TheShuixian Zunwangare fiveChineseDeitiesworshipped aswaterand sea deities. They have various names in English including the Honorable Water Immortal Kings and the Lords of the Water. All five deities were formerly famous heroes and are related to water in certain ways. They are also believed to protect vessels in transit.
| Shuixian Zunwang | |||||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
 Shuixian Zunwang,Penghu Shuixian Temple | |||||||||
| Chinese | Thủy tiên tôn vương | ||||||||
| Literal meaning | Honorable King(s) of the WaterImmortals | ||||||||
| |||||||||
Names
editThe Chinese titleShuǐxiān Zūnwángis variously translated into English as theHonorable Water Immortal Kings,[1]theIllustrious,Revered,[2]orEminentKings of the Water Immortals,[3]theNoble King Water Spirits,[4]theShuexian Deities,[5]theFive Water-Gods,[2]and theGods of the Waters.[4]
The head of the five isYu the Great,thelegendaryfirstemperorof theXiadynastyinprehistoric China.[5]Within China, the Xia are now generally associated with the historicalErlitou culturealong theWeiand middleYellow Rivers,while foreign scholarship often continues to dismiss it as legendary. Yu became regarded as a water deity through his involvement with controlling theGreat FloodofChinese myth,[5]which may have preserved aspects of the Yellow River's massive floodingc. 1920BCE.AsChinesegenerally fails to distinguish between singular and plural nouns,zūnwángis sometimes considered to refer to a single Illustrious King. In such cases, it is usually identified with Yu alone.[3]
The existence of a quintet of gods, however, is thought to derive from a misunderstanding ofWu Zixu's surnameNgũ(pWǔ) as intending its usual sense as a synonym for the Chinese word for "five" (Ngũ,pwǔ) in its appearance in his divine title "King Wu" (Ngũ vương,pWǔwáng).[1]However, there are several water deities apart from Wu.
Wu Zixu[5]was aChunoblewho was forced into exile inWu.[8]There, he helped the prince Ji Guangassassinatethe kingand enthrone himself asKing Helü.He then played a role inWu's invasion of his homeland,exhumingthe corpse ofits former kingto punish it for the earlier death of his father and brother.[8]He accurately predicted thatYuewould endanger Wu but did not have the ear of Helü's successorFuchai.He was forced tocommit suicide;his body placed in a leather bag and then thrown into a river.[9]After thefall of Wu,Wu Zixu's spirit was worshipped as Taoshen, "God of the Waves",[10]and particularly as the god of theQiantang Tidal BoreatHangzhou.[9]Wu Zixu had also been involved with the urban planning of King Helü's capital atSuzhou[10]and is sometimes considered aculture herocredited with inventing thewaterwheel.[5]
Xiang Yu,[5]the "warlordof westernChu"whoserevoltendedtheQin Empirein 206BC, was killedfightingthe forces ofHanbeside theWu RiverinAnhuiin 202BC. He is usually said to have slit his throat and had his body torn to pieces by his enemies, but he became regarded as a water deity from a separate legend that his body miraculously remained standing in the waters of the Wu after his suicide.[5]
Qu Yuanwas apoetand advisor to his relativethe kingofChu.He was exiled upon supposedly slanderous reports of his fellow courtiers andcommitted suicideby walking into theMiluowhile holding a rock, out of frustration with either his exile[11]or with the direction of Chu's public policy.[12]His memory is honored atDuanwuby various the traditions of theDragon Boat Festival,although some believe this to have been a misplaced bit of Wu Zixu's legacy.[10]
The fifth figure variously appears as "King"Ao(NgạoVương,Àowáng)[5]or as the inventorLu Ban.[1]
The "King" Ao—literally the "Arrogant King" —is thedeified formofAo(Ngạo,Ào)[14]or Jiao (Kiêu,Jiāo),[15]the preternaturally strong son ofHan Zhuo,[5]theadvisorwho usurped the realm of the archerHouyiin the 8th year of the reign of the Xia kingXiang.[16]Ao is said to have conquered the state of Ge for his father during the same year.[16]He became regarded as a water deity through his supposed role as the inventor ofships,which he was said to be able to sail across land as well as water.[5]He was killed by Xiang's sonKing Shaokang.[5]
Lu Ban,[1]also known by hisCantonesename Lo Pan, was a woodworker at the end of theSpring and Autumn periodwho became revered as theChinesegodof carpentry and masonry. The great demand for his work during his life supposedly compelled him to invent or improve a number of carpenter's tools—thesaw,thesquare,theplaner,thedrill,theshovel,and an ink marking tool—to complete his many projects more quickly.[17]
History
edit
The worship of the Shuixian Zunwang as a quintet ofkingsis suggested to be derive from a misunderstanding of one ofWu Zixu's religious titles. (Chinesegenerally lacksplural noun formsand hissurnameis a variant of the Chinese word for "five".)[1]The honorable kings or Lords of Water were related to water in certain ways and were first worshipped aroundXiamenregion,[1]which became a stronghold forMing loyalistsduring theQingconquest of China.UnderKoxinga,theZheng dynastydefeatedtheDutchonTaiwanand moved from a base at Xiamen to the area aroundTainan,which they ruled as theKingdom of Tungning.They appear to have been responsible for the introduction of the worship ofFujian's five kings there.[1]
Worship
edit
The Shuixian Zunwang are worshipped as protectors of ships in transit.[5]A shrine in their honor was included on most Taiwanese vessels during the imperial era; even today, most Taiwanese harbors include temples to them.[1]There are shrines dedicated to the deities in manyMazutemples.
See also
editReferences
edit- ^abcdefghHuang A-yu (December 2010),"Đài loan thủy tiên tôn vương sùng tự chi tố nguyên [Táiwān Shuǐxiān Zūnwáng Chóngsì zhī Sùyuán,Tracing the Worship of the Honorable Water Immortal Kings] ",Nhân văn nghiên cứu kỳ khan [Rénwén Yánjiū Qīkān,Humanities Periodical], No. 8,pp. 81–112.(in Chinese)&(in English)
- ^abStudies in Central and East Asian Religions,Vols. 12–13,Copenhagen: Seminar for Buddhist Studies, 1996, p. 115.
- ^abHu Hsiao-lan; et al. (2005),Taoism,Religions of the World, Philadelphia: Chelsea House, p.35,ISBN9781438106489.
- ^abTaiwan Literature,English translation series, Santa Barbara: University of California Forum for the Study of World Literatures in Chinese, 1999, p. 62.
- ^abcdefghijkl"Shuexian Deities",Official site,Tainan:Grand Matsu Temple,2007.(in Chinese)&(in English)
- ^Sima Qian,Records of the Grand Historian,Ch. 66, Biography 6.(in Chinese)
- ^Nienhauser, William H., Junior (2001),"Early Biography",The Columbia History of Chinese Literature,New York: Columbia University Press, p.514–5,ISBN9780231528511
{{citation}}:CS1 maint: multiple names: authors list (link). - ^abRecords of the Grand Historian,[6]cited inNienhauser.[7]
- ^abMurck, Alfreda (2000),Poetry and Painting in Song China: The Subtle Art of Dissent,Harvard–Yenching Institute Monograph No. 50,Cambridge:Harvard University Asia Center, p.207,ISBN9780674007826.
- ^abc"Legend for Wu Zixu",eBeijing,Beijing: Beijing Foreign Affairs Information Center, archived fromthe originalon 13 August 2010,retrieved15 December2016.(in Chinese)&(in English)
- ^Lee, L.F. (1995),"Chu Yuan",Dragon Boat!,Taipei:NTNU's Mandarin Training Center, archived from the original on 2009-04-17
{{citation}}:CS1 maint: bot: original URL status unknown (link). - ^"Qu Yuan",China: Five Thousand Years of History & Civilization,Kowloon: City University of Hong Kong Press, 2007, p.206,ISBN9789629371401.
- ^Selby, Stephen (2000),Chinese Archery,Hong Kong: Hong Kong University Press, p.21,ISBN9789622095014.
- ^TheZuo Zhuan,translated inSelby.[13]
- ^Qu Yuan(2012), Sukhu, Gopal (ed.),The Shaman and the Heresiarch: A New Interpretation of theLi Sao,Albany:SUNYPress, p.227,ISBN9781438442846.
- ^abBamboo Annals.
- ^Yan, Hong-sen (2007),Reconstruction Designs of Lost Ancient Chinese Machinery,History of Mechanism and Machine Science,No. 3, Dordrecht: Springer,§8.1: "Lu Ban the Man",ISBN9781402064609.