This article is about Chinese popular deities. For the Chinese scholastic theology about these gods and the supreme godhead of Heaven, see Chinese theology. For a list of Chinese mythological stories, including narratives with gods and immortals, see List of Chinese mythology.
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Qing dynasty Water and Land Ritual painting (水陆画) of Buddhist, Daoist, and Folk Deities.A complex of deities at an outdoor fountain-altar with incense burners at a pilgrimage area in Weihai, Shandong. At the centre stands Mazu, surrounded by the four Dragon Gods (龍神) and various lesser deities. Distant behind Mazu stands the Sun Goddess (太陽神).
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Chinese gods and immortals are beings in various Chinese religions seen in a variety of ways and mythological contexts.
Many are worshiped as deities because traditional Chinese religion is polytheistic, stemming from a pantheistic view that divinity is inherent in the world.[1]
The gods are energies or principles revealing, imitating, and propagating the way of heaven (天, Tian),[2] which is the supreme godhead manifesting in the northern culmen of the starry vault of the skies and its order.[citation needed] Many gods are ancestors or men who became deities for their heavenly achievements. Most gods are also identified with stars and constellations.[3] Ancestors are regarded as the equivalent of Heaven within human society,[4] and therefore, as the means of connecting back to Heaven, which is the "utmost ancestral father" (曾祖父, zēngzǔfù).[5]
There are a variety of immortals in Chinese thought, and one major type is the xian, which is thought in some religious Taoism movements to be a human given long or infinite life. Gods are innumerable, as every phenomenon has or is one or more gods, and they are organised in a complex celestial hierarchy.[6] Besides the traditional worship of these entities, Chinese folk religion, Chinese Buddhism, Confucianism, Taoism, and formal thinkers in general give theological interpretations affirming a monistic essence of divinity.[7]
Chinesegodsandimmortals are beings in various Chinese religions seen in a variety of ways and mythological contexts. Many are worshiped as deities because...
to Fox Gods overwhelming. Fox spirit Huli jing Kitsune Kumiho Inari Ōkami Other Chinese folk religion Chinesegodsandimmortals Northeast China folk religion...
The Investiture of the Gods, also known by its Chinese names Fengshen Yanyi (Chinese: 封神演義; pinyin: Fēngshén Yǎnyì; Wade–Giles: Fêng1-shên2 Yan3-yi4;...
The Eight Immortals (Chinese: 八仙) are a group of legendary xian (immortals) in Chinese mythology. Each immortal's power can be transferred to a vessel...
the Wolf, the Hare and the Turtle Gods. Li Qingchen (?-1897), a scholar of Tianjin, explained the images of the Five Great Immortals as follows: [...]...
Simians (Chinese poetry) Teng Yuan Ke List of Legendary Animals from ChinaChinesegodsandimmortals Werner, E.T.C. (1922). Myths and Legends of China. New...
Godsand demons fiction or Shenmo fiction (traditional Chinese: 神魔小說; simplified Chinese: 神魔小说; pinyin: shénmó xiǎoshuō) is a subgenre of Chinese fantasy...
worshipped as door gods. A civil door god, gathering good influences A martial door god, protecting against bad influences Chinesegodsandimmortals Dvarapala...
the worshipers influencing their fortune. Godsandimmortals (collectively Chinese: 神仙 shénxiān) in the Chinese cultural tradition reflect a hierarchical...
Immortals Fenyx Rising is a 2020 action-adventure video game developed by Ubisoft Quebec and published by Ubisoft. The game was released for Nintendo Switch...
stars from Chinese folk religion, representing auspiciousness, good life and longevity. Eight Immortals, a similar group of Taoist immortals He-He Er Xian...
modern Chinese province descending from the Shu kingdom. ChinesegodsandimmortalsChinese folk religion Jones (2013), p. 167. Jones (2013), p. 166-167...
the classification of immortals (xian). Immortals are more a category of quality than a description of an actual type. Immortals are defined by living...
and the Snake Gods. Common Chinese deities are associated to the cult of the zoomorphic gods. For instance, Huáng Dàxiān (黄大仙 "Great Yellow Immortal")...
rituals to greet the gods"), are Chinese religious gatherings held by Miao shrines for the worship of the Chinesegodsandimmortals. Large-scale miaohui...
Chinese funeral rituals comprise a set of traditions broadly associated with Chinese folk religion, with different rites depending on the age of the deceased...
is one of the Chinese symbols of longevity, due to their associations with immortals (i.e. they were used as conveyance for immortals). Both of them...
Chinese salvationist religions or Chinese folk religious sects are a Chinese religious tradition characterised by a concern for salvation (moral fulfillment)...
Chinese theology, which comes in different interpretations according to the Chinese classics andChinese folk religion, and specifically Confucian, Taoist...
Chinese medicine. In Chinese cosmology, the universe creates itself out of a primary chaos of material energy, organized into the cycles of yin and yang...
Chinese food therapy (simplified Chinese: 食疗; traditional Chinese: 食療; pinyin: shíliáo; lit. 'food therapy', also called nutrition therapy and dietary...
Fu Xi 伏羲 ChinaKnowledge.de - An Encyclopaedia on Chinese History, Literature and Art Fernald, Helen E. (December 1926). "Ancient Chinese Musical Instruments:...
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