background of the Jade Emperor’s portrait, often multi-colored and stylized. In Chinese art, clouds are a ubiquitous symbol of the heavens and auspicious fortune. The word for ‘cloud’ is a homophone of fortune. The Jade Emperor is seated and enthroned in the fabric of the cosmos. Therefore, the background is not a blank space. It is alive with the qi of heaven, rolling clouds and celestial energies, symbolizing the Daoist world order that the Jade Emperor oversees.

They also denote the yin-yang harmony of the cosmos. Clouds form from the fusion of water (yin) and air (yang), the perfect natural balance. Often the clouds are drawn in the five auspicious colors (blue-green, red, yellow, white, black) which correspond to the Five Elements.

The setting around the throne underscores that this scene takes place in the Celestial Palace. Traditional art might depict architectural elements like heavenly pillars, ornate clouds shaped like palace parapets. In some images, the Jade Emperor’s court is hinted at by showing him in an open hall of the Jade Palace of Heaven. According to Daoist cosmology, he resides in a magnificent palace in the highest heavens, and the throne room is the “administrative center of the cosmos.”

MOUNT TAI

The Mount Tai (Tai Shan) in China, also known as the Tranquil Mountain, is the eastern half in the province of Shandong. This mountain located north of the city of Tai’an is considered the most sacred and holy of all of the five Sacred Mountains of China. The Shang dynasty first began certain rites to Shangdi on this mountain that became known as the Feng and Shan Sacrifices, adhered to rigidly by all great lords and monarchs of China ever since.

To this day, having survived the iconoclasm of the Cultural Revolution, it still contains a peak known as the Jade Emperor Peak. Annals of China also record that the Yellow Emperor climbed the peak. The intent of the dual rites associated with divinity was to show the union of heaven and earth. Any emperor who came from a different family or had made outstanding contributions would be blessed by the Gods with auspicious "signs of good fortune", and would be qualified to go to Mount Tai to report his success and thank the grace of heaven for bestowing the throne on him. This formed the tradition of the Mount Tai Ceremony.

Even the full unification of China was proclaimed by Qin Shi Huang with a ceremony on the summit, elevating the mountain to a uniquely national importance. It is known he borrowed the procedure from the original Qin State. This led to the saying:

Interestingly, it is noted that 72 emperors visited the Mountain in all. One event indicates its extreme importance: emissaries of Japan, India, the Persian court in exile, Goguryeo, Baekje, Silla, the Turks, Khotan, the Khmer, and the Umayyad Caliphate all had representatives attending the Feng and Shan sacrifices held by Emperor Gaozong of Tang in 666 at Mount Tai.

From the red gate at the foot of the mountain to the South Heaven Gate at the top are also some 6,660 stone steps, which wind their way up the mountain slopes.

There have been hundreds of thousands of inscriptions made on the mountain over the years. It became known as a uniquely powerful area for meditative practices. Copious and various groups came to the summit to practice their religious duties. At least 22 known temple complexes have been built there.

Unfortunately, the Cultural Revolution led to a catastrophe for the mountain’s sacred relics, with 10,000 cubic meters of stone being destroyed by fanatical Red Guards. This incident should show the hostility of certain programs to Zeus worldwide. Great efforts have been made to rectify this mistake ever since.