Chinese

One account places the Jade Emperor at the apex of a heavenly bureaucracy, with bureaus whose gods each oversee a defined function. In a flood account, Tiandi sends a flood during Yao's reign. Gun argues for the stranded people and steals magical earth to make land, but Tiandi has him killed and the waters return. When Gun's body is cut open, his son Yu emerges as a dragon and stems the flood again; Gun remains a yellow dragon beneath the waters.

Read the Jade Emperor's flood storySee the Jade Emperor

SourceChinese Mythology (Mythology and Culture Worldwide): printed p. 47 (PDF p. 48)· Larousse Encyclopedia of Mythology (ed. Félix Guirand, 1959): Chinese Mythology, Heaven and its Gods, The August Personage of Jade, PDF pp. 376-378· The Oxford Companion to World Mythology: C Chinese Mythology — Chinese Flood myth paragraph (p. 74)

Yu Huang appears in more than one origin account. In one, Yu Huang is a human emperor who becomes immortal after death and rules in Heaven. In another, he is born to Qïng Dì and Bâo Yuèguāng, gives wealth to people in need, renounces the throne for meditation, and later ascends before returning to help and teach people. Keeping these accounts beside one another makes their different ideas of rulership and compassion easier to see.

Read Yu Huang's birth and ascension

SourceChinese Mythology (Mythology and Culture Worldwide): printed p. 44 (PDF p. 45)· Chinese Symbolism and Art Motifs (Fourth Revised Edition): Chapter 20, Three Pure Ones (printed pp. 264-265; OEBPS/Text/Chapter_20.xhtml)

The Queen Mother of the West is not presented in one unchanging form. An early description places her on Jade Mountain with a leopard's tail, tiger's teeth, unkempt hair, and power over calamity and punishment. Other accounts place her at or near Kunlun, a mythic mountain associated with gods and immortality, and portray her as a humanised giver of peaches and elixirs. In the Yi story, she prepares an elixir for Archer Yi and warns him to drink it on a clear night; when Chang-O ignores the warning, she loses her way and is trapped in the moon.

Read Yi's visit to Xiwangmu at KunlunSee Xiwangmu

SourceA Chinese Bestiary: Strange Creatures from the Guideways through Mountains and Seas: Shanhaijing chapter 2, entry 65; Strassberg translation, printed p. 109 (PDF p. 132)· A Chinese Bestiary: Strange Creatures from the Guideways through Mountains and Seas: Strassberg commentary on entry 65, printed pp. 109-110 (PDF pp. 132-133)· The Oxford Companion to World Mythology: M Mountain Mythology, paragraph on Kunlun and Xiwang Mu· Chinese Mythology Rocks!: Chapter 7, The Moon Goddess, Yi's visit to Hsi Wang Mu