Myths and Legends of China Part 8

In this moment of intense agony Mo-li Shou fell an easy prey to Huang T'ien Hua, the magical spike pierced his heart, and he fell bathed in his blood. Thus perished the last of the _Chin-kang_.

The Three Pure Ones

Turning to the G.o.ds of Taoism, we find that the triad or trinity, already noted as forming the head of that hierarchy, consists of three Supreme G.o.ds, each in his own Heaven. These three Heavens, the _San Ch'ing_, 'Three Pure Ones' (this name being also applied to the sovereigns ruling in them), were formed from the three airs, which are subdivisions of the one primordial air.

The first Heaven is Yu Ch'ing. In it reigns the first member of the Taoist triad. He inhabits the Jade Mountain. The entrance to his palace is named the Golden Door. He is the source of all truth, as the sun is the source of all light.

Various authorities give his name differently--Yuan-shih T'ien-tsun, or Lo Ching Hsin, and call him T'ien Pao, 'the Treasure of Heaven,'

Some state that the name of the ruler of this first Heaven is Yu Huang, and in the popular mind he it is who occupies this supreme position. The Three Pure Ones are above him in rank, but to him, the Pearly Emperor, is entrusted the superintendence of the world. He has all the power of Heaven and earth in his hands. He is the correlative of Heaven, or rather Heaven itself.

The second Heaven, Shang Ch'ing, is ruled by the second person of the triad, named Ling-pao T'ien-tsun, or Tao Chun. No information is given as to his origin. He is the custodian of the sacred books. He has existed from the beginning of the world. He calculates time, dividing it into different epochs. He occupies the upper pole of the world, and determines the movements and interaction, or regulates the relations of the _yin_ and the _yang_, the two great principles of nature.

In the third Heaven, T'ai Ch'ing, the Taoists place Lao Tzu, the promulgator of the true doctrine drawn up by Ling-pao T'ien-tsun. He is alternatively called Shen Pao, 'the Treasure of the Spirits,'

and T'ai-shang Lao-chn, 'the Most Eminent Aged Ruler.' Under various a.s.sumed names he has appeared as the teacher of kings and emperors, the reformer of successive generations.

This three-storied Taoist Heaven, or three Heavens, is the result of the wish of the Taoists not to be out-rivalled by the Buddhists. For Buddha, the Law, and the Priesthood they subst.i.tute the _Tao_, or Reason, the Cla.s.sics, and the Priesthood.

As regards the organization of the Taoist Heavens, Yu Huang has on his register the name of eight hundred Taoist divinities and a mult.i.tude of Immortals. These are all divided into three categories: Saints (_Sheng-jen_), Heroes (_Chen-jen_), and Immortals (_Hsien-jen_), occupying the three Heavens respectively in that order.

The Three Causes

Connected with Taoism, but not exclusively a.s.sociated with that religion, is the worship of the Three Causes, the deities presiding over three departments of physical nature, Heaven, earth, and water. They are known by various designations: _San Kuan_, 'the Three Agents'; _San Yuan_, 'the Three Origins'; _San Kuan Ta Ti_, 'the Three Great Emperor Agents'; and _T'ai Shang San Kuan_, 'the Three Supreme Agents.' This worship has pa.s.sed through four chief phases, as follows:

The first comprises Heaven, earth, and water, _T'ien, Ti, Shui_, the sources of happiness, forgiveness of sins, and deliverance from evil respectively. Each of these is called King-emperor. Their names, written on labels and offered to Heaven (on a mountain), earth (by burial), and water (by immersion), are supposed to cure sickness. This idea dates from the Han dynasty, being first noted about A.D. 172.

The second, _San Yuan_ dating from A.D. 407 under the Wei dynasty, identified the Three Agents with three dates of which they were respectively made the patrons. The year was divided into three unequal parts: the first to the seventh moon; the seventh to the tenth; and the tenth to the twelfth. Of these, the fifteenth day of the first, seventh, and tenth moons respectively became the three princ.i.p.al dates of these periods. Thus the Agent of Heaven became the princ.i.p.al patron of the first division, honoured on the fifteenth day of the first moon, and so on.

The third phase, _San Kuan_, resulted from the first two being found too complicated for popular favour. The _San Kuan_ were the three sons of a man, Ch'en Tzu-ch'un, who was so handsome and intelligent that the three daughters of Lung w.a.n.g, the Dragon-king, fell in love with him and went to live with him. The eldest girl was the mother of the Superior Cause, the second of the Medium Cause, and the third of the Inferior Cause. All these were gifted with supernatural powers. Yuan-shih T'ien-tsun canonized them as the Three Great Emperor Agents of Heaven, earth, and water, governors of all beings, devils or G.o.ds, in the three regions of the universe. As in the first phase, the _T'ien Kuan_ confers happiness, the _Ti Kuan_ grants remission of sins, and the _Shui Kuan_ delivers from evil or misfortune.

The fourth phase consisted simply in the subst.i.tution by the priests for the abstract or time-principles of the three great sovereigns of ancient times, Yao, Shun, and Yu. The _literati_, proud of the apotheosis of their ancient rulers, hastened to offer incense to them, and temples, _San Yuan Kung_, arose in very many parts of the Empire.

A variation of this phase is the canonization, with the t.i.tle of _San Yuan_ or Three Causes, of _Wu-k'o San Chen Chun_, 'the Three True Sovereigns, Guests of the Kingdom of Wu.' They were three Censors who lived in the reign of King Li (Li w.a.n.g, 878-841 B.C.) of the Chou dynasty. Leaving the service of the Chou on account of Li's dissolute living, they went to live in Wu, and brought victory to that state in its war with the Ch'u State, then returned to their own country, and became pillars of the Chou State under Li's successor. They appeared to protect the Emperor Chen Tsung when he was offering the _Feng-shan_ sacrifices on T'ai Shan in A.D. 1008, on which occasion they were canonized with the t.i.tles of Superior, Medium, and Inferior Causes, as before, conferring upon them the regencies of Heaven, earth, and water respectively.

Yuan-shih T'ien-tsun

Yuan-shih T'ien-tsun, or the First Cause, the Highest in Heaven, generally placed at the head of the Taoist triad, is said never to have existed but in the fertile imagination of the Lao Tzuist sectarians. According to them Yuan-shih T'ien-tsun had neither origin nor master, but is himself the cause of all beings, which is why he is called the First Cause.

As first member of the triad, and sovereign ruler of the First Heaven, Yu Ch'ing, where reign the saints, he is raised in rank above all the other G.o.ds. The name a.s.signed to him is Lo Ching Hsin. He was born before all beginnings; his substance is imperishable; it is formed essentially of uncreated air, air _a se_, invisible and without perceptible limits. No one has been able to penetrate to the beginnings of his existence. The source of all truth, he at each renovation of the worlds--that is, at each new _kalpa_--gives out the mysterious doctrine which confers immortality. All who reach this knowledge attain by degrees to life eternal, become refined like the spirits, or instantly become Immortals, even while upon earth.

Originally, Yuan-shih T'ien-tsun was not a member of the Taoist triad. He resided above the Three Heavens, above the Three Pure Ones, surviving the destructions and renovations of the universe, as an immovable rock in the midst of a stormy sea. He set the stars in motion, and caused the planets to revolve. The chief of his secret police was Tsao Chun, the Kitchen-G.o.d, who rendered to him an account of the good and evil deeds of each family. His executive agent was Lei Tsu, the G.o.d of Thunder, and his subordinates. The seven stars of the North Pole were the palace of his ministers, whose offices were on the various sacred mountains. Nowadays, however, Yuan-shih T'ien-tsun is generally neglected for Yu Huang.

An Avatar of P'an Ku

According to the tradition of Chin Hung, the G.o.d of T'ai Shan of the fifth generation from P'an Ku, this being, then called Yuan-shih T'ien-w.a.n.g, was an avatar of P'an Ku. It came about in this wise. In remote ages there lived on the mountains an old man, Yuan-shih T'ien-w.a.n.g, who used to sit on a rock and preach to the mult.i.tude. He spoke of the highest antiquity as if from personal experience. When Chin Hung asked him where he lived, he just raised his hand toward Heaven, iridescent clouds enveloped his body, and he replied: "Whoso wishes to know where I dwell must rise to impenetrable heights." "But how," said Chin Hung, "was he to be found in this immense emptiness?" Two genii, Ch'ih Ching-tzu and Huang Lao, then descended on the summit of T'ai Shan and said: "Let us go and visit this Yuan-shih. To do so, we must cross the boundaries of the universe and pa.s.s beyond the farthest stars." Chin Hung begged them to give him their instructions, to which he listened attentively. They then ascended the highest of the sacred peaks, and thence mounted into the heavens, calling to him from the misty heights: "If you wish to know the origin of Yuan-shih, you must pa.s.s beyond the confines of Heaven and earth, because he lives beyond the limits of the worlds. You must ascend and ascend until you reach the sphere of nothingness and of being, in the plains of the luminous shadows."

Having reached these ethereal heights, the two genii saw a bright light, and Hsuan-hsuan Shang-jen appeared before them. The two genii bowed to do him homage and to express their grat.i.tude. "You cannot better show your grat.i.tude," he replied, "than by making my doctrine known among men. You desire," he added, "to know the history of Yuan-shih. I will tell it you. When P'an Ku had completed his work in the primitive Chaos, his spirit left its mortal envelope and found itself tossed about in empty s.p.a.ce without any fixed support. 'I must,' it said, 'get reborn in visible form; until I can go through a new birth I shall remain empty and unsettled,' His soul, carried on the wings of the wind, reached Fu-yu T'ai. There it saw a saintly lady named T'ai Yuan, forty years of age, still a virgin, and living alone on Mount Ts'u-o. Air and variegated clouds were the sole nourishment of her vital spirits. An hermaphrodite, at once both the active and the pa.s.sive principle, she daily scaled the highest peak of the mountain to gather there the flowery quintessence of the sun and the moon. P'an Ku, captivated by her virgin purity, took advantage of a moment when she was breathing to enter her mouth in the form of a ray of light. She was _enceinte_ for twelve years, at the end of which period the fruit of her womb came out through her spinal column. From its first moment the child could walk and speak, and its body was surrounded by a five-coloured cloud. The newly-born took the name of Yuan-shih T'ien-w.a.n.g, and his mother was generally known as T'ai-yuan Sheng-mu, 'the Holy Mother of the First Cause.'"

Yu Huang

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

The history of this deity, who later received many honorific t.i.tles and became the most popular G.o.d, a very Chinese Jupiter, seems to be somewhat as follows: The Emperor Ch'eng 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 const.i.tuted himself a seer, and announced with great pomp that he was in direct communication with the G.o.ds of Heaven. In doing this he was following the advice of his crafty and unreliable minister w.a.n.g Ch'in-jo, who had often tried to persuade him that the pretended revelations attributed to Fu Hsi, Yu w.a.n.g, and others were only pure inventions to induce obedience. The Emperor, having studied his part well, a.s.sembled 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 Yu 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 Yu Huang's promise, and Ch'eng Tsung hastened to inform his ministers of it. This is the origin of Yu Huang. He was born of a fraud, and came ready-made from the brain of an emperor.

The Cask of Pearls

Fearing to be admonished for the fraud by another of his ministers, the scholar w.a.n.g Tan, the Emperor resolved to put a golden gag in his mouth. So one day, having invited him to a banquet, he overwhelmed him with flattery and made him drunk with good wine. "I would like the members of your family also to taste this wine," he added, "so I am making you a present of a cask of it." When w.a.n.g Tan returned home, he found the cask filled with precious pearls. Out of grat.i.tude to the Emperor he kept silent as to the fraud, and made no further opposition to his plans, but when on his death-bed he asked that his head be shaved like a priest's and that he be clothed in priestly robes so that he might expiate his crime of feebleness before the Emperor.

K'ang Hsi, the great Emperor of the Ch'ing dynasty, who had already declared that if it is wrong to impute deceit to a man it is still more reprehensible to impute a fraud to Heaven, stigmatized him as follows: "w.a.n.g Tan committed two faults: the first was in showing himself a vile flatterer of his Prince during his life; the second was in becoming a worshipper of Buddha at his death."

The Legend of Yu Huang

So much for historical record. The legend of Yu Huang relates that in ancient times there existed a kingdom named Kuang Yen Miao Lo Kuo, whose king was Ching Te, his queen being called Pao Yueh. Though getting on in years, the latter had no son. The Taoist priests were summoned by edict to the palace to perform their rites. They recited prayers with the object of obtaining an heir to the throne. During the ensuing night the Queen had a vision. Lao Chun appeared to her, riding a dragon, and carrying a male child in his arms. He floated down through the air in her direction. The Queen begged him to give her the child as an heir to the throne. "I am quite willing," he said. "Here it is." She fell on her knees and thanked him. On waking she found herself _enceinte_. At the end of a year the Prince was born. From an early age he showed himself compa.s.sionate and generous to the poor. On the death of his father he ascended the throne, but after reigning only a few days abdicated in favour of his chief minister, and became a hermit at P'u-ming, in Shensi, and also on Mount Hsiu Yen, in Yunnan. Having attained to perfection, he pa.s.sed the rest of his days in curing sickness and saving life; and it was in the exercise of these charitable deeds that he died. The emperors Ch'eng Tsung and Hui Tsung, of the Sung dynasty, loaded him with all the various t.i.tles a.s.sociated with his name at the present day.

Both Buddhists and Taoists claim him as their own, the former identifying him with Indra, in which case Yu Huang is a Buddhist deity incorporated into the Taoist pantheon. He has also been taken to be the subject of a 'nature myth.' The Emperor Ching Te, his father, is the sun, the Queen Pao Yueh the moon, and the marriage symbolizes the rebirth of the vivifying power which clothes nature with green plants and beautiful flowers.

T'ung-t'ien Chiao-chu

In modern Taoism T'ung-t'ien Chiao-chu is regarded as the first of the Patriarchs and one of the most powerful genii of the sect. His master was Hung-chun Lao-tsu. He wore a red robe embroidered with white cranes, and rode a _k'uei niu_, a monster resembling a buffalo, with one long horn like a unicorn. His palace, the Pi Yu Kung, was situated on Mount Tzu Chih Yai.

This genie took the part of Chou w.a.n.g and helped him to resist Wu w.a.n.g's armies. First, he sent his disciple To-pao Tao-jen to Chieh-p'ai Kuan. He gave him four precious swords and the plan of a fort which he was to construct and to name Chu-hsien Chen, 'the Citadel of all the Immortals.'

To-pao Tao-jen carried out his orders, but he had to fight a battle with Kuang Ch'eng-tzu, and the latter, armed with a celestial seal, struck his adversary so hard that he fell to the ground and had to take refuge in flight.

T'ung-t'ien Chiao-chu came to the defence of his disciple and to restore the morale of his forces. Unfortunately, a posse of G.o.ds arrived to aid Wu w.a.n.g's powerful general, Chiang Tzu-ya. The first who attacked T'ung-t'ien Chiao-chu was Lao Tzu, who struck him several times with his stick. Then came Chun T'i, armed with his cane. The buffalo of T'ung-t'ien Chiao-chu stamped him under foot, and Chun T'i was thrown to the earth, and only just had time to rise quickly and mount into the air amid a great cloud of dust.

There could be no doubt that the fight was going against T'ung-t'ien Chiao-chu; to complete his discomfiture Jan-teng Tao-jen cleft the air and fell upon him unexpectedly. With a violent blow of his 'Fix-sea'

staff he cast him down and compelled him to give up the struggle.

T'ung-t'ien Chiao-chu then prepared plans for a new fortified camp beyond T'ung Kuan, and tried to take the offensive again, but again Lao Tzu stopped him with a blow of his stick. Yuan-shih T'ien-tsun wounded his shoulder with his precious stone Ju-i, and Chun-t'i Tao-jen waved his 'Branch of the Seven Virtues.' Immediately the magic sword of T'ung-t'ien Chiao-chu was reduced to splinters, and he saved himself only by flight.

Hung-chun Lao-tsu, the master of these three genii, seeing his three beloved disciples in the _melee_, resolved to make peace between them. He a.s.sembled all three in a tent in Chiang Tzu-ya's camp, made them kneel before him, then reproached T'ung-t'ien Chiao-chu at length for having taken the part of the tyrant Chou, and recommended them in future to live in harmony. After finishing his speech, he produced three pills, and ordered each of the genii to swallow one. When they had done so, Hung-chun Lao-tsu said to them: "I have given you these pills to ensure an inviolable truce among you. Know that the first who entertains a thought of discord in his heart will find that the pill will explode in his stomach and cause his instant death."

Hung-chun Lao-tsu then took T'ung-t'ien Chiao-chu away with him on his cloud to Heaven.

Immortals, Heroes, Saints

An Immortal, according to Taoist lore, is a solitary man of the mountains. He appears to die, but does not. After 'death' his body retains all the qualities of the living. The body or corpse is for him only a means of transition, a phase of metamorphosis--a coc.o.o.n or chrysalis, the temporary abode of the b.u.t.terfly.