The Birth of Nezha Chapter 12 of Investiture of the Gods, “Nezha’s Birth at Chentang Pass,” opens with Li Jing, garrison commander of Chentang Pass, who had studied Daoist arts under the Immortal Duyi of the Western Kunlun Mountains but,…
I. The Cause — How It All Began 1. Borrowing the Treasure from the Dragon Palace On the Mountain of Flowers and Fruit, the Handsome Monkey King Sun Wukong trained his monkey troops in martial arts but lacked a worthy…
In the northwest of Henan Province, on the border with Shanxi, rises one mountain. It is not tall — only about 1,700 meters — yet in the spiritual map of China, its standing far exceeds the Five Great Peaks. It…
Anyone who has read Jin Yong’s Legend of the Condor Heroes or Return of the Condor Heroes knows Wang Chongyang, the “Central Divine,” first among the Five Greats, founder of the Quanzhen School, whose seven disciples are famous throughout the…
Walk into any Chinese Buddhist temple, and in the center of the Hall of the Heavenly Kings you will find him: bald, big-eared, bare-chested, beaming, prayer beads in one hand, a giant cloth sack in the other. He is not…
In China, on almost every old street, you will see him: red face, phoenix eyes, silkworm eyebrows, a green robe, long beard gently stroked, seated in the most prominent place of a shop. He was never an emperor, yet he…
Along China’s long, winding coastline, there is one goddess whom fishermen, boatmen, merchants, and emigrants have worshipped together for generations. She did not come from the Western Heavens, nor was she born in the celestial court. She was an ordinary…
If Sun Wukong embodies the adult’s dream of freedom, then Nezha is every young person’s whole hope of rebellion. He treads on Wind-Fire Wheels, wields a Fire-Tipped Spear, carries the Universe Ring, and is wrapped in the Red Armillary Sash…
If there is one undisputed star in the Chinese mythological pantheon, it is Sun Wukong. He is no dragon king seated in an underwater palace, no Bodhisattva wreathed in temple incense, no sage sitting solemnly in a book of classics.…
In all of China, there is perhaps no other Bodhisattva as universally known and invoked as Guan Yin. Grandmothers light incense before her image on the first and fifteenth of every lunar month; fishermen hang her name beside their boat…