10 Mind-Blowing Chinese Gods and Their Origins

[Applause] ten Chinese gods and their origins hey guys kocha here today we're going to look at ten Chinese gods and their origins more specifically we'll look at the powers they're held and the roles they played in Chinese mythology the best thing about Chinese mythology is that it features gods spirits and other deities from three different belief systems Confucianism Taoism and Buddhism this multifaceted starting point has created over 200 gods and that's just counting the main ones I had to narrow it down a little so this episode wouldn't be around 200 minutes long so let's look at 10 Chinese gods and their origins number one in the beginning there was nothing wait sorry different religion in the beginning there was a giant cosmic egg inside of which grew a harried dwarf except he wasn't a dwarf he was actually a giant it's confusing I know the hirsute dwarf giant's name was Pangu and he soon came to realize that the swirling forces around him the powers of yin and yang would never separate by themselves Pangu pushed apart the top and bottom halves of the egg with the in becoming the earth and yang the coming the sky as he pushed he grew taller separating the two forces even further until such a point as they would never again combine Pangu spent his life crafting the earth into valleys and mountains with the assistance of powerful creatures Qi Lin's Phoenix's dragons and tortoises huh one of these things is not like the others when Pangu died his body broke apart to give the world rivers from his blood forests from his hair and animals from the parasites that lived on his body some versions of the myths say that humans also spawned from the parasites on his body as though saying we evolved from monkeys wasn't offensive enough finally pangos left and right eyes became the sun and moon respectively which is faintly reminiscent of the tale of Izanagi in japanese mythology thanks to Pangu the world was born number two following pangos death a number of other deities popped up to shape the earth these included the god of water gong-gong the god of fire Jurong and the second entry on this list the goddess knew wa knew I had the upper half of a human and the lower half of a snake and she also had a brother called foo Shi there are two separate myths concerning nu WA but both credit her with creating the first humans in version Noir and Fuu she wanted to breathe but feared judgments since they were siblings to ask for the heavens permission they lit two separate fires and watched the smoke if the smoke crossed they would take it as approval from the heavens but if the smoke dispersed they would take it as a denial all I can imagine if Fuu she blowing desperately trying to get the two pillars of smoke to cross because he wanted that snake lady loved it the other version has new arc rating humans herself out of mud carefully crafting H person however she soon realized it would take forever to fill up the earth with people in this way so she dipped a rope into the pool of mud and flung it around with each glob becoming a separate person the story goes that those people created by hand became rich popular and powerful while those who were flung from the rope became people like crash new I also saved the world from destruction when Gong Gong and Jurong fought the collateral damage from their tussle caused the destruction of a mountain supporting the heavens so new I acted quickly cutting legs off a giant tortoise and using them as pillars to support the heavens how sick is that number three if you are hoping for a Zeus or Odin like figure in Chinese mythology the closest you'll get is this guy called you walk is there big deal really he's just the Jade Emperor or as he is sometimes known peace absolving central or gas disparity exalted ancient Buddha most pious and honorable His Highness the Jade Emperor Xuan Ling high sovereign this title has many forms but the point is I was totally lying before and he's a huge deal also known as Shang Dee meaning Emperor this figure was essentially the God of all gods the human Emperors of China gained their authority to rule from him acting as their conduit to heaven all the other gods work unto him in this weird deified bureaucracy that exists to protect the people of Earth and keep the world together following the Shang Dynasty Shang day was conflated with the notion of Tionne meaning the heavens that's how important the Jade Emperor was his only equivalent notion is literally the heavens themselves Tionne alone was sent to judge whether the ruling Empire was worthy to lead its people and if necessary ends the dynasty number 4 in Chinese mythology there exists a guarded paradise for the gods called Kunlun mountain entails this mountain is said to connect heaven heavily fortified by vast moats and steep cliffs yet on this mountain is a lush garden tended to by the goddess of immortality she Wang mu Chuang mu meaning Queen Mother of the West is depicted as an old woman with a leopards tail and Tigers teeth but there's no need to be scared of her she only determines the lifespan of every living thing in existence without powers of creation and destruction on a brighter note though she also hosts parties had her golden palace every year on her birthday Siwon mu invites the other gods over for a feast of monkey lips and dragon liver if that doesn't say she ate your appetite the final course is a rare flat peach called a hunt pop this peach grows on a special tree cultivated by Siwon move herself that only sprouts once every 3,000 years and gives immortality to whoever eats it no offense Nana but your Sunday roast has nothing on this old lady's life pages number 5 if you were looking for a mythology without some kind of painful judgment in the afterlife you've come to the wrong place in Chinese mythology the god of the dead is Yama or Qingyuan Wang an angry looking old man who delivers punishments to the deceased who carry bad karma Yama rules through a kind of underworld court in which Yama weighs the deeds of a person's life if he looks favorably upon you you are reincarnated with a good life but if he thinks you a kind of a douchebag then you'll be punished severely before being reincarnated in a less than favorable position there are many accounts for how D u was structured a Buddhist version sees that you divided into ten courts each ruled by a Yama King though an eight report to Yan Wang another account created during the Tang Dynasty holds that there were 18 levels of Hell each designed with a different torturous method depending on the severity of the sinners crime the lowest level of eat C was reserved for people who intentionally killed their parents or inflicted harm upon a deity in avicii the sinner undergoes unspeakable and incessant suffering and is by some reports never allowed to be reincarnated this yarn wang guy really doesn't mess around number six before we do this next entry you guys have to promise me that we're all mature people here okay we're not gonna laugh at the name of this next god the Dragon King also known as long Wang is ruler of the Seas okay I don't want to focus on this too long but look at the result you get when you such long Wang on Google I mean are you kidding me I braced myself for the inevitable penis jokes but this came out of left field and destroyed me okay moving on the Dragon King comes in many forms but perhaps the most popular version depicts five separate dragons that each has their own domain season and element the green dragon the red dragon the white dragon the black dragon and their leader the yellow dragon furthermore each of the dragons represents one of the five Taoists elements wood fire metal water and earth the yellow dragon does not rule over a specific body of water but rather exists to control the others and deliver the messages of the Jade Emperor to each of them in their houses at the bottom of the Seas number seven guanyin the goddess of mercy is by far one of the most popular goddesses and as such has a rich backstory originally derived from an Indian male deity called Avalokiteshvara Guanyin was given her own origin story around the 12th century in a tale called The Legend of Miao Shan in this story Guan Yin begins life as Miao shun the daughter of Prince Jing of true Miao Shawn desperately wants to join a temple committing her life to religion instead of marriage that her father refuses after much pleading her father agrees but tells the monks of the temple to assign the ash on so many chores as to make her time their unbearable Miao Shawn completes all the tasks set to her anyway with the help of animal friends she is lured with her kindness and generosity her father was a bit of a prick so he decided to burn down the temple to stop her living there but Miao Shawn put out the fire with her bare hands prince wang then decided enough was enough and had his daughter executed but even then Miao Shawn was so full of goodness that she turned d you into a paradise yarn Wang wasn't at all happy with this and exiled meow shun from deer in doing sir Miao Shawn became the goddess Guan Yin and looked over people from fragrant Mountain she wanted to help all people but did not have the power to do so so another day and he gave her a thousand arms with which to reach out to those in need needless to say is one of the nicest goddesses Guan Yin was and still is extremely popular in Chinese folk religion number eight Chinese gods aren't all about being omnipotent creators of life some of them just have menial jobs like the rest of us picked South Shen for example the stove God zal shams job is to live above the stove of each family's house and take note of their actions throughout the year then a week before Chinese New Year Xiao Shen reports how good the family has been to the Jade Emperor who himself decides whether to bring good fortune to that family in the coming year talk about big government this bureaucracy literally sticks one of its agents right in the middle of your kitchen families in China have a number of methods to butter up South Shen so he gives them good reports above the stove is a paper effigy of the God that is taken down on the 23rd day of the twelfth lunar month homeowners will smear honey on the lips of the effigy to sweeten his words or by some accounts to seal his lips shut the effigy is then burnt or at least - end up to the heavens and firecrackers sent off to expedite his journey knowing that Sal Shem will be away until New Year's the family is free to perform disreputable acts like gambling and drinking and then when Zhao Shan arrives back the family holds a feast and hangs a new effigy above their stove number 9 this entry is a couple the god and goddess of love knee lung and Jia knew their love was so strong that not even the heavens could keep them apart forever isn't that just so beautiful it makes you want to throw up on yourself a couple first fell in love when they were stars with new lung being Altair and Zhi nu being Vega however Zhi nu with she Wang Moo's youngest granddaughter and she forbid the two from seeing each other exhaling new lung from the heavens and condemning him to the life of a lowly cowhand Zhi nu became the Weaver of clothes for all the other gods but she was still for one one day her sister decided to visit a place called the Lotus Garden on earth and invited Gino a lot they disrobed and bathed in the waters at the lotus garden suddenly one of the girls spotted a man spying on them Jun whose sisters grabbed their robes and fled but Gino's robes were missing the man approached with Gino's robe in hand as she realized there was her long lost love new lung he had been instructed by his cow friend literally a cow that if he stole the red robe from the Lotus garden that he would find his wife now usually most girls would say that's really creepy - get the hell away from me and Spray mace in the guy's face but gene who thought this was romantic for some stupid reason they fell in love once again living on earth but she won mousse soon found out and retrieved her granddaughter new lung chased after her loudly proclaiming his love and Siwon liu was so moved by his words that she made an agreement he could live in the heavens once more but could only meet with she knew on the seventh day of the seventh lunar month this day is now Chinese Valentine's Day when they hold the xishi or double seventh festival number ten as with everything in life this list ends up back at money PI Shen the god of wealth is unsurprisingly very popular in China shrines to the rich deity are abundant both in people's houses and in workplaces purported to bring wealth to those people under his care chi Shen is depicted as a man draped in fine silk robes and holding awesome-looking ingots of gold in the shape of a bird called you are mouse cash em wasn't all about that sweet renminbi though he also represents having a rich life with good fortune in other aspects of the family's well-being apart from essentially being the treasurer for the Jade Emperor's bureaucracy kai-shan also had the ability to turn iron to Gold and rode the baddest State in Chinese mythology a black tiger he's so cool that he even made me use the word baddest a grammatically incorrect slang term I have to wash my mouth out with soap now Chinese culture has really benefited from all its many influences creating some truly unique gods however this also means that there are about a dozen different versions of every story so I've just picked my personal favorite tales for this list we'd love to hear some other versions and different Chinese myths in the comment section see you all next week if you enjoy what we do here at culture crash please consider supporting the show via our patreon where we have a bunch of awesome rewards or by checking out our online store all links are in the description below [Music] [Applause]

Channel: CultureCrash

Views: 31,364

Rating: 4.9133573 out of 5

Keywords: Culture, crash, culturecrash, list, thought, experiment, casuallyexplained, skit, swoozie, domics, parody, challenge, reaction, react, toptrending, therichest, planetdolan, satire, animation, animated, cartoon, toon, sarcastic, funny, comedy, education, informative, CC, drawings, art, memes, commentary, top10, top, countdown, vsauce, sauce, chinese, china, mythology, myth, religion, gods, goddess, asian, history, diyu, deity, heavens

Id: mB5co891YEk

Length: 13min 19sec (799 seconds)

Published: Sat Oct 20 2018