Podcast appearances and mentions of Jade Emperor

拜拜 bài bài - to worship, to pray (at a temple)規範 guī fàn - regulations, rules順序 shùn xù - order, sequence右手邊 yòu shǒu biān - right-hand side右側 yòu cè - right side左側 zuǒ cè - left side道教 dào jiào - Taoism玉皇大帝 yù huáng dà dì - Jade Emperor天公爐 tiān gōng lú - Heaven Lord's incense burner敬重 jìng zhòng - to respect, to revere儀式 yí shì - ceremony, ritual祭拜 jì bài - to worship, to offer sacrifices主殿 zhǔ diàn - main hall (of a temple)擺放 bǎi fàng - to place, to arrange神像 shén xiàng - statue of a deity媽祖 mā zǔ - Mazu, the Goddess of the Sea關公 guān gōng - Guan Gong (Guan Yu), a deified historical figure供品 gòng pǐn - offerings (to gods or ancestors)糕餅 gāo bǐng - cakes and pastries攜帶 xī dài - to carry, to bring along善意 shàn yì - goodwill, kind intentions祈福 qí fú - to pray for blessings解惑 jiě huò - to resolve doubts, to clarify confusion平心靜氣 píng xīn jìng qì - to remain calm and composed浮躁 fú zào - restless, impetuousFeeling stuck or frustrated with your Chinese progress? Book a one-on-one trial lesson with me

The Jade Emperor decides to take a different approach to try to keep Sun Wukong under control.

Pai Tee Kong is a celebration of the Jade Emperor's birthday. Significantly, this falls on the ninth day of the Chinese Lunar New Year, a date so momentous for the Hokkien Chinese that they claim it as the “proper” start to their New Year. Offerings of food and incense are laid out on a makeshift altar made up of two tiers of red benches - the lower for roasted meats, while the upper level, symbolising the elevated status of heaven, consists of vegetarian dishes to be consumed by the deity also known as the God of Heaven (Pai Tee Kong is Hokkien for “Worshipping the God of Heaven”). Additionally, two stalks of sugar cane are tied to each end of the altar. Hokkien Chinese believe this was the day that the Jade Emperor saved their descendants from death in the Fujian province of China. Located along the coast of the South China Sea, their villages were subject to regular attacks by pirates back in the 16th Century. In one particularly vicious raid, the villagers were forced to flee into the sugarcane forests, where they waited and prayed for God's help to save them. When it was finally safe to leave, the villagers realised it coincided with the birthday of the Jade Emperor. And so the legend goes.

Kim tells the story of the twelve animals which represent the Chinese New Year. As the Lunar New Year approaches, each animal wants it to be named after them, but no one can agree which animal is most deserving. The Jade Emperor steps into solve the problem by proposing a race. Listen to this lively story and discover who wins, and who loses. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Happy Lunar New Year / Spring Festival to all those celebrating! Join Fox and Sparrow as we share the the tale of the Nian, the Jade Emperor's Great Race and the tale of the animals visit to Buddha. Out of the twelve zodiac animals, we discuss some of their attributes and what lies in store for us during the year of the wood Snake!  Show notes can be found on our website at: www.talesfromtheenchantedforest.com You can also find us on: Bluesky Mastodon Instagram   TikTok X @FromEnchanted

Many years ago, the Jade Emperor of China held a race across a great river to decide the order of the years of the Zodiac. The Jade Emperor invited all the animals of the world, but only 12 chose to race.Some of the animals are clever and crafty, some are easily distracted but they all make it across the river and the Emperor rewards each animal by naming a year in the Zodiac after each one.Musicians from the BBC Philharmonic are joined by broadcaster Nihal Arthanayake and guest guzheng player Zi Lan Liao to share a musical re-telling of this ancient legend.

For pictures, links, and the audio transcript for this episode see:  https://theancienttradition.com/49-the-jade-emperor-indras/Visit us on the web at theancienttradition.com for more amazing comparative religion.

We should ideally be open to learning about other cultures, customs, religions, etc., especially because enough experience will provide us the perspective that others are not much different than ourselves. An obscure charm offered at a Shinto shrine in Japan, for example, mirrors the likeness of Thor's hammer, the lighting bolts of Zeus, and the equal powers of Baal and Yahweh. A peculiar figure in Chinese folk religion and myth, Shangdi, also calls into question the western origins of the Christian story, suggesting Jesus might not only represent the mono-myth itself, but a later incarnation of a 4,000 year old deity called The Jade Emperor. -FREE ARCHIVE & RSS: https://www.spreaker.com/show/the-secret-teachings Twitter: https://twitter.com/TST___Radio Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/thesecretteachings WEBSITE (BOOKS, RESUBSCRIBE for early show access): http://thesecretteachings.info Paypal: rdgable@yahoo.com CashApp: $rdgable EMAIL: rdgable@yahoo.com / TSTRadio@protonmail.com

We should ideally be open to learning about other cultures, customs, religions, etc., especially because enough experience will provide us the perspective that others are not much different than ourselves. An obscure charm offered at a Shinto shrine in Japan, for example, mirrors the likeness of Thor's hammer, the lighting bolts of Zeus, and the equal powers of Baal and Yahweh. A peculiar figure in Chinese folk religion and myth, Shangdi, also calls into question the western origins of the Christian story, suggesting Jesus might not only represent the mono-myth itself, but a later incarnation of a 4,000 year old deity called The Jade Emperor. -FREE ARCHIVE & RSS: https://www.spreaker.com/show/the-secret-teachingsTwitter: https://twitter.com/TST___RadioFacebook: https://www.facebook.com/thesecretteachingsWEBSITE (BOOKS, RESUBSCRIBE for early show access): http://thesecretteachings.infoPaypal: rdgable@yahoo.comCashApp: $rdgableBuy Me a Coffee: https://www.buymeacoffee.com/tstradioSUBSCRIBE TO NETWORK: http://aftermath.mediaEMAIL: rdgable@yahoo.com / TSTRadio@protonmail.com

Last time we spoke about the first Guangdong-Guangxi War. The First Anhui-Zhili War not only affected northern China, it also put into motion many events in the south. Viceroy Lu Rongting, working for Duan Qirui and his Anhui Clique was sent south to take over the position as governor of Guangdong. But those already in the Guangdong Clique wanted nothing to do with the north, nor with Lu Rongting and this led to conflict. A bitter struggle emerged between the southern cliques, all seeking to influence the Guangzhou southern government. Forces from Guizhou, Guangxi and Yunnan invaded Guangdong and it looked like they would have their way, until Chen Jiongming entered the scene. Chen Jiongming led the Guangdong Clique beside the common people of the province to rid themselves of the invaders resulting in the first Guangdong-Guangxi war. This resulted in the near annihilation of the Old Guangxi Clique and the return of Dr Sun Yat-Sen to Guangzhou.   #100 The Spirit Soldier Rebellions   Welcome to the Fall and Rise of China Podcast, I am your dutiful host Craig Watson. But, before we start I want to also remind you this podcast is only made possible through the efforts of Kings and Generals over at Youtube. Perhaps you want to learn more about the history of Asia? Kings and Generals have an assortment of episodes on history of asia and much more  so go give them a look over on Youtube. So please subscribe to Kings and Generals over at Youtube and to continue helping us produce this content please check out www.patreon.com/kingsandgenerals. If you are still hungry for some more history related content, over on my channel, the Pacific War Channel where I cover the history of China and Japan from the 19th century until the end of the Pacific War. Hey before we jump into it, just wanted to acknowledge this is episode 100 for the Fall and Rise of China Podcast, sheesh. Thank you all for surviving this far into the wild story of China's Century of Humiliation, you are all awesome. Perhaps if you got a moment, could you do me a huge favor? Unlike Youtube with a built in comment section, its hard to get feedback for audio podcasts. If you get a second could you toss feedback, what you like, what you don't like, suggestions going forward anything. You can toss it to the Pacific War Channel Discord server or literally just comment any video over at the Pacific War Channel. Would mean a lot to me, lets get on with the show! As one can imagine, China's warlord era was not something one would refer to as stable. After the absolute mess Yuan Shikai made before his death he basically provided the perfect environment for any wannabe strongman to compete for their place amongst the warlords. The warlords fleeced their respective regions of control to pay for their private armies. They would overly tax, steal away funds and get involved in just about any means to acquire more money to pay their soldiers. Even after fleecing the population, these warlords would then allow their troops to plunder, rape and enslave. Combine this with the incredible amount of regionals wars, plus natural disasters, famine and an insane rise in banditry, it was not a great time to live in China to say the least. Some regions suffered more than others. The less developed provinces, the more remote areas of China, typically in the center, south and west were hit the worst. Here the common people were poor, more isolated and when major crises occurred, they were far less likely to see any outside assistance. The warlord armies in these regions were less equipped, less fed, less disciplined compared to their Northern or coastal counterparts. The troops of these warlords treated the citizenry especially bad. As a result of the unrelenting hardship, the peasants of these parts of China perceived the warlord soldiers, tax collectors and foreign state agents as literal parasites, hell wouldn't you? In a rather vain attempt to rid themselves of these parasites, the peasants launched a large number of uprisings, riots and protests. Some were tiny villages squabbles, others could bring down warlords. They often came directly after a bad harvest season. Some but not all saw peasants join secret societies, acting as self defense forces….yes it sounds exactly like the Yihetuan all over again. Yet in most cases these peasant groups were not coordinated enough to really make a dent, more often than naught, warlords crushed them. Now after the National Protection War against Yuan Shikai, the provinces of Hubei and Sichuan fell into miserable chaos. As we have talked about in the previous episode where I introduced the Southern Warlords, Sichuan province literally was cut up into pieces and dominated by a large number of what I would call Petty Warlords. Some of these Petty Warlords had little more than a few villages under their thumb, others led armies in the several tens of thousands. The situation in Hubei was not as bad, but comparable, seeing numerous warlords battle each other, resulting in hundreds of thousands of soldiers, militiamen and bandits roaming both provinces. To complicate things, these Petty Warlords in a means to try and bolster themselves often flirted with the Beiyang government. They did so similar to how the last episode saw figures trying to negotiate north-south resolutions, basically they would acknowledge the authority of the Beiyang government. The two provinces were also affected by socio-ethnic divisions. Within the valley and plains of Sichuan and Hubei were mostly Han Chinese, but in the highlands there were many non Han such as Miao and Tujia. For those interested, the Miao people speak Hmongic languages, a subfamily of the Hmong-Mien languages. Something notable about the Miao is how their women historically exercised more independence, especially in terms of socio-political mobility. Unlike the majority of asian cultures at the time, Miao women had the freedom to choose the men they marry. The Tujia people speak Tujia, a Sino-Tibetan language, they were at the zenith of their power under the Ming Dynasty. During the Qing Dynasty, the Manchu basically adopted a carrot and stick approach to the Tujia, by gifting compliant chieftains and hindered non compliant ones. The Tujia resented any central body trying to exert control over them and during the Taiping Rebellion many flocked to the Taiping. These non han groups felt oppressed and historically had always resisted Han immigration into their lands. The highlanders were much more versed in organized self defense forces and thus prone more so to uprising.  The environments these people lived in were the type to foster ancestor worship and belief in magic, spiritualism, possession and such. Within the context of these people struggling for further autonomy this led to the development of “spirit soldiers”. Similar to the Yihetuan, this was the belief people could summon divine beings that would fight alongside or possess them, granting them power. These beliefs were also part of messianic and apocalyptic movements, think of the White Lotus apocalypse. There were many who believed the spirit soldiers would help establish a new and fair rule on earth. In 1920 there was a large power vacuum that hit western Hubei province. A 30,000 strong army commanded by the Warlords Li Tiancai, Bao Wenwei, Lan Tianwei and Wang Tianzong came into the area. The reason for this was because Wang Zhanyuan the governor of Hubei had evicted them from the Enshi-Hefeng area. Having suffered so greatly, the peasants of Hubei and Sichuan became increasingly discontent and in 1920, major conflicts emerged. A group of Taoist priests began a spiritual movement with a militant wing behind it. They were fighting against over taxation in Lichuan of Hubei province and the abuses upon them by warlord troops. In the beginning they were no more than 100 people chanting the slogan "Kill the Warlords and Out with Rotten Officials and Loafers". Their slogans were very appealing and as more people joined up the priests began to tell them they could bless them to become spirit soldiers through magical rituals. Again similar to the Yihetuan, these rituals consisted of acts like drinking special potions or consuming ashes of various things like burned amulets. Supposedly this would make the spirit soldiers invulnerable to gunfire and raise their bravery, so yeah it really does feel like the Boxer Movement 2.0. Of course these young males were emboldened and felt they could mount a serious rebellion against the warlord troops, who were vastly better armed. The spirit soldiers typically were armed with melee weapons such as spears or a dao. They quickly overran Lichuan county and killed the local magistrate there. Upon that success further uprisings sprang up like wildfire.  After the taking of Lichuan it is estimated the spirit soldiers numbered over 10,000 and they would only continue to grow. Given their numbers, they were gradually beginning to organize themselves seriously, though they would still operate in numerous cells, they never unified. Three main spirit armies emerged alongside countless militias. They rarely coordinated, lacked real military training, had very few firearms, no uniforms, but nonetheless tried to act like real armies. They implemented military ranks and identified as such with yellow bands around their left hands middle finger, the color yellow being their official movement color. Similar to the Taiping Rebellion, which they definitely took inspiration from. Major spirit soldier armies and militias wore distinct colors based on their region. For example in western Hubei, they wore red turbans and sashes, many also carried red flags with their leaders' names inscribed upon them or with slogans. Some of these slogans were about “heavenly kingdoms being established on earth” yes Hong Xiuquan would approve.  These spirit soldier groups did not want to seize power, nor did they have any real revolutionary ideologies. Even from a class point of view, they were not exactly championing the impoverished or anything, when they took over counties they did not change the counties social order. Typically they stormed a county, killed or replaced the magistrate with someone they deemed to be a fair person. Ironically this often led to an even more corrupt person taking the magistrate position, making the lives of people worse. But you know what, when these spirit soldiers showed up to your county, as a regular peasant you were probably pretty happy about it, because anything was better than being ruled by a warlord. The great thing about the Spirit armies was when they came to your town they fought the tax and rent collectors off alongside warlord troops and bandits. It was said, under spirit rule, the people could finally travel unarmed without fear. Now soldiers no matter what god or spirit resides within them need to eat, thus money was required. To make ends meet the Spirit armies fought bandits and warlords and seized control over salt and opium trade routes running from Sichuan and Guizhou through western Hubei. Just like the Yihetuan, the Spirit soldiers also persecuted christians and foreigners. Most of them were under the belief western modernization efforts and christianity were the reason for all of china's troubles.  Once the Spirit soldier rebellion began to see tens of thousands enlist, they gradually advanced west into Sichuan province. There lies a regional trade hub, the city of Wanzhou, lying on the upper reaches of the 3 gorges of the Yangtze River. In the late part of 1920, a spirit army from Lichuan approached Wanzhou, spreading slogans of their movement, such as "Stand Against Rents and Taxes, Kill the Grey Dogs". Gray dogs refers to warlord troops. Now they did not attack Wanzhou, instead they allowed members to infiltrate the city and the local towns to mass recruit. After a few months they managed to nearly gain 5000 new spirit soldiers. They also set up a military HQ at a local temple dedicated to Yama. For those unaware Yama is a deity shared by Hindus and Buddhists. This temple was dedicated to the Buddhist variety of Yama. Yama here is regarded as one of the 20-24 Devas, a group of protective Dharmapalas. If you were a spirit soldier, it would be an ideal location to set up shop, +20 to spirituality and such. They were armed mostly with bamboo spears when they assaulted Wanzhou on March 5th of 1921. The assault was performed in two waves of roughly 2000 spirit soldiers each. Despite being armed with firearms, the local warlord troops were terrified by the tenacity of the spirit soldiers who very much performed like Boxers. They fought bare chested, unafraid of bullets, some performed martial arts and incantations. Just like what happened to Qing militia's and green standard troops in 1900, the warlord troops were terrified the spirit soldiers might actually be wielding magic, and soon routed fleeing Wanzhou's outskirts to hide behind fortified walls in the inner city.  The Spirit troops stormed through Wanzhou quickly seizing most of the city, however unlike a warlord army who would have plundered and left or heavily fortified the city, well the spirit army was simply not that kind of army. As soon as they took footholds within, they began performing public incantations and rituals. Basically they were doing exactly what the Boxers had done, however the Boxers had been facing governmental forces who were not really keen on fighting back. For the spirit soldiers their enemy were warlords who relied on fleecing the population and Wanzhou was a major trade center, prime real estate. The warlord forces fortified parts of the inner city, hiding behind walls where the Spirit troops simply could not breach, nor did they try to do so. After 3 days, the Warlord leaders slapped their troops around, telling them not to be afraid of magic and they launched a counter attack on the 8th. That day saw brutal street to street fighting, which did benefit the melee wielding spirit warriors, but guns certainly would win the day. After an entire day of battle, the spirit forces were pushed out of the city. Nearly 500 were killed during the battle, the majority being spirit soldiers. On the 12th, the Warlord Chou Fu-yu after receiving distressed requests for help arrived in Wanzhou with reinforcements. Once he figured out they were holding up at the Yama temple he organized an offensive against their HQ. Chou Fu-yu's forces stormed the temple massacring over 1000 of them. Chou Fu-yu's men specifically hunted down their leadership, executing them publicly to send a message. After seeing the carnage the spirit army collapsed and fled the Wanzhou area swiftly, most would return to civilian life, though others would fight for another day. Those who chose to keep championing the cause formed small militia groups that honestly were more akin to Honghuzi. Local officials in Hubei and Sichuan would refer to them as such "the whole country districts [were] laid waste, by these rebels who plundered wherever they went". The spirit milita's did not attempt to seize any significant towns or cities, they simply stormed them hunting for christians and foreigners, before moving to the next. They would do this for years in the Hubei-Sichuan region with power bases located along their border. Now despite the major setback at Wanzhou, the spirit armies would continue to expand, but instead of heading westwards into Sichuan, they turned back to Hubei. This had a large effect on Hubei based warlords who sometimes were pushed out of their spheres of influence. Spirit armies seized Yichang, Badong, Xuan'en, Enshi and countless other counties. One Spirit leader, a farmers' work hand named Yuan declared himself the new Jade Emperor and attempted to seize most of western Hubei. From around 1920-1922, acting as an emperor he issued numerous edicts. For the most part he led a campaign against pretty much every class imaginable: students, farmers, business owners, land owners, merchants, the military, workers, missionaries, and more. He called for killing christians, placing blame upon them for all of China's problems, promising his followers once the Christians were all gone, China would be at peace. There were those amongst his flock and others who were Ming loyalists, the age old secret society types trying to restore the Ming Dynasty. Similar to the wannabe Jade Emperors belief that getting rid of Christianity would save China from her plight, the Ming loyalists saw the Ming Dynasty as a golden age that needed to be re-ushered in.  The Spirit armies were largely successful because of the fighting amongst the warlords of Hubei and to a lesser extent Sichuan. Western Hubei in particular was ripe with chaos, for there was not only Spirit armies and warlord armies, there were large groups of Honghuzi roaming the region. Now I could cut this story about the spirit soldiers here, but instead I will try to not allude to things in the future too much. But around 1921, armies of the Zhili Clique began to invade Hubei and Sichuan from their power base in Hunan province. The Zhili armies soon fought battles against both Hubei and Sichuan warlord armies and were gradually forced back north. In the process some Sichuan warlords seized Badong, Zigui and Xingshan, fleecing the populations for all they were worth before departing. The Sichuan warlord, Yang Sen, notably seized Lichuan and Jianshi in October of 1921 and would hold them until February of 1923. Yang Sen was a Taoist master and an avid polygamist. He met the Taoist Master Li Ching-yuen, who claimed he had lived to be 250 years old. He was quite famous, hell Wu Peifu while leading the Zhili clique would take Li Ching-yuen into his home trying to discover his secret method of living for so long. Li Ching-yuen died in 1933, but claimed he produced over 200 descendants and had 24 wives over the course of his very long life. Yang Sen wrote a famous book after his death titled “A Factual Account of the 250 Year-Old Good-Luck Man” Within the book he described Li Ching-yuen "He has good eyesight and a brisk stride; Li stands seven feet tall, has very long fingernails, and a ruddy complexion." Allegedly, Li was born in Qijiang county of Sichuan province back in 1677. At the age of 13 he embarked on a life of gathering herbs in the mountains amongst 3 elders of his village. At 51 years of age he served as a topography advisor in the army of General Yue Zhongqi. At 78 he retired from military service after fighting in a battle at the Golden River, whence he returned to a life of gathering herbs on Snow Mountain of Sichuan province. Due to his military service under Yue Zongqi, the government sent him a document congratulating him on his 100th birthday and this was done on his 150th and 200th. In 1908 Li co-wrote a book a disciple of his, Yang Hexuan called “the secrets of Li Qingyuns immortality”. In 1920 General Xiong Yanghe interviewed Li and published an article about him at the Nanjing university. In 1926 Wu Peifu took him under his home and Li took up a job teaching at Beijing university's Meditation Society branch. In 1927 General Yang Sen invited Li to Wanxian where the first known photograph of the man was taken, if you google him you can see it. After hearing about the famous 200+ year old man, General Chiang Kai-Shek requested he visit him in Nanjing, however when Yang Sen sent envoys to find Li at his hometown of Chenjiachang, his current wife and disciplines broke the news, he had died, the year was 1928. You might be raising an eyebrow, yes, after his supposed death, newspapers began writing pieces claiming he died in 1929, 1930, then the last report was in 1933, no one has ever verified how he died, they all just list natural cases. Now about this fascinating case of his age, Li Ching-yuen claimed he had been born in 1736, it was a professor at Chengdu University, Wu CHung-Chieh who asserted he was born in 1677. According to an article by the New York Times in 1930, Wu discovered imperial records from 1827 congratulating Li on his 150th birthday, then another one for his 200th birthday in 1877. In another New York Times article from 1928, correspondence wrote that many old men of Li's village asserted that their grandfathers all knew him as young boys and that he had been a grown man at the time. Now many researchers have pointed out his claim to be 256 years of age was a multiple of 8, considered a lucky number in Chinese culture. Many researchers also point out the prevalence of such myths as extreme old age to be very common in China and the far east. They believed he was just telling a tall tale like countless others before him. One of Li's disciplines, Master Da Liu said of his master, when Li was 130 years old he encountered an older hermit in the mountains claiming to be 500 years old. This old hermit taught him Baguazhang, that is a style of martial arts and Qigong, these are breathing, meditation and posturing exercises. Alongside dietary habits all combined was what gave the hermit his longevity. Du Liu would say “his master said that his longevity is due to the fact that he performed the exercises every day – regularly, correctly, and with sincerity – for 120 years." Sorry for the extreme side story, but I just found it fascinating haha.  So General Yang Sen had seized Lichuan and Jianshi and would be involved in numerous wars in Sichuan. He often fought the Governor of Sichuan, Xiong Kewu who was gradually defeated by 1923, where upon he took his armies into western Hubei. Yang Sen amongst other warlords exploited the absence of Xiong Kewu and invaded Sichuan. The departure of Xiong Kewu from Sichuan also allowed Petty warlord Kong Gen to seize territory and for a large Honghuzi army led by Lao Yangren to invade Yunxian. Things got so bad for Xiong Kewu, he turned to a very unlikely group to form an alliance, the Spirit Soldiers. Xiong Kewu allied the Spirit armies encamped at Enshi and Hefeng. In 1924 a large part of Xiong Kewu's army were advancing through the Wu Valley, trying to link up with him. The Wu valley was a strategic stronghold for the Spirit armies, thus in order to gain free passage he joined up with them. Chaos would reign supreme in both Hubei and Sichuan for many years, not aided much when General Yang Sen took the governorship over Sichuan. Once governor there he provoked several of his loose allies who all formed a coalition to oust him from his position by early 1925. Like Xiong Kewu, now it was Yang Sen retreating west into Hubei, eventually forming a base at Badong. One of his opponents, the Petty warlord Yuan Zuming, a member of the Guizhou clique invaded the region and seized Lichuan and Shinan, before setting his eyes on Hefeng. Meanwhile the Spirit Armies, bolstered by Xiong Kewu spread again into Sichuan where they offered protection to locals from warlord troops and Honghuzi. They fought a large battle around Wangying that allegedly turned the local river crimson red with blood. By early 1926 the Spirit movement had surged past 100,000 troops and dominated over 40 counties in Hubei. Yet they never fully centralized their organization, rarely coordinated between armies and differing groups and were not heavily armed with firearms. Honestly by becoming a larger force and by becoming more sedentary, it actually spelt their doom. While they were smaller and more mobile, they were harder to catch and less appetizing to warlord armies, now they were fully on the menu. In 1926 three divisions of warlord troops were sent against them. The Spirit armies were absolutely crushed in waves of one sided battles. Their leaders were hunted down and executed, that is if they did not die on the battlefield or simply off themselves prior to being caught. Yet 1926 would bring an entirely new element at play, it was when the Northern Expedition began and such a colossal event would save the Spirit soldiers from complete annihilation.  Don't want to give anything away, but the Northern Expedition would affect both Yang Sen and Xiong Kewu and by proxy the areas they controlled. This would cause further chaos in Hubei and Sichuan which in turn would be exploited by countless figures. For example a large Honghuzi army of Lao Yangren, perhaps 20,000 men strong or more ran rampant in both provinces. Honghuzi loved to follow behind warlord armies, exploiting areas they passed through since the rival warlords would have been kicked out. With the Northern Expedition brushing aside countless warlords in the area, both Honghuzi and Spirit soldiers expanded. Some Spirit Soldiers even decided to join up with a new group hitting the scene, Red Armies. The CCP were falling into a war with the KMT and they began to latch onto anyone who would join forces with them. Two prominent CCP figures, Xu Xiangqian and He Long worked with Spirit Soldiers. He Long came to view them as nothing more than another version of Honghuzi, but acknowledged they wanted to protect the local people which was admirable. Their quasi alliance allowed the Spirit Soldiers to expand into northern and central Sichuan, western Henan and eastern Guizhou well into the 1930s. Despite the incredible amount of wars that would occur over the decades, the last known Spirit Army rebellion would take place in February of 1959.  As you can imagine it was an anti-communist uprising, that occurred in Sizhuang county of Henan province. This was directly a result of Mao Zedong's Great Leap Forward enacted the year prior. For those who don't know, the Great Leap Forward encompassed a change of pretty much all aspects of Chinese society and it was disastrous to say the least. Mao sought to reconstruct the entire nation from an agrarian economy into a real industrialized society, but on fast forward mode. He did so via peoples communes, while decreeing every possible effort to increase grain yield must be done so they could bring industry to rural China. This resulted in one of the worst man made famines in history. Alongside this came an economic disaster, unbelievable governmental abuses upon the people. An estimated 15-55 million would die. Many resisted the government's actions, but the government had decreed no one could leave their village or farms, thus it made it extremely difficult to coordinate a resistance movement. Desperate peasants tried to resist, alongside countless secret societies. Numerous rebellions broke out, but they were quite small in scale. Armed resistance broke out in Henan in 1959, where large bandit groups began to steal weapons from armories and attacked major roadways. A secret society known as the “shenbingtuan / regiment of spirit soldiers” gathered 1200 fighters from hubei, Sichuan and Shaanxi and began to attack government officers in Sizhuang county. It took the red army roughly 20 days to quell the uprising. Thus ended the Spirit Soldier movement. I would like to take this time to remind you all that this podcast is only made possible through the efforts of Kings and Generals over at Youtube. Please go subscribe to Kings and Generals over at Youtube and to continue helping us produce this content please check out www.patreon.com/kingsandgenerals. If you are still hungry after that, give my personal channel a look over at The Pacific War Channel at Youtube, it would mean a lot to me. The Spirit Soldier Movement was a drop in the bucket for China's Warlord Era. They were a group amongst many others who tried to navigate a very cruel world. As comedic as they may come off, they were brave people who were trying to protect the population from what they deemed to be villains, many became twisted as a result.

In this week's episode, we're heading over to ancient China for the incredibly lucky Píxiū! Why is this monster not able to poop? Why can you find them on the roofs of Chinese palaces? Find out this week!Support the showYou can find us on -Myth Monsters Website: https://mythmonsters.co.ukSpotify: https://open.spotify.com/show/5RPGDjM...Apple Podcasts: https://podcasts.apple.com/gb/podcast...Google Podcasts: ...

这一回了没有妖怪捣乱，唐僧师徒也没有遇到危险，他们却做了一件大好事。凤仙郡的郡首对天不敬，玉皇大帝惩罚，三年没有下雨，全郡的人都快饿死了。悟空到天宫问清了原因，让郡守改正错误，最后过了玉帝设的三关，迎来了大雨。 This time there were no demons causing trouble. Tang Seng and his disciples didn't encounter any danger. Instead, they did a great deed. The magistrate of Phoenix County showed disrespect to the heavens, so the Jade Emperor punished them by withholding rain for three years, causing famine throughout the county. Sun Wukong went to the Heavenly Palace to ascertain the reason and urged the magistrate to correct his mistake. Finally, after passing the three trials set by the Jade Emperor, they welcomed the arrival of heavy rain.

龍年HIGH起來！新光三越《龍舞卡利HIGH》獨享7%回饋

Many years ago, the Jade Emperor of China held a race across a great river to decide the order of the years of the Zodiac. The Jade Emperor invited all the animals of the world, but only 12 chose to race.Some of the animals are clever and crafty, some are easily distracted but they all make it across the river and the Emperor rewards each animal by naming a year in the Zodiac after each one.Musicians from the BBC Philharmonic are joined by broadcaster Nihal Arthanayake and guest guzheng player Zi Lan Liao to share a musical re-telling of this ancient legend.

In this episode, astrologer Christopher Renstrom provides a deep examination of the symbolism and cultural beliefs surrounding the Chinese Lunar New Year and its correlation with Chinese Astrology. He emphasizes the fundamental difference between Western and Chinese astrology, and also delves into the significance of the animals and elements in Chinese astrology, especially with regards to the Year of the Wood Dragon. Finally, he tells a symbolic story dating back to the Han Dynasty, which ties back to the central theme of wisdom and enlightenment. This year is one that encourages seeking wisdom and understanding beyond immediate fulfilment or gratification.0:00 Year of the Dragon00:07 Introduction04:40 The Significance of the North Pole08:41 The 28 Lunar Mansions09:46 The Year of the Dragon16:38 The Yearly Zodiac Cycle19:25 The Meaning of the Dragon23:27 The Jade Emperor & the Four Dragons27:39 The Elements in Chinese Astrology29:00 The Wood Dragon37:28 The Dragon & The Pearl

Welcome to season 3 of the Somatic Primer Podcast. In this week's episode, I speak with Stuart Olson. Stuart is the founder, of Sanctuary of Tao. he is an author and translator of over thirty works on Taoist Philosophy, Taijiquan, Qigong, and Taoist internal practices.We discuss his translation of the Jade Emperor's Mind Seal Classic: The Taoist Guide to Health, Longevity, and Immortality. The Jade Emperor's Mind Seal Classic teaches that one can attain immortality through the cultivation of the three treasures of jing (sexual and physical energy), qi (breath and vital energy), and shen (spirit and mental energy).Find our more about Stuart Olson https://www.valleyspiritarts.com/Follow us on Patreon https://www.patreon.com/user?u=63954666 For this weeks extended episode Stuart tells us about his time doing a bowing pilgrimage that lasted for two and a half years. If you're interested in his journey with that practice then head on over to the patron to listen.https://somaticprimer.com/https://vidyamethod.com/Please consider giving us a five star rating on Apple podcast so more people can find our show. Thank you for listening and I hope you enjoy the episode.Support the show

孙悟空，一只有着72种能力的猴子，是中国文化里最重要的神话人物之一。他的 “大闹天宫” 的故事更是无人不知。他原本在花果山过着安静的生活。天上的玉皇大帝想要用工作来控制他，但是孙悟空只想要自由。他反抗玉皇大帝，大闹天宫。 Sun Wukong (a.k.a. the Monkey King), a monkey with 72 powers, is one of the most important mythological figures. His "Havoc in Heaven" story is known to all. Living peacefully in his earthly paradise, his life is disturbed by the Jade Emperor from Heaven, who attempts to control him by making him work. The Monkey King wants nothing but freedom. He fights against the Jade Emperor, and causes Havoc in Heaven. Watch Havoc in Heaven (Part 1) Watch Havoc in Heaven (Part 2) ◉ Read transcripts for free ◉ Become a Patron ◉ Visit merch store ◉ Find us on YouTube ◉ We are on LinkedIn ◉ We are on Facebook ◉ Find a Chinese teacher on italki and receive $10 ◉ One-time Donate

In this captivating episode of Mythlok, we embark on a celestial journey into the heart of Chinese mythology to unveil the legendary figure of the Jade Emperor. Revered as the supreme ruler of heaven, the Jade Emperor plays a pivotal role in Chinese folklore, religion, and culture. Join us as we explore the intricate tales and deep symbolism associated with this celestial monarch.Discover the fascinating stories that depict the Jade Emperor as a wise and just ruler, presiding over the divine bureaucracy of heaven. We'll delve into his role in cosmic order, his legendary Jade Palace, and the celestial celebrations that honor his reign, such as the famous Chinese New Year.We'll also discuss how the Jade Emperor's influence extends beyond mythology into art, literature, and modern Chinese traditions.Tune in to Mythlok as we ascend to the heavens and explore the majestic realm of the Jade Emperor, delving deep into the heart of Chinese mythology and culture.Read more at https://mythlok.com/jade-emperor/

酒馆“进阶口语课”第22期就要结课了，8/29号（周二）晚我们会在视频号【璐璐的英文小酒馆】直播结业典礼，参与直播间互动即可免费获得【英语水平能力测试】一次，联系直播客服了解详情，好机会别错过，一起来进步！Hi everyone and welcome back to Happy Hour.欢迎你回到酒馆.It's going to be our own 七夕 festival or double 7th festival this weekend.转眼又到七夕，in all of these lover related holidays in the past Chinese or western we have already done a few episodes, for example，we have done romantic love stories，romantic love quotes，we have done，tragic love stories even anti-love stories. So when you guys were busy thinking about gift ideas，I've been trying to come up with a relevant topic; and then it dawned on me, although you see 七夕 related advertising everywhere, few people would actually dig deeper into the legend of love. I'm sure most of you would recognize Cupid，but if I ask you who are the gods and goddesses of love in our own legend and folklore，I'm sure many of you would be shaking your heads. 比起西方神话里家喻户晓的丘比特，如果问到中国爱神，想起很多人就有点儿摸不着头脑了。 And for those of you who got to know me throughout the years, you know that one of my biggest interests is folklore and mythology. So in today's special 七夕 episode，let me introduce you to some of our own gods and goddesses of love.今天的七夕特辑里，璐璐就带你认识一下我们自己的那些爱神，and interesting yet sometimes bizarre stories relating to them. First of all，let's start with the story of 七夕 itself. I'm sure most of you know the story behind 七夕，there are two main characters，牛郎and织女. In English, they are often called the cowherd and the weaver girl. 如果你听到牛郎，首先脑子里面想到的是ホスト，那就建议你和璐璐一样去面壁思过一下，go back to the topic, cowherd and a weaver girl. Cowherd was a poor farmer boy，and the weaver girl was from the heaven. And they fell madly in love and got together like any other star-crossed lovers，and of course the emperor of heaven or the Jade Emperor玉皇大帝found out about this, and was furious. So he got the weaver girl back to heaven when the heart broken cowherd decided to chase after her, the Queen Mother of The West西王母 drew a silver river in the sky and blocked his way. But then because their love was so great，the magpies decided to form a bridge over the silver river for them to meet. In the end, even a jade emperor was moved. So he allowed this couple to meet on the magpie bridge once a year on the 7th day of the 7th month according to the Chinese calendar. And this was the origin of the 七夕 festival. And since thousands of years ago in the Han Dynasty，the tale of the cowherd and the weaver girl had already been celebrated. And on this day，girls would go to local temples to pray to the weaver girl for wisdom，especially skills in needle work，which symbolize the traditional talents of a good wife.古代的七夕少女们会向织女祈求至巧，特别是做针线活这种心灵手巧的手艺，以求能靠手艺符合如意郎君。So七夕was also called“乞巧festival”，which literally means praying for wisdom and dexterity. On that day，girls would also dress up and make wishes for marrying someone who would be a good and loving husband.

Last time we spoke about the Juye incident and the scramble for China. The Big Swords society and their armor of the golden bell technique certainly made some waves in the mid 1890's. However it would seem to get them in trouble, at minimum by proxy. The Juye incident was quickly seen as another Big Sword attack on christians and Kaiser Wilhelm utilizes it to gain something he was looking for a long time, a naval port in China. Jiaozhou bay was quickly seized by the Germans and suddenly all the western powers were seizing parts of China left right and center. The carving up of China had thus gone into overdrive and it looked to the common Chinese people that christian missionaries were all behind it. German was truly rubbing their nose in and allowing their missionaries to abuse their authority in Shandong province, but for how long would the Chinese put up with all of this?   #59 Yihequan “Why is everyone Kungfu fighting?”    Welcome to the Fall and Rise of China Podcast, I am your dutiful host Craig Watson. But, before we start I want to also remind you this podcast is only made possible through the efforts of Kings and Generals over at Youtube. Perhaps you want to learn more about the history of Asia? Kings and Generals have an assortment of episodes on history of asia and much more  so go give them a look over on Youtube. So please subscribe to Kings and Generals over at Youtube and to continue helping us produce this content please check out www.patreon.com/kingsandgenerals. If you are still hungry for some more history related content, over on my channel, the Pacific War Channel where I cover the history of China and Japan from the 19th century until the end of the Pacific War. So there has been this group I have kept alluding to for a few podcasts now. They went by a few names, but they truly pop into the scene in the year of 1898 in what other place than Shandong province, to be specific Guan county. Guan county lies along the western border of Shandong and is just a bit due west of Jinan. The people of guan county were known their “brave spirit and love of righteousness”. Their county held poor soil, many grew cotton and this lent itself to weaving. It was quite an impoverished county, their people lived simple lives. As noted by a gazetteer “The young have become like knights-errant, and like to indulge in wine, and drink for pleasure. They form cliques and seek revenge." By the mid 19th century, these young knight types were allying themselves with White Lotus sects. This led to conflicts such as the Song Jing-shi uprising of the 1860s. As we have seen over the past few episodes, where there are young men practicing boxing and there are sectarians, well they seem to just find common cause and love to rebel. There was a small market town in Guan county called Liyuantun. It was an exclave among 24 settlements in Guan, isolated across the Shandong border inside Zhili. Bordering it to the north was Linqing and Qiu county. A peasant from Liyuangtun described Liyuantuns locations as such “Speaking from our village, either two li [one kilometer) to the east or ten li to the west was Wei county. Twelve li to the northwest was Qiu county; twelve li to the south was Jize [Zhili]; fifteen li to the southeast was Linqing; ten li to the south was Quzhou; five li to the west were 300 mu of Guangzong [Zhili] land; and we were 130 li from the Guan county seat”. The small town historically had changed administrative boundaries multiple times. Now when conflicts began to break out with Christians, a magistrate was told be local residents of Liyuantun "Before, the prefect and magistrate repeatedly came to calm and pacify us. They would fix a date and only when they received permission did they dare to enter this territory." Alongside the christians, the region was of course a natural refuge for bandits. Bandits seemed to increase dramatically between 1894-1899 and these bands were coming well armed and dared to raid villages during daylight. Even casualties were beginning to increase, it was said during one raid, 7 people were killed in a single village. Highway robbery was particularly popular in the area. Theft was often directed at the wealthy, the kidnapping of members of rich families, the ordinary peasants did not suffer from this, but instead benefited, as the bandits took their riches and spent them in the poor villages. The local Qing forces were too weak and incompetent to do anything.  The isolated county of Guan was very susceptible to heterodox sects. There were countless such as the White Lotus, the Green “Qing Bang” or Red “Hong Bang” gangs, the “Huang shahui / the Yellow sand society”, the “shen-ren dao / way of the sage” and so on. Historians point out the isolation of the county, low education and weakness of the orthodox gentry to be the reason for the popularity of such sects. These very same factors would bolster certain boxing groups to fight christians. With a weak Qing state, the Christian missionaries flooded the area. French Jesuits dominated the Zhili side towns and Italian Franciscans the Shandong side towns. The French were particularly large, as stated by resident of the region “Early in the Guang-xu period, the White Lotus were active here. The county magistrate sent troops to make arrests. The French priest "Liang" told everyone, "I am a missionary. Whoever wants to join the Catholic Church raise your hand and register. I guarantee that nothing will happen to you." Several who had joined the White Lotus raised their hands and joined the church. In this way the government troops did not arrest them.” The town of Liyuantun saw its first congregation come about in a similar fashion. In the wake of the Song Jingshi uprising, a former rebel was arrested. A secret christian in Liyuantun convinced the man's family to join the church and appeal the for the mans release. That is just what they did and taking upon their example, many others followed suit. Soon there was some 20 catholic families mostly from the Wang family. Now while I call Liyuantun a “small town” it was fairly large. It held 300 households, had a marketplace attracting business. It was what we call a multiple surname town: 40% of the households were Yans; 20% Wangs: 10% Gaos and so on. Kinship had a special role in the town, as it did in most towns in China. Liyuantun was really no different than the rest of the towns in the north China plain; her residents had mud walled and thatch roofed homes. The people supported themselves farming, spinning, weaving and peddling. The farmers planted what, sorghum, millet and cotton, the soil was fairly fertile compared to the surrounded towns. With a bit better soil came some social differentiation within the town. The wealthiest family owned about 300 out of 4000 mu of land, 6 others households had around 80mu each. Some of the larger landholders rented out land, but it was far more common to just hire laborers. There were countless landless households, most of whom were hired as laborers. Some owned only 3 to 4 mu of land supplementing their farm income from secondary occupations, like weaving and peddling. The entire dynamic of the town allowed for some gentry types, and they commanded influence above the county level of governance, though their town was still very isolated. Now in the middle of Liyuantun, stood a pair of small worn out buildings which once housed a temple dedicated to Yu-huang miao, the Jade Emperor. It was alongside a little school. The temple was said to go back to 1861 and during the rebels it took damage and was left in disrepair. Meanwhile by 1869 christians were increasing and it was decided the Christian and non-christians should divide the temple property and its associated lands, around 38 mu worth. An agreement was made between neighborhood leaders, the christians and the local constable stating the Christians would receive the temple property of 3.91 mu and the 38mu of farmland would be divided into three sections for the christians. This as you can guess was extremely unpopular and many of the neighborhood leaders who signed the agreement would dispute it later. Now the key issue was the right to the buildings which houses the temple to the Jade emperor, the highest god in the pantheon. In 1873 and 1881 the magistrate of Guan, Han Guangding enforced temporary settlements, trying to push the Christians to buy another site. But the missionaries did not want to give up the location and demanded the original deal be met. In 1887 a Franciscan showed up carrying bricks and tiles, attempting to dismantle the temple and turn it into a church. But as he began to do so, two gentry types, Liu Chang-an and Zuo Jianxun led a mob of very pissed off villagers to drive off the christians who were trying to evict their temple to the jade emperor. Magistrate He Shizhen tried to remedy the situation with another temporary agreement. He Shizhen was devoted to confucianism, and quite loved by the people for he was notably not corrupt. He Shizhen personally went to Liyuantun and confirmed the mob was roused by the two gentry types who were punished, but he also made sure to take down the bricks and tiles the Franciscan had put up.  The issue with the temple never went away, other magistrates were unable to resolve the matter. He Shizhen would come back to try and make a more permanent arraignment and got the christians to agree to accept an alternative location for their church. Liu Chang-an agreed to purchase another site for said church to be constructed. He Shizhen and a new magistrate added 100 taels of their own money to be put towards the churches construction. And it seemed to all the issue was finally resolved.  To the Italian and French missionaries however, they refused this resolution. They claimed the chinese christian villagers were not qualified to agree to such a settlement and only they could. He Shizhen argued the dispute was between two chinese parties in Liyuantun and so a stand off began that spanned a few years. He Shizhen stood his ground, and refused to meet with the foreign missionaries, so the non christians held possession for the temple. Then in 1892, the French minister to Beijing applied pressure to the court who applied pressure to the local officials who applied pressure to the villagers. The French protest brought upon a predictable verdict, the temple was to be given to the Christians. He Shizhen donated 200 taels and 1000 cash for the construction of a new temple at a different location, but the Christians said it was a no go. The Christians complained about the meddling of officials and this escalated the situation. It seems a bit of revenge was on the menu, for a unknown person apparently invited a Daoist priest named Wei He-yi from Linqing into the picture. Wei He-yi happened to have an armed local militia whose leader was Zuo Jianxun, it always comes full circle doesn't it. The militia came over to defend the temple and things quickly got out of hand. The local Qing officials responded quickly sending the Daotai of the area alongside a group of other Qing authorities, the Dongchang prefect, Lingqing subprefect, magistrates of the surrounding Zhili counties of Qinghe, Quzhou and Wei alongside He Shizhen to meet the mob. The Qing officials told them they needed to preserve the peace and eventually persuaded them to disperse. The christians were allowed to come to the site, and it seemed they had won the day. Now this entire time, it was the gentry leading the charge against the Christians. They went through the appropriate means, they pressed their complaints to the prefectures, then to the provincial capital and all of this was quite expensive to do. A few of the gentry were very vigilant in their efforts and this earned them jail time. Several lost property because of the expenses. Liu Chang-an was stripped of his degree. By 1892 it was clear these gentry, despite some holding degrees, having money, land or influence could not challenge the missionaries. When the Qing authorities came in force in 1892 it signaled to them no further protests would be allowed, the gentry bent the knee. The gentry had thus given up the cause, but the struggle was passed to a younger and more volatile group.  Once the Christians got back the rights to the temple site they immediately went to work building a church. They soon found themselves under attack from a group of poor, young peasants known as “shi-ba kui / the 18 chiefs”. One story goes, the Christians were forced to fortify the church and hid inside as they were met with rocks and gunfire. The mob stormed the church and assaulted several of the Christians inside. The christians fled to the missionaries residence over in Wucheng and for a long time did not dare leave the residence. Another stand off occurred where upon if either side tried to build upon the temple location the other side would intervene and tear it down. The prefect of Dongchang, Hong Yongzhou ordered both sides to stop constructing anything and to agree to a new settlement.  These so called 18 Chiefs seem to represent the chiefs of the 18 surrounding villages, basically militia leaders. However oral tradition has it that they were all in fact young residents of Liyuantun, mostly poor peasants who simply took on the task of protecting the temple. Their leaders included Yan Shuqin, martial artists of the “Hong-quan” Red Boxing school and Gao Yuanxiang, known to the locals as “Gao Xiaomazi” Pockmarked Gao. Yan Shuqin owned around 5 mu of land and supplementing his incoming by peddling and spinning cotton. He had two brothers who were part of the 18 chiefs who worked as farm hands. Gao Yuanxiang had around 10 mu of land and made side money milling and reselling grain. The largest land owner out of the lot was Yan Mingjian with over 100 mu of land. 3 other chiefs were completely landless, most peddling to subsidize their income.  The missionaries saw the 18 chiefs as nothing more than some impoverished thugs, pushed into the situation by the gentry who had failed. However the 18 chiefs would prove to be a resilient group, take Gao Yuanxiang who spent 2 years in prison beginning in 1895 but carried the fight on. The 18 chiefs knew they could not hold back the Christians forever, they were a small and isolated force, so they turned to a man they thought could help them out named Zhao Sanduo. Zhao Sanduo lived 5kms southwest in Shaliuzhai a large village with 300 households in Wei county. He was a notable martial artist, who also went by the name Zaho Luozhu. He taught Plum Flower Boxing, a martial art going back to the early 17th century. Feng Keshan back during the eight trigrams uprising taught Plum Flower boxing.  Plum Flower Boxing was for self protecting, utilizing physical and spiritual exercise. There was little to no religious aspect in this martial art, except for some bowing to Sun Wukong or Shaseng. The prefect of Dongchang described Plum flower boxing as  “In the districts along the Zhili-Shandong border, the people are sturdy and enjoy the martial arts. Many of them practice the arts of boxing to protect themselves and their families, and to look out for each other. Great numbers practice [boxing] and it has spread widely. In Henan, Shanxi and Jiangsu there are also those who teach it, so that its name is widely known. Each year in the second or third [lunar] month there are fairs, and the boxers use this opportunity to gather and compare their techniques. They call this "liang-quan" ("showing off their boxing"). Thus in the countryside they are regarded as plum boxing meetings.” The plum flower boxer often practiced on market days and would often stage shows. Zhao Sanduo had roughly 2000 students, many of whom were employed as Yamen runners, giving him quite a advantage when dealing with disputes with Qing authorities. It is said Zhao may have had up to 400 mu of land and ran his own store, but countless accounts also claim he was a poor peasant with a meager 10 mu of land. When dealing with oral traditional history its always hard to feel out what is true and what is fable. Regardless Zhao was noted to be a very generous man and would use his considerable influence to right wrongs, particularly when it came to christian meddling.  The 18 chiefs pleaded for Zhao's help and at first he rejected them, not wanting to get involved, but somehow they twisted his arm. In april of 1897 the Christians yet again tried to bring their materials over to build upon the temple site. At the same time, Zhao had staged a major plum flower boxing exhibition in Liyuantun. It seems Zhao was just making a show of force, but soon violence broke out. Yet again the Christians hid in their church construction, then on april 27th, somewhere between 500-2000 men stormed the site and occupied it. The Christians attempted a counter attack which resulted in a single fatality and many injuries. The church was destroyed, the Christians had their homes looted and all of them fled. Upon receiving the news of the incident, He Shizhen sympathized with the non christians and the Governor of Shandong, Li Bingheng tried to prevent foreign intervention. By the fall of 1897 the Qing authorities endorsed a new settlement which gave a major victory to the non christians and their boxer allies. The Qing officials sought to buy the Christians a new site and supply all the supplies for their new church, while the old temple site would be used as a charitable school for all villagers. However in truth they sought to rebuild the old temple and even put on a grand celebration to commemorate it.  It seemed a grand victory, but it was to be short-lived as the Juye incident came about. The Germans seized Jiaozhou, Li Bingheng was demoted and now the Christians overwhelmingly had the upper hand. Imperial edicts were being frantically tossed around demanding all incidents to be avoided at all costs, while the missionaries pressed for revenge. The Italian bishop rejected the 1897 settlement and demanded the Qing officials get rid of the old temple and return the site to the christians. In the meantime Zhao Sanduo was joined by a man named Yao Wenqi, a native of Guanging, Zhili. Yao had been teaching boxing in the town of Liushangu, southwest of Liyuantun. Yao was senior to Zhao in the Plum Flower boxing school, thus his boxing teacher or Senpai as the Japanese would say. Yao radicalized the scene, by introducing some new recruits who were notorious for anti-manchu activities. Many of Zhao's students pleaded with him “Do not listen to Yao, he is ambitious! Don't make trouble. Since our patriarch began teaching in the late Ming and early Qing there have been 16 or 17 generations. The civil adherents read books and cure illness, the martial artists practice boxing and strengthen their bodies. None has spoken of causing disturbances”. Zhao headed the advice at first, but it seemed he could not break away from the anti-christian followers amongst the ranks. In early 1898 the Qing authorities threatened to arrest any of the Plum Flower boxers if they dared to assemble. The leaders of the Plum Flower Boxers who did not share the anti-christian stance advised Zhao and the others to leave, and he did. Zhao left with many followers and they took on a new name, Yihequan.  The translation of Yihequan is something along the lines as “the righteous and harmonious fists” or “boxers / fists united in righteousness'. The Yihequan of Guan county were united in righteous indignation over the Christian encroachment on the Liyuantun temple. This was not exactly a new thing, there were many Yihe organizations historically we have already covered. In the 1860s there were Yihe militias in southern Zhili fighting off the Nian rebels. In Wei county there were 3 different militias the Zhi he tuan “militia united in purpose”; Pei-yi tuan “militia worthy of righteousness; and the Yihe tuan “militia united in righteousness”. These three militias disbanded in the early 1870's, but were resurrected in 1896 because of the explosion in banditry. Interesting to note, the Yihe tuan were led by Zhao Laoguang, a cousin of Zhao Sanduo. Such Yihe boxer groups formed a coalition against the Christians. The most radical of them were aggressive members of the 18 chiefs of Liyuantun, under the leadership of “Big Sword” Yan Shuqin. Then there were aggressive members of the Plum flower boxers like Yao Wenqi. Zhao Sanduo had a fairly large network of friends spanning militia leaders and gentry class. Thus for the Qing government it was quite frustrating, as when they tried to crack down on certain groups, these groups suddenly were being aided by others and well hidden. It was a true Boxer coalition. The French demanded the dismissal of the popular magistrate, He Shizhen, who they saw as an obstacle and by early 1898 they got their way. He was replaced by Cao Ti who said as he entered the area “boxers were seen everywhere, wearing short jackets and knives, they filled the streets and alleys. Everywhere one looked, one saw their disorderly appearance”. Christians were fleeing Liyuantun in fear, thus Cao Ti's first task was to ease the tense situation. Cao Ti began with an investigation of the Boxer groups and learned that Zhao Sanduo was the key leader. He began systematically shaking down Boxer leaders trying to get Zhao to come forward, but he would not come out of the shadows. The Boxers in general were in hiding as Qing forces were building up a presence in the area. By February of 1898, prefect Hong Yongzhou took charge of the situation. On February 28th, Hong Yongzhou accused Yan Shuqin to be the murderer of a local Christian killed in the spring time. Hong went into Liyuantun and occupied the town with Qing forces, ushering the Christians to come claim the temple. While this solved the temple issue, it did not solve the Boxer issue as they were now gathering in local villages. Hong Yongzhou knew he needed to take out Zhao Sanduo, so he managed to convince local militia leaders he would provide Zhao safety if he would meet with him in Ganji. Zhao finally came over and Hong had this to say about their meeting  "I instructed the boxer leader Zhao San-duo very clearly, and showed him that for his best interest the Plum Boxers must be dispersed, and if they ever assembled again he would be prosecuted. I said to the man ‘ Your family is said to be well off and your sons and grandsons already established. Why have you not sought to protect yourself and your family, and have instead loosed your disciples to cause trouble, even committing murder and arson? Why do you let yourself be the puppet of others?" To all of this Zhao confessed his organization was infiltrated by some unruly men as a result of what was occurring at Liyuantun, but the Christians labeled him a criminal chieftain so he had to keep his boxers together for self protection. The Qing officials all agreed to offer him protection if he would disband the boxers. The Qing officials went with Zhao to his home in Shaliuzhai and got him to official disperse his boxers. However the Boxer coalition was vast and by no means was Zhao telling them to stop going to work for all. In Liyuantun in April, a notice suddenly appearance on the examination hall reading this “The patriots of all the provinces, seeing that the men of the West transgress all limits [literally: over-reach Heaven] in their behavior, have decided to assemble on the 15th day of the fourth moon and to kill the Westerners and burn their houses. Those whose hearts are not in accord with us are scoundrels and women of bad character. Those who read this placard and fail to spread the news deserve the same characterization. Enough. No more words are needed.” So yeah it was clear there were still a lot of angry boxers. The Qing officials attempted a new approach, they tried to recruit the peaceful boxers into militias. The First Sino-Japanese War had greatly diminished Qing authority in the region and such groups were necessary to restore law and order. Governor Zhang Ru-Mei began recruiting them with the primary intent to combat banditry and it looked extremely successful. As Zhang reported to the court in May “I have already sent deputies to the various localities to work together with the local officials to clean up the bao-jia [registers] and establish rural militia (xiang-tuan). Originally I wished to clear up the sources of banditry, but these can also be used to mediate between the people and the Christian converts. ” Zhang and other Qing officials were not naive, they knew many of the boxers in the militias would not be neutral when it came to Christian disputes. This led Zhang to make a rathe controversial recommendation on June 30th “If we allow them [the boxers] to establish private associations on their own authority, and officials take no notice, not only will foreigners have an excuse [to protest], but in time it could become a source of trouble. Northerners are customarily willful. Their bravery and fierceness in struggle are an established custom. The techniques of these boxers, and their system of masters and disciples have had some success in protecting the countryside and capturing bandits. We should instruct the local officials to order the gentry and people to transform these private associations into public undertakings, and change the boxing braves into people's militia. This would conform to public opinion and make them easier to control, and it would seem that both people and converts would benefit greatly” Come fall, rumors spread that the Qing officials were going to crack down and arrest more people. Qing soldiers in Linqing crossed the border into Zhili and began searching for anti christian biligerants in Shaliuzhai. This began an uproar and Yao Wenqi alongside the 18 chiefs took Zhao Sanduo and his entire family hostage and forced him to push the coalition to attack.  Boxers began to gather in hundreds along the border area of Zhili-Shandong. Boxers from Shaliuzhai marched north, assaulting Christians and destroying a few homes in some villages northwest of Liyuantun. Over the course of a few days bands of boxers passed through Hongtaoyuan which held a large christian population. There they destroyed a church and several houses. Rumors began to spread that the boxers were going to rescue Yan Shuqins brother and members of the 18 chiefs from jail. 50 horses were borrowed from supporters which the boxers mounted with large flags bearing what would become the famous slogan of the boxer movement ‘Fu Qing mie-yang / support the Qing, destroy the foreigners”. This was the first known appearance of the slogan and the Qing reacted with force. Qing forces were brought over from Linqing in Shandong and Daming in Zhili. The governor of Zhili, the magistrates of Qiu, Wei and Guan alongside other Qing officials quote “ordered the militia heads and gentry directors (shen-dong) of the three counties to go forward to enlighten the people to sincerity and public spiritedness, and to make them aware of the pros and cons. They strenuously reasoned with the boxers. Zhao Luo-zhu [i.e., Zhao San-duo] then publicly kowtowed to Yao Luo-qi [i.e., Yao Wen-qi] and the boxer crowd, and asked them to disperse and return to their homes. The boxers were deeply repentant and on October 31 and November 1 they dispersed in small groups and returned home.” The springtime dispersal of the boxers would have earned the Qing a summer of peace, but as the Boxers headed back to their homes, some passed through Hongtaoyuan. It is said the Christians there tossed insults at the boxers, prompting Yao Wenqi and some more hot headed types to seek revenge. On November 3rd, 80 boxers assaulted the Christian community of Hongtaoyuan, burning down a church and seven houses killing perhaps 3 christians. After this they advanced upon some other Christian villages in Wei county, but French missionaries had been organizing a militia 477 men strong. So the boxers instead attacked the nearby village of Disankou where they burned and looted more Christian homes. The next day saw Qing troops attack the boxers at Houwei village, where 4 were killed and 19 were arrested including Yao Wenqi. Yao Wenqi was beheaded the next day in Hongtaoyuan.  Peace was thus restored to the 18 villages and as late as November of 1899 a Protestant missionary reported “a cordial welcome in Liyuantun”. The long struggle over Liyuantun had seemingly come to an end, or had it?  I would like to take this time to remind you all that this podcast is only made possible through the efforts of Kings and Generals over at Youtube. Please go subscribe to Kings and Generals over at Youtube and to continue helping us produce this content please check out www.patreon.com/kingsandgenerals. If you are still hungry after that, give my personal channel a look over at The Pacific War Channel at Youtube, it would mean a lot to me. The Yihequan, Boxers of the righteous and harmonious fists had risen to face off against the Christian menace plaguing China. The christians retaliated heavily and seemingly have quelled the boxers, but for how long would such a peace last?

Different belief systems—and just differences in general—collide and merge in Journey to the West, the classic Chinese novel at the center of this season. “In Dungeons & Dragons terminology, you've got this lawful good monk and then you have this chaotic good monkey,” says Kaiser Kuo (co-founder of China's first heavy metal band and host of the Sinica Podcast) in this episode. And their quest succeeds: the combination of the monk Tripitaka's lawfulness and the Monkey King's chaos works out. That intertwinement of differences shapes Journey to the West, on multiple levels. It's about a quest for Buddhist texts, but Sun Wukong, the Monkey King, makes his way through Daoist self-cultivation and Confucian thinking, too. The divine realm includes Daoist deities such as the Jade Emperor, but it's also a Buddhist realm, including the Buddha and Guanyin. There's a playful engagement with everything here, and the translator Julia Lovell explains the world behind that kind of expansive interaction with various traditions: The novel sprang from a much older set of legends about a real historical character who lived around 600–664 CE as a subject of the Tang empire in China. Now the Tang is one of the great eras of Chinese imperial expansion, when the empire extends from the edge of Persia in the northwest to the frontier with modern Korea in the northeast. Taizong, the emperor on the throne in Tripitaka's time—he's the character who in the novel dispatches Tripitaka off to India to fetch the sutras—Taizong is the vigorous, ruthless ruler who pushes the frontiers of his empire out so far.  And in the decades that follow this, the Tang empire is awash with cosmopolitan products and ideas. And still today in China, the Tang is celebrated as this period of phenomenal cosmopolitan flourishing of the empire and ideas throughout China. In this episode, we think about how a wild novel gave that cosmopolitan attitude a new narrative life. Guests in this episode include Kaiser Kuo, host of the Sinica Podcast; Julia Lovell, whose recent translation of Journey to the West is titled Monkey King; D. Max Moerman, scholar of religion at Columbia; and Xiaofei Tian, scholar of literature at Harvard. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Oh Muses! We tell the tale of the Jade Emporer and the Chinese Zodiac. In this episode we encounter unnamed evil, lots of studying, jealous rats, word definitions, and three major belief systems. —- Check out the Greeking Out book! Buy it here: https://bit.ly/greekoutbook —- National Geographic Kids Greeking Out is a kid-friendly retelling of some of the best stories from Greek mythology. This podcast is an extension of the Zeus the Mighty series by Nat Geo Kids. Check Out bit.ly/ZeusOut to meet Zeus the Hamster and his friends—Athena the cat, Ares the pug, Demeter the grasshopper, and many more—who also listen to the Greeking Out podcast. Watch a video, read an excerpt, or check out the truth behind the stories!

As Wu Kong's invincible powers brought Heaven to a halt, the one and only Guan Yin Bodhisattva arrived with valuable advice for the Jade Emperor. The Fifth Monkey presents: Journey to the West - an Audio Drama Series Bringing China's most influential fantasy adventure to your ears, with an original translation right from its source text. The Fifth Monkey is a multinational team dedicated to this project. Follow us on Twitter for the latest news. Full English subtitles of this episode can be found here. Support us on Patreon or visit our homepage to find us on other platforms.

WE HAVE A MAJOR ANNOUNCEMENT! Please at least give the first 4 minutes of this episode a listen, we deeply appreciate your time and support. In this episode we go into the weird relationship between Lady Queen Mother and the Jade Emperor, plus some fun facts about other heaven-related stuff. The Fifth Monkey presents: Journey to the West - an Audio Drama Series Bringing China's most influential fantasy adventure to your ears, with an original translation right from its source text. The Fifth Monkey is a multinational team dedicated to this project. https://twitter.com/5th_Monkey for the latest news. For full English subtitles, please visit https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCASOlps8Kf-92mzybyOisZA/. Support us on patreon.com/thefifthmonkey or visit www.thefifthmonkey.com to find us on other platforms.

Tencent is a complicated company - the parent company of WeChat, the WhatsApp of China with over 1.2 billion users. Tencent also owns, an entire entertainment arm, owning movie rights such as Terminator: Dark Fate, and a music group (Tencent Music Group) with 1.5 times the users of Spotify. But its most profitable segment is on games, owning League of Legends, Clash of Clans and Honor of Kings. This Chinese empire have humble and mystical beginnings that can be traced back to when a little carp, who's name was Tony Ma, decided to swim up stream to join the new wave of Chinese Billionaire Dragons. In Ep 1. We tell the grueling rise of the founding team, creating QQ - the MSN of China In Ep 2. We detail the epic battle battle between QQ vs MSN that cemented Tencent as the Microsoft Killer In Ep 3. We breakdown its gaming empire that led to the highest revenue mobile game in the world - Honor of Kings In Ep 4. We learn about the rise of WeChat - the app that made Tencent famous, and China's tech crackdown that wiped trillions off the Chinese stock market - We're looking to grow our team! Help support our productions here :') ⁠⁠Buy Me a Coffee⁠⁠ - Want to discover more origins, rise & fall on Asian business empires? Follow us on our ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠Tiktok⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠ where we share 5 minute breakdowns of some of the most interesting Asian businesses. ⁠⁠Youtube⁠⁠ to understand the bigger picture beyond the Asian business empires. Want to meet the team? ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠Follow me here⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠! - If you love the style of Empires, and want similar content, check out:

Legends from the Pacific: Book 1 is available on Amazon. Get your copy today. https://amzn.to/3CIYo6m (Amazon Affiliate link) Discover the Jade Emperor's wife responsible for immortality. Featured Song: "Hula Blues" by Aja Gample, courtesy of HI*Sessions Join our email list https://legendsfromthepacific.ck.page/32ca50bd23 *We respect your privacy. We will not share your email. You can unsubscribe at any time. Visit our store: https://legendsfromthepacific.com/store Theme Song: "Mystery" by Tavana, courtesy of HI*Sessions Sound Effects: Sound Effects Factory Music Coordinator: Matt Duffy AKA DJ TripleBypass Link to this episode on our website https://legendsfromthepacific.com/117-xiwangmu Please give us a rating, write a review, subscribe, follow us, and share us with your friends and family. ***** Join our email list and claim your exclusive unaired episode today: "Hawaii's Faceless Ghost - Mujina" (Unaired Episode) https://legendsfromthepacific.ck.page/32ca50bd23 *We respect your privacy. We will not share your email. You can unsubscribe at any time. Listen to Kamu's unaired paranormal experiences by becoming a Patreon supporter today: https://www.patreon.com/legendsfromthepacific Send your unusual Pacific experience to be shared on a future episode. https://legendsfromthepacific.com/feedback  Visit our Fan Art Section: https://legendsfromthepacific.com/fan-artwork Instagram: legendsfromthepacific Twitter: LegendsPacific Follow Legends from the Pacific wherever you listen to audio. → Follow via Apple Podcasts: https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/legends-from-the-pacific/id1501091122 → Follow via Google Podcasts: https://podcasts.google.com/search/legends%20from%20the%20pacific → Follow via Spotify: https://open.spotify.com/show/5qhdkYUl8R7hSw6OZYJLye → Here's our RSS feed: https://legendsfromthepacific.libsyn.com/rss www.LegendsFromThePacific.com

This week on MYTH, a young man is going on a journey across ancient Korea in search of some answers.  You'll find that straw sandals aren't durable, that some people are just cursed, and that being a dragon has some weird prerequisites.  Then, in Gods and Monsters, it's the ancient origin of the dragonballs that spells bad news for rich people. Source: Korean Folklore

For this week, we're heading back over to China in time for the Moon Festival, and looking at the fantastic cult legend, Wukong, the Monkey King. How did this monkey come to be from wind and rocks on a mountain? How did manage to annoy the Jade Emperor into submission? Find out this week!Support the show

Last night I finished reading the biography ‘The Chronicles of Tao' by author Deng Ming-Dao. Whom, some of you on the spiritual Taoist path, would already be familiar with. This book is supposed to be a loose biography of his spiritual teacher Kwan Saihung. As a lesson in Taoist spirituality and in what the followers of the Huashan sect did to attain immortality, I enjoyed it thoroughly. And it was for me a kind of revision of my own journey: How far I have come and how far I still have to go. As a book on martial arts, basically chronicles how much martial arts in general has changed with the modern times. What we are learning now sometimes feels like we are all just a bunch of overweight middle-aged men with delusions of by-gone grandeur. And for those of you wondering where the baguazhang fits into this book? It only really appears as a brief style of fighting Kwan Saihung's own spiritual teacher uses to defeat a Xingyiquan master. This book is not really a book about martial arts and most people will find it either boring or implausible. But that line of thought is for the skeptics. For someone like me, however, I got to cross-check events in the book with my own weird shit! And if you are a person who is keen to walk the path of an immortal, you are just going to have to accept that there are somethings in this world that do not and will never fit into the current version of reality that modern civilisation holds so dear. While at the same time to be fair on ourselves, from a western background, some ideas in the book are not really Taoist, but are coming from a typical Chinese mindset of what Taoism is without really knowing the full scope of Chinese civilisational history. For example, if you go back to the Zhou Dynasty, there was essentially no such thing as Taoism as we know it because “all” the Chinese schools of thought were natively Taoist. Lao Tzu 老子 and Chuang Tzu 莊子 only professed one particular version of it. The main difference between Lao Tzu and Confucius, was that Confucius tried to bring order out of perceived chaos while Lao Tzu accepted that chaos was already a form of order in itself. Most of the other ancient sages tended to specialise their Taoist ways towards the particular field of study that they were expert in. Since then Taoism had been shaped and reshaped many times by outside influences. Internal Alchemy or Neidan 內丹術 developed during the late Han Dynasty with the arrival of Buddhism. Meditation, reincarnation and karma are all Buddhist ideas. Before Buddhism, Taoism was (and still us based upon) a mix of shamanism, animism and Chinese folk beliefs. And then during the Tang Dynasty – Christianity arrived in China. Called the religion of Light 景教, it is the reason why in Taoism there is now a Chinese hell presided over by the Ox headed devil. And that the Goddess of Mercy is the Virgin Mary with Chinese characteristics. The Three Pure ones are a reworked version of the Holy Trinity. And that the last supper with the holy grail is essentially the Elixir of Immortality, that if one is holy enough, the Jade Emperor can bestow on them. But I don't bring all this history up to shock anybody. Rather it is to enlighten the baguazhang practitioner that baguazhang is not just a martial art, but a form of being in church and being in communion with the Divine. I give this book 5 stars out of 5 ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️. CHRONICLES OF TAO - The secret life of a Taoist Master By Deng Ming-Dao, author of ‘365 Tao' HarperOne ISBN: 978-0-06-250219-3

The Super Bros. have socially distanced this episode. Ivan and Enrique go to a taping of "The Masked Singer." Stevens reveals her love for Puerto Rican sensation Cheyenne. Enrique recalls a movie from his childhood, "Un Sabado Mas," and was possibly traumatized by "The Neverending Story." In the show's second half, the Super Bros. review "The Forbidden Kingdom," starring Jet Li, Jackie Chan, and Michael Angarano. An American teenager obsessed with Martial Arts movies transports to Ancient China via a magical staff. With the help of an Orphan, a Drunken Master, and a Mysterious Monk, the young man must rescue the Monkey King and battle the evil forces of the Jade Warlord. Is the fight between Wong Fei Hung and Wong Fei Hung the most epic part of this movie? Why is this movie better than it should be? Does this movie trigger a random memory in Enrique and spark a morbid conversation? Go to your local Pawn Shop, pick up some bootleg DVDs, a Mogwai, and some popcorn, and transport yourself to this week's magical episode. Still not subscribed? Why not? The Jade Emperor listens to us on a Jade Smartphone. Want more Super Bros? www.linktr.ee/gungfusuperbros Our Socials: www.twitter.com/gungfusuperbros www.instagram.com/gungfusuperbrospod www.instagram.com/malofilms Please rate, review, or leave a comment on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, Google Podcasts, YouTube, or wherever you watch and listen to us! Don't forget that you can leave us a voicemail at www.gungfusuperbros.com or on our Google Voice number 661-401-5941 to be part of our show. Please rate, review, or leave a comment on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, Google Podcasts, YouTube, or wherever you watch and listen to us! --- This episode is sponsored by · Anchor: The easiest way to make a podcast. https://anchor.fm/app

With half the world's continents being home to a panoply of monkey species, it's no wonder the people of Center & South America, Asia, and Africa hold monkeys in high esteems as mythological and religious figures.  Hear about Hanuman, howlers, Hapi, and a helluva lot more (and yes, Sun Wukong, obviously). Links to all the research resources are on the website. 04:45 Japan: Sarugami 09:57 Central/South America: howler monkey god 13:50 Africa: Gbekre Hapi, Babi 17:35 India: Hanuman 27:00 China: Sun Wukong Hang out with your fellow Brainiacs.  Reach out and touch Moxie on Facebook, Twitter,  or Instagram. Become a patron of the podcast arts! Patreon or Ko-Fi.  Or buy the book and a shirt. Music: Kevin MacLeod, David Fesilyan, RKCVC, and Chris Haugen. Sponsors: Sly Fox Trivia, Sambucol Want to start a podcast or need a better podcast host?  Get up to TWO months hosting for free from Libsynwith coupon code "moxie."     The Kerkopes were sons of the Titan Okeanos (Oceanus) by Theia, a daughter of the Aithiopian (Ethiopian) king Memnon. They were proverbial as liars, cheats, and accomplished knaves. They once stole Heracles' weapons, during the time he was the penitent servant of Omphale. He punished them by tying them to a pole he slung over his shoulder with their faces pointing downwards, the only way they appear on Greek vases. The sight of Heracles' dark-tanned butt set them all to laughing, so that Heracles let them go free.  But it's all fun and games until you tick off Zeus.  My name's… You know what I love about humans?  The contrary coincidence that we are as complimentary as we are [contrary].  In normal person speak, that is to say, we're as alike as we are different.  And how is that manifesting in your earballs today?  Monkey gods!  My nerd brethren will be extra excited to know it's not just Sun Wu Kong.    Monkeys inhabit the tropical rainforests of Africa, Central America, South America and Asia, and so the peoples of Africa, Central America, South America and Asia have monkeys in their faiths and folklores.  Monkey mythology is an important part of both Hindu / Buddhist lore (India) and Zodiac / Taoist / Buddhist lore (China). In the various tales... the monkey is portrayed initially as foolish, vain, and mischievous. Yet, in each tradition, the monkey learns valuable lessons along the way, makes changes, and eventually gains redemption. The monkey thus embodies the themes of repentance, responsibility, devotion, and the promise of salvation to all who sincerely seek it.  Monkey lore in India dates to at least 500 BCE and the monkey god Hanuman.  Revered for his bravery, strength, and dedication to justice, he is connected to the sun, the wind, and thunder.  Monkeys in general are revered in several parts of India.  Monkey lore in China predates Buddhism, for the Monkey appears in the Chinese Zodiacal beliefs, believed by scholars to date to around 1100 BCE.  In some parts of China, the Monkey is the "Great Sage Equal to Heaven."  In Chinese mythology, the monkey god was the afore-mentioned Sun-Wukong, the Monkey King and trickster god who stars in the 16th-century book Journey To The West.  Sun-Wukong is the basis for Goku in Dragonball, only one of the biggest anime franchises in the world.     Monkey lore in Japan took hold after the arrival of Buddhism in the mid-6th century CE and the monkey was alternately a messenger to the gods or a physical manifestation of a god.  The Monkey was thought to protect against demons as well as disease and is a patron of fertility, safe childbirth, and harmonious marriages.  But not all monkeys, or thing that looked like monkeys, were your friend, though I would probably still try to pet it, regardless because -let's face it- I'm going to die trying to pet something I should have (fingers crossed).  If you find yourself in the land of the rising sun, once the world reopens for safe travel, obviously, you'll want to keep a keen eye out for sarugami.  According to folklorist Yanagita Kunio, sarugami are a prime example of “fallen” gods—spirits once revered as gods, but who have since been forgotten. I would have called them forsaken gods, which is twice as accurate and five times as metal.  These beliefs never entirely vanish, though, and such spirits often remain as degenerate versions of their former selves, i.e. yōkai or demon.  Sarugami look just like the wild monkeys, only bigger and more vicious, a subtle distinction.  They can speak, and sometimes they are seen wearing human clothes as well, two less subtle distinctions.    Long ago, before Buddhism arrived, monkeys were worshiped as gods in parts of Japan. The southern part of Lake Biwa in modern-day Shiga Prefecture was an important center of monkey worship, based at Hiyoshi Taisha. Monkeys were seen as messengers and servants of the sun, in part because they become most active at sunrise and sunset. Because of this, monkey worship was popular among farmers, who also awoke and retired with the sun. Over the centuries, as farming technology improved, people became less reliant on subsistence farming. More and more people took up professions other than farming. As a result, monkey worship began to fade away, and the monkey gods were forgotten. Today, monkeys are viewed as pests by farmers, as they dig up crops, steal food from gardens, and sometimes even attack pets and small children.   Sarugami behave for the most part like wild monkeys. They live in the mountains and tend to stay away from human-inhabited areas.  Buuut, when sarugami does interact with humans, it almost always ends in violence. Most legends follow a pattern: a sarugami kidnaps a young village woman and heroes are called upon to go out into the wilderness, kill the monster and save the girl.  This puts sarugami on the same keel as trolls and brainless monsters, quite a demotion indeed.   It's not all bad for the sarugami, though.  While the early monkey cults had vanished, sarugami worship continued throughout the middle ages in esoteric religions such as Kōshin.  In Koshin, monkeys came to be viewed as servants of the mountain deities, or as mountain deities themselves, acting as intermediaries between the world we live in and the heavens. The famous three wise monkey statues—mizaru, kikazaru, and iwazaru (“see no evil, hear no evil, say no evil”)—come from Kōshin and are a prime example of sarugami worship.  Three rather famous monkeys hail from the land of the rising sun, usually referred to as "Speak No Evil, Hear No Evil, See No Evil."  By the time of Tokugawa/Edo period, from 1603 to 1867, the three monkeys were portrayed in Buddhist sculptures.  The message is that we should protect ourselves by not letting evil enter our sight, not allowing evil words to enter our hearing, and finally to not speak and engage in evil words and thoughts, but a lot of folks, especially in the West, take it to mean to ignore or turn a blind eye to something that's wrong.   Legend has it, long ago the Buddha appeared at Hiyoshi Taisha, a Shinto shrine located in the city of Ōtsu, Shiga Prefecture, about the same time a large gathering of monkeys arrived in the area.  The collective noun for a group of monkeys is a troop, btw, or a tribe, or because we have the option, a carload and, yes, a barrel.  You can say a barrel of monkeys.  So the Buddha took the form of a monkey, and foretold the fortunes of the faithful worshipers at Hiyoshi Taisha.  This appearance had been foreseen thousands of years prior by Cang Jie, the legendary inventor of Chinese writing, in the neighborhood of 2650 BCE.  Of course, the legend also says Legend has it that he had four eyes, and that when he invented the characters, the deities and ghosts cried and the sky rained millet.  When Cang Jei invented the word for god (神), [sfx forvo] he constructed it out of characters meaning indicate (示) [sfx] and monkey (申) [sfx] to foretell this event.  In other words, “monkey indicates god.”  Isn't that an intersting etymology?  To reference a Twitter trend, red flag emoji, red flag emoji, red flag emoji.  It's not that words *never have good backstories like that; it's that words *almost never have coold backstories.  Also, if someone tells you a common word is actually an anagram, tell ‘em I said “Bless your heart,” because that's even more rare.   In the Americas, the Mayans of Guatemala and Mexico worshiped a howler monkey god, or maybe a pair of twin gods, depending on the story, patron of the arts; music, scribes and sculptors.  The Howler Monkey also corresponds to knowledge of history and rituals, as well as prophecy.  There is a fabled lost "Ciudad Blanca" or white city in Honduras is supposedly dedicated to the Monkey God.  Pre-Columbian Toltec and Maya texts call it "The ancient place where the aurora originates."  In Aztec mythology of Mexico, the monkey was connected to the sun, and was guarded by Cochipilli, the god of flowers, fertility, and fun!  My kinda   Among the Classic Mayas, the howler monkey god was a major deity of the arts, both visual and musical.  Two monkey gods or two versions of the same god, I'm not sure, have been depicted on classical vases in the act of writing books and sculpting busts.  This may be a depiction of a creation story, with the book containing the birth signs and the head the life principle or 'soul.'  Copán in western Honduras in particular is famous for its representations of Howler Monkey Gods.  Spanish friar Bartolomé de las Casas stated that in the region of Alta Verapaz, the two monkeys were two of the thirteen sons of the upper god, and were celebrated as cosmogonic creator deities.  Among the Quiché Mayas in the midwestern highlands, they were held in somewhat less esteem.  They'd been turned into monkeys after getting in a scrap with their half-brothers, the Maya Hero Twins, who had top billing as far as the mythos was concerned. MIDROLL   While African-Americans have had to deal with “monkey” as an epithet, peoples in Africa traditionally held primates in high esteem.  The root of the word Primate, is Prime, which means first, chief, excellent, and best.  Of all the wild things in the wild woods, monkeys and apes were seen as the most intelligent animals, and so they became symbols of wisdom.  That's why Rafiki in “The Lion King” is a baboon, based on the baboon depiction of the god of wisdom Djehuti, Tehuti, or Thoth.  Yes, Thoth is usually depicted with the head of an Ibis bird, such as on the fabulous Crash Course Mythology series, but the baboon form was popular too.   In the Ivory Coast, The role of Monkeys as guardians of the crossroads or gateways to the Ancestors can also be found in the God Ghekre or Gbekre of the Baule people of the Ivory Coast.  Gbekre or Mbotumbo is both judge of hell and helper of the living against their enemies. Skillfully-carved wooden statues of Ghekre were common and combined animal and human traits.   Over in the old kingdom, you hope it will be a while before you meet the Egyptian monkey god Hapi.  Not to be confused with another Egyptian god named Hapi, who was ostensibly a human figure expressing both male and female characteristics.  One of the four sons of Horus, Hapi is depicted protecting the throne of Osiris in the Underworld.  He is commonly depicted with the head of a hamadryas baboon, and it's Hapi's job to protect the lungs of deceased persons being mummified, which is why the canopic jar the holds the lungs is often topped with a a hamadryas baboon head motif lid.  When embalming practices changed in the Third Intermediate Period about the 3k years ago, the mummified organs were placed back inside the body, so an amulet of Hapi would be added to the mix to still invoke his protection.  When his image appears on the side of a coffin, he is usually aligned with the side intended to face north.    Lung-loving Hapi wasn't the only baboon about in ancient Egypt, but he was definitely the nicer of the two.  The other tended to be a little…. murdery….and a bit problematic.  Babi ‘bull (i.e. dominant male) of the baboons' lives on human entrails, which is not outlandish for a baboon, as they are omnivores with tremendous fangs and a well-earned reputation for carnivoration.  He also kills all humans on sight, so be sure you know the right prayers and spells to protect yourself, especially after death.  Your heart will be weighed against a feather in the Hall of the Two Truths to see if you can get a seat upgrade to paradise.  To his credit, though, Babi can use his immense power to ward off dangers like snakes and control turbulent waters, so, like the rest of us, a mixed bag.  Baboons also have libidos turned up to 11, so send the kids out of the room now.  Babi was considered the god of virility of the dead.  One spell in a funerary text identifies the deceased person's phallus with Babi, ensuring that the deceased will be able to get down, make love in the afterlife.  He was usually portrayed with an erection, and that erection is also the bolt of the gate between the night and day *and the mast of the ferry which conveyed the righteous to the Field of Reeds to chill with Osiris.  Why, I cannot say and do not wish to Google.   There's lots of good googling if you look up Hanuman, the Hindu primate deity.  Hanuman, depicted as a bipedal monkey with a red face, is worshipped both in his own shrines and as a secondary figure in temples to Rama.  You'll know if you're at a Hanuman-exclusive temple, because it will be absolutely alive with monkeys.  You can't mistreat a monkey in or around a temple of the monkey god, which the monkeys figured out centuries ago.   Hanuman was the child of the wind god and a nymph.  As a little god-ling, he tried to fly up and grab the sun, which he mistook for a fruit.  The king of the gods Indra struck Hanuman with a thunderbolt on the jaw, the word for which is hanu, hence his name.  Unable or unwilling to behave, Hanuman was cursed by powerful sages to forget his magic powers, cool powers like flight and the ability to become massively large at will, until he was reminded of them.  Hanuman led the monkeys to help Rama, an incarnation of Vishnu, recover his wife from the demon king of Lanka, which is surprisingly *not modern-day Sri Lanka.  Jambavan, the king of the bears, reminded Hanuman of his powers, which allowed him to cross the water demoness-filled strait between India and Lanka in one leap.  The Lankans discovered Hanuman and set his tail on fire, but he used that fire to burn Lanka to the ground.  He then flew to the Himalayas and returned with enough medicinal herbs to tend to all the wounded in Rama's army.  For his service to Rama, Hanuman is upheld as a model for all human devotion.   Hanuman is also a popular figure among Buddhists in most of Asia, with temples and even whole districts of towns bearing his name.  Like a game of telephone, the farther you get from India, the more Hanuman's story changes.  For example, the original Sanskirt telling portrays him as effortlessly chaste, whereas he has wives and children in other traditions.  And if his exploits sounded a tiny drill bit familiar, you won't be surprised to know that he has been identified as the inspiration for the monkey hero Sun Wu Kong of the great Chinese poem Xiyouji “Journey to the West,” and Sun Wo Kong is the inspiration for Sun Goku in Dragonball, so in a way, Dragonball is based on a Hindu god.    There is a wrinkle in our tale of Hanuman, and that's actual monkeys.  Monkeys are wild in India, like deer, racoons, and pigeons.  You might rightly surmise by the animals I've grouped them with that monkeys are routinely pests, and what pest they are.  Think about how clever a racoon is, then make it an acrobat who can understand a train schedule.  In Delhi, rhesus macaques have become a menace.  Government buildings are practically under siege.  Macaques use Delhi's tree-lined streets to swing between the buildings, damaging power lines in the process.  If you're walking around outside with food, you can almost expect to have a fight on your hands.  And you thought seagulls at the beach were bad.  Being inside is no safe bet either.  The macaques like to enter offices through open windows and destroy paperwork and generally being chaos Muppets.   There are an estimated 40,000 monkeys living in Delhi.  That is a pre-covid number, so it wouldn't surprise me if the macaques have been making hay while the sun shines.  But then I suppose you have to factor how dependent they are on robbing humans for food, in which case their numbers may have gone down during proper lock-down, though there would have been a terrifying period of too many monkeys and not enough pack lunches.  Many solutions to keep monkey and man separate have been tried and many solutions have failed.  For a time, the city employed a crack squadron of the larger black-faced langur monkeys to scare away the macaques.  It worked a treat, but the unit was disbanded after animal rights activists protested against keeping the langurs captive.  Thankfully for the workers in the area, there is no such concern for the three dozen men who are hired to pretend to be langurs.  Before you form the image in your mind, no, they're not wearing costumes, but I would pay money to see that.  They mimic the langurs' barks and howls to scare the macaques away.  Unfortunately, the monkeys return as soon as the primate-impressionists leave.   One complication, which you see in urban animal control the world over, is that people feed the macaques.  They are associated with a god, after all.  The fact that feeding the macaques is against the guidelines passed by Parliament doesn't seem to enter into it.  You also can't work on the monkey problem on Tuesdays.  That's the day Hanuman is worshipped, so all monkeys get a free pass, and a free meal, every week.  So what can be done?  In a few words, not much.  The government warns citizens not to make eye contact with the monkeys, as they interpret it as threatening, and avoid getting between a mother and child.  If you didn't go looking for trouble but it found you anyway, the official circular recommends: “Do not ever hit any monkey. Keep hitting the ground with a big stick to make [the] monkey leave.”   Bonus fact: In 2014, the government of India found that Hanuman had been issued a biometric ID card.  The card lists a mobile phone number and an address in the western state of Rajasthan.  The picture looks like it's from a painting and it's not clear whose iris scan and fingerprints were associated with the card.   MIDROLL 2 Okay, okay, we're finally going to talk about the monkey in the room.  I saved the best for last, the first name that would come to many minds if you asked them to name a monkey god, though he's not really a god, he's just incredibly powerful, or OP as the kids say, the one, the only, the triple-immortal monkey king Sun Wukong. [sfx wrestler walk-on music]  Sun Wukong is the main and most enduring character from the 500 year old novel, Journey to the West.  The 1900 page book about the 36000 mile journey starts with Sun Wukong's origin story, then sees him gather a five-man band --a pig demo, a fallen river spirit, a white dragon horse, and a regular human monk– for an epic adventure.   Sun Wukong was born from a rock on the summit of Flower Fruit Mountain and becomes king of the monkeys that live there.  He finds more than one way to make himself immortal and goes off on adventures.  The idea of living forever really appeals to Sun, so when he returns, he trains the monkeys into an army to take down the Eastern Dragon King by force, so he can take his and all monkeys' names from the Book of Life and Death, releasing them from the cycle of death and rebirth.  He then defeats some Heavenly warriors sent to capture him, gets a post in Heaven only to rage quit when he finds out it has no actual power whatsoever, returning yet again as The Great Sage Equal of Heaven, and committing a series of monkey-shines and outright crimes.  He steals quite a variety of things, including the Heavenly Empress's peaches, the dishes prepared for an important banquet, all the holy wine, and the pills of immortality created by Lao Tzu, which kicks off a war between Heaven and Flower Fruit Mountain, whoopsie-doodles.  Wu Kong is captured, but As no weapon or even lighting can scratch him, he is burnt in Lao Tzu's furnace for 49 days.  This backfires on the Jade Emperor of Heaven giving him new powers and making him really angry.  When the furnace is opened, he leaps out of it and proceeds to wreck total havoc in Heaven, fighting thousands of Heavenly soldiers by himself.  The Heavenly Emperor asks the Buddha for help, and the Buddha outwits and outperforms the egomaniacal monkey king and traps the cheeky monkey underneath the Mountain of Five Elements.  Sun Wukong stayed trapped there for 500 years, and we still haven't gotten to the journeying part of Journey to the West.   The story was not only entertainment, but effectively Buddhist propaganda.  Sun Wukong is far and away the most powerful power character in the story, more powerful than the Jade Emperor and all his armies, but he was no match for the Buddha.  It's like if you've been reading Deadpool comics for months, then suddenly Deadpool gets beaten the spirit of Bob Ross, so that you'll want to take up painting and generally be pleasant and soft-spoken and keep a squirrel in your pocket, I don't know, this analogy got away from me pretty quickly.  The story spread with the religion, as well as independent of it, becoming a touchstone throughout Asia.  In Japan, the Monkey King is known as Son Goku, for example, while in Korea his name is Son Oh Gong. The story is popular throughout the rest of Asia as well, all the way to Vietnam, Thailand, and even Malaysia and Indonesia.   So just how powerful is Sun Wukong?  How about the strongest non-omnipotent character in all of fiction?  Here are just a few of his greatest hits.  He could run “with the speed of a meteor” and cover 34,000mi/54,000km in one leap, so Superman better watch his back.  Sun Wukong carries a staff that can be as small as a pin or as big as a mountain, but always weighs 8 tons.  He can freeze people in mid-fight, not that he needs to, control the weather, and make copies of himself.  One of his abilities is called the 72 earthly transformations And that… In another myth, designed to explain their name ("tail-men" in Greek), Zeus changed the Cercopes into monkeys (from this we have the genus Cercopithecus). In still another myth, Zeus turned them to stone for trying to deceive even him, the stone was shown to visitors to Thermopylae. Acmon, companion of Diomede, insulted Aphrodite and is turned into a bird. In Greek mythology, Cercopes were two demigods brothers. They were thieves and they even attempted to steal Heracles' weapons. Zeus changed them into monkeys. This myth, inspired zoologists to name the genus of monkeys depicted in Minoan frescoes as Cercopithecus.   Sources: https://www.wilderutopia.com/environment/wildlife/howler-monkeys-among-the-maya-divine-patrons-to-the-artisans/ https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Howler_monkey_gods Hart, George (2005). The Routledge Dictionary of Egyptian Gods and Goddesses (PDF) (2nd ed.). Routledge. p. 44. ISBN 978-0-415-34495-1.  http://africancreationenergy.blogspot.com/2015/12/african-monkey-gods.html https://yokai.com/sarugami/ https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Babi_(mythology) https://symbolsage.com/sun-wukong-monkey-king/ https://symbolsage.com/three-wise-monkeys/ https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hapi_(Son_of_Horus) https://www.britannica.com/topic/Hanuman https://www.independent.co.uk/news/world/asia/monkeys-india-delhi-parliament-video-rhesus-macaques-government-offices-a8679151.html https://www.reuters.com/article/us-india-monkeys/monkeys-run-amok-in-indias-corridors-of-power-idUSKBN1OA01R https://mythopedia.com/topics/sun-wukong https://www.vbtutor.net/Xiyouji/summary.htm https://www.bbc.com/news/world-asia-india-29175870 https://www.theoi.com/Georgikos/Kerkopes.html http://www.hellenicaworld.com/Greece/Mythology/en/Cercopes.html  

2022 Marks the year of tiger in the lunar calendar. Do you know the story behind how the animals of the lunar calendar were chosen? Get cozy and listen to the legend of the Jade Emperor and the 12 animals.Remember to check out our new podcast  - Music to Our Ears - where you can sing along and learn fun facts

If I had a nickel for every story in this episode that featured a man stealing clothes from a woman and forcing her to marry him, I'd have two nickels! Which isn't a lot, but it's weird that it happened twice. In this last episode focusing on Chinese mythology, we look at an assortment tales, including the story of how the silkworm came to be, the Crane Maiden, the Wooden Bridge Inn, the Dragon King's Daughter, and my personal favorite, How Monkey Became Immortal.  Next episode: Classical Greek mythology!   Follow us on Twitter! @UlmtdOpinions

IntroductionPrincess Lieu Hanh is a cult figure worshipped by Vietnamese people. She is believed to have been created by rice farmers who were desperate for water and land. She is considered a powerful goddess and is among the four immortals of Vietnamese mythology. She holds the distinction of being one of the oldest recognised feminists.Physical TraitsThe goddess is often depicted as a beautiful and youthful woman who is dressed in simple clothes. For ceremonies and festivals she is decked up to take on the form of the princess that she is believed to be.FamilyPrincess Lieu Hanh is believed to have taken at least 2 incarnations or rebirths in Vietnamese Mythology. In the first one, she is believed to have been born to a very righteous man Le Thai Cong and his wife. Legend has it that he had a vision of a young girl who broke the favourite jade cup of the Chinese God Jade Emperor into a million pieces. As a punishment the Emperor set the girl, who was his thirteenth daughter, down to earth. When his wife gave birth, he was sure that this was the same girl in his vision and named her Giang Tien who grew up to marry and have two children. She died suddenly at the age of 21.The spirit went back to her heavenly home but soon got homesick of her time on earth and requested the Jade Emperor to let her go back resulting in her second incarnation as Princess Lieu Hanh. She married Dao Lang but returned to heaven after a short while.Other NamesShe is also known as Giang Tien , meaning “descending from heaven”.Powers And AbilitiesShe is not known to have any specific powers but had the ability to curse or bless people based on their activities.Modern Day InfluenceDespite the heavy influence of communism, traditional Vietnamese festivals are still celebrated around the country. People still hold on strongly to their traditional beliefs and she is highly revered across the country.

The conclusion of our Sun Wukong story arch. Join our email list https://legendsfromthepacific.ck.page/32ca50bd23 *We respect your privacy. We will not share your email. You can unsubscribe at any time. Theme Song: "Mystery" by Tavana, courtesy of HI*Sessions Sound Effects: Sound Effects Factory Music Coordinator: Matt Duffy AKA DJ TripleBypass Featured song: "Water" by Taimane, courtesy of HI*Sessions Link to this episode on our website https://legendsfromthepacific.com/78-monkey-king-2 Please give us a rating, write a review, subscribe, follow us, and share us with your friends and family. ***** Join our email list and claim your exclusive unaired episode today: "Hawaii's Faceless Ghost - Mujina" (Unaired Episode) https://legendsfromthepacific.ck.page/32ca50bd23 *We respect your privacy. We will not share your email. You can unsubscribe at any time. Listen to Kamu's unaired paranormal experiences by becoming a Patreon supporter today: https://www.patreon.com/legendsfromthepacific Send your unusual Pacific experience to be shared on a future episode. https://legendsfromthepacific.com/feedback  ***** Link to our website's Fan Art Section Link to send us your feedback and Asian and/or Pacific encounters ***** Instagram: legendsfromthepacific Twitter: LegendsPacific https://legendsfromthepacific.com ***** - Listen to Kamu's unaired paranormal experiences by becoming a Patreon supporter today: https://www.patreon.com/legendsfromthepacific - Send your unusual Pacific experience to be shared on a future episode. https://legendsfromthepacific.com/feedback  - Join our email list and claim your exclusive unaired episode today: "Hawaii's Faceless Ghost - Mujina" (Unaired Episode) https://legendsfromthepacific.ck.page/32ca50bd23 *We respect your privacy. We will not share your email. You can unsubscribe at any time. www.LegendsFromThePacific.com

Welcome to the WIP 12 Podcast, A podcast all about Infinity the Game with our host for this episode, Jordan and our special guest, Frank aka CptCroissant. Today we are discussing the Jade Emperor's personal forces, the Imperial Service Sectorial. Shoutout Links: Obadiah Hampton's Twitch: https://www.twitch.tv/nehemiah405 Dice Abide Twitch: https://www.twitch.tv/thediceabide Double Kitty Report: https://youtu.be/KfQMnD_A5Mo --- Send in a voice message: https://anchor.fm/wip12podcast/message

Learn the different origins of one of China's most powerful beings, how he might be a successor, and similarities to Jesus. Join our email list https://legendsfromthepacific.ck.page/32ca50bd23 *We respect your privacy. We will not share your email. You can unsubscribe at any time. Theme Song: "Mystery" by Tavana, courtesy of HI*Sessions Sound Effects: Sound Effects Factory Music Coordinator: Matt Duffy AKA DJ TripleBypass Featured song: "Restless" by Craig Chee and Sarah Maisel, courtesy of HI*Sessions Link to this episode on our website https://legendsfromthepacific.com/71-jade-emperor Please give us a rating, write a review, subscribe, follow us, and share us with your friends and family. ***** Join our email list and claim your exclusive unaired episode today: "Hawaii's Faceless Ghost - Mujina" (Unaired Episode) https://legendsfromthepacific.ck.page/32ca50bd23 *We respect your privacy. We will not share your email. You can unsubscribe at any time. Listen to Kamu's unaired paranormal experiences by becoming a Patreon supporter today: https://www.patreon.com/legendsfromthepacific Send your unusual Pacific experience to be shared on a future episode. https://legendsfromthepacific.com/feedback  ***** Link to our website's Fan Art Section Link to send us your feedback and Asian and/or Pacific encounters ***** Instagram: legendsfromthepacific Twitter: LegendsPacific https://legendsfromthepacific.com

What it's All About: It's totally different from astrology that we all learned when we first started paganism and in school. There is a story behind why Chinese Astrology is the way it is. I will talk about that, what symbol means, and more. The Spirit Guide of the Week is the Jade Emperor. The Dream Symbols are Kick and Purse Songs Featured: 1. Rats are Following by Elvenking 2. Black Snake by Pandemonean 3. Down the Rabbit Hole by Fay Brotherhood 4. Luck Is A Jade by Cynthia McQuillin 5. The Dragon by Elvendrum 6. Snake Woman by Michelle Mays 7. Dreaming Wild White Horses by Hagalaz Runedance 8. The Goat by Inkubus Sukkubus Links Mentioned: - Chinese Zodiac - History - depts.washington.edu/triolive/quest…%20years%20ago - The Origin of the Chinese Zodiac - www.thoughtco.com/origins-of-the-c…se-zodiac-687597 - Jade Emperor - en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jade_Emperor - Jade Emperor - mythopedia.com/chinese-mythology…ods/jade-emperor/ - Chinese Zodiac - www.travelchinaguide.com/intro/social…toms/zodiac/ - Chinese Zodiac - chinesenewyear.net/zodiac/ - The Great Race – Origins Of The Chinese Zodiac - immerqi.com/blog/great-race-ori…ins-chinese-zodiac/

What it's All About: It's totally different from astrology that we all learned when we first started paganism and in school. There is a story behind why Chinese Astrology is the way it is. I will talk about that, what symbol means, and more. The Spirit Guide of the Week is the Jade Emperor. The Dream Symbols are Kick and Purse Songs Featured: 1. Rats are Following by Elvenking 2. Black Snake by Pandemonean 3. Down the Rabbit Hole by Fay Brotherhood 4. Luck Is A Jade by Cynthia McQuillin 5. The Dragon by Elvendrum 6. Snake Woman by Michelle Mays 7. Dreaming Wild White Horses by Hagalaz Runedance 8. The Goat by Inkubus Sukkubus Links Mentioned: - Chinese Zodiac - History - The Origin of the Chinese Zodiac - Jade Emperor - Jade Emperor - Chinese Zodiac - Chinese Zodiac - The Great Race – Origins Of The Chinese Zodiac

☳ Last night I dreamt that I was pouring tea for Masters Bruce Lee 李振藩 and Ip Man 葉問 at an Eastwood, Sydney yum cha restaurant, while Guan Yu 關羽 looked from his alter next to the spirits cabinet that usually is behind the bar. ☵ Which is interesting because the late great Bruce Lee will very soon become one of the first American Shen worshipped formally as a god of martial arts. ☶ Like a lot of western martial artists, I have a clay statue of Bruce Lee at home (or at least of a martial artist doing one of his classic poses with a face that looks very much like him). ☰ And for a lot of us, he was and remains our first conscious link to Chinese martial arts. So love him or hate him, our prayers go out to him because I have recently noticed that he's been referred to as the Immortal Bruce Lee - Lee Siu Long Xian (李小龍仙) or Lee Siu Long Shen (李小龍神). ☷ And where Bruce Lee and his Jeet Kun Do represents the element of water in his martial arts fluidity, the next in line to be canonised most likely will have to be his shifu Ip Man, Grandmaster of Wing Chun, and the element of wood as represented by his wooden dummy and a certain sense of traditional quiet power that comes with maturity. ☱ Both fighters encompass ideals personified, for that is what a Shen is. ☲ It is an honour to have poured them tea at yum cha, even if it was merely a small dream. ☴ So, while I am not sure of it, I have a gut feeling that Bruce Lee's nature will make him better suited as an American Chinatown Guardian. Which one, I don't know for I am not the Jade Emperor. But it won't be Hong Kong. Hong Kong already has Wong Fai Hong 黃飛鴻 of Hung Gar Quan. And if they had to pick, they would choose Ip Man. Nothing personal - Just a certain degree of spiritual decorum has to be maintained until the appointed Hour of Ascension.

Gong xi fa cai! Kim has prepared a Lunar New Year special one-shot for a team of questionably prepared adventurers in The Jade Emperor's Invitation! Want to play this for yourself? Support Kim on her patreon here: https://www.patreon.com/nanosounds Support the un-homed and elderly with #kindredpacket that lasts the duration of Lunar New Year until the 26th of February 2021 here: https://www.gofundme.com/f/kindredpacket Music courtesy of Epidemic Sound.

The year 2021 is the Year of the Ox according to the animal zodiac. But what does that mean? On today's show I'll talk a little about the character of people born in this year, what to expect in 2021, and why the ox -- who should have been the first animal in the zodiac lineup -- got beaten by a rat. I also have a super special announcement. You can also find me on: Twitter: https://twitter.com/UncannyJapan Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/uncannyjapan/ Patreon: https://www.patreon.com/thersamatsuura Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/uncannyjapan/ YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCqAtoUS51HDi2d96_aLv95w Website: https://www.uncannyjapan.com/ Intro and outro music by Julyan Ray Matsuura: here. Summer Ambient Piano by Rafael Krux Link: https://filmmusic.io/song/5504-summer-ambient-piano- License: https://filmmusic.io/standard-license Chinese Dreams by MusicLFiles Link: https://filmmusic.io/song/6318-chinese-dreams License: https://filmmusic.io/standard-license Star Brightness In Dark Space by MusicLFiles Link: https://filmmusic.io/song/7210-star-brightness-in-dark-space License: https://filmmusic.io/standard-license Transcript: Pre-Intro Intro: We’re almost there and while I’m not entirely sure, I still have hope that we’ll make it to 2021. Or as some may know it: the Year of the Ox. More specifically, the year of the Yin Metal Ox. Which sounds extremely cool don’t you think? A week before Christmas I debated taking time off since, well, Christmas, and the end of the year, followed by the beginning of the year which is celebrated lengthily here in Japan. But when I asked myself if I had a couple days where I could do whatever I wanted, what would I do? My answer was: I’d write and work on another podcast. So here I am. In today’s show I’m going to talk a little about Ox Years in general, the coming Ox year and why the curiously self aware Ox should have been first in the animal zodiac lineup, but lost to a rat. Also, I’m excited to finally be able to tell you about a new podcast I’m starting. Yes, I’ve hinted about it here a little bit as I was lining up my various ducks. And while they’re not in lock step yet — nothing ever is, is it —  I can safely say the show is going to launch in January. Who what where when why how? You ask. All those questions and more I’ll answer in like, twenty seconds. Intro: Hey hey, I hope this last episode in 2020 finds you safe and well and looking forward to the upcoming year. I know I am. Not that I expect everything to magically get better. I don’t. But I am looking forward to 2021 and let me tell you one big reason why. New Show - The Soothing Stories Podcast: I’m starting a new podcast. Okay, so this is what happened. During these four years and 67 episodes of my darling Uncanny Japan, I’ve been incredibly fortunate to get to talk with and hear from quite a few of you. And through all of that, I think I’ve stumbled across a mild, some might say lame, superpower. That is people tend to get sleepy listening to me talk. Interesting. I mean, I literally have walked into a room where my audio guy, Rich Pav, was sitting in front of the computer, doing the sound for one of the shows, head back, snoring, sound asleep. And truth is even I have found myself dozing off listening to an episode while doing the first round edits, so there might just be something there. Not a superpower, you say. Well, you’re right. Not yet. But, add to that the fact that I love writing, reading, and discovering great stories. I’ve also got on my team an amazing audio technician, Rich Pav; and a super talented sound and music guy, Julyan Ray, add to that one more ingredient, people are really stressed out and anxious these days. I know I am. So after realizing that, my brilliant idea clobbered me. How about making a high quality, magical with headphones, immersive, story telling show? It’s called Soothing Stories Podcast and it’ll be me (or Rich Pav because he also has a really nice deep voice) reading classic tales, known and little known, that we love and want to share with you. Our goal is to help you our listeners disengage from the stresses of the day, the world, and escape to another place and time. Even if only for a little bit. Soothing Stories Podcast will launch on January 27th, which just happens to be the date, four years ago, that I joined Patreon and stood up as a writer and podcast creator. And speaking of patreon, I’ll be putting the intro-less and ad-less versions of the new podcast up there for $5 and up tiers. So for all current and new patrons, you’ll still get all the regular Uncanny Japan benefits, the folktale and binaural recordings, plus on top of that this extra content. This show right here, Uncanny Japan will continue unchanged. So no worries there. And that’s what we’ve been working on and I’m really excited about. Year of the Ox - When and Who: Okay, let’s get a little woo woo and talk about cows. As per the animal zodiac or Chinese Zodiac, called eto in Japanese, the coming year, 2021, is the year of the Yin Metal Ox. And let me tell you about the year of the ox, but first,  a quick brush up, Ox years are 1937, 1949, 1961, 1973, 1985, 1997, 2009, or will be born in 2021. And some famous people who were born in the year of the Ox: Barack Obama, Vincent Van Gogh, Pol Pot, Walt Disney, Malala, George Clooney, BB King, Malcolm X, Robert Capa, Peter Jackson, Louis Armstrong, and Princess Diana to name a few. But really what does the list mean? Just hearing these well known people’s names doesn’t give you any idea as to what kind of character or personality Year of the Ox people are believed to have. So this is what they say: Year of the Ox Personality: Those born in the year of the ox are hard and determined workers. Persistent. They are patient, faithful, honest and will no doubt achieve their goals because of their consistent effort. However, Ox-Yeared People tend to work at their own pace, and can be stubborn. Just like a cow that chews its cud, those born in this year think carefully about everything before acting. They won’t do anything unless they fully understand what’s involved and make sure they have all their steps in order to reach their goal thought out before they act. Ox People focus on what is real and concrete and do not get lost in illusions. This, also, means that once they decide something they are not easily swayed by other people’s opinions and might not listen to advice. They like to stay low key, don’t ask for praise, and are not necessarily good communicators. That said, they have gentle personalities, have good minds, are good listeners, and are very lovely to family and friends. 2021 - What Kind of Year?: Okay, that’s all about Ox Born People, what about 2021? It seems the idea here is that success will come to those who work hard, very, very hard. Also, the ox being the slowest of the zodiac animals, it means that in a year of the ox, you should proceed steadily, slowly, carefully, step by step. Being the second animal in zodiac, the image is of the seed planted last year in the Year of the Rat, has just begun to sprout. You shouldn’t expect big results just yet, but keep building a firm foundation. Work diligently and steadfastly and quietly towards your goal or dream. Problems are solved with discipline. It’s also a good year to focus on relationships, family, friends, partners. But I’m pretty sure that is good advice every year. Story of Year of the Ox in Zodiac: Now, what’s this about the cow’s position in the zodiac. There are several versions of this story, but here’s one. A very, very long time ago the Jade Emperor decided he wanted 12 animals to be his guards and to be symbols for a 12 year cycle. He put out the word to all the animals in the world. The day of the race, the cow or ox, knowing he was slow, decided to leave super early. As did the rat. Well, the rat made it to a river and stopped. He had no way to get across. He waited, trying to figure out how to cross when he spotted the ox hoofing it along. The rat jumped into his ear to hitch a ride across the water. The ox was cool with it though. He was a nice guy. Enjoying the ride, the rat stay on until they finally reached the Heavenly Gate. They had made it before all the other animals. But just before the ox stepped across, the rat crawled out of his ear and leapt forward, beating the Ox. So then the rat is the first animal of the zodiac, the ox second. Anyway, it’s fun to imagine a metal yin ox representing 2021 to slowly plod in, pick us all up, and carry us to a better place. Of course, not without our hard work and disciplin it seems. So this is it. The last show of the year. I’ll talk to ya’ll next year, in two weeks. And if you like stories in general, not necessarily Japan related, and would like to relax to those, the Soothing Stories Podcast will be launching January 27th. Remember to eat your soba or some other long, non chewy noodle on New Year’s Eve, and continue to stay safe and well. Here’s to a better, no, a great year of the Metal Ox. Yoi otoshi wo！ ( 良いお年を ！)!

Well, it has finally happened. I have died and come back. And through it all, I just kept on playing the game with my American opponent. One move per day: One black stone for him and one white stone for me. Now, I didn't actually die but an attempt to shut the game down was made. It came from a source that on one level had nothing to do with the game, yet the signs were there in hindsight. So now you, dear listener, must be wondering what's so special about the game we are playing? On the surface, to that question, the answer is nothing. But on a deeper level, the game represents a world in which that source (I'm referring too) has been eliminated by the fact that they just don't exist and therefore are irrelevant. This may seem totally ridiculous and not worth trying to shut the game down for, but imagine a world in which your whole idea of the game, for example, revolves around The Middle Kingdom and who controls it. And then, all of a sudden - POOF! The Middle Kingdom is no longer in the middle. If your frame of reference no longer exists as an ongoing concern, what then? What should have happened was to relearn the game and not live off the coat tails of previous sages. Instead, what did happen was that nobody was allowed to play the game on home ground. And so nobody did or does. Which is in the game of weiqi how you lose stones: Surround and capture. One moment a group of stones exist on the board, and then, in the next moment they no longer exist. Sucked straight out of the game's reality and into the basket of no return. Except of course, if you play by the rules of “Upper Management”. These so called Shen or spirit stones have a habit of dying off the weiqi board and then reappearing somewhere else to fuck up whatever strategy or tactic was in motion. These Shen or spirit stones exist so that The Middle Kingdom does not stagnate and die from isolation. They move and act by the paradigms that only the Jade Emperor can elect. No earthly governance can force Heaven's Will. So when a game of weiqi has begun, it must be allowed to play itself out to its own conclusion; least the ramifications be manifested in the physical (jurisdiction) ⚔️圍棋戰聖 Follow on Insta: @baguazhang_

Today, I tell you a little about a deity called The Jade Emperor and the part he played in forming the Chinese Zodiac!  Sources: yourchineseastrology.com, topmarks.co.uk/ChineseNewYear, mythopedia.com, blog.pachamama.orgMusic:"Elf Meditation" Kevin MacLeod (incompetech.com)Licensed under Creative Commons: By Attribution 4.0 Licensehttp://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/Strength Of The Titans by Kevin MacLeod  Link: https://incompetech.filmmusic.io/song/5744-strength-of-the-titans License: http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/Follow me on Facebook and Instagram. Email me comments and suggestion at mythologiepodcast@gmail.com 

When the Jade Emperor decides to create a zodiac, he organizes a big race for all the animals to run. Whoever wins will get to represent a year in the zodiac! The cat decides she wants to win, even if it means being mean to her friend the rat. But how will the rat feel about that?Draw us a picture of what you think any of the characters in this story look like, and then tag us in it on instagram @storiespodcast! We'd love to see your artwork and share it on our feed!!If you would like to support Stories Podcast, you can subscribe and give us a five star review on iTunes, head to patreon.com/stories and pledge to make a monthly donation, check out our merch at storiespodcast.com/shop, follow us on Instagram @storiespodcast, or just tell your friends about us! Thank you!!

在这个故事里，我们学5个单词1、southern 南的、南方的2、stream 小溪3、gibbon 长臂猿4、shrug 耸肩5、cliff 悬崖 steep cliff 陡峭的悬崖专有名词1、Jade Emperor 玉皇大帝2、Cloud Palace in Heaven 天宫3、the Fruit and Flower Mountain 花果山

在这个故事里，我们学5个单词1、southern 南的、南方的2、stream 小溪3、gibbon 长臂猿4、shrug 耸肩5、cliff 悬崖 steep cliff 陡峭的悬崖专有名词1、Jade Emperor 玉皇大帝2、Cloud Palace in Heaven 天宫3、the Fruit and Flower Mountain 花果山

Discover the stories behind the traditions of Chinese New Year. Learn about the Jade Emperor, Stove or Kitchen God, how to identify the three things that name a year, which years might be challenging for you, the Lantern Festival, red envelopes, and how Terry Pratchett's Discworld is connected with this annual celebration. Sound Effects: Sound Effects Factory Music Coordinator: Matt Duffy AKA DJ TripleBypass Theme Song: "Mystery" by Tavana, courtesy of HI*Sessions. Featured Song: "E O Mai" by Keali'i Reichel, courtesy of HI*Sessions. If you enjoyed this show, please rate, review and share us with your friends and family. Instagram: legendsfromthepacific https://www.instagram.com/legendsfromthepacific Twitter: LegendsPacific https://twitter.com/LegendsPacific Don't forget to subscribe and visit our website www.legendsfromthepacific.com.

Jan Krems, President of United Cargo, is ready for take-off in 2020. Jan Krems at United Cargo is compelling and simply irresistible. Right now, despite the challenges and the gloom and doom predicted, United Cargo, while not immune by any means to these economic trends, continues to outperform everyone else in the U.S. air cargo business. It is almost as if the stars lined up above Willis Tower at the Chicago headquarters for United Cargo. As 2020 begins with the glimmer of a rebound in business, this native of Oss, Netherlands, is on top of the world. “We have really great people, we continue to add more, and we’ve made a few simple, yet vital changes in the way we work together,” Jan says, barely concealing his passion and enthusiasm. “Once United Cargo had people in what I call separate silos. Everyone did their jobs, but their tasks were made more difficult by the way different groups interpreted overall strategies and a tendency to focus on local objectives. China Pandemic Meantime World Health Organization (WHO) continued reports accelerated numbers of people that have been stricken by that widely reported coronavirus outbreak centered in Wuhan City China. Wuhan , a transportation hub, also known as the Pittsburgh of China, is home to 11 million , more people than live in New York City. Animals At Lunar New Year Chinese New Year, also known as Lunar New Year and Spring Festival (to be inclusive of the East Asian diaspora that is not Chinese) began on January 25, 2020. It is the year of the Rat. The Rat occupies the first position in the Chinese zodiac. The story of how he earned that position has many versions, but they all center around a mythical race hosted by the Jade Emperor. --- Support this podcast: https://anchor.fm/geoffrey-arend/support

Born from a stone egg atop a mountain, the magical Monkey King stops at nothing to learn the secrets to immortality. As his strength grows, he proves a challenge for the heavens—forcing the Jade Emperor and Buddah himself to teach this irresponsible monkey a lesson.

After getting caught red-handed for stealing the Queen Mother's peaches, harassment and drinking on the job (but mainly for stealing those peaches), heaven’s forces give the Monkey King a choice: surrender, or war? Naturally, newly-fired peach guardian the Monkey King chooses open rebellion instead of accepting punishment. Is there nobody in the universe strong enough to bring ol’ Monkey to justice?   While the Jade Emperor sends for a monster-subduing specialist, heaven’s ‘John Wick’, the god Erlang, the Boddhisattva of Mercy, Guanyin got her own staff-swinging disciple, Moksa! Can he succeed where his brother, Nata, failed?   This week, Richard and James meet The Little Sage and witness more transformations than a Michael Bay blockbuster—don’t miss it!

After the Monkey King, Sun Wukong, literally sent Deus Ex Machina packing last week by thrashing the two minor gods sent to take his soul, we're introduced to heaven's favorite civil servant, the wily Gold Star of Venus.   Who is this divine bureaucrat and will his plan to tame Wukong with a job working for the kingdom above work? What exactly is a BanHorse and what does he do?    This week, Richard and James explore the heavenly kingdoms of ancient China, discover the nature of its ruler the Jade Emperor's power, and watch as the world's most powerful monkey throws a tantrum worthy of any self-entitled millennial, even getting his bosses to give him a job title of his own making! (Thankfully, the words "ninja", "rockstar" or "guru" aren't in it.)   Tune in this week to find out how Monkey gets himself a promotion!

This episode was recorded at Storyfest Singapore in June 2019, where I was fortunate enough to see a group of young storytellers perform. The group had been mentored by festival organiser and legendary storyteller Kamini Ramachandran, and it was such a pleasure for me to see young people taking up the art of storytelling and doing so with passion, grace and skill. Charlotte was part of that group. She and I got talking over our welcome dinner and thankfully she agreed to tell a story for House of Legends! The story tells the origin of the Kitchen Gods, or Tao Quan. These gods were traditionally an important part of every Vietnamese household, and even have a day dedicated to them - the 23rd day of the last month of the lunar calendar. On the day they report what they have seen to the Jade Emperor. It was fascinating to hear Charlotte talk about how her mother would make offerings to the Kitchen Gods while she was growing up.You can follow Charlotte at @_charlotteelizabeth on Instagram, and catch her storytelling at events across Singapore.

Full (bilingual) episode transcript here.What do you do when the Jade Emperor decides to burn your village? Today’s story features a furious Jade Emperor, a compassionate princess, a beautiful crane…and lots and lots of lanterns! This is the Legend of the Lantern Festival! ABOUT THE SHOW:Panda Cub Stories (熊猫宝宝故事会) is a bilingual children’s podcast with a big vision: to help raise multilingual and multicultural children through storytelling! In season one, we are making our way through well known tales (and some lesser known stories) of Chinese mythology. Join Panda Cub as she dives into the seas of dragon kings and explores Jade palaces in the sky! FOLLOW PANDA! https://www.pandacubstories.com/subscribe/ SCRIPT SOURCES:http://www.chineseamericanfamily.com/holiday-guides/https://web.archive.org/web/20150929003004/http://news.xinhuanet.com/ziliao/2010-02/20/content_13013374_1.htmhttps://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lantern_Festival#Origin_legendsNian monster: https://baike.baidu.com/item/年兽/1558021?fromtitle=年&fromid=5455888Cranes in mythology: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Crane_in_Chinese_mythology玉女：http://www.chinaknowledge.de/History/Myth/personsyunv.htmlChristie, Anthony (1968). Chinese Mythology. Feltham: Hamlyn Publishing.Yang, Lihui, et al.(2005). Handbook of Chinese Mythology. New York: Oxford University Press. Li Jianping 李劍平, ed. (1998). Zhongguo shenhua renwu cidian中國神話人物辞典(Xi'an : Shanxi renmin chubanshe), 144.Luo Zhufeng 羅竹風, ed. (1989). Hanyu da cidian漢語大詞典(Beijing: Hanyu da cidian chubanshe), Vol. 4, 471.Shi Xuanyuan 施宣圓et al., ed. (1987). Zhongguo wenhua cidian中國文化辭典(Shanghai: Shanghai shehui kexue yuan chubanshe), 1068.Xia Zhengnong 夏征農, ed. (2002). Cihai辭海(Shanghai: Shanghai cishu chubanshe), Vol. 4, 2613.Archers in Chinese warfare: https://www.ancient.eu/article/1144/archers-in-ancient-chinese-warfare/History of nets: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fishing_net#HistoryCranes, preening behavior: https://journeynorth.org/tm/crane/migr_prep_preen.htmlLANTERN CRAFT: http://www.chineseamericanfamily.com/trimming-the-tree-with-chinese-lanterns/SOUNDSPanda Cub Stories jingle: C.S. Brown*********Dark Tension Rising - Mattia Cupelli - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-zvQoPyY2XE*********All other sounds from the iMovie music library, or YouTube LibraryPRODUCTION CREDITS:Writer/producer: Linda Yi Chinese translation: Zoe (竻竻) DuLanguage/Literacy Advisor: Kevin Wong See acast.com/privacy for privacy and opt-out information.

Full (bilingual) episode transcript here.What do you do when the Jade Emperor decides to burn your village? Today’s story features a furious Jade Emperor, a compassionate princess, a beautiful crane…and lots and lots of lanterns! This is the Legend of the Lantern Festival! ABOUT THE SHOW:Panda Cub Stories (熊猫宝宝故事会) is a bilingual children’s podcast with a big vision: to help raise multilingual and multicultural children through storytelling! In season one, we are making our way through well known tales (and some lesser known stories) of Chinese mythology. Join Panda Cub as she dives into the seas of dragon kings and explores Jade palaces in the sky! FOLLOW PANDA! https://www.pandacubstories.com/subscribe/ SCRIPT SOURCES:http://www.chineseamericanfamily.com/holiday-guides/https://web.archive.org/web/20150929003004/http://news.xinhuanet.com/ziliao/2010-02/20/content_13013374_1.htmhttps://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lantern_Festival#Origin_legendsNian monster: https://baike.baidu.com/item/年兽/1558021?fromtitle=年&fromid=5455888Cranes in mythology: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Crane_in_Chinese_mythology玉女：http://www.chinaknowledge.de/History/Myth/personsyunv.htmlChristie, Anthony (1968). Chinese Mythology. Feltham: Hamlyn Publishing.Yang, Lihui, et al.(2005). Handbook of Chinese Mythology. New York: Oxford University Press. Li Jianping 李劍平, ed. (1998). Zhongguo shenhua renwu cidian中國神話人物辞典(Xi'an : Shanxi renmin chubanshe), 144.Luo Zhufeng 羅竹風, ed. (1989). Hanyu da cidian漢語大詞典(Beijing: Hanyu da cidian chubanshe), Vol. 4, 471.Shi Xuanyuan 施宣圓et al., ed. (1987). Zhongguo wenhua cidian中國文化辭典(Shanghai: Shanghai shehui kexue yuan chubanshe), 1068.Xia Zhengnong 夏征農, ed. (2002). Cihai辭海(Shanghai: Shanghai cishu chubanshe), Vol. 4, 2613.Archers in Chinese warfare: https://www.ancient.eu/article/1144/archers-in-ancient-chinese-warfare/History of nets: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fishing_net#HistoryCranes, preening behavior: https://journeynorth.org/tm/crane/migr_prep_preen.htmlLANTERN CRAFT: http://www.chineseamericanfamily.com/trimming-the-tree-with-chinese-lanterns/SOUNDSPanda Cub Stories jingle: C.S. Brown*********Dark Tension Rising - Mattia Cupelli - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-zvQoPyY2XE*********All other sounds from the iMovie music library, or YouTube LibraryPRODUCTION CREDITS:Writer/producer: Linda Yi Chinese translation: Zoe (竻竻) DuLanguage/Literacy Advisor: Kevin Wong See acast.com/privacy for privacy and opt-out information.

Today we will talk about one of the highest-ranking god in Taoism. He is the Jade Emperor. Support us on Patreon: https://www.patreon.com/chimythcast We really appreciate each of you who listen, subscribe and share our podcast. If you are able, please support us on Patreon which keeps us telling more stories!

Chinese New Year/ Spring Festival 春节 The 12 Zodiac Animals 12生肖 The Year of Pig 猪年 Jade Emperor 玉帝 red pockets 压岁钱 Spring Festival couplet poems 春联

☰ Dong Hai Chuan 董海川 is the founder of modern Baguazhang 八卦掌. From him all forms of Baguazhang (recognised and unrecognised) stem from. And while only scant evidence remains of his life that can be documented, he was a lifelong tea 茶 drinker. ☷ This is most strikingly revealed through Baguazhang's teacup exercise. This exercise builds "fluidity in motion", while promoting "calmness within the liquid vortex". It takes lots and lots of dedicated practice to get good at the exercise. And is a humble reminder that as martial artists we are here to serve others 侍: Whether it be a prince above us or the people below us. ☵ In all my acts I strive as best I can to humbly remember this. Even when I have to really slow down and meditate with a cup of tea beside me, because the realization of my thought gets too much: We are all disciples of Master Dong Hai Chuan. ☲ This is where my own path or Tao 道 has led me. For in the walking of the Tao 道, I see as I practice Tea Time equals Me Time, that I have been on this Baguazhang journey for far longer than actually doing Baguazhang itself. Some things are "obvious" 陽 like doing the I-Ching since I was 15 years old. And some things "not so obvious" 陰 like being a waiter or bartender in my earlier years. ☳ The relationship to Dong Hai Chuan is that in being in service to his lord, he was also a waiter. And it was through serving food to others without spilling was how he got noticed. ☶ The second example relates to a little known story outside of China, that goes (in brief)... Once upon a time, up in heaven, three masters were merrily drinking tea and philosophising on the Way of Kung Fu 功夫道. One of the three masters was Master Dong. All three knew the way; they all had lived it, experienced it. But it had been six hundred years or so, since they had last walked the earth and were keen to find out how things were going on down there. ☴ So with the Jade Emperor's permission, the three masters re-entered this world. From birth to death they lived. And when they returned to heaven, the Jade Emperor asked of their accounts. To which they replied: When we entered the earth, the world was covered in banners. Some follow the way, some do not. Some say they do, but they remain in the material, hence gravity has power over their souls. There is no right nor wrong in what they do. It's just going to take some longer to get here than others. ☱ The Jade Emperor took account of their deeds and in the end, while they drank tea together, asked Master Dong: Knowing all this, was the journey worth it? To which Master Dong replied on behalf of the other two masters: "It was a wonderful holiday". Liked what you heard & want to connect with me? Join me at… linkedin.com/in/peterhainzl/

Happy Year of the Dog! To celebrate we are journeying to the East, to bring to you the Journey to the West! We start this epic saga like the Chinese myth itself, with the Stone Monkey, the Handsome Monkey King, the Demon Monkey King, the Keeper of the Heavenly Horses, the Great Sage Equal to Heaven, the... You get it. Sun Wukong, he who is awakened to emptiness and immortal AF. He will defy the Jade Emperor, Dragons, Heaven and Hell, Lao Tzu, the enlightened Gautama Buddha himself, and he'll even duke it out with the lead singer of Third Eye Blind, Erlang Shen! Listening, subscribing, and giving us them good, good Apple Podcast ratings will grant you one ticket to Immortalfest 2018! Coming soon to the heavens near you! Drunk Mythology is a podcast created by Krista and Christian, recounting the feats and failures of world Mythology, with a few drinks along the way.

 Long ago, in ancient China, there were four magnificent Dragons: the Long Dragon, the Black Dragon, the Pearl Dragon, and the Yellow Dragon.  They lived in palaces under the only sea in China.One day, they emerged from the Sea to fly high above the clouds to see the beautiful world from above.  The Pearl Dragon heard the voices of the people and called upon his brothers to hear them. He heard them crying and praying desperately for help.An old woman held a young child close and cried, “Please bring us rain, so that our crops won’t die! We are starving, and if we don’t eat soon, we’ll also die!”The dragons felt sympathy for the people and decided to ask the Jade Emperor, the supreme ruler of Heaven and Earth, to send rain to them, but when they went to ask the great Emperor, he became angry that the dragons disturbed his fun.  He had been enjoying a performance and was enthralled at the beauty of a fairy dance that he was watching.The dragons respectfully asked for the rain to be sent for the people, to which the king replied, “Go back to your palace, and I will send them rain tomorrow.”  The dragons were happy, so they complied. The Emperor, however, forgot about their request as soon as they left, as he got lost in watching the beautiful performance.After 10 days had passed, the dragons ventured out again, only to find that the people were even more desperate than before.  They were so hungry that they had to resort to eating bark from the trees, roots, and clay.The dragons despaired for the people and felt anguish for having an Emperor that cared more about his selfish pleasure than about the people he ruled.That’s when the Black Dragon remarked, “I wish there was a way that we can help them.”The Long Dragon had an idea.  He said let’s scoop up water from the sea and spray it into the clouds.  Surely, it will fall back to the Earth as rain and save the people?”His brothers agreed, but the Long Dragon warned that the Emperor may be angry with them for overstepping their bounds.  The other dragons were not deterred and agreed that they’d do anything for the people.The Black Dragon said, “Let’s begin brothers”, and they took large mouthfuls of the sea water and sprayed it into the clouds, and the rain fell on the land.  The people rejoiced as the grass grew green again and the crops became fertile and thrived.  The dragons were overjoyed.Their joy was not to last long, however, as the Sea God became angry that they had stolen a large amount of his water, so he went to complain to the Jade Emperor.The Jade Emperor was livid and stormed, “How could they bring rain without my permission!?!?”He used powerful magic and ordered his Generals to capture the dragons.  They managed to outnumber and overwhelm them, and the dragons were helpless to escape.The Sea God was commanded to bring four mountains to place on top of them so that they’d never be able to escape again.The Dragons never forgot their love for the people though and decided to turn themselves into rivers that would never let the people thirst again, and these rivers run through the valleys and fields and run into the Sea, thus becoming the four rivers of China.  The Heilongjiang, or Black Dragon, flows through the North. The Huanghe, or Yellow River, flows through Central China. The Changjiang, or Long River, flows through Southern China. And finally, the Zhujiang or Pearl Ri

I was checking out Pham Ngu Lao and Bo Vien known as the backpacker center. I normally like exploring and photographing less touristy areas of a city but it never hurts to be familiar with places where you’re more likely to meet up with fellow travelers and exchange stories, suggestions and tips. I was on my way to Ben Thanh Market, another lively and well-known part of the city. Actually most of Ho Chi Minh City is lively. In fact pretty much all of it is. The constant buzz from the hundreds of thousands of motorbikes that race the streets fuels what looks like to the uninitiated, pure chaos. But for the most part, it seems to work. There’s lots of ways of getting around Ho Chi Minh City, or as many of the locals still call it, Saigon. It’s not for everyone, but when it wasn’t raining I found myself hopping on the back of a motorbike taxi ordered using an app. Safe, convenient, and courteous drivers only interested in getting you safely to your destination with fair pricing. The original Ben Thanh market area was established in the 16th century by local street vendors and eventually was organized by the French into a more formal setting in the mid 1800’s. The current location was established in 1912 with a renovation completed in 1985. Even though the market closes at 6pm every night it’s still a great gathering spot with lots of people hanging out, eating and socializing. A night market opens up just outside Ben Thanh right after the indoor market closes. Ben Thanh Market is a great place to see what people eat, and shop for in Saigon, but be aware these prices are set high for naive tourists and hard bargaining. Personally I love looking at stuff here, the giant stacks of clothes, souvenirs and massive containers heaped with dried fruit and nuts, candies, and coffee and tea sellers around everycorner. The displays are amazing and enticing, but I tend to shop in non-touristy neighborhoods where they’re not accustomed to foreigners and it’s easier to bargain. Because most people that work here speak pretty good English communication is easier. If you’re pressed for time and want to shop at Ben Thanh Market, look at everything with disinterest, and bargain hard. The food and drinks at the stalls are tasty and the prices are pretty fair for a high traffic area. Ho Chi Minh City is divided into 24 districts, but there’s really only 7 that you are likely to find yourself in. This is District 1-which is Saigon proper. It’s where you’ll find most of the major sites. From Ben Thanh Market there’s lots of places to see within a 15 minute walk, like the Opera House, The Old City Hall, major shopping malls, historic hotels with rooftop bars, and more. It’s also where the War Remnants Museum is located. This is one of the most visited museums in Saigon with an estimated 500,000 guests per year, mostly foreigners. Although some may find this a one-sided exhibit it does show in very real displays the atrocities of war. On the grounds there are various leftover U.S. military aircraft and equipment including tanks, bulldozers, and howitzers. As well as a large format black and white photograph of a mangrove appearing to have been destroyed by the use of chemicals. In another building on the grounds a display includes the infamous “tiger cages” used by the South Vietnamese to contain VC soldiers. Inside, the two floors, formerly the United States Information Agency Building, are various displays of weapons and bombs used during the Vietnam War.. There are also exhibits relating to the first Indochina War with French Colonists. And a poignant display of all of the international press photographers that were killed during the war. Although some will find many of the exhibits biased, the overall tone of this museum has softened over time. Once called the Exhibition House for US and Puppet Crimes, later the name changed to Exhibition House for Crimes of War and Aggression and then once diplomatic relations with the U.S. were reestablished in 1995, the name changed again to The War Remnants Museum. On the other side of town a visit to The Jade Emperor Pagoda is one of the most atmospheric temple experiences in Ho Chi Minh City. It’s considered one of the five most important shrines of the area. Taoism was introduced to Vietnam by the Chinese during their thousand year-old occupation along with Buddhism and Confuciunism. By stats Vietnam is considered one of the least religious countries in the world. However those numbers could be deceiving as many Vietnamese will claim they are non-religious to be a member of the Communist party but in fact do visit temples and worship ancestors. Turtles are a sign of longevity. They are a symbol you will see frequently in temples throughout Vietnam. The Jade Emperor Temple has a pond full of live turtles, some with auspicious sayings painted on their shells. Feeding the turtles is considered part of a merit making visit to the temple. The new Chinese name of the temple translates to Lucky Sea Temple or Tortoise Pagoda. It is clearly a mixed denominational temple of Buddhism and Taoism. U.S. President Barack Obama paid a visit to the temple May 22nd, 2016 during his state visit to Vietnam. As you enter the main sanctuary Buddhist and Taoist deities surround you with two giant generals to the right and left. The combination of incense smoke and laser beams of light entering through the ceiling further enhances the power all of the deities seem to wield, especially the Jade Emperor himself. In another room through a corridor the Chief of Hell awaits you. On the walls there’s wood-carved depictions of the various punishments that evil doers will receive in The Ten Regions of Hell. The City God is also found in this room with many worshippers paying him a visit. His hat reads, “at one glance, money is given”. The final room, some refer to as the “women lounge” is where 12 female figures sit that represent the good and bad of human nature. The bad displayed in this figure drinking alcohol from a jug. The Goddess of fertility Kim Hua, presides overall. Childless couples visit here frequently to pray for offspring. Ho Chi Minh City is a megalopolis of contrasts, new and old, traditional culture and modern shopping, pleasant sites, friendly faces and reminders of the dark days of despair and war. In my opinion it’s one of the most vibrant, exciting, and rapidly changing cities in Asia and I can’t wait to share more.

Ho Chi Minh City, Vietnam, or Saigon a name still used by many of it's residents is full of history, culture, amazing nightlife, and a city that's modernizing rapidly. On my most recent visit the skyline was noticeably filled with cranes atop new buildings and an underground subway under construction. With shopping malls everywhere including a brand new "Saigon Center" and a flagship Japanese department store as it's main tenant, you might conclude that the city is losing some of it's historic charm. Not the case at all. There are still plenty of beautiful French colonial buildings, palaces and historic sites to satisfy the fiercest culture vulture. Cholon in District 5, the largest "Chinatown" in the world is full of atmospheric pagodas, outdoor markets and old streets selling traditional Chinese medicine remedies. District 1 is where most of the historic and iconic landmarks and buildings that Ho Chi Minh City is famous for, including the General Post Office, Notre Dame Cathedral and the Opera House. In disrict 1 bordering District 3 you'll find one of the city's most treasured temples, The Jade Emperor Pagoda. In Taoism, the Jade Emperor is the God of Gods, the King of Heaven, or Ngoc Hoang. The pagoda is set on some very humble grounds, with a pool filled with carp or koi and a turtle pond. I made a trip to the Jade Emperor Pagoda on my most recent visit to Ho Chi Minh City and was thoroughly taken in by it's wonderful interior with sun rays casting beautiful light onto the many dieties worshipped by followers. Join me for a tour through HCMC's Jade Emperor Pagoda from a previous Far East Adventure Travel "live" broadcast. Getting there:https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jade_Emperor_Pagoda

Film director Pou-Soi Cheang, producer Liu Xiaoguang and actor Hai Yitian attended the premiere. The film is adapted from the first of eight chapters of the classical Chinese novel "Journey to the West" written by Wu Cheng'en in the 16th century. The film mainly tells the story of the Monkey King, played by Donnie Yen, who is determined to be a celestial being, as he tries to learn the skill of making the dead come back to life and rebels against the Jade Emperor of Heaven after being seduced by demons. Director Cheang expressed his gratitude to IMAX and his excitement towards his new film. "It should present a different visual effect to audiences. Just now, we mentioned that 3D effects make audiences feel as if there is no screen. With IMAX, the effects are better. It makes the audience more involved in the film. What's more, I want to express my thanks to IMAX for truly presenting my original imaginations and all the pictures. I am really moved that when I was busy with the post-production of the film and wasn't able to go to the U.S., my fellow colleague adjusted each scene of film with IMAX. He told me that it felt totally different and what you wanted to see have been realized in IMAX 3D. So I'm excited and hope movie goers could spend a bit more money to see the IMAX 3D version of the film. " The film stars Donnie Yen, Aaron Kwok, Chow Yun-fat, Peter Ho, Hai Yitian and Xia Zitong. Donnie Yen plays the leading role of Monkey King and Chow Yun-fat plays the role of the Jade Emperor. Commenting on the two famous film stars, film director Cheung said they did an amazing job. "Maybe the Jade Emperor played by Chou Yun-fat is different from the one you imagined. But that role features characteristics of Chou. If another actor played the role, I would not be able to imagine it like this. This time he just holds a sword and becomes a huge dragon. At the time of filming I was not sure about the final effect but it turned out to be great. The two merge into a whole. I thank him a lot. As for Donnie Yen, I could feel his efforts when making the film every day. Every time I saw him act, I knew what I am filming is about the Monkey King. He makes one feel as if he was the Monkey King." Films or TV series about the Monkey King have been made many times before. Liu Xiaoguang, producer of the film told the press that thanks to modern technology, the visual effects are much better in their new film. "To make it straight, the most difficult thing when presenting the image of Monkey King is to separate him from gravity. Before, actors turned somersaults and later they adopted rope wire. The film 'The Monkey King: Havoc in the Heavenly Palace,' actually makes use of modern digital picture technology and separates actors from gravity." The film is to hit screens on January 31st in China and many other countries and regions.

Happy New Year! That's a bit late for American listeners, but it's a little early for Chinese listeners. Because Chinese New Year (aka Lunar New Year) is celebrated this year on Jan. 23 (Year of the Dragon). The exact date varies considerably from year to year (It will be Feb. 10 next year.) because it's based on a different calendar system. Anyway, the dragons knew when to come visit us, just in time for Dragon Appreciation Day (Jan. 16th) - all four of them, appearing in our Chinese story "The Four Dragons", which we even named after them. Being skittish around dragons because of their more sinister character in Western folklore, we wouldn't dare not name it after them. It's a tale about how four dragons in very ancient times tried to persuade the Jade Emperor (the supreme god of ancient Chinese folklore) to send water to earth because the people were enduring a terrible drought. We come to you from Myrtle Beach, SC, where we spent a day chasing and battling a dragon at MagiQuest, an interactive electronic fantasy adventure that you just have to see for yourself sometime. There are many different quests and adventures you can go on, collecting (virtual) objects with the aid of your magic wand, which you get to take home with you. It's like helping to create and act in your own fairy tale. Gung Hay Fat Choy! Dennis (Yellow Dragon, Black Dragon, Jade Emperor, Farmer, Earth People) and Kimberly (Narrator, Pearl Dragon, Long Dragon, Earth People, Guard) Read Along - Now you can read the story while you listen Stitcher - enter promo code "storytellers" to support A!S and for a chance to win $100 More about National Appreciate a Dragon Day