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Gouchen Emperor
The Great Emperor of the Curved Array (), also called the Gouchen Emperor and Tianhuang Emperor (), is one of the highest sky deities of Taoism. He is one of the Four Sovereigns (; ) and is in charge of heaven, earth, and human and of wars in the human world. Chinese mythology The "Curved Array" is a constellation in the Purple Forbidden enclosure, equivalent to the European constellation called ''Ursa Minor'' or the ''Little Dipper''. In Taoism, the Great Emperor of Curved Array is the eldest son of Doumu and the brother of the Ziwei Emperor. History Emperor Gaozong of Tang was called by the title Emperor Tianhuang as his Posthumous name given by Wu Zetian. Liu Yan was also given the posthumous name. is the title of the Japanese Emperor and some have proposed a link between the two Constellation There is a constellation named after the Tianhuang Emperor. See also * North Star * Myōken * Wufang Shangdi * Four heavenly ministers The Four Heavenly Ministers (), ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Wu Zetian
Wu Zetian (17 February 624 – 16 December 705), personal name Wu Zhao, was the ''de facto'' ruler of the Tang dynasty from 665 to 705, ruling first through others and then (from 690) in her own right. From 665 to 690, she was first empress consort of the Tang dynasty (as wife of the Emperor Gaozong) and then, after his death, empress dowager (ruling through her sons Emperors Zhongzong and Ruizong). Unprecedented in Chinese history, she subsequently founded and ruled as empress regnant of the Wu Zhou dynasty of China from 690 to 705. She was the only female sovereign in the history of China widely regarded as legitimate. Under her 40-year reign, China grew larger, becoming one of the great powers of the world, its culture and economy were revitalized, and corruption in the court was reduced. She was removed from power in a coup and died a few months later. In early life, Wu was the concubine of Emperor Taizong. After his death, she married his ninth son and successor, ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Chinese Constellations
Traditional Chinese astronomy has a system of dividing the celestial sphere into asterisms or constellations, known as "officials" (Chinese ''xīng guān''). The Chinese asterisms are generally smaller than the constellations of Hellenistic tradition. The Song dynasty (13th-century) Suzhou planisphere shows a total of 283 asterisms, comprising a total of 1,565 individual stars. The asterisms are divided into four groups, the Twenty-Eight Mansions (, ''Èrshíbā Xiù'') along the ecliptic, and the Three Enclosures of the northern sky. The southern sky was added as a fifth group in the late Ming Dynasty based on European star charts, comprising an additional 23 asterisms. The Three Enclosures (, ''Sān Yuán'') include the Purple Forbidden Enclosure, which is centered on the north celestial pole and includes those stars which could be seen year-round,Needham, J.Astronomy in Ancient and Medieval China. ''Philosophical Transactions of the Royal Society of London''. Series A, ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Chinese Gods
Chinese traditional religion is polytheistic; many deities are worshipped in a pantheistic view where divinity is inherent in the world. The gods are energies or principles revealing, imitating and propagating the way of Heaven (''Tian'' ), which is the supreme godhead manifesting in the northern culmen of the starry vault of the skies and its order. Many gods are ancestors or men who became deities for their heavenly achievements; most gods are also identified with stars and constellations. Ancestors are regarded as the equivalent of Heaven within human society, and therefore as the means connecting back to Heaven, which is the "utmost ancestral father" ( ''zēngzǔfù''). Gods are innumerable, as every phenomenon has or is one or more gods, and they are organised in a complex celestial hierarchy. Besides the traditional worship of these entities, Confucianism, Taoism and formal thinkers in general give theological interpretations affirming a monistic essence of divinity. "Pol ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Deities In Taoism
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 greater than those of ordinary humans, but who interacts with humans, positively or negatively, in ways that carry humans to new levels of consciousness, beyond the grounded preoccupations of ordinary life". Religions can be categorized by how many deities they worship. Monotheistic religions accept only one deity (predominantly referred to as "God"), whereas polytheistic religions accept multiple deities. Henotheistic religions accept one supreme deity without denying other deities, considering them as aspects of the same divine principle. Nontheistic religions deny any supreme eternal creator deity, but may accept a pantheon of deities which live, die and may be reborn like any other being. Although most monotheistic religions traditionally e ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Wufang Shangdi
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 manifestation of the supreme God of Heaven ( ''Tiān''). This theology dates back at least to the Shang dynasty. Described as the "five changeable faces of Heaven", they represent Heaven's cosmic activity which shapes worlds as ''tán'' , "altars", imitating its order which is visible in the starry vault, the north celestial pole and its spinning constellations. The Five Deities themselves represent these constellations. In accordance with the Three Powers ( Sāncái) they have a celestial, a terrestrial and a chthonic form. The Han Chinese identify themselves as the descendants of the Red and Yellow Deities. They are associated with the five colors, the five phases of the continuous creation, the five key planets of the Solar System and the ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Myōken
Myōken ( sa, डाकिनी, ; Chinese: 妙見菩薩 (Traditional) / 妙见菩萨 ( Simplified), ; Japanese: 妙見菩薩, ''Myōken Bosatsu''), also known as Sonjō-Ō (尊星王, "Venerable Star King", also ''Sonsei-Ō'' or ''Sonshō-Ō''), is a Buddhist deification of the North Star worshiped mainly in the Shingon, Tendai and Nichiren schools of Japanese Buddhism. Despite the alleged Sanskrit origin of his name and his bodhisattva status, Myōken is conspicuously absent from early Buddhist literature, with his name first appearing in apocryphal sutras of Chinese origin. He is thus thought to have originated from Taoist and folk beliefs regarding the northern pole star and/or the Big Dipper that had syncretized with Buddhism during the Tang dynasty. Indeed, despite being called 'bodhisattva' (''bosatsu''), the deity is actually more often classified as a deva. The cult of Myōken is believed to have been introduced to Japan around the 7th century by the '' toraijin'', imm ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
North Star
Polaris is a star in the northern circumpolar constellation of Ursa Minor. It is designated α Ursae Minoris ( Latinized to ''Alpha Ursae Minoris'') and is commonly called the North Star or Pole Star. With an apparent magnitude that fluctuates around 1.98, it is the brightest star in the constellation and is readily visible to the naked eye at night. The position of the star lies less than 1° away from the north celestial pole, making it the current northern pole star. The stable position of the star in the Northern Sky makes it useful for navigation. As the closest Cepheid variable its distance is used as part of the cosmic distance ladder. The revised '' Hipparcos'' stellar parallax gives a distance to Polaris of about , while the successor mission ''Gaia'' gives a distance of about . Calculations by other methods vary widely. Although appearing to the naked eye as a single point of light, Polaris is a triple star system, composed of the primary, a yellow su ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Tenno
The Emperor of Japan is the monarch and the head of the Imperial House of Japan, Imperial Family of Japan. Under the Constitution of Japan, he is defined as the symbol of the Japanese state and the unity of the Japanese people, and his position is derived from "the will of the people with whom resides sovereign power". Imperial Household Law governs the line of Succession to the Japanese throne, imperial succession. The emperor is sovereign immunity, immune from prosecution by the Supreme Court of Japan. He is also the head of the Shinto religion. In Japanese language, Japanese, the emperor is called , literally "Emperor of heaven or "Heavenly Sovereign". The Japanese Shinto religion holds him to be the direct descendant of the sun goddess Amaterasu. The emperor is also the head of all national Orders, decorations, and medals of Japan, Japanese orders, decorations, medals, and awards. In English, the use of the term for the emperor was once common but is now considered obsolete ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Liu Yan (emperor)
Liu Yan (; 889 – 10 June 942), né Liu Yan (劉巖), also named Liu Zhi (劉陟) (from c. 896 to 911) and briefly as Liu Gong (劉龔), also known by his temple name as the Emperor Gaozu of Southern Han (南漢高祖), was the first Emperor of China, emperor of the Chinese Southern Han, Southern Han dynasty, one of the Five Dynasties and Ten Kingdoms period#Ten Kingdoms, Ten Kingdoms during the Five Dynasties and Ten Kingdoms period. Background Liu Yan was born in 889, during the reign of Emperor Zhaozong of Tang. His father Liu Zhiqian (also known as Liu Qian) was then the prefect of Feng Prefecture (封州, in modern Zhaoqing, Guangdong) and was married to a Lady Wei, the niece of Wei Zhou (韋宙), a prior military governor (''Jiedushi'') of Lingnan East Circuit (嶺南東道, headquartered in modern Guangzhou, Guangdong), which Feng Prefecture belonged to. However, he also secretly had a concubine outside the home, a Lady Duan, and it was to Lady Duan that Liu Yan was b ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Posthumous Name
A posthumous name is an honorary name given mostly to the notable dead in East Asian culture. It is predominantly practiced in East Asian countries such as China, Korea, Vietnam, Japan, and Thailand. Reflecting on the person's accomplishments or reputation, the title is assigned after death and essentially replaces their name used during life. Although most posthumous names are assigned to royalty, some posthumous names are given to honor significant people without hereditary titles, such as courtiers or military generals. A posthumous name should not be confused with era names (年號), regnal names (尊號), or temple names (廟號). Format One or more adjectives are inserted before the deceased's title to make their posthumous name. Posthumous names are exclusively owned on the state level, although not necessarily on a broader national level. The name of the state or domain of the owner is added to avoid ambiguity from multiple similar posthumous names. The Chinese languag ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Sky Deities
The sky often has important religious significance. Many religions, both polytheistic and monotheistic, have deities associated with the sky. The daytime sky deities are typically distinct from the nighttime ones. Stith Thompson's ''Motif-Index of Folk-Literature'' reflects this by separating the category of "Sky-god" (A210) from that of "Star-god" (A250). In mythology, nighttime gods are usually known as night deities and gods of stars simply as star gods. Both of these categories are included here since they relate to the sky. Luminary deities are included as well since the sun and moon are located in the sky. Some religions may also have a deity or personification of the day, distinct from the god of the day lit sky, to complement the deity or personification of the night. Daytime gods and nighttime gods are frequently deities of an " upper world" or "celestial world" opposed to the earth and a "netherworld" (gods of the underworld are sometimes called "chthonic" deities). ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
