In the immortal genealogy of Taoism , the most respectful gods of Taoism are Sanqing and Jade Emperor . However, the origin of Sanqing was formed in Southern and Northern Dynasties . After Sui and Tang , it was determined to be the highest god of Taoism, and Jade Emperor was later, and it was determined to be the highest god of heaven until Northern Song .
. In the Taoist system of immortals, some of them are from the ancient gods of , , such as Five Old Emperors and Three Officials Emperors . At the beginning of Taoism in the late Eastern Han Dynasty, in addition to the Taoist ancestor Taishang Laojun, the highest gods believed in at that time were Five Old Emperors and Three Officials Emperors . And I think the change in believing in gods is actually the result of the projection of the war of gods in the heavenly realm on earth , the change of the highest god in the heavenly realm, actually reflects the sad exit of the ancient gods, as well as the rise of immortals and Buddhas and acquired gods.
1. The ancient Three Sovereigns and Five Emperors, the Five Old Emperors of Taoism, and the Three Officials Emperors
1. The Three Sovereigns and Five Emperors. We usually say that Chinese civilization originated from the Three Sovereigns and Five Emperors, but historians have been arguing about the Three Sovereigns and Five Emperors:
About the Three Sovereigns:
" Shangshu " says: Suiren, Fuxi, Shennong ;
"Spring and Autumn" says: Fuxi, Nuwa , Shennong ;
"Spring and Autumn" says: Fuxi, Nuwa , Shennong ;
" Customs and Common Meanings " says: Fuxi, Zhurong , Shennong ;
" Zhuangzi ", " Gangjian Yizhilu " says: Youchao Family, Suiren Family , Zhisheng Family ;
" Three Character Classic " says: Fuxi, Shennong, Huangdi .
About the Five Emperors:
"Lüshi Chunqiu " says: Taihao, Yandi , Huangdi, Shaohao, Zhuanxu ;
"The Book of the Great Dai Li" says: Huangdi, Zhuanxu, Emperor Ku , Yao, Shun;
"Zizhi Tongjian" says: Huangdi, Shaohao, Zhuanxu, Di Ku, Yao.
" Shangshu Preface" and "The Century of Emperors" regard Shaohao (王), Zhuanxu, Gao Xin (王), Yao and Shun as the Five Emperors.
Nowadays, the people generally believe that the Three Emperors are Fuxi, Shennong, and Huangdi, while the Five Emperors are Shaohao (王), Zhuanxu, Gao Xin (王), Yao and Shun .
And the Three Emperors and Five Emperors actually reflect the three masters of the world, earth, and human and the five elements of wood, fire, earth, metal and water . Taoism transforms the Three Emperors and Five Emperors into their own beliefs Five Old Emperors and Three Officials Emperors , but unlike the folk, the arrangement of the eight sage emperors of has changed.
2. Five Old Emperors and Five Virtues Holy Emperor.
Five Old Emperors , also known as " Five Oriental Five Olds" , Five Olds are the five gods respected by early Taoism, namely: Oriental Anbao Hualin Qinglingshi Laojun (referred to as Qinglingshi Laocang Emperor ), Southern Fan Baochang Yang Danlingzhen Laojun (simple) It is called Dan Ling Zhen Lao Chi Emperor ), Central Jade Bao Yuan Ling Yuan Lao Lao Lao Lao (referred to as Yuan Ling Yuan Lao Huang Emperor ), Western Seven Treasures Golden Gate Hao Ling Huang Lao Lao (referred to as Hao Ling Huang Lao Bai Emperor ), Northern Cave Yinshuo Dan Lu Jue Wu Ling Xuan Lao Lao Lao Lao Lao Lao Lao ). It can be seen that Five Old Emperors also implies the five elements. It was first recorded in " Weekly Literature ·Tianguan·Dazai" , which existed before the founding of Taoism.
And we often say that the five virtues rotation originated from the five holy emperors in ancient times, namely Wood De Holy Emperor Qing Emperor Fuxi, Fire De Holy Emperor Yan Emperor Shennong, Tu De Holy Emperor Bai Emperor Shaohao, Water De Holy Emperor 1 Black Emperor Zhuanxu .The rotation of the five sage emperors is in line with the principle of Taoist wood produces fire, fire produces earth, earth produces metal, metal produces water Five elements of mutual generation 5 sage emperors become the gods of the five directions and become southeast, west, north, and middle 5 sage emperor , and five sage gods assisted, the assistant god of the Eastern Heaven Emperor Fuxi is wood god Jumang [gōu máng], southern sage emperor Shennong is fire god Zhurong , the assistant god of the Western Heaven Emperor is gold god Rushou [rù shōu], the assistant god of the northern heavenly emperor Zhuanxu is water god Xuanming , and the assistant god of the central heavenly emperor Xuanyuan is the earth god Houtu . The five elder emperors of Taoism are transformed from the Five Heavenly Emperors.
3. The Three Officials Emperors and the Three Virtuous Emperors
When Taoism was established in the late Eastern Han Dynasty, in addition to the Taishang Laojun, it was worshiping the Three Officials Emperors, referring to Tianguan , Earth Official and Water Official . Later, "Heaven and Earth Water" Sanguan and "upper and middle and lower" Sanyuan Great God into one, so: " Sanguan " is also called " Sanyuan " :
Tianguan name is Shangyuan First-rank blessing Tianguan Ziwei Emperor , affiliated with Yuqingjing . Every day on the fifteenth day of the first lunar month, the people's sins and blessings are determined, so they are called blessings from heaven. This is the origin of Shangyuan Festival .
District Official is Zhongyuan nd rank pardon land official Qingxu Emperor , belonging to Shangqingjing . . Every July fifteenth day, I come to the world to sanction my sins and blessings, and to forgive others for their sins. Release the spirit of the underworld karma, this is the origin of Zhongyuan section .
water official name is low-yuan third-grade Jiehe water official cave Yin Emperor , affiliated to Taiqingjing . Every October fifteenth day, I come to the world to ward off sins and blessings, to eliminate disasters and reduce grievances and resolve grievances. This is the origin of , the second Yuanjie .
And in the early days, Taoism respected the three wise kings of ancient Yao, Shun, and Yu were the three officials of heaven, earth and water. Note that the early , the Yuan Ziwei Emperor and the later Taoism "Four Emperors" , " Zhongtian Ziwei Arctic Taihuang Emperor ", are different . Later, in the development of Taoism, the status of the Five Old Emperors and the Three Officials Emperors was slightly lower than that of the Three Qings, Jade Emperor and Four Imperials .
This actually slowly reduces the status of the ancient gods. Careful people find that the difference between the Three Sovereigns and Five Emperors and the Five Elders and Three Officials is that has one less emperor and one more Dayu . Why is this? Below is my speculation about the ancient gods.
2. The emergence of ancient gods
After the destruction of the previous universe, a group of god-level civilizations were unwilling to be destroyed by themselves. So, under the leadership of nine supreme gods , a container of " Pangu " container was created, and the divine power of nine supreme gods and dozens of main gods were fused through the destruction of the universe. After countless epochs, the universe was finally stable, and "Pangu" fell on a blue planet - Earth.
At this time, the earth was still in the ape period. Three supreme gods awakened from Pangu containers Di Jun, Fuxi, and Nuwa . According to the agreement of the nine supreme gods, the three of them came out to establish civilization first and led some main gods to explore.The appearance of the three supreme gods aroused the resistance of the earth's consciousness. The earth's will is called " Gaia " , and it turned into a giant snake to attack the three. Di Jun originally wanted to kill Gaia, but the life on the earth would also be destroyed. Fuxi and Nuwa stopped Di Jun and dissolved Gaia's consciousness into their own body, so Fuxi and Nuwa became human head snake body .
Di Jun broke the "Pangu" container and turned it into the heaven. Di Jun became the original lord of the heaven. Fuxi and Nuwa stayed on the earth because of Gaia's consciousness. At this time, the earth continent was not separated, but was still a whole. In order to nurture civilization, Nuwa used the power of creation to transform the apes, which made the apes that had not evolved for millions of years instantly enlighten and created civilization. This is "Nuwa created humans" .
Later, there were Suiren to make fire, have a nest to build a house, etc., but humans' ability is still too low. So in order to hand over the divine power to the human race, Fuxi dissipated his supreme power of fortune, devoted himself to reincarnation into the human race, and became the first generation of holy emperor.
Fuxi dissolved his divine power into the fortune of the human race, and occupied the initial Mude fortune , and the human race began to master the divine power. The three supreme divine powers of Di Jun, Fuxi and Nuwa all act on physical , so later the great powers of the human race appeared as the body of the giant . The inheritance of Fuxi's divine power is a blood inheritance, so every generation of human saint emperor gave birth to many descendants, which was to spread the divine power. Later Gonggong , Zhurong, Xingtian, Kuafu , Jumang , Rushou, Houtu, Xuanming, etc. all appeared as giant bodies, which formed Earth Giant God .
And Di Jun was not idle either. He unsealed the main god in "Pangu", and so many main gods belong to the nine supreme gods. The Di Jun lineage was those demon gods with strong body later, such as Xihe, Chang Xi , Bai Ze , Ji Meng, Yingzhao, Fei Lian, Jiuying, Shang Yang, Bifang , Lu Wu, Jiufeng , etc. Later, the divine power of the Di Jun lineage spread to the earth, and countless ferocious beasts were born on the earth. This is the source of the strange beasts in "Shan Hai Jing" . Di Jun led his god (demon god) to become the lord of the heavenly realm.
Of course, there are other supreme gods among the main gods. They mainly practice the soul, such as East Prince, Queen Mother of the West, Chisongzi , Guangchengzi and other ancient immortals. Some of them established a single force in the heaven, such as the Eastern Prince and Queen Mother of the West, and some such as Guangchengzi and Chisongzi reincarnated the earthly human race to practice again. These main gods are waiting for their supreme god to wake up.
3. The perfection of the five virtues , the perfection of the world, the battle between heaven and earth
on the earth, Fuxi merits and after mastering the power of wood virtue, he ascended into the heaven to Eastern Heavenly Emperor . The human race behind gradually divided into two forces, namely Shennong Yan Emperor and Xuanyuan Huangdi . It can be seen from ancient myths that several struggles of the human race revolve around the battle between Yan and Huang. I summarized the great gods on both sides.
01. The great gods of the Shennong Yan Emperor
Chyou :In many records, Chiyou was the subordinate of Yan Emperor, fighting against Huang Emperor under the banner of Yan Emperor.Yan Emperor Shennong inherited the position of the Emperor of Human Emperor as his grandfather Fuxi, possessed the power of fire virtue, and had a conflict with Xuanyuan, who later possessed the power of earth virtue. The two sides fought a big battle, which was Battle of Banquan . After Yan Emperor failed, he retreated to the south. Later, Chiyou betrayed Yan Emperor and started a war with Huang Emperor under the banner of Yan Emperor. Yan Emperor and Huang Emperor were brothers after all, so they worked together to fight Chiyou. This is Battle of Zhuolu .
Xing Tian: Yan Emperor's God of War, after Yan Emperor Shennong ascended to heaven to become the southern Emperor of Heaven, Xing Tian was dissatisfied with the rule of Huangdi, so he challenged Huangdi and was cut off his head.
Zhurong: is the grandson of Emperor Yan, and later became the assistant god of the Emperor of the Southern Heaven. The five assistant gods of the five heavenly emperors are all their descendants.
Gonggong: is the great-grandson of Yan Emperor and Zhurong's son. Let me explain here that the war between Gonggong and Zhurong is a father-son battle. Some people say it is a battle between father and son, but I think it is not. Yan Emperor's grandson is the fire god Zhurong , Zhurong's son is Gonggong . After Zhurong became the god of heaven, Zhurong became the official name of the human race, , and the battle with Gonggong was Huozheng Zhurong , that is, Gonggong challenged Human Emperor Zhuanxu When Zhuanxu sent his great-grandson Chongqing to fight, and Chongqing served as Zhurong Fire Zheng. Gonggong also has a famous subordinate - the evil god Xiangliu , In the end, Gonggong and Xiangliu were subdued by Dayu .
Houtu: was the son of Gonggong, and later became the assistant god of the Central Heaven Emperor. Later, I thought I inherited the divine power of Nuwa, the mother of the earth, and turned into Houtudiji, one of the four emperors of Taoism.
Kuafu: is Houtu's son, and later Kuafu's sun rushing may be a challenge to Dadith God to Celestial gods .
02. The great gods of the Yellow Emperor lineage.
Shaohao: The son of Emperor Huang of Xuanyuan, and later the Western Emperor Baidi . What Shaohao is even more powerful is that he gave birth to two awesome sons, Jumang and Rushou , one became the assistant god of Taizu Fuxi, and the other became his own assistant god.
Jumang: Huangdi's grandson and Shaohao's son, and later became the assistant gods of Fuxi, the Eastern Emperor.
Rushou: Huangdi's grandson and Shaohao's son, and later became the assistant gods of the Western Heaven Emperor Shaohao.
Xuanming: is also called "Yujiang" and "Yujing". It is the grandson of Huangdi and the grandson of Huangdi. The "Great Wilderness East Classic" says: Huangdi gave birth to Yuguo , Yuguo gave birth to Yujing. Xuan Ming was a minister of Zhuanxu and later became the assistant god of the Northern Emperor.
Let me talk about it here, and you can see that the four are the four gods: Eastern Wood De Spring God Jumang, Southern Fire De Xia God Zhurong, Western Jin De Qiu God Rushou, Northern Water De Winter God Xuanming are all the same generation and are all the great grandsons of the great god Fuxi. The most important central god Houtu inherited the divine power of the mother of the earth alone.
Zhuanxu: is Gaoyang clan , the grandson of Huangdi, the son of Changyi , one of the five emperors, and later became the Emperor of the Northern Heaven.
Chongli: Zhuanxu's great-grandson, it is recorded that it was Chong and Li, one of whom could lift the sky and the other could press the ground.
Di Ku, Di Yao, Di Shun , Dayu are also descendants of Xuanyuan Huangdi .
03. The story of Jedi Tiantong
mentioned before that the human race on earth is developing, and the heaven is also developing. Five-way God After the merit is complete, he also occupied his position in the heaven. The gods (demon gods) in the heaven have successively spread their divine power on the earth, causing countless ferocious beasts to be added to the earth. As a result, the earth gods on Fuxi's side and the gods in Di Jun's heavenly world have more and more conflicts, and they often fight each other.
Of course, there are also a few unreliable gods among the human race, such as Chiyou, gong of . When the last water virtue of the five virtues rotated, Gonggong challenged Zhuanxu and hit Buzhou Mountain. Now Heavenly realm was damaged, the world was chaotic, the Jiuzhou began to be uneven, and the mountain monument was tilted. Nuwa I can’t bear the destruction of the civilization of heaven and earth, so I sacrificed myself. "Nuwa repairs the sky " became part of the heaven and fell into a permanent sleep.
Zhuanxu was the overlord of the generation . He simply took advantage of the opportunity to unite the five heavenly emperors and the five directions to assist the gods, fight against Di Jun, and the heavenly connections. drove all the gods of the human world into the heaven, so that the heaven and the world were not mutually connected, the gods were not allowed to descend to the earth, and the gods and people performed their duties and did not interfere with each other, forming the original heaven and maintaining the order of heaven and earth . And he also did something, drove Di Jun from the position of Emperor Tian , reincarnated as Emperor Ku, or the result of the compromise between Emperor Jun and Fuxi, Di Jun was eventually reincarnated as a human being, and the heaven was controlled by the five heavenly emperors.
4. The follow-up story of the ancient god
Later, after Di Jun was reincarnated as a human, the inheritance of the divine power in the human world was only in the blood of the human emperor, and the ferocious beasts on earth were still harming one side. Later, there were Dayi descend to the earth and shot and killed Jinwu and various ferocious beasts. After Di Jun turned into Emperor Ku, he passed the throne to the later Yao, Shun, Yu, , In the end, Di Jun mysteriously disappeared as the strongest of the nine supreme gods.
The three human emperors Yao, Shun and Yu began to lead the rejuvenation of the human race. At this time, the ancient immortals began to penetrate the human race. Immortals such as Guangchengzi, Chi Songzi, Rong Chenggong, Fang Hui, Mr. Wanqiu, Baishigong, began to spread the path of immortality. In the end, Dayu felt that the power of the gods could only harm the world, so it ended the spread of the gods in the world. With the end of the dayu, Dayu killed the giant Fengfeng clan, expelled Gonggong, killed Xiangliu, and solved the flood , the Xia Dynasty was established, the gods withdrew, and the immortal path began to flourish.
Later, among the nine supreme gods, Taishang Laojun, Amitabha, and Shakyamuni began to wake up and lead the main gods to preach, distinguish between the East and the West, and the East was spread by Taishang Laojun Immortal Civilization Immortal Civilization , the West was spread by Buddha Belief in Shinto civilization, that is, acquired gods , including Greek gods, Nordic gods, and Christ gods are all affiliated with Amitabha Buddha and Shakyamuni.
Later, Immortal Buddha successfully fought against the ancient gods in the heavenly court, and Immortal Buddha gradually replaced the ancient gods and entered the heavenly realm . Later, at the end of the Eastern Han Dynasty, Western Buddhism began to invade the East and began . The dispute over Buddhism and Taoism . During the Southern and Northern Dynasties, the last three supreme gods Yuanshi Tianzun , Lingbao Tianzun, and Jade Emperor awakened, and the Three Pure Ones merged into Taoism, defeated Buddhism, and the Three Pure Ones became the highest god in heaven. After the Song Dynasty, Jade Emperor A powerful and powerful man, and the ultimate heavenly court was established. Ancient gods, Western Buddhas, Taoist immortals, and acquired gods were all included in the heavenly court, and the Jade Emperor became the king of the gods.
The struggle of the gods in heaven is projected on the human world, which is the war of faith on earth!
This is my personal speculation. Please don’t scold me if you don’t like it! ! !
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