Terminology/Concepts
Terminology/Concepts
Tao
The primordial source principle, or 'thing' which controls the creation of heaven and earth first, then the primordial world. It is a perfect, total or complete fusion of all things: a cosmic totality - "a chaotically complete one body" (Shao Po-wen 1057-1134 A.D.).
yin-yang
The subtlety of Taoist yin-yang philosophy has been mangled in the West by the familiar list of opposites joined in pairs: male-female, hot-cold, dark-light, etc. Nonetheless, there is a grain of realism in enumerating such pairs because yin-yang refers to the union of complementary forces without which there can be no true unity, no complete wholeness. The union of such complements is a melding in which the identities of the individual components are not lost even while they have formed a new completeness. Taoists thus speak of 1 + 1 = 3; i.e. the two individual components have not been lost even while they have combined. Yin plus Yang plus the new unified creation equal three 'things'.
Ch'ia
The active force of the center is a complex philosophical concept central to Taoism. Ch'ia is an emptiness that links the 'two' into a form equivalent to the original state of unity. This is a paradise condition of total harmony which orders the interaction and synthesis of the dual principles yin and yang. They cycle through a continued process of going out (rising, swelling, expansion) and returning (contraction, coagulation, lowering) which is mediated by the 'emptiness' of the center. In earliest Taoist thought, ch'ia is the primordial principle that constantly connects all phenomenal forms with the Mother and thus reveals the presence of a Mother Goddess in early (Shang perhaps) myth which is now almost beyond reconstruction. The practicing Taoist hopes to embrace Tao so as to be renewed by experiencing the condition of 'three' - dualities informed by ch'ia.
Hun-ch'eng
The Tao is the primordial source principle, or 'thing' which controls the creation of heaven and earth first, then the primordial world. It was a perfect, total or complete fusion of all things: a cosmic totality. Cosmic totality is hun-ch'eng, which may be related to the concept of hun-tun, "Primal Chaos Creatress"
Hun-tun
Hun-tun can be associated with the symbolism of a female creatress, perhaps the diving bird in Shan Hai-Ching and also with her offspring (embryo, egg, seed, gourd, drum, cocoon, sack, bellows)". The practicing Taoist hopes to embrace Tao so as to be renewed by experiencing the condition of 'three' dualities informed by ch'ia. They believe they feed from the primal Mother of All Things. The condition achieved is childlike or womb-like. The Taoist wishes to return to the Primal Chaos Creation and so reintegrate with cosmic totality.
Sage King
Sage King is a title given to six male culture heroes of the Chinese Neolithic, who may or may not have been entirely mythical. The traditional dates assigned to them all fall in the latter centuries of the Yang-shao culture which precedes the first 'dynasty' in Chinese history. See the introductory table and its footnotes in the text.
Son of Heaven
During the Chou Dynasty the emperor was deemed the Son of Heaven, empowered to rule by the great Lord in Heaven, Ti Chun. This appellation continued to be applied to emperors until the fall of the last Chinese dynasty, that of the Manchu, in 1912 A.D.. As with many ancient mytho-poetics, Confucian values dictated that the emperors physical health and morality would direct the well being and behavior of his subjects. This relationship defines one of the great gulfs between East and West. In the Old European cultures of pre-Indo-European Eurasia, the king was the semi-divine consort of the Goddess and empowered to rule by Her. Public inauguration ceremonies established this fact with rituals that invoked extremely powerful imagery that could not be forgotten by any of those who were present.
Ancestor Worship
The worship and veneration of family ancestors, both to pay respects to the elderly and the presumed wisest members of the clan is only one aspect of ancestor worship. In China and elsewhere, ancestors could exert a powerful influence on the events of this world and time and so were supplicated and prayed to both in private moments and structured rituals. Such ancestors were not accorded the status of deities, however. They were, in effect, powerful but human immortals living on an invisible plane. Ancestor worship so dominated Chinese ritual from the Chou Dynasty onwards that it had the extraordinary effect, in conjunction with Confucianism, of reducing myth and the world of the gods to a realm of secondary and lesser importance. See the discussion in the text.
Cosmic Snake
The earliest mythic snake as it appears in the Paleolithic and continues throughout the Neolithic was not a symbol of evil but a creature of 1) eternal renewal and immortality as exemplified by the sloughing off of its skin during each molt; and 2) a representative of dynamic, endlessly creative life energy. The compressed spiral assumed by a coiled snake is an archetypal symbol of powerful, latent energy about to be released. When the Goddess became anthropomorphized during the evolution of Neolithic societies, one of her major epiphanies was that of the Snake Goddess who combined these symbols into a powerful metaphor. Snake Gods are nonexistent in the Neolithic cultures of Old Europe and very rare elsewhere. (Oriental dragons are not snakes, although some scholars believe their ancestry includes input from the India naga serpent.) The authors of Genesis, rewrote the character of the Snake Deity in a manner which has had a profound impact on all Western ritual and psychology ever since. The Snake Goddess of the Near East, now dominated by an Indo-European thunder sky god (Yawheh), performs one last act of spiteful betrayal against her master. The snake in the Garden of Eden manipulates Eve into eating the apple of the Tree of Knowledge and seducing Adam to do the same. In the past, gnosis brought forth a state of sublime spiritual grace and great understanding. However, Yahweh is a jealous, defensive and powerful god who wishes to reserve ultimate Understanding for himself. He will not tolerate the achievement of true insight by human beings. Rather than reward Adam and Eve, as would have been done in non-Christian myth, they are punished for both desiring an attribute of the gods and actually acquiring a bit of it. The Snake Goddess has performed her mission as in eons past but She is now cursed by Yahweh to forever crawl in the dust on her belly. Her acolytes suffer terribly from the bestowal of her grace, acquiring a knowledge of good and evil. They will be forever plagued by sin and guilt, as their behavior is labeled arrogant and deserving of a complete fall from Yahweh favor. Yahweh has established his dominance in the opening chapters of the Old Testament, not by understanding or compassion, but by rewarding what in former times would have been taken as an important spiritual change with a cruel punishment which will be repeated again and again as Israelite history of the first millennium B.C. unfolds. That legacy, in turn, was transmitted to Christianity.
Divination
The primary definition of 'divination' in the American Heritage Dictionary is "the art of foretelling future events or revealing occult knowledge by means of augury or an alleged supernatural agency." 'To divine' is to determine the will of the gods and such rituals are still widespread throughout the world in many religions. (It should be self evident why one would want to know the desires of the gods.) In ancient China, and to a lesser extent in Japan as well, divination was performed using animal bones which were subjected to intense heat from a flaming branch after the problem at hand had been inscribed upon them by the diviner. The pattern of cracks which then emerged was interpreted by the diviner who was the only functionary trained to do so. The Shang ruling families and court, like few others, were obsessed with divination and they used buffalo scapula and the plastrons (ventral half of the 'shell') of turtles as the medium for contacting the gods. More than 100,000 such oracle bones have been found and catalogued. Their inscriptions are about ritual propositions and the proper offerings to be made to ancestors and nature spirits in order to influence important events. The goal of the divination was to ascertain whether or not the king had obtained the favor of the spirits or High Lord. The problems addressed reveal much about the Shang state and politics of the time. Much less is revealed about myth but that which is known is of great importance.
Epiphany
The manifestation of a deity in symbolic form as distinct from the direct appearance of a god or goddess in their primary anthropomorphic form is an epiphany. The Bird Goddess often manifests as a swan: the swan is her epiphany. The Goddess of Death often manifests as a vulture: the vulture is her epiphany. The appearance of the Great Goddess with the form of a human female would not be considered an epiphany; there is little, if any, symbolism to interpret in this case. The anthropomorphic deity indicates that 'what you see is, in fact, what is'.
Cosmology
The science of ultimate beginnings, the search for the First Cause, and how it began the evolution of the universe and the 'world' is cosmology. Cosmology research is conducted with the tools of modern astrophysics or the ritual of myth.
Axis Mundi
A cosmic pillar, or axis mundi, is a connection between 'earth' and 'heaven' and therefore between secular and sacred time. The cosmic pillar may exist in this 'world' and be a symbolic object constructed by humans or it may reside in supranatural dimensions and be forever 'mythical'.
Annals of Master Lu
The Lu-shih ch'un-ch'iu was compiled by Master Lu who died in 235 B.C.. There is a Han Dynasty commentary upon it written by Kao Yu in 205-212 A.D..
Book of Changes
The Book of Changes is one of the most famous books in all history. It was first written in the last centuries of the Shang Dynasty and the early part of the Chou Dynasty. The is a manual of divination based upon a belief in the synchronicity of the universe; all events occurring at a particular time are interrelated by both vertical and horizontal causality. Traditionally, yarrow stalks or coins were thrown to construct each of the 64 hexagrams. As with Tarot and Astrology, in the crudest of hands the becomes a superstitious child's plaything or adult parlor game with which to foretell the future. Wielded by a subtle, educated and refined creative intuition, it becomes a valuable device with which to contemplate the past, present and future. Within the interpretation of the hexagrams lies important aspects of yin-yang philosophy as well as some of the most esoteric Taoist teachings. Authorship of the is attributed to four individuals: Fu Hsi, one of the legendary Sage Kings of the Neolithic; King Wen and his son, the Duke of Chou, who were active in the 11th century B.C.; and Confucius. Except for Fu Hsi, whose historical existence cannot be confirmed, each of these individuals no doubt had important input into the text. King Wen and his son wrote important interpretative text for each of the 64 hexagrams and for each of the six lines which comprise each hexagram. Confucius is known to have edited the book of changes the and written an important commentary which is now incorporated into the body of the text.
Tao Te Ching
The Classic of the Way and Power is most likely not the product of a single author such as Lao Tzu but "the result of a period of oral composition that lasted ... from circa 650-350 B.C.. During this period, it was common for philosophers to travel from state to state within the disintegrating Chinese [Chou] empire, looking for a king who would put their ideas into practice. Initially their doctrines were formulated orally and transmitted in the same fashion from generation to generation among their followers. Finally one of the adherents would take it upon himself to record the teachings of his master or school in short, pithy, classical Chinese statements. Still later, others might make additions or corrections" (Mair 1990: 120).
Chiu ko
The Nine Hymns are a collection of eleven religious poems for ceremonies in which sorceresses address various deities and they reveal important detail about the rituals. They were written by Yuan of Ch'u (c.350-c.285 B.C) who is considered one of China's greatest poets.
Chuang Tzu
The Chuang Tzu is a very important early Taoist book that is a valuable source for early myth. Although it bears the name of the great Taoist philosopher Chuang Tzu (c.369-286 B.C.), it is a composite work representing several authors of divergent views working in different centuries. Giradot (1983) finds that a unified structure underlies the first seven chapters and the earliest material may date from the 4th century B.C..
Classic of History
The Shu ching is also known as the Shang shu or Ancient History. It is a compilation whose sections were written between the late Chou Dynasty and the 3rd century A.D. and it was regarded as the record of the government and institutions of the Sage Kings, which was to be used as model for all occupants of the 'dragon throne'. A twenty chapter commentary was written in the 2nd century B.C. by K'ung An-kuo and a second commentary was authored by K'ung Ying-ta (574-648 A.D.). The section entitled "Documents of the Shang Dynasty", which had been required study for the official government examinations for centuries, was shown by Yen Jo-chu (1636-1704) to be a forgery.
Classic of Mountains and Seas
The Shan hai ching (Shanhaijing) is a compilation of late Chou and Han Dynasty natural history and myth written between the 3rd century B.C. and the 1st century A.D., which exists in several versions and is considered a primary reference for historians. It supposedly is a record of the speeches and acts of the Sage Kings and other important figures of the legendary Golden Age of the remote past. According to Birrell (1993), the Classic of Mountains and Seas provides numerous examples of the conversion of myth into history.
Feng Su T'ung
The Explanation of Social Customs was compiled by Ying Shao who lived from c.140 to c.206 A.D..
Huai-nan Tzu
This classical text presents the views of several philosophical schools, mostly those of Taoism. It was compiled and partly written c.139 B.C. by Liu An, a member of the Han royal family. The title of the book comes from his title, King of Huai-nan. The Huai-nan Tzu contains valuable mythological writings among which are several versions of early Chinese cosmology.
Record of Immortals
The Yung-ch'eng chi hsien lu was compiled in Yung-ch'eng by Tu Kuang-t'ing (850-933 A.D.).
Researches of Lost Records
The Shih yi chi is attributed to Wang Tzu-nien who was active c.335 to 386 A.D.. The text was reconstructed by Hsiao Ch'i in the 6th century A.D..
Shih chi
The Records of the Historian or Historical Records was the first comprehensive history of the Chinese nation and comprising130 chapters. It was written by Ssu-ma Ch'ien (c.145 - 86 B.C.).Extensive commentaries were written by P'ei Yin in the 5th century A.D., Ssu-ma Chen in 730 A.D. and Chang Shou-chieh who was active from 725 to 737 A.D..
Shuo-wen chieh tzu
An Explication of Written Characters (Showen) was written by Hsu Shen c. 100 A.D. and edited by Hsu Hsuan in 986 A.D..
Songs for Suburban Sacrifice in 19 Parts
The set of hymns we have from the reign of the Han Emperor Wu is called Songs for Suburban Sacrifice, in 19 Parts. Some of the songs praise deities associated with the seasonal cycle and others celebrate contemporary 'historical' miracles. Emperor Wu (141-87 B.C.) was a long lived, powerful ruler with a deep interest in the arts and religion. He personally intervened at the highest policy levels to impose his taste upon literary, musical and liturgical forms. In 113 B.C. he established devotion to T'ai-i, Great Unity during the winter solstice of 113 B.C. and also the honoring of a Spirit Mistress in the imperial park. He founded and introduced many cults and rituals during these two years and personally attended worship at major ceremonies. Hymns for religious rituals were put into a framework of contemporary music and dance.
Songs of Ch'u
The Ch'u Tz'u (Chuci) is a gold mine of early history and mythology. It was compiled with a commentary during the Han Dynasty by Wang Yi (89-158 A.D.).
Songs to Set the World at Ease, for Private Performance
These are a set of hymns from the reign of the founder of the Han Dynasty Emperor Kao-tsu (c.200 B.C.). They had been set to music by a consort of Emperor Kao-tsu, Lady T'ang, who was skilled in Ch'u music. These 17 hymns recited the ethical values of Confucianism and were performed at both rites of worship for the imperial ancestors and court banquets.
Treatise on Extraordinary and Strange Things
The Tu yi chih was compiled by Li Jung who lived during the Tang Dynasty c.846-874.
Treatise on Research into Nature
The Po wu chih is attributed to Chang Hua (232-300 A.D.) but may be an anonymous work written during the Six Dynasties.
Yaodian or 'Annals of Yao'
The "Yaodian" ("Annals of Yao") is the first chapter of the Shang shu (Classic of History) and is written in an archaic language. It dates from the Chou Dynasty but whether c.800 B.C. or c.300 B.C. is the correct date is at this time an unresolved problem. In the "Yaodian" the second section concerns the heavens and the calendar and is important to the attempt to reconstruct early myth.
Dawenkou Culture
This is a Neolithic culture of China's east coast which pre-dates the Shang and produced pottery vessels whose legs are sculpted to resemble female breasts. See the text. Burials with rich grave goods speak to the emergence of an aristocracy who partook of the benefits of a far flung trading network.
Yang Shao Culture
The Yang Shao is one of the earliest farming cultures of the Chinese Neolithic which was centered in the Huang Ho Valley and it was very long lasting (5700 to 2100 B.C.). The traditional dates assigned to the legendary Sage Kings place them in the last centuries of the Yang Shao. The Huang Ho Valley was also the location of the first three historic dynasties: Hsia, Shang and Chou. Villages were characterized by a communal house at the center of a plaza surrounded by small houses whose doors faced the center. A pottery making center was located outside the village proper as was a village cemetery. Female symbols and those of cosmic water and cosmic snake are common on their pottery, which suggests that the early Neolithic goddess was present in China.
Hsia (Xia) Dynasty
The dynasty which preceded the Shang is known as the Hsia and it most likely encompassed the time span c.2010 - 1324 B.C.. The Hsia lived in southern Shansi and northwest Honan, which is the area of the earliest Shang civilization. A royal genealogy is known from fragments of pre-Chin texts and was also organized in the Shih chi. Some archaeologists identify the lowest level of the excavation at Erh-li-t'ou as remnants of the Hsia Dynasty and it dates to 2010 to 1781 B.C.. Above this level is what most archaeologists agree is the site of Po, the capital city established by King T'ang who founded the Shang Dynasty in 1766 B.C. according to traditional chronology although modern archeology assigns his reign to 1460-1441 B.C.. Clay phalli point to the worship of male ancestors and divination with bovid scapula was practiced. The Hsia also manufactured the first bronze vessels in China and under the Shang that technology produced some of the world's greatest art. Whether or not the Hsia were a truly distinct dynastic lineage or the earliest phase of the Shang is a question still debated by archaeologists, although the evidence seems to favor its distinct identity.
Anyang Period
Late in the Shang Dynasty, the capital was moved to Anyang which is northeast of the modern city of that name. Excavations have uncovered a palace and temple complex, housing for the aristocracy and commoners and workshops. There is also a royal cemetery of shaft tombs and sacrificial burials, nearly 1200 of which are human. The Anyang Period lasted from c.1200 to c.1040 B.C. and encompassed the rule of eight or nine kings. The vast majority of the inscribed oracle bones of the Shang Dynasty come from this period. The ritual activities of Shang rulers are unusual in the extraordinary reliance that seems to have been placed upon divination through oracle bones which were primarily the plastrons of turtles. See divination and oracle/ bones below. Although the Shang aristocracy wrote with a pictographic script whose characters are the precursors of those in modern Chinese, the only surviving examples of their writing are the divinations inscribed on the oracle bones. There is no evidence of a literature of any kind, be it mythic history or poetry, nor of the more prosaic business records which provide so many examples of early scripts and writing in the Near East. As discussed extensively in the text, Shang myth has only recently been reconstructed by a process of backward extrapolation from Chou and Han Dynasty texts as tested against descriptions recorded on the oracle bones.
Shang Dynasty
The Shang people established dynastic rule from a base in southern Shansi and northwest Honan, c.1460 to 1040 B.C., and their culture is the first in China for which we have a great deal of information besides archeology. During their later period their rulers became obsessed with divination with oracle bones: see divination and Anyang above. The earliest Chinese mythology which we can reconstruct in detail comes from the Shang and its substance and interpretation are exhaustively explored in the text.
Chou Dynasty
About 1040 B.C., the Shang were overthrown by the Chou and the change was revolutionary: a complete realignment of the political and mythic landscape took place. The Chou originated in an area of the present-day north China province of Honan, which was geographically different from that of the Shang people. The Chou replaced the central Shang myth of the Mulberry Tree and reduced the number of suns from ten to one, as the tale of Yi the Archer relates. Their ethnicity and mytho-poetics were very different from the Shang. The Chou produced China's first recorded literature, philosophy, myth and poetry, some of which preserved fragments of Shang thought. Their first king was Wu Wang and he established the Western Chou Dynasty which lasted until 771 B.C. with several capitals, the most important of which was Hao. Wu Wang conquered the crown prince of the Shang, Wu Keng, and his successor Ch'eng Wang unified Shang and Chou territories into a single empire. Repeated incursions by nomads in the northwest forced the capital to be moved to Lo-yang in the east in 771 B.C. and this event initiated the Eastern Chou Dynasty which was to last until 221 B.C.. The number of walled city-states greatly increased as provincial feudal lords became powerful and independent. The Chou established China's longest lived dynasty and the first to rule most of what is now present-day China.
Chin (Qin) Dynasty
This short-lived dynamic dynasty (221-206 B.C.) witnessed the first unification of China and the establishment of an empire by its founder Emperor Shin-huang. During this period the Great Wall was built and there was a terrible intellectual cleansing of history which saw an attempt to burn all history and literature unrelated to Chin in 213 B.C..
Han Dynasty
The Han continued the legacy of their short-lived predecessors, the Chin. They established a strong central government and empire that lasted for more than four centuries, from 202 B.C. to 220 A.D., and sought to soften the brutal exercise of power wielded by the Chin. The government itself believed that it had a duty to investigate the workings of the universe and Han intellectuals spent enormous energy in classifying phenomena into a hierarchical system so that all might be understood. This obsession with the creation of a single comprehensive science recalls the conviction that grew out of the Scientific Revolution in the West that the practitioners of reductionist, quantifiable, analytic science were journeying upon the only path that could lead to a complete understanding of the universe. Nonetheless, Confucian philosophy of the Han Dynasty rested upon lofty, yet pragmatic principles. Heaven, earth and man formed a divine trinity. It was the duty of humankind to understand the laws of Heaven in both the religious and scientific sense. Economic welfare, which had its foundation in attention to the earth and agriculture, was deemed the basis of morality. Moral defects in the common people reflected moral deficiencies in the emperor who had been unable to create the conditions that would allow people to be virtuous. The path to profit and virtue must be identical because the masses desire and deserve material wealth and cannot be expected to adopt the lifestyles of enlightened scholars who deliberately choose poverty to enhance their spirituality. Peace and prosperity are the foundation of the society. Moral training and education are accomplished through rituals and rites, music and the study of literature. The ultimate product of this system is the sage who because of his immense learning had developed the most acute and refined moral sense possible. The proper role of the sage is not to teach or retire in contemplation to the wilderness but to engage in government service and to advise the emperor. Thereby will his influence be most profound and affect the greatest number of people. This short summary outlines the Confucian philosophy which dominated the Han era and ironically, its elitist tone permeated a dynastic era whose founder Liu Chi was of lower class origins (see de Bary 1960: 145-149).
Manchu
The Manchu people of China are descendants of the nomadic Jurchens, who had both male and female shamans. They first impact the recorded history of China when they conquered portions of the northeast and established the Jin Dynasty in 1115 A.D.. During the Ch'ing Dynasty (1644-1911), the Manchu were at the height of their power, for they conquered and ruled a unified China. By this time, their royal houses had nearly lost their original culture and were acculturated according to the timeless Han paradigm. They sought to strengthen imperial power by promoting the official worship of a supreme deity and the Han Chinese "Mandate of Heaven" concept that vested power in the emperor. Today, remote Manchu communities in northeastern China retain some of their original culture.
Ch'ing (Qing) Dynasty
The Ch'ing Dynasty was founded in 1644 by the Manchu and lasted until 1911 when it was succeeded by the ill-fated Republic. The Manchu people of China are descendants of the nomadic Jurchens, who had both male and female shamans. They first impact the recorded history of China when they conquered portions of the northeast and established the Jin Dynasty in 1115 A.D. During the Ch'ing Dynasty the Manchu were at the height of their power, for they conquered and ruled a unified China.
Confucius
Confucius's proper name is K'ung Ch'iu and he was born about the middle of the 6th century B.C. at Tsou, a small fortified provincial town of which his father was governor. His family claimed descent from the Dukes of Sung, the ancient Sage Kings. His father had married at seventy and the family was very poor. We know nothing about the childhood or education of Confucius. In the last years of the 6th century, he attached himself to a young nobleman who attempted to usurp the position of the Prime Minister of Chi, one of the three great states of China at this time. The attempt failed and Confucius then acquired a position with the Prime Minister whose family had held this hereditary position. He became a trusted administrator of an important Chi city, Chung-tu. In 492 B.C. a new Prime Minister did not show him favor and he was forced to resign his posts and leave the court. Confucius, with several followers, then wandered from one state to another and he began to develop his philosophy of government, which was a look backward to the assumed morality and filial piety of the Sage Kings. Because of the favor accorded an important disciple, he was able to return to Chi and he organized a formal school in the capital. There are no writings from Confucius himself which have survived, indeed it is not clear if he ever set down his ideas in writing: that task was apparently left to his disciples. He accepted all students even if they could not pay his full fee. Confucius is often portrayed in our times as a cerebral, intellectual philosopher but such was hardly the case. He believed that the Duke of Chou, brother of the legendary King Wen spoke to him in dreams and conveyed to him the wisdom of the Sage Kings. He claimed to transmit ancient tradition, not create a new philosophy. He taught ancient books, ritual and politics. Individuality was of no concern. The Virtue of the emperor, which derived from the Mandate of Heaven, determined the balance of good and evil in the people and therefore the emperor was directly responsible for the behavior and conduct of his people. Yet, every man could improve himself and change by studying the ancient texts and acting with a superior morality and altruism. The ancient rites hold the key to this program of self improvement and the system was aristocratic to the core. The ultimate goal was to have a superior man acquire a high position in government and so influence the many.
Lao Tzu
The Classic of the Way and the Power is attributed to Lao Tzu of the 3rd century B.C. a legendary philosopher whose historical identity has yet to be pinpointed. The Classic of the Way and the Power is a philosophy of government and guide for a life of high principle for the aristocracy, yet it is based upon the Tao and is rich in Taoist doctrine. Much of the text discusses The Way (Tao) as the unknowable first principle which, if followed, produces a life devoid of strife, desire and coercion and filled with spontaneous, effortless and inexhaustible action. The ideal emperor would be a Taoist sage who would guide the people back to the primeval state of innocence, simplicity and harmony with the Tao. Compare this view of government with that of the Confucianists as summarized under the Han Dynasty above: there seems to be little in common.
Ch'ang-hsi
The Mother of the Twelve Moons (Chang Xi) is the consort of the God of Heaven Ti Chun and plays a major role in the Mulberry Tree Myth of the Shang Dynasty. She washed each moon after their nighttime journey.
Chang O
Chang O was married to Yi the Archer and she stole the elixir of immortality from the Queen Mother of the West. She ascended to the moon and was transformed into a toad, which explains the unusual association of the toad with both the moon and immortality.
Dark Lady
She is the obscure Chinese Goddess of War who taught the Yellow Emperor military strategy.
E Huang
The third wife of Ti Chun is E Huang who gave birth to the Tribe of the Three Bodied People. She is also named as wife of the Sage King Shun.
Fu Hao
The most extraordinary woman of ancient China known to us by name is Fu Hao, the consort of Wu Ting the fourth Shang king to rule at Anyang. Her royal tomb was discovered intact and undisturbed in 1976. Fu Hao was a woman of extraordinary character and strength. She led military expeditions on behalf of Wu Ting and occasionally presided at state sacrifices. A number of Shang oracle bones are known of divinations which were undertaken on her behalf. Questions were asked about child birth, rituals and her military expeditions. Some of the inscriptions refer to her as royal consort or feudal vassal but others describe her as a military commander with the title of general.
Fu-hsi
He is the consort of the goddess Nu-kua and male half of the primeval divine couple, Fu Hsi is depicted on Shang bronzes as a snake deity, his lower body, as is that of Nu-kua, is serpentine. He emerges in early myth as a culture hero, the inventor of hunting, fishing nets, the Eight Trigrams, cooking and is often depicted holding a carpenter's square and knotted rope.
Fu Sang Tree
The sacred Mulberry Tree of the central Shang myth is the Fu Sang Tree. It grows in the East and at its foot is the Valley of the Sun which contains a pool of water in which the Ten Suns bathe. The 'Yellow Spring', which ran everywhere beneath the earth, came to the surface at the feet of the Fu Sang and its counterpart in the West, the Ruo Tree. The Ten Suns which bathed in a pool of water at the foot of the Fu Sang and dwelt on its branches were birds. This is an extremely complex myth whose explication is very concise: see the discussion in the text.
Goddess of Salt River
Defeated by the Lord of the Granary in a myth recorded from a Han Dynasty text, this petulant Sun Goddess revealed a wanton destructive nature that endangered the 'world'.
Hou-t'u
Empress Earth is a shadowy primeval deity in China about whom little is known but her existence serves to establish the presence of an earth goddess in the Neolithic. She was the grandmother of K'ua-fu, who with extreme hubris, challenged the sun to a race against light and time and died of thirst. In later Chinese myth and philosophy, the Earth is divine and sacred but of indeterminate sex. The Confucianist's relentless pursuit of the pragmatic, demythologized the sacred and produced abstract conceptions of deity that at first glance appear to be primitive. This 'primitiveness' is an illusion and 'degenerate' would be a more appropriate description as they are the product of an overwrought intellectual distillation.
Hsi-Ho
Hsi-Ho is the Mother of the Ten Suns and consort of the God in Heaven, Ti Chun. See the extensive discussion in the text. Hsi Ho is also the name of the charioteer of the sun who in some traditions is explicitly female. Hsi and Ho are also the names of the oldest sons of two families whose duties were to calculate the celestial motion of the sun.
Huang O
The Son of the White Emperor successfully courted the goddess Huang O as told in a 6th century A.D. text. Their child was the god Shao Hao, one of whose other names was Ch'iung Sang or Exhausted Mulberry. The reference to the Shang world tree of the east, the Fu Sang or sacred Mulberry, is unmistakable. His other names are Phoenix Bird and Metal Sky and although the latter refers to the west, Shao Hao ruled over the east and his tomb is believed to be in Shantung, the birthplace of Confucius.
Lord of the Granary
The Lord of the Granary and the Goddess of Salt engage in a mythic power contest between complementary forces as their myth discussed in the text explains. He is the victor over a petulant and wantonly destructive sun goddess whose anger at being rejected threatens the all living things in the 'world'.
Maimed king
Widely dispersed in time and space throughout the Neolithic were kingdoms and states that required their king to be ritually maimed, usually by a severe injury to the foot or thigh. This ritual, which strikes us as barbaric, is discussed at length in the text. The rationale behind such a seemingly brutal act was to make visible to the people, with imagery that could not be misunderstood, that the price demanded of those who wield absolute power was terrible indeed. Such permanent injuries were a mark of divinity, an unmistakable sign that the Goddess had chosen her consort and therefore her beneficence was available to the people. An additional motive may also have been to impress upon the ruler in the strongest terms the awesome nature of his responsibility which could not be born without consequences. Imagine today's politics if we required a serious physical sacrifice from our leaders that somehow confirmed the power and responsibility of office with integrity. A willingness to submit to exhausting work schedules and media humiliation hardly suffices in mythic terms.
Nu-kua
The primeval Goddess in ancient China was the Creatress of humankind and savior of the cosmos. As was her consort Fu Hsi, she was first depicted as a theriomorph with a serpentine lower body. In later myth she married her brother and this act establishes the paradigm of marriage. Her life and times, myths and deeds, are discussed extensively in the text.
P'an Ku
P'an Ku is a great titan who appears in Chinese myth several centuries after the earliest records of Nu-kua. He was born when sky and earth were separated at creation: P'an means coiled and Ku means antiquity. On his death his body parts gave rise to the different parts and inhabitants of the universe: his body lice became humans. The myth of a great god or titan whose body parts give rise to the 'ten thousand things' is archetypal and found in many cultures world wide. Birrell (1993) believes this myth originated in southwest Asia among a non-Chinese people.
Queen Mother of the West
She (known in Chinese as Xi Mu) is a wild and unkempt Goddess who appears in early Chinese mythology. She rules a mountain kingdom in the West and she bears a strong resemblance to the Greek Artemis. The Queen Mother of the West has a panther's tail and tiger's fangs. Wild beasts and birds bring her messages and food. Her sacred mountain range is K'un-lun which is an axis mundi, a sacred nodal place that links Heaven and Earth. It is a paradise where mortals who are favored become immortal and can commu