title: Contempt of court

text: Magistrates' courts also have powers under the 1981 Act to order to detain any person who "insults the court" or otherwise disrupts its proceedings until the end of the sitting. Upon contempt being admitted or proved the (invariably) District Judge (sitting as a magistrate) may order committal to prison for a maximum of one month, impose a fine of up to £2,500, or both.


title: Contempt of court

text: It will be contempt to bring an audio recording device or picture-taking device of any sort into an English court without the consent of the court.


title: Contempt of court

text: It will not be contempt according to section 10 of the Act for a journalist to refuse to disclose his sources, unless the court has considered the evidence available and determined that the information is "necessary in the interests of justice or national security or for the prevention of disorder or crime".


title: Contempt of court

text: Under the Contempt of Court Act it is criminal contempt to publish anything which creates a real risk that the course of justice in proceedings may be seriously impaired. It only applies where proceedings are active, and the Attorney General has issued guidance as to when he believes this to be the case, and there is also statutory guidance. The clause prevents the newspapers and media from publishing material that is too extreme or sensationalist about a criminal case until the trial or linked trials are over and the juries have given their verdicts.


title: Contempt of court

text: Section 2 of the Act defines and limits the previous common law definition of contempt (which was previously based upon a presumption that any conduct could be treated as contempt, regardless of intent), to only instances where there can be proved an intent to cause a substantial risk of serious prejudice to the administration of justice (i.e./e.g., the conduct of a trial).


title: Contempt of court

text: In United States jurisprudence, acts of contempt are generally divided into direct or indirect and civil or criminal. Direct contempt occurs in the presence of a judge; civil contempt is "coercive and remedial" as opposed to punitive. In the United States, relevant statutes include and Federal Rule of Criminal Procedure 42.


title: Contempt of court

text: Contempt of court in a civil suit is generally not considered to be a criminal offense, with the party benefiting from the order also holding responsibility for the enforcement of the order. However, some cases of civil contempt have been perceived as intending to harm the reputation of the plaintiff, or to a lesser degree, the judge or the court.


title: Contempt of court

text: Sanctions for contempt may be criminal or civil. If a person is to be punished criminally, then the contempt must be proven beyond a reasonable doubt, but once the charge is proven, then punishment (such as a fine or, in more serious cases, imprisonment) is imposed unconditionally. The civil sanction for contempt (which is typically incarceration in the custody of the sheriff or similar court officer) is limited in its imposition for so long as the disobedience to the court's order continues: once the party complies with the court's order, the sanction is lifted. The imposed party is said to "hold the keys" to his or her own cell, thus conventional due process is not required. In federal and most state courts, the burden of proof for civil contempt is clear and convincing evidence, a lower standard than in criminal cases.


title: Contempt of court

text: In civil contempt cases there is no principle of proportionality. In "Chadwick v. Janecka" (3d Cir. 2002), a U.S. court of appeals held that H. Beatty Chadwick could be held indefinitely under federal law, for his failure to produce US$2.5 million as state court ordered in a civil trial. Chadwick had been imprisoned for nine years at that time and continued to be held in prison until 2009, when a state court set him free after 14 years, making his imprisonment the longest on a contempt charge to date.


title: Contempt of court

text: Civil contempt is only appropriate when the imposed party has the power to comply with the underlying order. Controversial contempt rulings have periodically arisen from cases involving asset protection trusts, where the court has ordered a settlor of an asset protection trust to repatriate assets so that the assets may be made available to a creditor. A court cannot maintain an order of contempt where the imposed party does not have the ability to comply with the underlying order. This claim when made by the imposed party is known as the "impossibility defense".


title: Contempt of court

text: Contempt of court is considered a prerogative of the court, and "the requirement of a jury does not apply to 'contempts committed in disobedience of any lawful writ, process, order, rule, decree, or command entered in any suit or action brought or prosecuted in the name of, or on behalf of, the United States.'" This stance is not universally agreed with by other areas of the legal world, and there have been many calls to have contempt cases to be tried by jury, rather than by judge, as a potential conflict of interest rising from a judge both accusing and sentencing the defendant. At least one Supreme Court Justice has made calls for jury trials to replace judge trials on contempt cases.


title: Contempt of court

text: The United States Marshals Service is the agency component that first holds all federal prisoners. It uses the Prisoner Population Management System /Prisoner Tracking System. The only types of records that are disclosed as being in the system are those of "federal prisoners who are in custody pending criminal proceedings." The records of "alleged civil contempors" are not listed in the Federal Register as being in the system leading to a potential claim for damages under The Privacy Act, .


title: Contempt of court

text: In the United States, because of the broad protections granted by the First Amendment, with extremely limited exceptions, unless the media outlet is a party to the case, a media outlet cannot be found in contempt of court for reporting about a case because a court cannot order the media in general not to report on a case or forbid it from reporting facts discovered publicly. Newspapers cannot be closed because of their content.


title: Contempt of court

text: There have been criticisms over the practice of trying contempt from the bench. In particular, Supreme Court Justice Hugo Black wrote in a dissent, "It is high time, in my judgment, to wipe out root and branch the judge-invented and judge-maintained notion that judges can try criminal contempt cases without a jury."


title: Kate Bush discography

text: The discography of English singer-songwriter Kate Bush consists of 10 studio albums, two live albums, two compilation albums, six video albums, four box sets, five extended plays, 36 singles, seven promotional singles, and 39 music videos.


title: Kate Bush discography

text: This is a list of original contributions that Bush has made to soundtracks, tribute albums and to other musicians' albums.


title: Alcohol (chemistry)

text: In chemistry, an alcohol is a type of organic compound that carries at least one hydroxyl () functional group bound to a saturated carbon atom. The term "alcohol" originally referred to the primary alcohol ethanol (ethyl alcohol), which is used as a drug and is the main alcohol present in alcoholic drinks. An important class of alcohols, of which methanol and ethanol are the simplest examples, includes all compounds which conform to the general formula . Simple monoalcohols that are the subject of this article include primary (), secondary () and tertiary () alcohols.


title: Alcohol (chemistry)

text: The suffix "-ol" appears in the International Union of Pure and Applied Chemistry (IUPAC) chemical name of all substances where the hydroxyl group is the functional group with the highest priority. When a higher priority group is present in the compound, the prefix "hydroxy-" is used in its IUPAC name. The suffix "-ol" in non-IUPAC names (such as paracetamol or cholesterol) also typically indicates that the substance is an alcohol. However, some compounds that contain hydroxyl functional groups have "trivial names" which do not include the suffix "-ol" or the prefix "hydroxy-", e.g. the sugars glucose and sucrose.


title: Alcohol (chemistry)

text: The inflammable nature of the exhalations of wine was already known to ancient natural philosophers such as Aristotle (384–322 BCE), Theophrastus (–287 BCE), and Pliny the Elder (23/24–79 CE). However, this did not immediately lead to the isolation of alcohol, even despite the development of more advanced distillation techniques in second- and third-century Roman Egypt. An important recognition, first found in one of the writings attributed to Jābir ibn Ḥayyān (ninth century CE), was that by adding salt to boiling wine, which increases the wine's relative volatility, the flammability of the resulting vapors may be enhanced. The distillation of wine is attested in Arabic works attributed to al-Kindī (–873 CE) and to al-Fārābī (–950), and in the 28th book of al-Zahrāwī's (Latin: Abulcasis, 936–1013) "Kitāb al-Taṣrīf" (later translated into Latin as "Liber servatoris"). In the twelfth century, recipes for the production of "aqua ardens" ("burning water", i.e., alcohol) by distilling wine with salt started to appear in a number of Latin works, and by the end of the thirteenth century it had become a widely known substance among Western European chemists.


title: Alcohol (chemistry)

text: The works of Taddeo Alderotti (1223–1296) describe a method for concentrating alcohol involving repeated fractional distillation through a water-cooled still, by which an alcohol purity of 90% could be obtained. The medicinal properties of ethanol were studied by Arnald of Villanova (1240–1311 CE) and John of Rupescissa (–1366), the latter of whom regarded it as a life-preserving substance able to prevent all diseases (the "aqua vitae" or "water of life", also called by John the "quintessence" of wine).


title: Alcohol (chemistry)

text: The word "alcohol" derives from the Arabic "kohl" (), a powder used as an eyeliner. The first part of the word () is the Arabic definite article, equivalent to "the" in English. The second part of the word () has several antecedents in Semitic languages, ultimately deriving from the Akkadian 𒎎𒋆𒁉𒍣𒁕 (guḫlum), meaning stibnite or antimony.


title: Alcohol (chemistry)

text: Like its antecedents in Arabic and older languages, the term "alcohol" was originally used for the very fine powder produced by the sublimation of the natural mineral stibnite to form antimony trisulfide . It was considered to be the essence or "spirit" of this mineral. It was used as an antiseptic, eyeliner, and cosmetic. Later the meaning of alcohol was extended to distilled substances in general, and then narrowed again to ethanol, when "spirits" was a synonym for hard liquor.


title: Alcohol (chemistry)

text: Bartholomew Traheron, in his 1543 translation of John of Vigo, introduces the word as a term used by "barbarous" authors for "fine powder." Vigo wrote: "the barbarous auctours use alcohol, or (as I fynde it sometymes wryten) alcofoll, for moost fine poudre."


title: Alcohol (chemistry)

text: The 1657 "Lexicon Chymicum", by William Johnson glosses the word as "antimonium sive stibium." By extension, the word came to refer to any fluid obtained by distillation, including "alcohol of wine," the distilled essence of wine. Libavius in "Alchymia" (1594) refers to "vini alcohol vel vinum alcalisatum". Johnson (1657) glosses "alcohol vini" as "quando omnis superfluitas vini a vino separatur, ita ut accensum ardeat donec totum consumatur, nihilque fæcum aut phlegmatis in fundo remaneat." The word's meaning became restricted to "spirit of wine" (the chemical known today as ethanol) in the 18th century and was extended to the class of substances so-called as "alcohols" in modern chemistry after 1850.


title: Alcohol (chemistry)

text: The term "ethanol" was invented in 1892, blending "ethane" with the "-ol" ending of "alcohol", which was generalized as a libfix.


title: Alcohol (chemistry)

text: IUPAC nomenclature is used in scientific publications and where precise identification of the substance is important. In naming simple alcohols, the name of the alkane chain loses the terminal "e" and adds the suffix "-ol", "e.g.", as in "ethanol" from the alkane chain name "ethane". When necessary, the position of the hydroxyl group is indicated by a number between the alkane name and the "-ol": propan-1-ol for , propan-2-ol for . If a higher priority group is present (such as an aldehyde, ketone, or carboxylic acid), then the prefix "hydroxy-"is used, e.g., as in 1-hydroxy-2-propanone (). Compounds having more than one hydroxy group are called polyols. They are named using suffixes -diol, -triol, etc., following a list of the position numbers of the hydroxyl groups, as in propane-1,2-diol for CHCH(OH)CHOH (propylene glycol).


title: Alcohol (chemistry)

text: In cases where the hydroxy group is bonded to an sp carbon on an aromatic ring, the molecule is classified separately as a phenol and is named using the IUPAC rules for naming phenols. Phenols have distinct properties and are not classified as alcohols.


title: Alcohol (chemistry)

text: In other less formal contexts, an alcohol is often called with the name of the corresponding alkyl group followed by the word "alcohol", e.g., methyl alcohol, ethyl alcohol. Propyl alcohol may be "n"-propyl alcohol or isopropyl alcohol, depending on whether the hydroxyl group is bonded to the end or middle carbon on the straight propane chain. As described under systematic naming, if another group on the molecule takes priority, the alcohol moiety is often indicated using the "hydroxy-" prefix.


title: Alcohol (chemistry)

text: In archaic nomenclature, alcohols can be named as derivatives of methanol using "-carbinol" as the ending. For instance, can be named trimethylcarbinol.


title: Alcohol (chemistry)

text: Alcohols are then classified into primary, secondary ("sec-", "s-"), and tertiary ("tert-", "t-"), based upon the number of carbon atoms connected to the carbon atom that bears the hydroxyl functional group. (The respective numeric shorthands 1°, 2°, and 3° are sometimes used in informal settings.) The primary alcohols have general formulas . The simplest primary alcohol is methanol (), for which R=H, and the next is ethanol, for which , the methyl group. Secondary alcohols are those of the form RR'CHOH, the simplest of which is 2-propanol (). For the tertiary alcohols the general form is RR'R"COH. The simplest example is tert-butanol (2-methylpropan-2-ol), for which each of R, R', and R" is . In these shorthands, R, R', and R" represent substituents, alkyl or other attached, generally organic groups.


title: Alcohol (chemistry)

text: Alcohols have a long history of myriad uses. For simple mono-alcohols, which is the focus on this article, the following are most important industrial alcohols:


title: Alcohol (chemistry)

text: Methanol is the most common industrial alcohol, with about 12 million tons/y produced in 1980. The combined capacity of the other alcohols is about the same, distributed roughly equally.


title: Alcohol (chemistry)

text: With respect to acute toxicity, simple alcohols have low acute toxicities. Doses of several milliliters are tolerated. For pentanols, hexanols, octanols and longer alcohols, LD50 range from 2–5 g/kg (rats, oral). Ethanol is less acutely toxic. All alcohols are mild skin irritants.


title: Alcohol (chemistry)

text: The metabolism of methanol (and ethylene glycol) is affected by the presence of ethanol, which has a higher affinity for liver alcohol dehydrogenase. In this way methanol will be excreted intact in urine.


title: Alcohol (chemistry)

text: In general, the hydroxyl group makes alcohols polar. Those groups can form hydrogen bonds to one another and to most other compounds. Owing to the presence of the polar OH alcohols are more water-soluble than simple hydrocarbons. Methanol, ethanol, and propanol are miscible in water. Butanol, with a four-carbon chain, is moderately soluble.


title: Alcohol (chemistry)

text: Because of hydrogen bonding, alcohols tend to have higher boiling points than comparable hydrocarbons and ethers. The boiling point of the alcohol ethanol is 78.29 °C, compared to 69 °C for the hydrocarbon hexane, and 34.6 °C for diethyl ether.


title: Alcohol (chemistry)

text: Simple alcohols are found widely in nature. Ethanol is the most prominent because it is the product of fermentation, a major energy-producing pathway. Other simple alcohols, chiefly fusel alcohols, are formed in only trace amounts. More complex alcohols however are pervasive, as manifested in sugars, some amino acids, and fatty acids.


title: Alcohol (chemistry)

text: In the Ziegler process, linear alcohols are produced from ethylene and triethylaluminium followed by oxidation and hydrolysis. An idealized synthesis of 1-octanol is shown:


title: Alcohol (chemistry)

text: Many higher alcohols are produced by hydroformylation of alkenes followed by hydrogenation. When applied to a terminal alkene, as is common, one typically obtains a linear alcohol:


title: Alcohol (chemistry)

text: Some low molecular weight alcohols of industrial importance are produced by the addition of water to alkenes. Ethanol, isopropanol, 2-butanol, and tert-butanol are produced by this general method. Two implementations are employed, the direct and indirect methods. The direct method avoids the formation of stable intermediates, typically using acid catalysts. In the indirect method, the alkene is converted to the sulfate ester, which is subsequently hydrolyzed. The direct hydration using ethylene (ethylene hydration) or other alkenes from cracking of fractions of distilled crude oil.


title: Alcohol (chemistry)

text: Ethanol is obtained by fermentation using glucose produced from sugar from the hydrolysis of starch, in the presence of yeast and temperature of less than 37 °C to produce ethanol. For instance, such a process might proceed by the conversion of sucrose by the enzyme invertase into glucose and fructose, then the conversion of glucose by the enzyme complex zymase into ethanol and carbon dioxide.


title: Alcohol (chemistry)

text: Several species of the benign bacteria in the intestine use fermentation as a form of anaerobic metabolism. This metabolic reaction produces ethanol as a waste product. Thus, human bodies contain some quantity of alcohol endogenously produced by these bacteria. In rare cases, this can be sufficient to cause "auto-brewery syndrome" in which intoxicating quantities of alcohol are produced.


title: Alcohol (chemistry)

text: Like ethanol, butanol can be produced by fermentation processes. "Saccharomyces" yeast are known to produce these higher alcohols at temperatures above . The bacterium "Clostridium acetobutylicum" can feed on cellulose to produce butanol on an industrial scale.


title: Alcohol (chemistry)

text: Primary alkyl halides react with aqueous NaOH or KOH mainly to primary alcohols in nucleophilic aliphatic substitution. (Secondary and especially tertiary alkyl halides will give the elimination (alkene) product instead). Grignard reagents react with carbonyl groups to secondary and tertiary alcohols. Related reactions are the Barbier reaction and the Nozaki-Hiyama reaction.


title: Alcohol (chemistry)

text: Aldehydes or ketones are reduced with sodium borohydride or lithium aluminium hydride (after an acidic workup). Another reduction by aluminiumisopropylates is the Meerwein-Ponndorf-Verley reduction. Noyori asymmetric hydrogenation is the asymmetric reduction of β-keto-esters.


title: Alcohol (chemistry)

text: Alkenes engage in an acid catalysed hydration reaction using concentrated sulfuric acid as a catalyst that gives usually secondary or tertiary alcohols. Formation of a secondary alcohol via alkene reduction and hydration is shown on the right:


title: Alcohol (chemistry)

text: The hydroboration-oxidation and oxymercuration-reduction of alkenes are more reliable in organic synthesis. Alkenes react with N-bromosuccinimide and water in halohydrin formation reaction. Amines can be converted to diazonium salts, which are then hydrolyzed.


title: Alcohol (chemistry)

text: With aqueous p"K" values of around 16–19, they are, in general, slightly weaker acids than water. With strong bases such as sodium hydride or sodium they form salts called "alkoxides", with the general formula (where R is an alkyl and M is a metal).


title: Alcohol (chemistry)

text: The acidity of alcohols is strongly affected by solvation. In the gas phase, alcohols are more acidic than in water. In DMSO, alcohols (and water) have a p"K" of around 29–32. As a consequence, alkoxides (and hydroxide) are powerful bases and nucleophiles (e.g., for the Williamson ether synthesis) in this solvent. In particular, or in DMSO can be used to generate significant equilibrium concentrations of acetylide ions through the deprotonation of alkynes (see Favorskii reaction).


title: Alcohol (chemistry)

text: The OH group is not a good leaving group in nucleophilic substitution reactions, so neutral alcohols do not react in such reactions. However, if the oxygen is first protonated to give , the leaving group (water) is much more stable, and the nucleophilic substitution can take place. For instance, tertiary alcohols react with hydrochloric acid to produce tertiary alkyl halides, where the hydroxyl group is replaced by a chlorine atom by unimolecular nucleophilic substitution. If primary or secondary alcohols are to be reacted with hydrochloric acid, an activator such as zinc chloride is needed. In alternative fashion, the conversion may be performed directly using thionyl chloride.


title: Alcohol (chemistry)

text: Alcohols may, likewise, be converted to alkyl bromides using hydrobromic acid or phosphorus tribromide, for example:


title: Alcohol (chemistry)

text: In the Barton-McCombie deoxygenation an alcohol is deoxygenated to an alkane with tributyltin hydride or a trimethylborane-water complex in a radical substitution reaction.


title: Alcohol (chemistry)

text: Meanwhile, the oxygen atom has lone pairs of nonbonded electrons that render it weakly basic in the presence of strong acids such as sulfuric acid. For example, with methanol:


title: Alcohol (chemistry)

text: Upon treatment with strong acids, alcohols undergo the E1 elimination reaction to produce alkenes. The reaction, in general, obeys Zaitsev's Rule, which states that the most stable (usually the most substituted) alkene is formed. Tertiary alcohols eliminate easily at just above room temperature, but primary alcohols require a higher temperature.


title: Alcohol (chemistry)

text: Tertiary alcohols react with strong acids to generate carbocations. The reaction is related to their dehydration, e.g. isobutylene from tert-butyl alcohol. A special kind of dehydration reaction involves triphenylmethanol and especially its amine-substituted derivatives. When treated with acid, these alcohols lose water to give stable carbocations, which are commercial dyes.


title: Alcohol (chemistry)

text: Alcohol and carboxylic acids react in the so-called Fischer esterification. The reaction usually requires a catalyst, such as concentrated sulfuric acid:


title: Alcohol (chemistry)

text: Other types of ester are prepared in a similar manner for example, tosyl (tosylate) esters are made by reaction of the alcohol with p-toluenesulfonyl chloride in pyridine.


title: Alcohol (chemistry)

text: Primary alcohols () can be oxidized either to aldehydes () or to carboxylic acids (). The oxidation of secondary alcohols () normally terminates at the ketone () stage. Tertiary alcohols () are resistant to oxidation.


title: Alcohol (chemistry)

text: The direct oxidation of primary alcohols to carboxylic acids normally proceeds via the corresponding aldehyde, which is transformed via an "aldehyde hydrate" () by reaction with water before it can be further oxidized to the carboxylic acid.


title: Alcohol (chemistry)

text: Reagents useful for the transformation of primary alcohols to aldehydes are normally also suitable for the oxidation of secondary alcohols to ketones. These include Collins reagent and Dess-Martin periodinane. The direct oxidation of primary alcohols to carboxylic acids can be carried out using potassium permanganate or the Jones reagent.


title: Theosophical Society

text: The Theosophical Society, founded in 1875, is a worldwide body with the aim to advance the ideas of Theosophy in continuation of previous Theosophists, especially the Greek and Alexandrian Neo-Platonic philosophers dating back to 3rd century CE. It also encompasses wider religious philosophies like Vedānta, Mahāyāna, Qabbalah, and Sufism.


title: Theosophical Society

text: The Theosophical Society functions as a bridge between East and West, emphasizing the commonality of human culture.


title: Theosophical Society

text: The term "theosophy" comes from the Greek "theosophia", which is composed of two words: "theos" ("god," "gods," or "divine") and "sophia" ("wisdom"). Theosophia, therefore, may be translated as "wisdom of the gods", "wisdom in things divine", or "Divine Wisdom".


title: Theosophical Society

text: The original organization, after splits and realignments, has several successors. Following the death of Helena Blavatsky, competition emerged between factions within the Society, particularly among founding members. The organization split into the Theosophical Society Adyar (Olcott-Besant) and the Theosophical Society Pasadena (Judge).


title: Theosophical Society

text: The former group, headquartered in India, is the most widespread international group holding the name "Theosophical Society" today.


title: Theosophical Society

text: The Theosophical Society was officially formed in New York City, United States, on 17 November 1875 by Helena Petrovna Blavatsky, Colonel Henry Steel Olcott, William Quan Judge, and 16 others. It was self-described as "an unsectarian body of seekers after Truth, who endeavor to promote Brotherhood and strive to serve humanity." Olcott was its first president, and remained president until his death in 1907. In the early months of 1875, Olcott and Judge had come to realize that, if Blavatsky was a spiritualist, she was no ordinary one. The society's initial objective was the "study and elucidation of Occultism, the Cabala etc." After a few years Olcott and Blavatsky moved to India and established the International Headquarters at Adyar, in Madras (now Chennai). They were also interested in studying Eastern religions, and these were included in the Society's agenda.


title: Theosophical Society

text: After several iterations the Society's objectives were incorporated at Chennai (Madras) on 3 April 1905. The Three Objects of the Theosophical Society are as follows :


title: Theosophical Society

text: Sympathy with the above objects was the sole condition of admission to the society. The Society was organized as a non-sectarian entity. The following was stated in the "Constitution and Rules of the Theosophical Society"


title: Theosophical Society

text: The Society reformulated this view in a resolution passed by the "General Council of the Theosophical Society" on December 23, 1924.


title: Theosophical Society

text: Three years before, in 1921, it was signed the institutive charter of the Spanish "Sociedad Teosófica", which had local branches in Madrid, Tarrasa, Barcelona, Seville, Valencia, Alicante, Zanoni, Cadiz and Dharma.


title: Theosophical Society

text: One of the central philosophical tenets promoted by the Society was the complex doctrine of "The Intelligent Evolution of All Existence", occurring on a cosmic scale, incorporating both the physical and non-physical aspects of the known and unknown Universe, and affecting all of its constituent parts regardless of apparent size or importance. The theory was originally promulgated in the "Secret Doctrine", the 1888 "magnum opus" of Helena Blavatsky. According to this view, humanity's evolution on earth (and beyond) is part of the overall cosmic evolution. It is overseen by a hidden spiritual hierarchy, the so-called "Masters of the Ancient Wisdom", whose upper echelons consist of advanced spiritual beings.


title: Theosophical Society

text: Blavatsky portrayed the Theosophical Society as being part of one of many attempts throughout the millennia by this hidden Hierarchy to guide humanity – in concert with the overall intelligent cosmic evolutionary scheme – towards its ultimate, immutable evolutionary objective: the attainment of perfection and the conscious, willing participation in the evolutionary process. These attempts require an earthly infrastructure (such as the Theosophical Society) which she held was ultimately under the inspiration of a number of Mahatmas, members of the Hierarchy.


title: Theosophical Society

text: After Helena Blavatsky's death in 1891, the Society's leaders seemed at first to work together peacefully. This did not last long. Judge was accused by Olcott and then prominent Theosophist Annie Besant of forging letters from the Mahatmas; he ended his association with Olcott and Besant in 1895 and took most of the Society's American Section with him. The original organisation led by Olcott and Besant remains today based in India and is known as the Theosophical Society – Adyar. The group led by Judge further splintered, after his 1896 death, into a faction led by Katherine Tingley, and another associated with Judge's secretary Ernest Temple Hargrove which split off in 1898. While Hargrove's faction no longer survives, the faction led by Tingley is today known as the Theosophical Society with the clarifying statement, "International Headquarters, Pasadena, California". A third organization, the United Lodge of Theosophists or ULT, in 1909 split off from the latter organization.


title: Theosophical Society

text: In 1902, Rudolf Steiner became General Secretary of the German-Austrian division of the Theosophical Society. He maintained a Western-oriented course, relatively independent from the Adyar headquarters. After serious philosophical conflicts with Annie Besant and other members of the international leadership on the spiritual significance of Christ and on the status of the young boy Jiddu Krishnamurti (see section below), most of the German and Austrian members split off in 1913 and under Steiner's leadership formed the Anthroposophical Society, which then expanded to many other countries.


title: Theosophical Society

text: The English headquarters of the Theosophical Society are at 50 Gloucester Place, London. The Theosophical Society in Ireland , based in Pembroke Road, Dublin, is a wholly independent organisation which claims to have received its charter directly from Helena Blavatsky. The original group contained (among others) George William Russell (A. E.) poet and mystic, and the leadership role later fell to Russell's friend P. G. Bowen, (author and teacher of practical occultism) and later still to Bowen's long time student Dorothy Emerson. The current leadership of this group were students of Emerson. The independent Dublin organisation should not be confused with a similarly named group affiliated to Adyar which is based in Belfast but claims an all-Ireland jurisdiction.


title: Theosophical Society

text: In addition to the stated objectives, as early as 1889 Blavatsky publicly declared that the purpose of establishing the Society was to prepare humanity for the reception of a "World Teacher": according to the Theosophical doctrine described above, a manifested aspect of an advanced spiritual entity (the Maitreya) that periodically appears on Earth in order to direct the evolution of humankind. The mission of these reputedly regularly appearing emissaries is to practically translate, in a way and language understood by contemporary humanity, the knowledge required to propel it to a higher evolutionary stage.


title: Theosophical Society

text: If the present attempt, in the form of our Society, succeeds better than its predecessors have done, then it will be in existence as an organized, living and healthy body when the time comes for the effort of the 20th century. The general condition of men's minds and hearts will have been improved and purified by the spread of its teachings, and, as I have said, their prejudices and dogmatic illusions will have been, to some extent at least, removed. Not only so, but besides a large and accessible literature ready to men's hands, the next impulse will find a numerous and "united body" of people ready to welcome the new torch-bearer of Truth. He will find the minds of men prepared for his message, a language ready for him in which to clothe the new truths he brings, an organization awaiting his arrival, which will remove the merely mechanical, material obstacles and difficulties from his path. Think how much one, to whom such an opportunity is given, could accomplish. Measure it by comparison with what the Theosophical Society actually "has" achieved in the last fourteen years, without "any" of these advantages and surrounded by hosts of hindrances which would not hamper the new leader.


title: Theosophical Society

text: This was repeated by then prominent Theosophist Annie Besant in 1896, five years after Blavatsky's death. Besant, who became President of the Society in 1907, thought the appearance of the "World Teacher" would happen sooner than the time-frame in Blavatsky's writings, who had indicated that it would not take place until the last quarter of the 20th century.


title: Theosophical Society

text: One of the people who expected the imminent reappearance of the Maitreya as "World Teacher" was Charles Webster Leadbeater, then an influential Theosophist and occultist. In 1909 he "discovered" Jiddu Krishnamurti, an adolescent Indian boy, who he proclaimed as the most suitable candidate for the "vehicle" of the "World Teacher". Krishnamurti's family had relocated next to the Theosophical Society headquarters in Adyar, India, a few months earlier. Following his "discovery", Krishnamurti was taken under the wing of the Society, and was extensively groomed in preparation for his expected mission.


title: Theosophical Society

text: However, by 1925 Krishnamurti had begun to move away from the course expected of him by the leaders of the Theosophical Society Adyar and by many Theosophists. In 1929 he publicly dissolved the Order of the Star, a worldwide organization created by the leadership of the Theosophical Society to prepare the world for the "Coming of the Maitreya", and abandoned his assumed role as the "vehicle" for the "World Teacher". He eventually left the Theosophical Society altogether, yet remained on friendly terms with individual members of the Society. He spent the rest of his life traveling the world as an independent speaker, becoming widely known as an original thinker on spiritual, philosophical, and psychological subjects.


title: Theosophical Society

text: Well-known intellectuals associated with the Theosophical Society include Thomas Edison, William Butler Yeats, and Laura Carter Holloway.


title: Force Majeure (film)

text: Force Majeure (; , "tourist") is a 2014 internationally co-produced black comedy film written and directed by Ruben Östlund. It follows the marital tension resulting from an apparent avalanche in the French Alps, during which the husband prioritizes his own escape over the safety of his wife and two children. The title used for the film in some English-speaking countries comes from "force majeure", a contractual clause freeing both parties from liability in the event of unexpected disasters.


title: Force Majeure (film)

text: "Force Majeure" was acclaimed upon release, with critics praising its script and cinematography. It won the Best Film award at the 50th Guldbagge Awards, and was named one of the best films of 2014 by various publications.


title: Force Majeure (film)

text: A Swedish businessman named Tomas, his Norwegian wife Ebba, their young daughter Vera, and their preschooler son Harry stay at a luxury resort in the French Alps. On their second day, they see a controlled avalanche as they are having lunch outdoors on the deck of a restaurant. The powder cloud of the avalanche gives the appearance that the snow is rising and will wipe out everyone on the deck. Tomas, who is filming the avalanche on his phone, panics and runs as the deck quickly empties of patrons, leaving Ebba with their children encased in a dense fog. Patrons return to their tables as the fog dissipates, and no one is hurt.


title: Force Majeure (film)

text: That evening, they eat dinner with one of Ebba's friends, who has picked up an American man for the evening. Ebba tells the story of the avalanche in English, but Tomas insists he did not run away from the table, and in Swedish adds that one cannot run in ski boots. They argue in front of their embarrassed guests. Ebba is angry that he would not admit he ran away from the avalanche, abandoning them. He is clearly ashamed, and says he does not agree with "her version", further infuriating Ebba.


title: Force Majeure (film)

text: Ebba decides she would like a day of skiing by herself. She has drinks with her friend they had dinner with the night before, as the woman says goodbye to another man. Ebba confronts her friend on her adultery, asking her if she loves her husband and children. Her friend says she is fine with having an open relationship with her husband, and that she is happy if he finds a woman to have great sex with, as he is with her. Ebba becomes more insistent, and the friend advises they not argue, and leaves.


title: Force Majeure (film)

text: Mats, one of Tomas's old friends, joins them at the resort with his young girlfriend, Fanny. They join Tomas and Ebba for dinner in their suite. After dinner and much wine, Ebba interrupts the conversation to recount the story of the avalanche, to the silent horror of Mats and Fanny. Tomas curls up with Harry to play a video game, and listens to Mats who insists that we are not ourselves in emergencies, naming the "Estonia" disaster as an example. Ebba says Tomas won't admit what he did. Tomas returns and again insists he has a different perspective. So Ebba fetches Tomas's phone and has the four of them watch the video of the incident. Tomas reluctantly agrees the footage showed someone running, but is silent when Mats speculates that Tomas was running away so that he could come back and dig out his family later. As Fanny and Mats leave, Fanny suggests that she would expect Mats to react in the same way as Tomas. Mats is offended, after arguing all night their relationship is changed for the rest of the trip.


title: Force Majeure (film)

text: Tomas and Mats ride the ski lift in silence. They ski down fresh powder. Mats suggests Tomas try primal screaming, and Tomas does, screaming swear words into the Alps. Tomas later confesses to Ebba that he hates himself, his cowardice, his cheating in games with his kids, and his unfaithfulness. He weeps as his children inside huddle and cry together, hearing their parents argue.


title: Force Majeure (film)

text: On their final day, the family ascends in the ski lift silently. Ebba is concerned about the thick fog. Tomas says he will go first, then the children, then she can follow. Ebba gets lost in the fog, and Tomas briefly leaves the children alone to go rescue her, returning carrying her shortly after. He sets her down, grinning.


title: Force Majeure (film)

text: As the family and their friends leave the resort by coach down the winding mountain road, Ebba decides the driver is incompetent and demands to be let off. Panic ensues, and Mats takes charge, insisting women and children get off first.


title: Force Majeure (film)

text: Eventually, all exit the bus except for Ebba's friend, and the group descends the road on foot. Mats and Fanny are walking apart. Ebba asks Mats to carry Vera. A stranger offers Tomas a cigarette, and initially Tomas declines, but then accepts. Harry asks his father if he smokes — he has not during the entire vacation — and Tomas replies that he does.


title: Force Majeure (film)

text: Filming took place at Les Arcs, a ski resort in Savoie, France. Prior to entering film school, Ruben Östlund had created ski films, and wanted to use his knowledge and experience from that in a film concerned with existential issues.


title: Force Majeure (film)

text: Ruben Östlund attributed the inspiration for the film's key scenes to a few viral YouTube videos which he felt corroborated the plausible situation and emotions of the characters. The director reasoned that "...if someone captured an event or action or pang of emotion on camera and uploaded to the Internet, then it happened in real life. And it could happen in "Force Majeure."" The scene where Ebba demands to be let off the bus is based on the YouTube viral video titled "Idiot Spanish bus driver almost kills students".


title: Force Majeure (film)

text: On Rotten Tomatoes, the film has a 94% approval rating, based on 162 reviews, with an average rating of 7.92/10. The site's critical consensus reads, "Gleefully uncomfortable, "Force Majeure" is a relationship drama that's hard to watch — and just as difficult to ignore." On Metacritic, the film has a score of 87 out of 100, based on 37 reviews, indicating "universal acclaim".


title: Force Majeure (film)

text: The film was selected to compete in the Un Certain Regard section at the 2014 Cannes Film Festival where it won the Jury Prize. It was also screened in the Special Presentations section of the 2014 Toronto International Film Festival.


title: Force Majeure (film)

text: The film was nominated for the 2014 Nordic Council Film Prize. It was also selected as the Swedish entry for the Best Foreign Language Film at the 87th Academy Awards, making the early round of shortlist, but was not a nominee. It was nominated for the Best Foreign Language Film at the 72nd Golden Globe Awards.


title: Force Majeure (film)

text: At the 50th Guldbagge Awards in Sweden it won Best Film, Best Director, Best Supporting Actor, Best Screenplay, Best Cinematography, and Best Editing and was nominated for Best Actor, Best Actress, Best Supporting Actress, and Best Sound Editing.


title: Force Majeure (film)

text: An English-language remake of the film starring Will Ferrell and Julia Louis-Dreyfus, titled "Downhill", was released in 2020.


title: Rachele Mussolini

text: Rachele Guidi (11 April 1890 – 30 October 1979), also known (particularly in Italy) as Donna Rachele (Italian for "Lady Rachael") and incorrectly as Rachele Mussolini in the English-speaking world, was the second wife of Italian dictator and fascist leader Benito Mussolini.


title: Rachele Mussolini

text: Rachele Guidi was born in Predappio, Romagna, Kingdom of Italy ("Regno d'Italia"). She was born into a peasant family and was the daughter of Agostino Guidi and wife Anna Lombardi. After the death of Rachele's father, her mother became the lover of the widowed Alessandro Mussolini.


title: Rachele Mussolini

text: In 1910, Rachele Guidi moved in with Alessandro's son, Benito Mussolini. In 1914, Mussolini married his first wife, Ida Dalser. Though the records of that marriage were destroyed by Mussolini's government, an edict from the city of Milan ordering Mussolini to make maintenance payments to "his wife Ida Dalser" and their child was overlooked. Shortly before his son, Benito Albino Mussolini, was born to Ida Dalser, Rachele Guidi and Benito Mussolini were married in a civil ceremony in Treviglio, Lombardy on 17 December 1915. In 1925, they renewed their vows in a religious service (after his rise to power).


title: Rachele Mussolini

text: Rachele Guidi bore five children by Benito Mussolini. Rachele and Benito Mussolini had two daughters, Edda (1910–1995) and Anna Maria (1929–1968), and three sons Vittorio (1916–1997), Bruno (1918–1941) and Romano (1927–2006).


title: Rachele Mussolini

text: During the reign of Mussolini's Fascist regime, Rachele Guidi was portrayed as the model Fascist housewife and mother. She remained loyal to Mussolini until the end but, on 28 April 1945, was not with him when he and his mistress, Claretta Petacci, were captured and executed by Italian partisans. Although she tried to flee from Italy after World War II, she was arrested in April 1945 in Como, close to Switzerland, by Italian partisans. She was handed to the US Army and kept on Ischia Island but was released after several months.


title: Rachele Mussolini

text: In her later life, Rachele Guidi ran a restaurant in her native village of Predappio. She eventually received a pension from the Italian Republic in 1975. It turned out that Mussolini had not received a salary from the state and so she could not receive a pension.


title: Rachele Mussolini

text: With Albert Zarca, she wrote a biography of her husband that was translated into English as "Mussolini: An Intimate Biography".


title: Chinese mythology

text: Chinese mythology () is mythology that has been passed down in oral form or recorded in literature in the geographic area now known as Greater China. Chinese mythology includes many varied myths from regional and cultural traditions.


title: Chinese mythology

text: Much of the mythology involves exciting stories full of fantastic people and beings, the use of magical powers, often taking place in an exotic mythological place or time. Like many mythologies, Chinese mythology has in the past been believed to be, at least in part, a factual recording of history. Along with Chinese folklore, Chinese mythology forms an important part of Chinese folk religion. Many stories regarding characters and events of the distant past have a double tradition: ones which present a more historicized or euhemerized version and ones which present a more mythological version.


title: Chinese mythology

text: Many myths involve the creation and cosmology of the universe and its deities and inhabitants. Some mythology involves creation myths, the origin of things, people and culture. Some involve the origin of the Chinese state. Some myths present a chronology of prehistoric times, many of these involve a culture hero who taught people how to build houses, or cook, or write, or was the ancestor of an ethnic group or dynastic family. Mythology is intimately related to ritual. Many myths are oral associations with ritual acts, such as dances, ceremonies, and sacrifices.


title: Chinese mythology

text: There has been extensive interaction between Chinese mythology and Confucianism, Taoism, and Buddhism. Elements of pre-Han dynasty mythology such as those in Classic of Mountains and Seas were adapted into these belief systems as they developed (in the case of Taoism), or were assimilated into Chinese culture (in the case of Buddhism). Elements from the teachings and beliefs of these systems became incorporated into Chinese mythology. For example, the Taoist belief of a spiritual Paradise became incorporated into mythology as the place where immortals and deities used to dwell. Sometimes mythological and religious ideas have become widespread across China's many regions and diverse ethnic societies. In other cases, beliefs are more limited to certain social groups, for example, the veneration of white stones by the Qiang. One mythological theme that has a long history and many variations involves a shamanic world view, for example in the cases of Mongolian shamanism among the Mongols, Hmong shamanism among the Miao people, and the shamanic beliefs of the Qing dynasty from 1643 to 1912, derived from the Manchus. Politically, mythology was often used to legitimize the dynasties of China, with the founding house of a dynasty claiming a divine descent.


title: Chinese mythology

text: Elaborations on the Wu Xing are not really part of mythology, although belief in five elements could appear. The Hundred Schools of Thought is a phrase suggesting the diversity of philosophical thought that developed during the Warring States of China. Then, and subsequently, philosophical movements had a complicated relationship with mythology. However, as far as they influence or are influenced by mythology, divides the philosophical camps into two rough halves, a Liberal group and a Conservative group. The liberal group being associated with the idea of individuality and change, for example as seen in the mythology of divination in China, such as the mythology of the dragon horse that delivered the eight "bagua" diagrams to Fu Xi, and methods of individual empowerment as seen in the "Yi Jing" ("Book of Changes"). The Liberal tendency is towards individual freedom, Daoism, and Nature. The relationship of the Conservative philosophies to mythology is seen in the legendary Nine Tripod Cauldrons, mythology about the emperors and central bureaucratic governance, Confucianism, written histories, ceremonial observances, subordination of the individual to the social groups of family and state, and a fixation on stability and enduring institutions. The distinction between the Liberal and Conservative is very general, but important in Chinese thought. Contradictions can be found in the details, however these are often traditional, such as the embrace by Confucius of the philosophical aspects of the "Yi Jing", and the back-and-forth about the Mandate of Heaven wherein one dynasty ends and another begins based according to accounts (some of heavily mythological) where the Way of Heaven results in change, but then a new ethical stable dynasty becomes established. Examples of this include the stories of Yi Yin, Tang of Shang and Jie of Xia or the similar fantastic stories around Duke of Zhou and King Zhou of Shang


title: Chinese mythology

text: Mythology exists in relationship with other aspects of society and culture, such as ritual. Various rituals are explained by mythology. For example, the ritual burning of mortuary banknotes (Hell Money), lighting fireworks, and so on.


title: Chinese mythology

text: A good example of the relationship of Chinese mythology and ritual is the Yubu, also known as the Steps or Paces of Yu. During the course of his activities in controlling the Great Flood, Yu was supposed to have so fatigued himself that he lost all the hair from his legs and developed a serious limp. Daoist practitioners sometimes incorporate a curiously choreographed pedal locomotion into various rituals. Mythology and practice, one explains the other: in these rituals, the sacred time of Yu merges with the sacral practice of the present.


title: Chinese mythology

text: Various ideas about the nature of the earth, the universe, and their relationship to each other have historically existed as either a background or a focus of mythologies. One typical view is of a square earth separated from a round sky by sky pillars (mountains, trees, or undefined). Above the sky is the realm of Heaven, often viewed of as a vast area, with many inhabitants. Often the heavenly inhabitants are thought to be of an "as above so below" nature, their lives and social arrangements being parallel to those on earth, with a hierarchical government run by a supreme emperor, many palaces and lesser dwellings, a vast bureaucracy of many functions, clerks, guards, and servants. Below was a vast under ground land, also known as Diyu, Yellow Springs, Hell, and other terms. As time progressed, the idea of an underground land in which the souls of the departed were punished for their misdeeds during life became explicit, related to developments in Daoism and Buddhism. The underground world also came to be conceived of as inhabited by a vast bureaucracy, with kings, judges, torturers, conductors of souls, minor bureaucrats, recording secretaries, similar to the structure of society in the Middle Kingdom (earthly China).


title: Chinese mythology

text: The mythology of China includes a mythological geography describing individual mythological descriptions of places and the features; sometimes, this reaches to the level of a cosmological conception. Various features of mythological terrain are described in myth, including a Heavenly world above the earth, a land of the dead beneath the earth, palaces beneath the sea, and various fantastic areas or features of the earth, located beyond the limits of the known earth. Such mythological features include mountains, rivers, forests or fantastic trees, and caves or grottoes. These then serve as the location for the actions of various beings and creatures. One concept encountered in some myths is the idea of travel between Earth and Heaven by means of climbing up or down the pillars separating the two, there usually being four or Eight Pillars or an unspecified number of these Sky Ladders.


title: Chinese mythology

text: The Four Symbols of Chinese cosmology were the Azure Dragon of the East, the Black Tortoise of the North, the White Tiger of the West, and the


title: Chinese mythology

text: Vermillion Bird of the South. These totem animals represented the four cardinal directions, with a lot of associated symbolism and beliefs. A fifth cardinal direction was also postulated: the center, represented by the emperor of China, located in the middle of his Middle Kingdom (Zhong Guo, or China). The real or mythological inhabitants making their dwellings at these cardinal points were numerous, as is associated mythology.


title: Chinese mythology

text: The Heavenly realm could be known as Tian, Heaven, or the sky. Sometimes this was personified into a deity (sky god). In some descriptions, this was an elaborate place ruled over by a supreme deity, or a group of supreme deities. Jade Emperor being associated with Daoism and Buddhas with Buddhism. Many astronomically observable features were subjects of mythology or the mythological locations and settings for mythic scenes these include the sun, stars, moon, planets, Milky Way (sometimes referred to as the River of Heaven), clouds, and other features. These were often the home or destination of various deities, divinities, shamans, and many more. Another concept of the Heavenly realm is that of the Cords of the Sky. Travel between Heaven and Earth was usually described as achieved by flying or climbing. The Queqiao () was a bridge formed by birds flying across the Milky Way, as seen in The Cowherd and the Weaver Girl mythology surrounding the Qixi Festival. The hazy band of stars of the Milky Way was referred to as the "Silvery River" or the "River of Heaven".


title: Chinese mythology

text: According to mythology, beneath the Earth is another realm—-an underground world generally said to be inhabited by the souls of dead humans and various supernatural beings (see hun and po). This hell is known by various names, including Diyu or the Yellow Springs. In more recent mythology, the underground inhabitation of the dead is generally described as somewhat similar to the land above: it possesses a hierarchical government bureaucracy, centered in the capital city of Youdu. The rulers of the underground realm are various kings, whose duties include parsing the souls of the dead according to the merits of their life on earth, and maintaining adequate records regarding that process. (An example of one such ruler is Yánluó wáng ("King Yanluo")). Souls are parsed and adjudicated for torturous punishment by balancing ones’ crimes in life against any merits earned through good deeds. Various other functions within Diyu are performed by minor officials and minions, examples of whom are Ox-Head and Horse-Face, humanoid devils with animal features. In some versions of mythology or Chinese folk religion, souls are returned from Diyu and reincarnated after being given the Drink of Forgetfulness by Meng Po.


title: Chinese mythology

text: Much mythology involves remote, exotic, or hard-to-get-to places. All sorts of mythological geography is said to exist at the extremes of the cardinal directions of earth. Much of the earthly terrain has been said to be inhabited by local spirits (sometimes called fairies or genii loci), especially mountains and bodies of water. There are Grotto Heavens, and also earthly paradises.


title: Chinese mythology

text: Various bodies of water appear in Chinese mythology. This includes oceans, rivers, streams, ponds. Often they are part of a mythological geography, and may have notable features, such as mythological islands, or other mythological features. There are mythological versions of all the major rivers that have existed in China in between ancient and modern China (most of these rivers are the same, but not all). Sometimes these rivers are said to originate from the Milky Way or Kunlun. Anyway, they are said to flow west to east because Gonggong wrecked the world pillar at Buzhou, tilting Earth and Heaven away from each other at that sector. Examples of these mythologized rivers include the Yangzi (including various stretches under different names), the Yellow River, the mythological Red River in the west, near Kunlun, and the Weak River, a mythological river in "the west", near "Kunlun", which flowed with a liquid too light in specific gravity for floating or swimming (but unbreathable). Examples of features along mythological rivers include the Dragon Gates (Longmen) which were rapid waterfalls where select carp can transform into dragons, by swimming upstream and leaping up over the falls. Examples of islands include Mount Penglai, a paradisaical isle in the sea, vaguely east of China but sometimes conflated with Japan.


title: Chinese mythology

text: Various other mythological locales include what are known as fairylands or paradises, pillars separating Earth and Sky, ruined or otherwise. The Earth has many extreme and exotic locales – they are separated by pillars between Earth and Heaven, supporting the sky, usually four or eight. Generally, Chinese mythology regarded people as living in the middle regions of the world and conceived the exotic earthly places to exist in the directional extremes to the north, east, south, or west. Eventually, the idea of an eastern and western paradise seems to have arisen. In the west according to certain myths there was Kunlun. On the eastern seacoast was Feather Mountain, the place of exile of Gun and other events during or just after the world flood. Further east was Fusang, a mythical tree, or else an island (sometimes interpreted as Japan). The geography of China, in which the land seems to be higher in the west and tilt down toward the east and with the rivers tending to flow west-to-east was explained by the damage Gonggong did to the world pillar Mount Buzhou, mountain pillars separating the sky from the world (China), which also displaced the Celestial Pole, so that the sky rotates off-center.


title: Chinese mythology

text: In the west was Kunlun (although also sometimes said to be towards the south seas). Kunlun was pictured as having a mountain or mountain range, Kunlun Mountain where dwelt various divinities, grew fabulous plants, home to exotic animals, and various deities and immortals (today there is a real mountain or range named Kunlun, as there has in the past, however the identity has shifted further west over time). The Qing Niao bird was a mythical bird, and messenger of Xi Wangmu to the rest of the world. Nearby to Kunlun, it was sometimes said or written and forming a sort of protective barrier to the western paradise or "fairyland" named Xuánpǔ () where also was to be found the jade pool Yáochí (), eventually thought to exist on mount Kunlun (which itself was thought to possess cliffs insurmountable to normal mortals was the Moving Sands, a semi-mythological place also to the west of China (the real Taklamakan Desert to the west of or in China is known for its shifting sands). There were other locations of mythological geography around the area of Kunlun such as Jade Mountain and the various colored rivers which flew out of Kunlun. For example, the Red, or Scarlet River was supposed to flow to the south of Kunlun.


title: Chinese mythology

text: Mythological and semi-mythological chronology includes mythic representations of the creation of the world, population (and sometimes re-populations) by humans, sometimes floods, and various cultural developments, such as the development of ruling dynasties. Many myths and stories have been recounted about the early dynasties, however, more purely historical literature tends to begin with the Qin dynasty (for example, see Paladin 1998). On the other hand, accounts of the Shang, Xia, and early Zhou dynasties tend to mythologize. By a historical process of euhemerism many of these myths evolved over time into variant versions with an emphasis on moral parables and rationalization of some of the more fantastic ideas.


title: Chinese mythology

text: Mythology of time and the calendar includes the twelve zodiacal animals and various divine or spiritual genii regulating or appointed as guardians for years, days, or hours.


title: Chinese mythology

text: In China and surrounding areas, a calendrical system consisting of measuring time in cycles of twelve represented by twelve has an ancient historical past. The exact line-up of animals is sometimes slightly different, but the basic principle is that each animal takes a turn as the emblematic or totem animal for a year or other unit of time in a cycle of one dozen. This is explained by various myths.


title: Chinese mythology

text: The zodiacs in order are: Rat, Ox, Tiger, Rabbit, Dragon, Snake, Horse, Goat, Monkey, Rooster, Dog, and Pig


title: Chinese mythology

text: Some Chinese mythology becomes specific about chronological time, based on the "ganzhi" system, numbers of human generations, or other details suggesting synchronization between the mythological chronology and the ideas of modern historians. However, real correlation begins in the Year of the Metal Monkey, Zhou dynasty, 841 BCE, a since validated claim by Sima Qian. However, although historians take note of this, subsequent mythology has not tended to reflect this quest for rational, historical timelining.


title: Chinese mythology

text: Various ideas about the creation of the universe, the earth, the sky, various deities and creatures, and the origin of various clans or ethnic groups of humans have circulated in the area of China for millennia. These creation myths may include the origins of the universe and everything, the origins of humans, or the origins of specific groups, such as a Han Chinese in descent from Yandi and Huangdi (as , "Descendants of the Flame and Yellow Emperors"). Various myths contain explanations of various origins and the progress of cultural development.


title: Chinese mythology

text: One common story involves Pangu. Among other sources, he was written about by Taoist author Xu Zheng c. 200 CE, as claimed to be the first sentient being and creator, "making the heavens and the earth".


title: Chinese mythology

text: Various culture heroes have been said to have helped or saved humanity in many ways, such as stopping floods, teaching the use of fire, and so on. As mythic chronology is inherently nonlinear, with time being telescopically expanded or contracted, there are various contradictions. The earliest culture heroes were sometimes considered deities and other times heroic humans, but often little distinction was made. Examples of early culture heroes include Youchao ("Have Nest") who taught people how to make wooden shelters.) and Suiren ("Fire Maker") who taught people the use of fire and cooking thus saving them from much food-poisoning, in addition to developing cuisine. Another example of a mythological hero who provided beneficial knowledge to humanity involves sericulture, the production of silk: an invention credited to Leizu, for one. An example of a non-Han ethnicity culture hero is Panhu. Because of their self-identification as descendants from these original ancestors, Panhu has been worshiped by the Yao people and the She people, often as King Pan, and the eating of dog meat was tabooed. This ancestral myth has also been found among the Miao people and Li people. Some of the first culture heroes are the legendary emperors who succeeded the times of the part-human, part-serpent deities Nuwa and Fuxi; these emperors tend to be portrayed as more explicitly human, although Huangdi, the Yellow Emperor, is often portrayed as part-dragon during life.


title: Chinese mythology

text: Some historicized versions of semi-historical and undeniably mythologized accounts of ancient times were used by those who have attempted to apply actual BCE dates to the mythological chronology. Traditional Chinese accounts of the early emperors chronologically locate the Yellow Emperor as having lived in the Northern Chinese plain around 2698 to 2599 BCE, about seventeen generations after the time of Shennong. A major difference between the possible historicity of material embedded in mythological accounts is that through the time of the last Flame Emperor (Yandi) information was recorded using knotted ropes, whereas the introduction of writing is associated with the reign of Huang Di (although the historical continuity of written tradition beginning at that time is a matter of discussion by experts). The most prominent of the first emperors include, in chronological order, Huangdi, Gaoyang (Zhuanxu), Gaoxin (Di Ku), Yao, and Shun. These emperors were said to be morally upright and benevolent, and examples to be emulated by latter-day kings and emperors. Sometimes approximate calculations of times have been made based on the claimed number of generations from one significant mythological figure to the next, as in the case of the legendary founder of the Ji family, Hou Ji, whose descendants would rule generations after his mythological appearance as the historical Zhou dynasty, beginning around 1046 BCE. Despite various assignments of dates to the accounts of these Emperors, fantastic claims about the length of their reigns are common. The average reign-lengths that these numbers imply are improbable, and there is a lack of consensus regarding these dates by modern historians. Their historical use may be limited to establishing a relative chronology.


title: Chinese mythology

text: The mythological history of people (or at least the Han Chinese people) begins with two groups, one of three and one of five. The numbers are symbolically significant, however, the actual membership of the two groups is not explicated. There are different lists. The older group is the Three Primeval Emperors, who were followed by the Five Premier Emperors. After that came the Three Dynasties: these were the Xia dynasty, Shang dynasty, and the Zhou dynasty. These three are all historically attested to, but separating the myth from the history is not always clear; nevertheless, there is a lot of mythology around the Three Primeval Emperors, Five Premier Emperors, and Three Dynasties. An age of Three Primeval Emperors followed by the age of the Five Premier Emperors ("Sānhuáng-Wǔdì") contrasts with the subsequent treatment of chronology by dynasties, up to recent times. Since the time the Qin emperor titled himself "huangdi" by combining two previous titles into one, "huangdi" was the title for Chinese emperors for ages.


title: Chinese mythology

text: The title of the Three Primeval Emperors is "huang", in Chinese. The original connotation of this title is unknown, and it is variously translated into English. Translations include "Sovereign", "Emperor", and "August".


title: Chinese mythology

text: The names of the Three Primeval Emperors include Youchao ("Have Nest"), Suiren ("Fire Maker"), Paoxi/Fuxi ("Animal Domesticator"), and Shennong ("Divine Husbandman"). Sometimes Huangdi is included.


title: Chinese mythology

text: The title of the Five Premier Emperors is "di", in Chinese. The original connotation of this title is unknown, or how it compares or contrasts with the term "huang", and it is variously translated into English. Translations include "Sovereign", "Emperor", and "Lord".


title: Chinese mythology

text: Nuwa and Fuxi (also known as Paoxi) are sometimes worshiped as the ultimate ancestor of all humankind and are often represented as half-snake, half-humans. Nuwa's companion, Fuxi, was her brother and husband.


title: Chinese mythology

text: After Gong-Gong was said to have damaged the world pillar holding the earth and sky apart, the sky was rent causing fires, floods (the Flood of Nuwa) and other devastating events which were only remedied when Nüwa repaired the sky with five colored stones. The figure of Nüwa, also referred to as Nü Kwa, appeared in literature no earlier than c. 350 BCE. It is sometimes believed that Nüwa molded humans from clay to populate or re-populate the world, thus creating modern humans.


title: Chinese mythology

text: The production of the Yellow River Map is associated mythologically with Fuxi but is also sometimes placed in subsequent eras.


title: Chinese mythology

text: Shennong is variously translated as "Divine Farmer" or "Divine Peasant", or "Agriculture God", and also known as the Wugushen (Spirit of the Five Grains) and Wuguxiandi "First Deity of the Five Grains". Shennong is a mythological Chinese deity in Chinese folk religion and venerated as a mythical sage ruler of prehistoric China. Shennong's descendants began to style themselves as Flame Emperors, or "Yandi". Yandi was sometimes considered an important mythological emperor, but better considered as series of emperors bearing the same title, the "Flame Emperor(s)". "Yan" literally means "flame", implying that Yan Emperor's people possibly uphold a symbol of fire as their tribal totems. K. C. Wu speculates that this appellation may be connected with the use of fire to clear the fields in slash and burn agriculture. And, Yandi is also a Red Emperor.


title: Chinese mythology

text: One of the more important figures in Chinese mythology is Huang Di, sometimes translated into English as Yellow Emperor. His original name was Yellow Soil or Huangdi where di was the Chinese word for soil or ground. He was named after the Yellow Soil in the Yellow River Basin area where Chinese civilization was thought to have originated. Future generations later changed it to di or emperor in order to give Huangdi a more sovereign-sounding name. He also appears as Xuanyuan. Huang Di is also referred to as one of the Five August ones, and one of the few consistent members of the list. There were also other colored emperors, such as Black, Green, Red, and White. According to some mythology, Huang Di was the son of Shaodian, who was the half-brother of Yan Di. Huang Di's mother was said to be Fubao. Huang Di's wife Leizu is supposed to have invented sericulture. In some versions Cangjie invented writing during the reign of Huang Di. The Yellow Emperor is said to have fought a great battle against Chiyou. Huangdi had various wives and many descendants, including Shaohao (leader of the Dongyi).


title: Chinese mythology

text: Ku, Di Ku, Ti K'u, or Diku, is also known as Kao Hsin or Gāoxīn. Diku is an important mythological figure, as signified by his title "Di" (), basically signifying possession of some sort of imperial divinity, as in the sense of the Roman title "wikt:divus"; something sometimes translated as "emperor". Diku is sometimes considered to descend from Huangdi and to be ancestral to the ruling family of the Shang dynasty of the second millennium BCE. Diku is credited with the invention of various musical instruments along with musical pieces for them to accompany. Diku is said to have consorted with the semi-divine females Jiang Yuan and Jiandi.


title: Chinese mythology

text: Yao and Shun were important mythological rulers, exemplars of propriety in rulership. The Great Flood began during the reign of Yao and continued through the time of Shun (the successor of Yao, who had passed over his own son and made Shun his successor because of Shun's ability and morality). Historically, when Qin Shi Huang united China in 221 BCE, he used propaganda to acclaim his achievements as surpassing those of mythological rulers who had gone before him. He combined the ancient titles of "Huáng" () and "Dì" () to create a new title, "Huángdì" (); thus, the Qin emperor used mythology to bolster his claims to be the legitimate and absolute ruler of the whole earth. This reflected what was to become a longstanding belief that all civilized people should have one government, and that it should be Chinese.


title: Chinese mythology

text: Shun passed on his place as emperor to Yu the Great. The Yellow River, prone to flooding, erupted in a huge flood in the time of Yao. The flood disrupted society and endangered human existence, as agricultural fields drowned, hunting game disappeared, and the people were dislocated to hills and mountains. Yu's father, Gun, was put in charge of flood control by Yao, but failed to alleviate the problem after nine years. In some versions Gun was executed by Shun's minister Zhurong for this failure, but according to others Gun was merely exiled for opposing the elevation of Shun as co-emperor. In more purely mythological versions, the story is more along the lines that Gun transformed into an animal shape to escape the wrath of Heaven (for having dared to go to Heaven and steal the flood-fighting expanding earth "xirang"). He fled to Feather Mountain and was struck dead by the fire god Zhurong on behalf of Heaven. After three years, his son Yu appeared out of his belly, usually said to be in the form of some fantastic animal. Yu took his father's place fighting the flood, leading the people to build canals and levees, often said to be with the help of Xirang. After thirteen years of toil, Yu abated the flood. Why the Xirang failed to work when Gun used it and he was punished by Heaven, but when Yu used it he was able to stop the flood and was rewarded by Heaven, is a question frequently made in the myths. The mythology of Yu and his associates during their work in controlling the flood and simultaneously saving the people can be seen in various ways to symbolize different societal and cultural developments, such as innovations in hunting, agriculture, well-digging, astronomy, social and political organizing, and other cultural innovations that occur during the course of the mythology around the flood stories. For example, a historicized version of "xirang" explains this soil may represent an innovative type of raised garden, made up of soil, brushwood, and similar materials. Thus, Yu and his work in controlling the flood with "xirang" would symbolize a societal development allowing a large scale approach to transforming wetlands into arable fields. Yu was said to be the founder of the Xia dynasty.


title: Chinese mythology

text: The Xia dynasty is a real, historical dynasty known through archeology and literary accounts. However, many of these accounts contain elements of a clearly semi-mythological, and in some versions completely mythological or fanciful. The founding mythology of the early dynasties tends to have certain common general features, including the divine assistance obtained in the founding and the reasons for it. The fighter of the Great Flood, Yu "the Great" had served Yao and Shun and they enfeoffed him as the Prince of Xia, an area of land. Upon Yu's death questions arose regarding the method of imperial succession, which would be a key factor as an example for Chinese culture for millennia. The question was who would succeed Yu upon his death. It could be his son, Qi of Xia, also known as Kai, or the deputy that competently and diligently helped in the work against the great flood, a mighty hunter who helped feed the people during a time when agriculture had been rendered impossible, Bo Yi. The mythological variants are much concerned with the relative merits between the two. Qi's succession broke the previous convention of meritorious succession in favor of hereditary succession, thus initiating a dynastic tradition. The new dynasty was called "Xia" after Yu's centre of power.


title: Chinese mythology

text: Again, as in common with the founding of Xia, there is mythological material regarding how the previous dynasty turned to evil and unworthy ways, and the founder (of miraculous birth or ancestry) overthrew it. The mythology of the Shang dynasty is distinct from philosophical and historical accounts. Significant mythology includes the origin of its founders, the miraculous birth by Jiandi of Shang founder Qi, also known as Xie of Shang, after she became pregnant upon swallowing or holding in her bosom a bird's egg. After several generations, Xie (or Qi)'s descendant Tang became king of Shang by overthrowing Jie, the last king of the Xia dynasty, said to be a very drunken and bloodthirsty tyrant. The fifth book of the philosopher Mozi describes the end of the Xia dynasty and the beginning of the Shang:


title: Chinese mythology

text: After discussing the end of Xia and the beginning of Shang, Mozi describes the end of Shang and the beginning of the succeeding Zhou dynasty:


title: Chinese mythology

text: The mythological events surrounding the end of the Shang dynasty and the establishment of the Zhou greatly influenced the subject and story told in the popular novel "Investiture of the Gods".


title: Chinese mythology

text: The origins of the Ji dynastic founding family of the Zhōu dynasty is replete with mythological material, going back to its legendary founder Houji (who was originally named Qi, but a different Qi than the Shang founder known as Xie or Qi). Myths about Houji include those of his mythical origins, of which there are two main myths. The end of the Shang overlaps the rise of the Zhōu, so there is shared material. Once established, the Zhōu were characterized by their volume of literature, in the beginning much of it justifying their overthrow of the Shang. However, it was not long before much historical material appeared, of a rational, rationalized, philosophical, or otherwise non-mythological nature.


title: Chinese mythology

text: One of the main legacies of the rise of Zhou was the insemination of the classic book "I Ching", however the eight trigrams must be from a far earlier period than Wengong, and even more than the editing and commentary by Confucius – mythology references the culture hero sometimes named Fuxi.


title: Chinese mythology

text: Dynasties succeeding Zhou had notable mythological material, such as the accumulation of legend around the Jian'an transition between Han dynasty and the Three Kingdoms contention, reflected in the "Romance of the Three Kingdoms". From the Tang dynasty on, legends occur around the monk Xuanzang's quest for Buddhist scriptures (sutras) from the area more-or-less corresponding to modern India, which influenced the Ming dynasty novel "Journey to the West".


title: Chinese mythology

text: There are various important deities, spirits, and mythological people in Chinese mythology and folk religion. Some are clearly divine, such as the Jade Emperor (and even he is sometimes said to have begun life as a mortal). However, in Chinese language many beings are referred to as "shen". (Sometimes Chinese mythology is called – Mandarin Chinese: "Zhōngguó Shénhuà"). Due to the ambiguity of this word when translated into English, it is not always clear how to classify in English the entities described "shen" (not to be confused with the mythological clam). The category "shen" is rather comprehensive and generic in Chinese myth and religion, "shen" may be "spirits", "goddesses" or "gods", "ghosts", or other. Another important concept is the classification of immortals ("xian"). Immortals are more a category of quality than a description of an actual type. Immortals are defined by living for a long time (maybe forever). However, this is not a static quality, since Daoist adepts, shamans, or others are said to become immortals through right effort and various practices. Another example is the immortality sometimes obtained by the lohans, Bodhisattvas, and Buddhas of Buddhist religion and mythology (this contrasts with indefinitely prolonged series of unenlightened re-births). Chinese mythology often tends to not make a clear differentiation between Buddhist and Daoist types. Various deities, spirits, and immortals ("xian") are encountered in various myths. Some of these are particularly associated with Daoism. Some immortals or others became incorporated into Daoism as it developed as a phenomenon, deriving from ancient shamanic cults or other sources. The line between Daoism and folk religion is not clear. Other mythological beings are clearly derived through the process of the introduction of Buddhism into China.


title: Chinese mythology

text: Shangdi, also sometimes "Huángtiān Dàdì" (), appeared as early as the Shang dynasty. In later eras, he was more commonly referred to as "Huángtiān Shàngdì" (). The use of "Huángtiān Dàdì" refers to the Jade Emperor and "Tian".


title: Chinese mythology

text: Chinese mythology holds that the Jade Emperor was charged with running of the three realms: heaven, hell, and the realm of the living. The Jade Emperor adjudicated and meted out rewards and remedies to saints, the living, and the deceased according to a merit system loosely called the Jade Principles Golden Script (, "Yù lǜ jīn piān"). When proposed judgments were objected to, usually by other saints, the administration would occasionally resort to the counsels of advisory elders. The Jade Emperor appeared in literature after the establishment of Taoism in China; his appearance as "Yu Huang" dates back to beyond the times of Yellow Emperor, Nüwa, or Fuxi.


title: Chinese mythology

text: Tian can be either a sky deity by that name or Heaven – the Sky itself. Tian appeared in literature c. 700 BCE, possibly earlier as dating depends on the date of the Shujing ("Book of Documents"). There are no creation-oriented narratives for Tian. The qualities of Tian and Shangdi appear to have merged in later literature and are now worshiped as one entity ("", Huángtiān Shàngdì) in, for example, the Beijing's Temple of Heaven. The extent of the distinction between Tian and Shangdi is debated. The sinologist Herrlee Creel claims that an analysis of the Shang oracle bones reveals Shangdi to have preceded Tian as a deity, and that Zhou dynasty authors replaced the term "Shangdi" with "Tian" to cement the claims of their influence.


title: Chinese mythology

text: Nüwa (or Nügua) is considered a mother goddess of Chinese mythology. She was involved in the creation of humanity and repairing the Pillars of Heaven. Nüwa is often depicted as half snake, half human, and is sometimes considered one of the Three Sovereigns, along with her brother and husband Fuxi.


title: Chinese mythology

text: Fuxi is the first of the Three Sovereigns. He created humanity alongside his sister and wife Nüwa, and like her, is depicted as half snake, half human. Fuxi is closely associated with the I Ching.


title: Chinese mythology

text: Over time certain aspects of folk religion and belief coalesced and were refined into a group of formal religious beliefs, practices, and philosophy known as Daoism. One of the founders of Daoism was Old Man Laozi, who himself entered into legend or mythology. There is much overlap between religion and mythology, and between Chinese folk religion and Daoism. However, certain beings or concepts of Chinese mythology have a particularly strong association with religious or philosophical Daoism. For example, the Jade Emperor, Yùhuáng, is a major actor in many myths. In Daoist-related mythology there is often a strong presence of sorcery and magic, such as spells, charms, magical abilities, and elixirs. The development of Daoism as it came to be called was a lengthy one, with various strands including both rationalist ethical philosophy and a magico-religious stand informed by mythology. As Daoism developed as a concept from its traditional roots in Chinese folk religion and mythology, its legitimacy was bolstered by claims of originating with Huangdi, the Yellow Emperor. For example, the some of the "Huangdi Sijing material", the "Huangdi Yinfujing", and the "Huangdi Neijing" are Daoist classics with claims to a scriptural legacy going back to Huangdi.


title: Chinese mythology

text: The Eight Immortals have an existence in mythology as well as developed a presence in religious Daoism, and art and literature. The standard group is He Xian'gu, Cao Guojiu, Li Tieguai, Lan Caihe, Lü Dongbin, Han Xiangzi, Zhang Guolao, and Han Zhongli (also known as Zhongli Quan). Collectively or individual the eight immortals walk, ride, fly, or congregate in many myths.


title: Chinese mythology

text: Buddhism was historically introduced to China, probably in the first century CE, accompanied by the import of various ideas about deities and supernatural beings including Kṣitigarbha who was renamed Dizang. the Four Heavenly Kings, the main Buddha himself Shakyamuni Buddha (, Shìjiāmóunífó), Avalokiteśvara who after a few centuries metamorphosized into Guanyin (also Kuanyin) a bodhisattva of compassion, and Hotei the Laughing Buddha. New Buddhist material continued to enter China, with a big spike in the Tang dynasty, when the monk Xuanzang brought over 600 texts from India. Over time, Guanyin also became a Daoist immortal and was the subject of much mythology.


title: Chinese mythology

text: Guanyin is also known as Kwan Yin, Guanshiyin, the Goddess of Mercy and many other names. The mythology around Guanyin is two-fold, one based on the Avalokitasvara/Avalokiteśvara tradition from India and one based on an alleged Chinese young woman's life, as appears in the legend of Miaoshan. Guanyin is worshiped as a goddess, yet has a most impressive mythological résumé. Many myths and legends exist about Guan Yin. In all of them she is exceptionally compassionate.


title: Chinese mythology

text: Kṣitigarbha was a Buddhist deity from the area of India who was renamed Dizang, In China. He usually appears as Usually depicted as a monk with a halo around his shaved head, he carries a staff to force open the gates of hell and a wish-fulfilling jewel to light up the darkness.


title: Chinese mythology

text: There are a group known as the Four Heavenly Kings, one for each cardinal direction. Statues of them can be encountered in the Hall of the Heavenly Kings of many Buddhist temples.


title: Chinese mythology

text: A major factor in Chinese mythology is shown in the development of the tradition known as Confucianism, named after a writer and school master who lived around 551–479 BCE. Confucius embraced the traditions of ancestor veneration. He came to be a major figure of worship in Daoism, which had its genesis in traditional Chinese religion. The legitimacy of the Confucian movement was bolstered by the claim that its origins could be found in the mythology (often claimed to be history) of Yao and Shun.


title: Chinese mythology

text: Modern and ancient Chinese culture had plenty of room for both religion and mythology. Certain deities or spirits receive special attention. These include divinities of wealth, longevity, fertility. Mythologically, it is possible to attain many desires through ritual activity involved with mythological themes. For example, many stores and restaurants in China or of the Chinese diaspora have shrines to Guan Yu, also known as Guandi.


title: Chinese mythology

text: Guandi began as a Three Kingdoms general, Guan Yu. Over the subsequent centuries, Guan Yu became promoted by official decree to be the god Guandi. He is a god primarily of brotherhood and social organizations such as businesses, although this is sometimes seen in connection with martial power and war. According to mythology, Guan Yu made a famous covenant of brotherhood in a peach orchard.


title: Chinese mythology

text: Much Chinese mythology concerns the afterlife, explaining what happens people after they die. This is related to ancestor veneration, the mythological geography of heaven and hell, the rituals at family tombs, and so on.


title: Chinese mythology

text: Sometimes, in mythology, certain humans develop the ability to live indefinitely, avoiding death, and becoming divine "xiān". Such humans generally also are said to develop special powers. Generally, these abilities are said to develop through such practices of Chinese alchemy, obtaining an Elixir of life, and/or various austerities of diet or sexuality. Symbolic associations with immortality include a spotted deer, cranes, the Lingzhi mushroom, and a gourd and bat. often Immortals are mythologically located in Mountain Paradises, such as Kunlun. Various common English translations of "xiān" exist, such as Immortal, Fairy, and Sage. An example of a Daoist immortal is Wong Tai Sin, who began as a fourth century CE hermit and developed into a divine healer.


title: Chinese mythology

text: Magu is a legendary Taoist "xian" (transcendent"), still currently worshiped. Magu is associated with the elixir of life, and is a symbolic protector of females in Chinese mythology. Stories in Chinese literature describe Magu as a beautiful young woman with long birdlike fingernails, while early myths associate her with caves. Magu's name literally compounds two common Chinese words: "ma" "cannabis; hemp" and "gu" "aunt; maid".


title: Chinese mythology

text: Common beliefs and stories in Chinese mythology involve a soul or spirit that survives after the death of someone's body. There are many types.


title: Chinese mythology

text: In the mythological folklore, Zhong Kui is regarded as a vanquisher of ghosts and evil beings. He committed suicide upon being unfairly stripped of his title of ""Zhuangyuan"" (top-scorer) of the Imperial Examinations by the emperor, due to his disfigured and ugly appearance. His spirit was condemned to Hell because suicide was considered a grave sin, but Yama (the Chinese Hell King) judged him worthy of the title "King of Ghosts" in Diyu (Hell). Yama tasked him to hunt, capture, take charge of, and maintain discipline and order of all ghosts. On Chinese New Year's eve, Zhong Kui returned to his hometown to repay the kindness of his friend Du Ping ().


title: Chinese mythology

text: The Qingming festival is a good example of a Chinese holiday that involves family activities associated with a seasonally-recurring annual event; and, also, ancestor veneration.


title: Chinese mythology

text: The seasonally-recurring annual holiday of Qixi involves love and romance. A main mythological tale is "The Cowherd and the Weaver Girl".


title: Chinese mythology

text: Various deities or spirits are associated with weather phenomena, such as drought or thunder. Dragons are often associated with rain. Examples include the deity or mythological person Ba, also known as Hànbá or Nuba. Ba is the daughter of the Yellow Emperor (Huangdi) whom she aided during his Battle at Zhuolu against Chiyou: after Chiyou had fielded a wind god (Feng Bo) and a rain god (Yu Shi), Ba descended from heaven to use her drought power to defeat their wind and rain powers. She is one of the first goddesses attested to in Chinese literature, appearing in the early collection of poetry, the "Shijing", as well as in the later "Shanhaijing". At least up through the middle of the twentieth century, ceremonies to produce rain were held in many regions of China. The basic idea of these ceremonies, which could last several hours, was to drive Ba out of the region. Another example, is Lei Gong, god of thunder.


title: Chinese mythology

text: Various mythology involves the sun. One solar deity is Xihe, goddess of the sun. There is a myth of Kua Fu, a giant who followed the sun, during the course of his chase he drained all of the waters dry including the Yellow River, and after he died of thirst was transformed into a mountain range or a forest. Known as


title: Chinese mythology

text: sānzúwū are three-legged raven or ravens associated with the sun, or the ten suns, of which Houyi shot down nine. Sometimes mythology portrays there being more than one sun.


title: Chinese mythology

text: It was said that there were ten suns, each one taking a turn on its allotted day to cross the sky (this has been thought evidence of a ten-day week used at one time). There is a mythological account of how at one on a certain morning ten suns all rose into the sky together. The oppressive heat lead to drought, the plants began to wither, and humans and animals were all on the verge of death. A mighty archer Yi, or Houyi, shot down all but one of them, saving humanity.


title: Chinese mythology

text: Chang'e (or in older versions Chang'O) is goddess of the moon. Another lunar deity is Changxi, probably an older version of Chang'e with the name changed due to a naming taboo. Chang'e is modern.


title: Chinese mythology

text: In mythology it was said that Chang'e had been married to the heroic archer Houyi, but one day she swallowed a Pill of Immortality and floated up to the moon. Now it is said Chang'e lives in a cold crystal palace on the moon. Every year during a full moon toward harvest time, Chang'e is worshiped. This is the Mid-Autumn Festival, families gather under the moonlight and celebrate in honour of the moon. Although somewhat lonely, Chang'e is not alone on the moon.


title: Chinese mythology

text: A magical tree grows on the moon. It is possibly an osmanthus tree ("Osmanthus fragrans"), some type of laurel (Lauraceae), such as a cassia such as ("Cinnamomum cassia"), but more likely a unique specimen of a magical tree. Every month the Immortal Wu Gang cuts away at the tree, chopping it smaller and smaller. Then, just when he just has it chopped completely down, it magically grows back. Once it has grown back Wu Gang returns to his chopping, in an endless monthly cycle.


title: Chinese mythology

text: An alchemical hare or rabbit lives on the moon. The lunar rabbit can be seen when the moon is full, busy with mortar and pestle, preparing the Elixir of Immortality.


title: Chinese mythology

text: A three-legged toad lives on the moon. During full moons the three-legged Golden Toad Jin Chan frequents near houses or businesses that will soon receive good news generally in the form of wealth. Also known as a Money Toad, statuettes of this toad are used as a charm in Fengshui. The mythology of the Immortal Liu Haichan (who seems to be a form of Caishen/Zhao Gong, God of Wealth) is associated with this tripedal toad.


title: Chinese mythology

text: Various goddesses, gods, spirits, fairies, or monsters are associated with specific places, such as particular rivers, mountains, or the ocean. Some of these locations are associated with real geography, others are known only through mythological imagination.


title: Chinese mythology

text: Xi Wangmu, meaning Queen Mother of the West, predates organized Daoism, yet is now strongly identified with Daoism. Xi Wangmu is generally mythologically located in a western wonderland "to the west", now identified with the Kunlun of mythology. Thus, she is the ruler of a passageway between Earth and Heaven.


title: Chinese mythology

text: Mazu is a major goddess. She is a goddess of the sea. Mazu worship is credited with leading to miraculous salvations at sea, protecting sailors and travelers from drowning. She is a tutelary deity of seafarers, including fishermen and sailors, especially along coastal China and areas of the Chinese diaspora.


title: Chinese mythology

text: The two Xiang River goddesses are ancient in mythology. They are associated with the Xiang River in the former Chu area of China. They are also mythologically credited with causing a certain type of bamboo to develop a mottled appearance said to resemble tear-drops ("lacrima" "deae"). The two Xiang River goddesses (Xiangfei) are named Éhuáng and Nǚyīng.


title: Chinese mythology

text: Various deities or spirits are associated with certain human activities. Various deities or spirits are associated with the households in general or with cities. Some provide tutelary help to persons pursuing certain occupations or seeking to have children.


title: Chinese mythology

text: The Chinese household was often the subject of mythology and related ritual. The welfare of the family was mythologically-related to the perceived help of helpful deities and spirits, and avoiding the baneful effects of malicious ones. Of these household deities the most important was the kitchen god Zao Jun. The Kitchen God was viewed as a sort of intermediary between the household and the supreme god, who would judge, then reward or punish a household based on the Kitchen God's report. Zao Jun was propitiated at appropriate times by offerings of food and incense, and various mythological stories about him exist. Lesser deities or spirits were also thought to help out the household through their intervention. For example, the guardians of the doors, the Menshen pair and others.


title: Chinese mythology

text: Various deities and spirits have been mythologically associated with the welfare of areas of land and with cities. Some were good, tutelary guardians: others were malicious ghosts or evil hauntings.


title: Chinese mythology

text: The Tudi or Tudigong were the spiritual dukes or gods in charge of protecting particular parcels of land, acting as the local gods of individual villages.


title: Chinese mythology

text: In old China, the city was almost synonymous with the city wall. Most cities also had a moat, made to further protect the perimeter of the city and as an artifact of building the ramparts. A City god guarded an individual city. There were many cities and many city gods.


title: Chinese mythology

text: The life of a scholar has long been pursued in China, in part due to rewarding those who study hard and do well in standardized tests. There is a whole area of myth around the Imperial examination in Chinese mythology. For example, in the area of literature, success in standardized tests, and other culture there are associated pair Kui Xing and Wenchang Wang.


title: Chinese mythology

text: There are deities mythologically associated with various intimate aspects of human life, including motherhood, general sodality and formal syndicals, lifespan and fate, and war and death. Many are currently worshiped in Buddhism, Daoism, or Chinese folk religion. Guandi is a prominent example, but there are many others.


title: Chinese mythology

text: Tu'er Shen is a leveret or rabbit gay deity, patron of gay men who engage in same gender love and sexual activities.


title: Chinese mythology

text: Various deities, spirits, or other mythological beings are encountered in Chinese mythology, some of them related to the religious beliefs of China. Some of them are currently worshiped, some of them now only appear as characters in myths, and some both ways.