The Jade Emperor--China's "Lord of Heaven"

By mid-May of this year, it had not rained in the east and south of Taiwan for some time, cracking the soil and killing off shrimp and fish. Even "manmade rain" had no place to get started because the cloud cover was too thin. In the end, "mother and father officials" in many rural communities led the people to pray to Heaven for rain, beat gongs and pound drums, and create a general tumult. Who can tell whether "the Lord of Heaven" was moved, or whether tropical air currents arrived just in the nick of time, but shortly thereafter it rained buckets for ten consecutive days. Unfortunately there was too much rain, and the drought became a flood, so that nobody knew whether to thank Heaven or to blame themselves for overdoing it.

Chinese often have such mixed feelings toward Heaven.

It's hard to trace the Chinese faith in revering Heaven back to whenever it may have started. In primitive times, people would naturally assume that some Supreme Being determined everything whenever they experienced lightning, thunder, landslides or earthquakes. According to historical records, the semi-divine emperor Chuan Hsu created a "Song of the Clouds" as an offering to "God."With the rise of competing feudal lords in the Shang and Chou, those with ambitions to rule the Central Plains would "make representations to Heaven. "For example, when T'ang (founder of the Shang dynasty) wanted to attack the despot Hsia Chieh (last emperor of the Hsia dynasty), he "made a public appeal to Heaven to visit suffering upon the Hsia," hoping that Heaven would protect the Shang and visit destruction on the Hsia dynasty.

Although the idea of "revering Heaven" has a long history, early on "Heaven" and "God" were merely abstract concepts. "God" eventually became the flesh and blood Jade Emperor, ruling with the help of his court bureaucracy; there was also an imperial heir, and an Empress by his side. These are all creations of Taoism.

Taoism first arose in the Eastern Han dynasty. This polytheistic religion had a number of renowned real persons and divine spirits in its pantheon. But further, because the idea of a "God of Heaven" was already deeply ingrained in people's thinking, Taoism concretely deified the concept "Heaven." It said that God lived "in a golden palace in a jade capital"; and that "above He held the 33rd level [the highest level] and below was master of the 72 places [all places]," and was respectfully called the "Jade Emperor."

In the Tang dynasty, because it pleased the royal family, surnamed Li, that Taoism's founder Li Er (Lao Tse) also had the surname Li, Taoism flourished, and brought the Jade Emperor honor. Moreover, His powers expanded from being Taoism's mightiest to cover Confucianism and Buddhism, so that even the Boddhisattvas and the sacred figures of Confucianism came under His jurisdiction. The Sung emperor Chen Tsung, who had deep faith in Taoism, had an image created for the Jade Emperor, and placed it in the Jade Purity Palace, and gave Him the honorific "Jade Emperor, Ruler of All Heaven." This was a formal recognition of His place in the spirit world.

Although both emperors and common folk revered the Jade Emperor, there are few records of His origins. The most broadly accepted legend about His background comes from the Jade Emperor Classic of the Sung dynasty.

According to the Jade Emperor Classic, long ago there was a kingdom called "The Land of Enlightenment, Augustness, Profundity, and Delight." The king was named Pure Virtue and the queen Jewelled Moonlight. They had no heir, so they called on the Taoist faithful of the whole country to offer up a fine son.

One night half a year later, Jewelled Moonlight suddenly dreamed she saw Lao Tse carrying an infant, riding a multicolored dragon chariot with the Taoist deities. Needless to say, this infant was the young Jade Emperor. When young He was intelligent and wise, and when mature He was compassionate and self-effacing. Even more unusual is that after assuming the throne He did not maneuver to rule the world, but devoted himself to meditating on the flecting nature of worldly matters and the dreamlike nature of life. He abdicated the throne, turning it over to a wise and virtuous courtier, and concealed himself in the mountains to cultivate Tao.

After self-cultivation in Taoism, the Jade Emperor became a doctor, and spread the Taoist belief system. After passing through the "800 Trials" four times, He finally achieved the "golden deity" status of being a "pure, natural, enlightened Buddha." Thereafter, he taught and enlightened many Boddhisattvas to "grasp Mahayana Buddhism and gradually enter the great path of nothingness," and after one hundred million trials he attained the status of Jade Emperor.

What's puzzling is that after attaining the status of Jade Emperor, this once-reluctant heir to the throne seems to have no longer felt that activity was irrelevant or as if life was like a dream; on the contrary he took charge of the major duties of the celestial court.

This brings up the administrative organization of the celestial court. It differs little from that of men, but is vastly larger and "three dimensional"--not only are there three great lords ruling the heavens, the earth, and the nether world on his behalf, He himself is personally in charge of the central, local, and underworld administrative systems.

At first glance, it seems the organization of the celestial court is clear, with each having his own bailiwick. For example, the Lord of Protecting Life and the legendary Han surgeon Hua T'o handle medicine, others are charged with expelling evil, and so on. But one can discover from many popular stories that the Jade Emperor is buy no means beyond anger and fury, completely impersonal and objective, or able to see all the fine points clearly. On the contrary, He is quite "human," and often becomes angry so that the common people suffer through no fault of their own, or listens to rumors and half-truths.

There is a story to this effect in the Journey to the West: The monk T'ang was passing through Fenghsien Prefecture just at the time of a great drought of three years without rain. The reason for it was strange: Once the magistrate's wife threw a tantrum and fed the offerings to Heaven to the dogs instead, and moreover was very insulting. This offended the Jade Emperor, who ordered the Dragon King to cease giving rain to Fenghsien.

There is another well-known tale about the third son of the Jade Emperor--Tsao Shen (the Kitchen God).

It is said among the common people that the third son of the Jade Emperor had a lazy nature, and didn't do what he should; he just liked to check out the goddesses in the heavenly realm. The Jade Emperor repeatedly admonished him but to no avail. The only thing to do was order him down to earth as the Kitchen God, and he could admire women to his heart's content. But since "food is god to the people," and everyone has a stove, this playboy prince became the major household deity.

Even more interesting is that the Jade Emperor lived long inside the celestial palace, and became rather detached from the conditions of men. Thus every year on the 24th day of the twelfth month on the lunar calender, all the deities who had been sent among men had to return to the court, and report on the beneficence and evil of each human; they could only return among the people on the fourth day of the first month in the next year. In this great group of divine beings, many were profoundly immersed in the ways of Taoism, and many were selfless and objective, but the Jade Emperor was still inclined to listen to his own son, and listened most closely to the selfish and gluttonous tales of Tsao Shen. Because of this, people must "bribe" Tsao Shen with food and candies. This is the source of the custom of "sending the Kitchen God off on his journey" and "welcoming the Kitchen God back."

Although there are many interesting anecdotes about the Jade Emperor, perhaps these have just been created by people as ridicule or black humor when "heaven does not respond to one's pleas, and earth does not move to one's needs," and there is no other way to express one's grievances. In any case, compared to some of the other Taoist divinities who have emerged from the souls of the dead, the Jade Emperor is still relatively remote from worldly affairs. He is unlikely to specially smote any ordinary person, and there's little harm in His having a little joke now and then.

Speaking precisely, the Jade Emperor has in many respects been metamorphosed with aspects of human princes. In the past, when making offerings to "Heaven," the "God of Heaven" was just a symbolic name on a tablet. But after the rise of the Taoist view of the Jade Emperor, the people gradually began to speculate about the Jade Emperor in light of what they knew about their own rulers. Not only do His clothes, court structure, and administrative regulations follow the same beaten track, the Jade Emperor may even be like the worldly emperor and want to resign from exalted position and abdicate the throne.

The tale that the Jade Emperor abdicated his throne, and was succeeded by Kuan Sheng as the 18th Jade Emperor (there are no records at all about the first seventeen), has been floating around among the common folk for quite some time. This is especially believed among the plethora of popular sects (mainly those which believe in Kuan Kung and Chi Kung). But major temples dedicated to the Jade Emperor in Taiwan, such as the Yuan Ching Tem-ple in Changhwa or the Kai Chi Jade Emperor Tem-ple in Tainan, deny this version of events. "The Jade Emperor is limitless, formless, omnipresent, and eternal. How could He abdicate?" say elders of the Jade Emperor Temple, hitting the nail on the head.

No matter who the Jade Emperor may be, the ordinary people dare not cross him, and kneel down and worship Him. In Taiwan, whether in rural houses or urban apartments, most people have an "Urn of Heaven," and burn incense in the morning and evening to acknowledge distant Heaven. Every Taoist or Buddhist temple, though it may be dedicated to another deity or deities, all have their Urn of Heaven in the main hall for believers to worship.

The ninth day of the first month on the lunar calender is the birthday of the Jade Emperor (commonly called the "Birth of the Lord of Heaven" in Taiwan), is an important popular event. From midnight until four in the morning, each household must be scrubbed clean and properly appointed, preparing the five fruits (oranges, tangerines, apples, bananas, and sugar cane), the six vegetarian courses (lilies, edible fungus, mushrooms, cucumbers, peas, and needle mushrooms), as well as a tower of noodles and three glasses of tea. You must also prepare the "five sacrifices" for the Jade Emperor's retinue, with sweets and so on. After three rounds of incense burning, one must still burn the "Lord of Heaven Gold" (paper money) specially used by the Jade Emperor.

In today's commercial society, the importance of the Birth of the Lord of Heaven is nowhere near its former level. Thinking back to the dictatorial imperial system, "worshipping Heaven" was a special privilege reserved for the Son of Heaven (the Emperor). in the Ching dynasty, there was still the regulation that any ordinary person caught worshipping Heaven directly would be punished with 80 strokes of the rod, so that common folk had no choice but to worship in secret. Today everyone can choose whether and how to worship. This may be the most significant change in all of the 5,000 years of belief in revering Heaven in China!

[Picture Caption]

There is no place untouched by "Heaven," so that one can find "Urns of Heaven" (for burning incense) in fields, watersides, and up through homes and temples. (photo by Vincent Chang)

The Jade Emperor is the ruler of the Celestial Court of Taoism, and has been metamorphosed to take on the characteristics of a worldly emperor. One example is the use of the dragon as His symbol.

The Chih Nan Temple in Mucha is a Taoist holy place. The Ling Hsiao Pao Hall there is specially devoted to the Jade Emperor.

The Jade Emperor is the ruler of the Celestial Court of Taoism, and has been metamorphosed to take on the characteristics of a worldly emperor. One example is the use of the dragon as His symbol.

The Chih Nan Temple in Mucha is a Taoist holy place. The Ling Hsiao Pao Hall there is specially devoted to the Jade Emperor.