The Great Emperor of the Curved Array (), also called the Gouchen Emperor and Tianhuang Emperor (), is one of the highest

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 ''Moti ...

Taoism Taoism (, ) or Daoism () refers to either a school of Philosophy, philosophical thought (道家; ''daojia'') or to a religion (道教; ''daojiao''), both of which share ideas and concepts of China, Chinese origin and emphasize living in harmo ...

. 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 The Purple Forbidden enclosure ( Zǐ wēi yuán) is one of the San Yuan ( Sān yuán) or Three Enclosures Traditional Chinese astronomy has a system of dividing the celestial sphere into asterisms or constellations, known as "officials" ( Chi ...

, equivalent to the European constellation called ''

Ursa Minor Ursa Minor (Latin: 'Lesser Bear', contrasting with Ursa Major), also known as the Little Bear, is a constellation located in the far northern sky. As with the Great Bear, the tail of the Little Bear may also be seen as the handle of a ladle, h ...

'' or the ''

Little Dipper Little is a synonym for small size and may refer to: Arts and entertainment * ''Little'' (album), 1990 debut album of Vic Chesnutt * ''Little'' (film), 2019 American comedy film *The Littles, a series of children's novels by American author John P ...

''. In Taoism, the Great Emperor of Curved Array is the eldest son of

Doumu Dǒumǔ (), also known as Dǒumǔ Yuánjūn ( "Lady Mother of the Chariot"), Dòulǎo Yuánjūn ( "Lady Ancestress of the Chariot") and Tàiyī Yuánjūn ( "Lady of the Great One"), is a goddess in Chinese religion and Taoism. She is also named ...

and the brother of the

Ziwei Emperor The Great Emperor of the North Star, also called the Ziwei Emperor and the Beiji Emperor, is one of the highest sky deities and one of the Four Sovereigns (; ) of Taoism. Chinese mythology The Ziwei Emperor resides in the middle of Heaven an ...

History

Emperor Gaozong of Tang Emperor Gaozong of Tang (21 July 628 – 27 December 683), personal name Li Zhi, was the third emperor of the Tang dynasty in China, ruling from 649 to 683; after January 665, he handed power over the empire to his second wife Empress Wu (the f ...

was called by the title Emperor Tianhuang as his

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 ...

given by

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 empres ...

. 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.

Notes

References

External links