Page 544 - The Encyclopedia of Taoism v1_A-L

THE ENCYCLOPEDIA OF TAOISM A-L

from Guangdong to central Hubei by the late thirteenth century. A second-
generation disciple of Huang named Zeng Chenwai [iCI' JI'!-!: 'l1' set up a branch
inJi'an ,I{ '!i:. (Jiangxi) and became the teacher of *Zhao Yizhen (?-1382). More
important than the official and literati support, however, was the acceptance
of these new synthetic teachings by the Celestial Master's *Zhengyi (Orthodox
Unity) tradition.

Lowell SKAR
ID Boltz]. M. 1987a, 38-41; Davis E. 2001, 29-30; Qing Xitai 1994, I: 345
* Qingwei xianpu; Qingwei

Huangdi

Yellow Emperor; Yellow Thearch; Yellow Lord;
also called Xianyuan i\ff ~

Different early mythical traditions about Huangdi were combined and re-
interpreted after the unification of the empire under the Han dynasty. This
mythology is complex, but as far as its role in Taoism is concerned, three
essential traditions may be distinguished. According to Wolfram Eberhard
(1942, 158-61) there was a cult tradition in the northwest of the empire that
was centered around a heavenly god Huangdi. In the myths of the eastern
provinces, Huangdi was featured as the ideal ruler of ancient times and the
first practitioner of Dao. At the time of the Han dynasty, these two mythical
traditions merged and were complemented by the tradition of Huangdi as
patron of the "masters of methods" (*fangshi).

Heavenly god. The Huangdi cultic tradition in the northwestern kingdom of
Qin dates back to the eighth century BCE. Each sector of heaven (the four
points of the compass and the center) was personified by a di * (a term that
indicates not only an emperor but also an ancestral "thearch" and "god"). The
family ancestor of the princes of Qin was the White Emperor, Shaohao ~'
~ (Small Light), who personified the western sector. The fact that the Qin
honored Huangdi as the personification of the central sector of the heavens,
which should have been the domain of the ruling Zhou kings, was therefore a
political presumption. At the end of the third century BCE, the Qin conquered
the Zhou kingdom. The Han emperors maintained the tradition of the five
heavenly gods, but Huangdi was now replaced by the Great One (*Taiyi) in