The Wǔdàxiān (五大仙 "Five Great Immortals"), also known as Wǔdàjiā (五大家) and Wǔdàmén (五大门), meaning the "Five Great Genii", are a group of five zoomorphic

deities A deity or god is a supernatural being who is considered divine or sacred. The ''Oxford Dictionary of English'' defines deity as a god or goddess, or anything revered as divine. C. Scott Littleton defines a deity as "a being with powers greate ...

of northeastern Chinese religion, and important to local

shamanic Shamanism is a religious practice that involves a practitioner (shaman) interacting with what they believe to be a spirit world through altered states of consciousness, such as trance. The goal of this is usually to direct spirits or spiritu ...

practices. They are the localised adaptation of the

Five Forms of the Highest Deity The Wǔfāng Shàngdì ( "Five Regions' Highest Deities" or "Highest Deities of the Five Regions"), or simply Wǔdì ( "Five Deities") or Wǔshén ( "Five Gods") are, in Chinese canonical texts and common Chinese religion, the fivefold manifest ...

(五方上帝 ''Wǔfāng Shàngdì'') of common

Chinese theology Chinese theology, which comes in different interpretations according to the classic texts and the common religion, and specifically Confucian, Taoist and other philosophical formulations, is fundamentally monistic, that is to say it sees the w ...

Names and meanings

In some places of

Hebei Hebei or , (; alternately Hopeh) is a northern province of China. Hebei is China's sixth most populous province, with over 75 million people. Shijiazhuang is the capital city. The province is 96% Han Chinese, 3% Manchu, 0.8% Hui, an ...

, the cult comprises four instead of five zoomorphic gods, including the Fox, the Weasel, the Hedgehog and the Snake Gods (四大仙 ''Sìdàxiān'', 四大门 ''Sìdàmén''). While the Fox God and the Weasel God always remain the two prominent members of the cult, the other positions vary in some regions including the Tiger, the Wolf, the Hare and the Turtle Gods. Li Qingchen (?-1897), a scholar of

Tianjin Tianjin (; ; Mandarin: ), alternately romanized as Tientsin (), is a municipality and a coastal metropolis in Northern China on the shore of the Bohai Sea. It is one of the nine national central cities in Mainland China, with a total popul ...

, explained the images of the Five Great Immortals as follows: :: ..the Five Immortals ..are: 狐 ''Hú'' is fox, 黄 ''Huáng'' is weasel, 白 ''Bái'' is hedgehog, 柳 ''Liǔ'' is snake and 灰 ''Huī'' is rat. I said these five can be distinguished by five colors. ..White and yellow are hedgehog's and weasel's original colors, ''Huī'' is black and ''Liǔ'' is green. ..The ''Ode of Songs'' reads: "Nothing is redder than fox". As gods of wealth, the Five Immortals are also known by the epithet of "Little Wealth Gods" (小财神 ''Xiǎocáishén''). The Five Immortals have both male and female form, usually represented twosomes.

Huxian—Fox Immortal

''Húxiān'' (狐仙=胡仙 "Fox Immortal"), also called ''Húshén'' (狐神=胡神 "Fox God") or ''Húwáng'' (狐王=胡王 "Fox Ruler") is possibly the most important of the Five Immortals in northeast China. Nagao Ryuzō, a

Japan Japan ( ja, 日本, or , and formally , ''Nihonkoku'') is an island country in East Asia. It is situated in the northwest Pacific Ocean, and is bordered on the west by the Sea of Japan, while extending from the Sea of Okhotsk in the north ...

ese

sinologist Sinology, or Chinese studies, is an academic discipline that focuses on the study of China primarily through Chinese philosophy, language, literature, culture and history and often refers to Western scholarship. Its origin "may be traced to the ex ...

, observed that the Fox Gods "enjoy such popularity to be worshipped by almost every household in north China and

Manchuria Manchuria is an exonym (derived from the endo demonym " Manchu") for a historical and geographic region in Northeast Asia encompassing the entirety of present-day Northeast China (Inner Manchuria) and parts of the Russian Far East (Outer Manc ...

". Henry Doré documented the worship of the Fox God in the northern parts of

Jiangsu Jiangsu (; ; pinyin: Jiāngsū, Postal romanization, alternatively romanized as Kiangsu or Chiangsu) is an Eastern China, eastern coastal Provinces of the People's Republic of China, province of the China, People's Republic of China. It is o ...

and

Anhui Anhui , (; formerly romanized as Anhwei) is a landlocked province of the People's Republic of China, part of the East China region. Its provincial capital and largest city is Hefei. The province is located across the basins of the Yangtze River ...

. In parts of Hebei, to every newborn is assigned his own ''běnshén'' (本神 patron god) manifestation of Huxian, usually a female for a boy and a male for a girl. After these boys and girls get married, their patrons will be represented sitting together. In his survey of popular shrines and temples in Manchuria, Takizawa Shunryō found the number dedicated to Fox Gods overwhelming. The deity can be represented as either male or female, but is most frequently identified as the female ''Húxiān Niángniáng'' (狐仙娘娘 "Fox Immortal Lady") whose animal form is a

nine-tailed fox The nine-tailed fox () is a mythical fox entity originating from Chinese mythology that is a common motif in East Asian mythology and the most famous fox spirit in Chinese culture. In Chinese and East Asian folklore, foxes are depicted as spiri ...

. She is the Chinese equivalent of the Japanese

Shintō Shinto () is a religion from Japan. Classified as an East Asian religion by scholars of religion, its practitioners often regard it as Japan's indigenous religion and as a nature religion. Scholars sometimes call its practitioners ''Shintoists ...

cult of

Inari Ōkami , also called , is the Japanese ''kami'' of foxes, fertility, rice, tea and sake, of agriculture and industry, of general prosperity and worldly success, and one of the principal kami of Shinto. In earlier Japan, Inari was also the patron of swor ...

, both god(desses) of the foxes or collective representations of the fox sprites. The fox deity is also represented as a couple of gods, male and female, called the Great Lord of the Three Foxes (胡三太爷 ''Húsān Tàiyé'') and the Great Lady of the Three Foxes (胡三太奶 ''Húsān Tàinǎi''). As a goddess, the Fox Immortal is related to Xīwángmǔ (西王母 "Queen Mother of the West"), the great goddess guardian of Mount Kunlun (''

axis mundi In astronomy, axis mundi is the Latin term for the axis of Earth between the celestial poles. In a geocentric coordinate system, this is the axis of rotation of the celestial sphere. Consequently, in ancient Greco-Roman astronomy, the '' ...

'').

Huangxian—Weasel Immortal

''Huángxiān'' (黃仙 literally "Yellow Immortal") is the Weasel God, and is identified as an incarnation of the pan-Chinese

Yellow Deity The Yellow Emperor, also known as the Yellow Thearch or by his Chinese name Huangdi (), is a deity ('' shen'') in Chinese religion, one of the legendary Chinese sovereigns and culture heroes included among the mytho-historical Three Sovereign ...

(黄帝 ''Huángdì'') and ''

Huáng Dàxiān Wong Tai Sin or Huang Daxian () is a Chinese Taoist Deity popular in Jinhua, Zhejiang, and Hong Kong with the power of healing. The name, meaning the "Great Immortal Wong (Huang)", is the divine form of Huang Chuping or Wong Cho Ping (; c. 328 ...

'' (黄大仙 "Great Yellow Immortal").Wang Xue. 东北农村地区黄仙信仰的人类学研究 Dōngběi nóngcūn dìqū huáng xiān xìnyǎng de rénlèi xué yánjiū. Jilin University, 2013. Another name which indicates the collective personification of weasels is "Great Lord of the Two Yellows" (黄二太爷 ''Huángèr Tàiyé'').

Shexian—Snake Immortal

The Snake God is either called ''Shéxiān'' (蛇仙 literally "Snake Immortal"), ''Liǔxiān'' (柳仙 "Immortal Liu"), or ''Chángxiān'' (常仙 "Viper Immortal"). Alternatively he is ''Mǎngxiān'' (蟒仙 "Python (or Boa) Immortal"). Considered an incarnation of the

Dragon God The Dragon King, also known as the Dragon God, is a Chinese water and weather god. He is regarded as the dispenser of rain, commanding over all bodies of water. He is the collective personification of the ancient concept of the '' lóng'' in Ch ...

, the snake traditionally represents generation and activity (''

yang Yang may refer to: * Yang, in yin and yang, one half of the two symbolic polarities in Chinese philosophy * Korean yang, former unit of currency of Korea from 1892 to 1902 * YANG, a data modeling language for the NETCONF network configuration pr ...

''). As such, it is also associated to

Fuxi Fuxi or Fu Hsi (伏羲 ~ 伏犧 ~ 伏戲) is a culture hero in Chinese legend and mythology, credited along with his sister and wife Nüwa with creating humanity and the invention of music, hunting, fishing, domestication, and cooking as well ...

and

Nüwa Nüwa, also read Nügua, is the mother goddess of Chinese mythology. She is credited with creating humanity and repairing the Pillar of Heaven. As creator of mankind, she molded humans individually by hand with yellow clay. In the Huainanzi ...

, respectively the snake-bodied patron of heaven (天皇 ''Tiānhuáng'') and patroness of earth (地皇 ''Dehuáng''), who represent the two forces who concur in the birth of things.

Baixian—Hedgehog Immortal

The ''Báixiān'' (白仙 "White Immortal") is the Hedgehog God. He is primarily worshipped as a medical deity to prevent and cure diseases. One of his female forms is ''Báilǎo Tàitài'' (白老太太 "White Old Lady").

Heixian—Crow Immortal

The ''Hēixiān'' (黑仙 "Black Immortal") is a function occupied by different zoomorphic deities. The most common one is the ''Wūyāxiān'' (乌鸦仙 "Crow Immortal") and another popular one is the ''Huīxiān'' (灰仙 "Rat Immortal"), although the latter is said to be a misinterpretation of the former. The position can be taken also by the ''Lángshén'' (狼神 "Wolf God").

Notes

References

Citations

Sources

* * {{cite book , last = Kang , first = Xiaofei , year = 2006 , title = The Cult of the Fox: Power, Gender, and Popular Religion in Late Imperial and Modern China , publisher = Columbia University Press , url = https://books.google.com/books?id=75Uoe_3IatkC , isbn = 0231508220 Animals in Chinese mythology