Emperor Xiaowu was the middle son of Emperor Xiaojing. His mother was Empress Dowager Wang. In the fourth year of Emperor Xiaojing’s reign (153 BC), he was proclaimed King of Jiaodong as a royal son. Prince Li was removed as King of Linjiang in the seventh year of Xiaojing’s reign, and the King of Jiaodong took his place as crown prince. Emperor Jing died in the sixteenth year of his reign, and the crown prince was given the title Emperor Xiaowu. Emperor Xiaowu prioritized the worship of ghosts and gods shortly after taking the throne.
The world was calm and tranquil in the first year of Jianyuan (140 BC), more than sixty years after the founding of the Han Dynasty, and the ministers in the court eagerly anticipated the Zen Ceremony hosted by the Son of Heaven to alter many systems. Furthermore, the Son of Heaven was a firm believer in Confucianism. He sought out virtuous and upright individuals from all four directions. Zhao Ò, Wang Zang, and others, who were made ministers by virtue of their great erudition in writing, wanted to suggest to the emperor that he should follow the ancient system of building a bright hall in the south of the city for the propagation of government and religion, and that he should meet with the lords there. They devised a plan for the Son of Heaven to go on hunting expeditions, be enshrined in Zen, and alter the calendar and color system, but it was never accomplished. At the time, the Empress Dowager Dou, who was an advocate of the Taoist teachings of Huang Di and his followers and disliked Confucianism, sent someone to investigate the treacherous behavior of Zhao ÒàÅ and the others. Zhao ÒàÅ and Wang Zang committed suicide, and many of the initiatives that they had proposed to organize were abandoned.
Six years later, Empress Dowager Dou died. The following year, the emperor enlisted the help of Gong Sun Hong and other scholars.
After another year, the emperor visited Yong County for the first time and offered offerings at the five ancient sacrificial ceremonies. Later, the festival was regularly held every three years. At the time, the emperor requested a goddess and had her enshrined in the Hoofers’ Guan in the Upper Forest Garden. The goddess was originally a woman from Changling who died of grief as a result of her son’s premature death, and after her death, she appeared to her sister-in-law, Wanru. Wanruo worshipped her in her own home, and many others later came to do the same. Ping Yuan Jun, the emperor’s grandmother, also went to worship her, resulting in praise and acclaim for all of her descendants. When Emperor Wu ascended to the throne, he placed her in the harem for devotion with grand ceremonies, and he could hear the goddess speak but not see her in person.
At the time, Li Shaojun had a meeting with the emperor because of his capacity to make sacrifices to the stove for good fortune, refrain from food, and live forever, and the emperor admired him greatly. Li Shaojun was recommended by the late Marquis of Shamze to administer the paintings. He concealed his age and where he grew up, frequently stating that he was seventy years old and could drive the gods and live indefinitely. His magical abilities allowed him to roam throughout the lords’ territories. He had no spouse or children. When people learned that he could drive away the gods and live forever, they showered him with presents, including money, silk textiles, clothing, and food. People felt he was very wealthy despite not having an estate, and they had no idea where he was from, so they believed in him even more and hurried to serve him. Li Shaojun was naturally enamored of square arts and was adept at predicting and saying confidential things about others. He once attended a banquet with the Marquis of Wu’an, and there was an elderly gentleman in his nineties in the dining hall. Li Shaojun discussed how he had once gone hunting with the old man’s grandfather, and how the old guy had followed his grandfather when he was younger, so he knew about such areas, much to the astonishment of the other guests. Shaojun therefore had a meeting with the emperor, who showed Shaojun an antique bronze vase and inquired about it. Shaojun responded, “This bronze vessel was once set up in the Park Bedchamber in the tenth year.” The inscriptions carved on the bronze vessel were soon investigated, and it was confirmed to be a period item. The entire palace was astonished, and they mistook Shaojun for a god hundreds of years old.
Li Shaojun once said to the emperor: “Sacrifice to the god of the stove will be able to invoke the gods, invoke the gods after the cinnabar will be able to turn into gold, gold after refining will be able to use it to cast food utensils, the use of such utensils will be able to benefit from the life and longevity, prolong the life of the island of Penglai in the East China Sea will be able to meet the immortal Penglai see the immortals, and then hold the ceremony of Zen will be able to immortal, the Yellow Emperor is to do so. I once traveled on the sea and met An Zhisheng, who gave me a date to eat, which was as big as a melon. An Qisheng was an immortal who dealt with the people of Penglai Island, and those who conformed to his temperament he met, and those who did not he hid and did not see.” So Tian Shi personally sacrificed to the God of Zao, and sent the Founder to the East China Sea to seek for an immortal like An Zhisheng, and at the same time began to try to refine gold with dansha and other remedies.
After a long time, Li Shaojun fell ill and died. The emperor believed that he had become immortal rather than dying, so he requested that Kuan Shu, a Donglai County subordinate official, learn his formula. The visit to Penglai Immortal An Qisheng was unsuccessful, but many ridiculous and pedantic Fangshi in Yan and Qi along the coast followed Li Shaojun’s lead and competed to speak about the immortals.
Bo Yuji, a native of Bo County, presented to the court a method of sacrificing to the god Taiyi, saying, “The most honored of the heavenly deities is the god Taiyi, and Taiyi’s auxiliary deities are the five emperors. In ancient times, the Son of Heaven would go to the outskirts of the southeast to sacrifice to the god Tai I. He would sacrifice a taijiu of ox, goat, and pig for seven days, build an altar, and set up letter pat Later, someone wrote to the Emperor, saying, “In ancient times, the Son of Heaven sacrificed to the God of the Three Ones, that is: the God of Heaven, the God of Earth, and the God of Taiyi, once every three years, with a taijiu of oxen, goats, and pigs.” The emperor agreed, and ordered the Tai Zhu to lead the group of ministers in the sacrifices, and to make offerings to the God of Trinity at the altar of the God of Tai Yi at the same time, strictly following the method. Later, someone wrote to the petitioner again, saying, “In ancient times, the Son of Heaven used to make sacrifices in spring and autumn to relieve sins and seek blessings; a lord and a broken mirror were used to sacrifice to the Yellow Emperor; a sheep was used to sacrifice to the Sheep God; a green male horse was used to sacrifice to the Horse Walking God; an ox was used to sacrifice to the Taichi God, the Gao Shan Shanjun, and the Earth Chang God; a dried fish
Later, when a white deer was born and grown in the Shanglin Garden of the Son of Heaven, some people believed that producing coins from the deer’s skin would result in favorable indications, so they produced more white gold.
The following year, the emperor visited Yong County to celebrate a suburb celebration and captured a one-horned beast like a weed. The official in charge stated, “Your Majesty, you respectfully held the suburb festival, and the emperor of heaven, in return for your offerings, gave you this one-horned beast, which is supposed to be the unicorn.” It was thus sacrificed to the five emperors, with an ox added for the prairie sacrifice of burning wood to heaven. Platinum was presented to the lords as a sign that this favorable omen was in harmony with the will of heaven and earth.
The king of Jibei assumed that the emperor was going to organize a ceremony for the feudalization of Taishan, so he addressed a petition to the emperor providing the land for the feudalization of Taishan and its nearby towns to him. The emperor accepted it and compensated him with several more counties. When the king of Changshan was exiled for his crimes, the emperor sealed his younger brother in Zhending to continue his ancestor’s faith and established Changshan as a county. As a result, the Son of Heaven would have direct jurisdiction over all five mountains in the county.
The following year, Shao Weng, a Qi native, was granted an audience with the emperor due to his knowledge of ghosts and gods. When Mrs. Wang, the emperor’s favorite, died, Shao Weng employed a magic spell to summon Mrs. Wang and the God of Vesta at night, which the monarch could see through the palace curtains. So he appointed Shao Weng as Wen Cheng’s general, compensated him generously, and treated him like a guest. General Wencheng stated, “If the emperor wishes to have intercourse with the gods, but the palace, clothing, and other articles of life are not at all like those used by the gods, the gods will not come down.” As a result, he created a car painted with clouds and drove it in different colors on different days to ward off evil spirits. He also erected Ganquan’s palace, which included a high-topped room where he painted various gods, including Heaven, Earth, and Taichi, and placed sacrificial utensils to entice the celestial deities. After another year or so, his recipe became less effective, and the gods never appeared. General Wencheng then printed some writings on a piece of silk, had the cow consume them, and feigned to be unaware of the situation, informing others that the cow’s stomach was odd. After killing the cow and looking at it again, he obtained the piece of silk with the phrases inscribed on it, which were exceedingly weird, and the emperor became skeptical of the situation. Someone recognized General Wencheng’s handwriting and inquired, only to discover that it was a fake by Shao Weng. So the emperor assassinated General Wencheng and concealed the occurrence.
Following this, constructions like cypress platforms, copper pillars, and cactus were built.
In the second year after General Wencheng’s execution, the emperor became very ill in Dinghu Palace, and the witch doctors tried their hardest to cure him. A man named Yushui Faigen petitioned and stated, “There is a sorcerer in Shangxian County who was sick once and the ghosts and gods attached themselves to his body.” The emperor summoned the sorcerer and enshrined him in the Ganquan Palace. When the sorcerer became unwell, he sent someone to ask the god about the sorcerer’s body. The god-kun answered, “Son of Heaven, do not be concerned about your illness; you will soon be cured, so please cheer up and meet me at the Ganquan Palace then.” As a result, the emperor improved significantly and went to the Ganquan Palace in person to pay his respects, and he was entirely healed. The emperor pardoned the entire globe and housed the god-kuns in the Shou Palace. The deity Taiyi was the most revered of the Divine Monarchs, and his auxiliary gods were the Great Forbidden and Simian, who all obeyed him. The god-kings’ visage was invisible, but their voices were audible, just like human voices. The god-kings occasionally leave and return, and when they do, there is the sound of rustling wind. They all lived indoors behind curtains, occasionally speaking during the day but more at night. The emperor had to fast before entering the chamber. The emperor treats the sorcerer as if he were the master of the area, instructing him to deliver food and drink to the god-kun. If the god wanted to talk, he would first inform the sorcerer, who would then communicate down the line. The emperor also constructed the Shougong and Beigong, hung feathered banners, and erected sacrificial vessels to honor the god. The emperor recorded the goddess’ words and named them “Painting Method”. But, in truth, everything the deity said is equally known to secular people; there is nothing unique, but the emperor is particularly appealing. These things are extremely clandestine and unknown to the rest of the world.
Three years later, the officials in charge stated that the year should be named in accordance with the favorable signals given by heaven rather than in the order of one and two years. The first epoch year should be called Jian Yuan, the second Yuan Guang due to the appearance of a type of comet called Chang Xing, and the third Yuan Hao due to the capture of a unicorn at a rural festival.
In the winter of the following year, the emperor conferred with the people during the suburban festival in Yong County, saying, “Now the Emperor of Heaven is worshipped by me in person, but the god of the earth, Houtu, has not yet been worshipped, and this is not in keeping with the rites.” The officials concerned then discussed the matter with the Imperial Historian, Sima Tan, and the Ancestral Temple Officer, Kuan Shu, and others, saying, “To worship Heaven and Earth, one should use a calf with horns the size of a silkworm’s cocoon or a chestnut. Now that His Majesty wants to sacrifice Houtu himself, the sacrifice to Houtu should be made by building five altars on round mounds in the Great Ze, and for each altar a yellow calf plus a pig and a goat should be used as offerings, and at the end of the sacrifice all the animals should be buried, and the people accompanying the sacrifice should be dressed in yellow.” So the emperor traveled eastward, and for the first time a shrine to the goddess Houtu was built on the Fenyin mound, in accordance with the suggestions of Kuanshu and others. The emperor himself peered into the air and bowed down to worship the earth deity using the same ceremonies as the emperor of heaven. After the rites were done, the emperor traveled to Xingyang before returning to Chang’an. On the way, he passed by Luo Yang and issued an imperial edict saying, “The three dynasties of Xia, Shang, and Zhou are so far away from the present time that it would be difficult for descendants too far away to survive; thirty miles should be set aside and given to the descendants of the King of Zhou, and they should be named the Zinanjun of Zhou, so that they can worship their ancestors.”
In the spring of that year, Marquis Le Cheng sent a letter recommending Luan Da. Luan Da was a courtesan in charge of daily living issues in King Liu Zi’s palace in Jiaodong. She had previously studied with General Wen Cheng under the same master and later became an official of the King of Jiaodong in charge of administering medications. At the time, Le Cheng Hou’s sister was the queen of King Kang of Jiaodong, who lacked a son. When King Kang died, the sons of other concubines became heir kings. The Queen of Kang had a history of promiscuous behavior and did not get along with the new king, and the two attempted to harm each other in every way possible. When Empress Kang learned that General Wencheng had died, she wanted to curry favor with the emperor, so she sent Luan Da to meet with him to discuss the art of prescription, as recommended by Marquis Lecheng. Although Emperor Wu killed General Wencheng, he regretted his death so soon and sighed that he did not allow him to offer all of the formulae. The emperor was very happy as he waited to see Luan Da. Luan Da is tall and handsome, speaks very tactfully, is not afraid to use big words, and deals decisively. He boasted: “I once came and went in the sea, met An Zhisheng, envy door high these immortals. But they all thought I was of very low status and did not believe me. They also thought that King Kang was just a vassal and was not worthy to give him those immortal formulas. I spoke to King Kang many times, but he did not appoint me. My teacher said, ‘Gold can be refined, the Yellow River can be blocked, immortality drugs can be sought, and immortals can be recruited.’ Now I am afraid that I will be killed as Wen Cheng was, then all the Fangshi will shut up and not dare to mention Fangjutsu any more!” The Emperor said, “Wencheng died after accidentally eating horse liver. If you can really get the formulae of the immortals, what is there for me to give up!” Luan Da said, “My teacher never begs; it is others who beg him. If Your Majesty must invite my teacher, then you must first make me honorable in status, let me have my own family, treat me well with the etiquette of hospitality to guests, not to be despised, and let me wear all kinds of seals and letters so that I can convey the words of the Divine Immortal. But it is not certain whether the gods will come or not. In short, it is necessary to honor your messenger so that the gods may be invited afterwards.” So the emperor asked him to perform a little square trick to test his effectiveness, and he performed a chess fight in which the pieces were allowed to crash into each other on the board by themselves.
At the time, the emperor was concerned about the Yellow River outbreak, and the gold had not been refined, so he appointed Luan Da as General Wuli. Only a month or two later, Luan Da had four golden seals and was wearing the seals of General Tianshi, General Earthshi, General Datong, and General Tendao. The emperor issued an imperial edict to the royal historian, saying, “Once upon a time, Da Yu dredged the Nine Rivers and opened the four malfunctions of the Yangtze River, the Yellow River, the Huai River, and the Jishui River. Recently, the rivers have overflowed and flooded the land, and the labor of building embankments has come one after another. It has been twenty-eight years since I ruled the world, and if Heaven were to give me a square scholar, it would be General And the eldest Princess of Wei wedded him as his wife, and the eldest Princess of Wei received ten thousand pounds of gold as a dowry, changing her title to Li Princess. The emperor also paid a personal visit to General Wuli’s house, and diplomats went to offer their condolences, overflowing the roadways with gifts. The Emperor’s aunt, the Grand Princess, and those under the general all went to Luan’s house to set up a banquet and present him with gifts. The emperor also carved a seal with the inscription “General Tendo” and instructed the messenger to take the jade seal while wearing bird feathers and standing on the white thatch at night, and General Wuli, also dressed in bird feathers, stood on the white thatch and received the jade seal, demonstrating that the emperor did not regard the recipient of the seal as his own subordinate. He also donned the “Tendo” seal, which was used to lead the gods of heaven on behalf of the Emperor. As a result, Go-ri frequently performed nighttime sacrifices at his home in an attempt to summon the gods. However, the gods did not appear; instead, a swarm of wicked spirits gathered here, which General Goryo easily drove away. Soon he was fully loaded and headed east to the sea, rumored to be in search of his teacher. Luan Da was only introduced for a few months, and wore six great seals, honored enough to shock the world, the Yan and Qi coastal region of those who see him excitedly hold his wrist, saying that they have a secret recipe, can attract the immortals.
In the summer of this year, in June, a sorcerer named Jin in Fenyin was offering sacrifices for the people by the Hou Tu Ancestral Hall in Wei, when he saw a place where the ground was shaped like a curved hook, so he peeled off the earth with his hand to look at it, and got a tripod as a result. This tripod was very different from ordinary tripods, carved with patterns but no text. The sorcerer felt uneasy and reported the problem to the local officials. The local officials reported the matter to Sheng, the governor of Hedong, who reported it to the imperial court. The emperor sent a messenger to investigate the sorcerer’s journey to retrieve the tripod and certified that there was no fraud, and then he completed the ceremony and invited the tripod back to the Ganquan Palace, where the emperor and the tripod traveled together, ready to give it to the Emperor of Heaven. When they traveled to Zhongshan, they noticed that the sky was cloudy with yellow clouds covering it. At that moment a weed rushed past, and the emperor himself shot it to death with an arrow and used it to sacrifice the cloud. When they arrived at Chang’an, the ministers and doctors thought that the Baoding should be honored. The emperor said, “Recently, the Yellow River has flooded and the harvest has been poor for years, so I have gone on a tour to the counties to offer sacrifices to Houtu, praying that the people can have a good harvest. This year’s harvest was plentiful, but no rituals were held to honor the gods of the earth, so how could this tripod appear?” The official concerned then said, “Legend has it that a long time ago, the Tai Emperor, Tai Hao Fu Xi Clan, once made a sacred tripod to show the unity of the world, so that all things in heaven and earth would end up in the sacred tripod. The Yellow Emperor made a total of three precious tripods, symbolizing heaven, earth and man. Xia Yu collected copper from the nine states and cast nine precious tripods, all of which had been used to cook animals sacrificed to God and the spirits. The tripods appeared whenever the holy lord was encountered, and the precious tripods were passed down from the Xia Dynasty to the Shang Dynasty. At the end of the Zhou Dynasty, when virtue failed, the altar of Song, which was used to sacrifice to the gods of the earth, was destroyed, and as a result, the tripods fell into obscurity and disappeared. In the Song of Zhou, it is said: ‘Go back and forth from the hall to the steps, have sheep and oxen ready, check the big and small tripods, don’t be noisy, don’t be proud, and live a long and healthy life with lots of fortune and prosperity.’ Now the tripod has been welcomed to the Ganquan Palace, its appearance of incomparable luster, change magical spirit, which foretells that the Great Han will be blessed with endless auspiciousness. This is in line with the auspicious sign of the yellow and white auspicious clouds covering the upper part of the tripod and the auspicious beasts meeting the lower part of the tripod when you traveled to Zhongshan, as well as the great bow and four arrows under the altar of the gods that you have obtained, which are the rewards you have received by sacrificing to the gods of your ancestors near and far in the Imperial Temple. Only those who have been ordained by heaven to be emperors are able to understand the will of heaven and be in accord with its virtues. Therefore the precious tripod should be offered to the ancestors and preserved in the court of the Heavenly Emperor, in keeping with all the previous auspicious signs.” The emperor issued an edict saying, “It is permissible.”
People who traveled to the sea to look for Mount Penglai, the eternal mountain, reported that it was not very far away, and those who failed to get there undoubtedly did so because they could not see the foggy atmosphere of the peak. So the emperor dispatched officials who were adept at detecting qi to aid in observing the cloud qi.
In the fall of that year, the emperor visited Yong County and planned a suburban festival. Someone suggested, “The five emperors are only auxiliary deities of the god Taiyi; the altar of Taiyi should be built, and the Emperor himself should conduct the festival.” The emperor was undecided. Gongsun Qing of Qi said, “This year we obtained the Treasure Cauldron, and the Xin Si day of this winter happened to be the first day of the Solstice, and the morning of that day fell on the Winter Solstice, which coincided with the time when the Yellow Emperor obtained the Treasure Cauldron.” Gongsun Qing has a wooden book said: “the yellow emperor in wanqu county get treasure tripod, and asked the ghost short period of time area. Ghost Yu District replied: ‘You, Yellow Emperor, obtained the Treasure Tripod and the Divine Strategies used for divination on the winter solstice on the first day of the month in the year jiyou, which is very consistent with the celestial calendar, which is always weekly and constantly cyclical.’ From this, Huang Di relied on observing the movement of the sun to calculate the calendar, and from then on there would be a solstice morning crossing roughly every twenty years, and in this way he made a total of twenty projections, totaling three hundred and eighty years, and Huang Di became immortal and ascended to heaven.” Gongsun Qing wanted to report this matter to the emperor through Suo Zhong. Seeing the silliness of his book and fearing it was a counterfeit, he excused himself and said, “The matter of the precious tripod has already been finalized, so what can I do if I still report it to the Emperor!” Gongsun Qing also reported the matter using the emperor’s favorites. The emperor was so delighted that he summoned Gongsun Qing to ask. Gongsun Qing replied, “I got this book from Shen Gong, but he is dead.” The emperor asked, “Who is Shen Gong?” Gongsun Qing said, “Shen Gong was a man from Qi. He had socialized with An Zhisheng and received the teachings of the Yellow Emperor, and did not leave behind any other book but this one related to the tripod. The book says: ‘The period of prosperity of the Han Dynasty should be the same as that of the Yellow Emperor. The saints of the Han Dynasty will appear among the grandsons or great-grandsons of Emperor Gaozu. The appearance of the precious tripods will surely enable them to communicate with the gods and immortals, and they should be enshrined. From ancient times to the present, seventy-two monarchs have held fealty, and only the Yellow Emperor could ascend Mount Tai for fealty.’ Shen Gong said: ‘The Emperor of the Han Dynasty should also ascend Mount Tai for Zen, and after ascending Mount Tai for Zen, he can become immortal and ascend to heaven. During the time of the Yellow Emperor, there were nearly ten thousand vassal states, and the number of vassal states built to worship the gods was seven thousand. There are eight famous mountains in the whole world, three of which are located in the barbarian region and five in the Central Plains. In the Central Plains were Mount Hua, Mount Shou, Mount Taichou, Mount Tai and Mount Donglai, all five of which were frequented by the Yellow Emperor, who met with the gods and goddesses there. The Yellow Emperor sometimes fought and sometimes practiced the way of immortality. Worried that the people would criticize the immortal way he practiced, he decisively killed those who slandered the spirits and gods. This went on for more than a hundred years before he was able to communicate with the immortals. The Yellow Emperor once worshiped the Heavenly Emperor on the outskirts of Yong County and stayed there for three months. The nickname of Ghost Faster District was Dahong, and after his death he was buried in Yong County, also known as the Hong Mound. From then on the Yellow Emperor received the gods at Mingting. Mingting is today’s Ganquan Mountain. And the said Hanmen is today’s Gukou. The Yellow Emperor excavated the copper mine in Shushan and cast the tripod under the Jing Mountain. After the tripod was cast, a dragon with two long whiskers hanging from the bottom of its neck descended from the sky to greet the Yellow Emperor. The Yellow Emperor rode on the dragon’s back, and more than seventy ministers and concubines followed him on the dragon’s back before the dragon flew away. The rest of the junior ministers were unable to go up, and they all clutched the dragon’s whiskers so tightly that they were pulled off and fell off the Yellow Emperor’s bow. The people looked up and watched the Yellow Emperor fly up to heaven, so they all embraced his bow and the fallen dragon’s whiskers and cried out. Thus later generations called this place Dinghu, and that bow the Wu Horn.'” Then the emperor said, “Alas! If I could really be like the Yellow Emperor, I would regard leaving my wife and children as like taking off my shoes.” Then he appointed Gongsun Ching as a lang-guan (郎官) and sent him eastward to Mount Taigu to meet the gods.
The emperor next traveled to Yongxian County for the festival’s fringes, then to Longxi, climbing westward to Kongdong Mountain, and finally returning to Ganquan Palace. He directed shrine administrator Kuan Shu and others to construct a three-tiered altar to the god Tai Yi, similar to the Tai Yi altar mentioned by Bo Yuji. The altars of the five emperors surrounding the Tai Yi altar, each organized in its own direction, while the Yellow Emperor’s altar was located in the southwest, with eight letter paths erected for the spirits to enter and exit. The sacrifices utilized in the Tai I Altar were identical to those in Yong County, with the inclusion of sweet wine, jujube fruit, and dried meat, as well as the slaughter of a yak as a sacrificial animal. However, the shrine of the Five Emperors included only cattle, sheep, and sweet wine, with no yak. Wine was used on the four sides of the altar to sustain life on Earth and to sacrifice the attendant gods and the Big Dipper. At the end of the event, the sacrifice offerings are burned. The white bull is utilized for the sacrifice, which is performed by placing a deer into the bull’s abdomen, then a pig into the deer’s belly, and finally submerging the sacrifice in water. A bull is sacrificed to the god of the sun, while a goat or pig is offered to the god of the moon. The Zhu officials who sacrifice to the god Taiichi are to wear purple embroidered clothes, and the colors of the dresses of the Zhu officials who sacrifice to the five emperors are to strictly follow the colors of the five emperors; the sun god is to be dressed in red, and the moon god is to be dressed in white.
The morning of the first day of November, Xin Si, is the winter solstice; on this day, at dawn, the emperor went into the countryside to worship Tai, a god. Morning worship of the sun god, sunset worship of the moon god, all arch their hands in solemn adoration; and worship of Tai, a god, is rigorously in accordance with the rites of Yong County. According to the hymn to the god of worship, “Heaven has already begun to give the emperor the precious tripod and the divine plan, and one solstice after another solstice, the cycle goes on and on, never stopping. It is here that the emperor pays respectful homage to the gods of heaven.” The emperor wore yellow for the sacrifice. During the festival, the altar is covered with torches, and cooking utensils are set beside it. The officials said, “A light appeared above the altar of the shrine.” The ministers said, “The emperor first held a suburb festival at the Yunyang Palace to pay homage to the god Taiyi, and the officials concerned all presented to the god large jade pieces six inches in diameter, and sacrificial animals with beautiful coats of fat and lean bodies. That night, there appeared a beautiful radiance, and when daytime came, there were yellow clouds rising until
In the fall of that year, the Taichi god was worshipped in order to crusade against the South Vietnamese, and a bougainvillea flagpole was built with the sun, moon, Big Dipper, and dragon rising up in the air painted to represent the three stars of the sky, and it was named “Spirit Flag” as the Taichi god’s spearhead flag. During pre-war prayers, the historian would raise the flag and aim it toward the country to be attacked. However, despite being an emissary, General Wuli did not dare to enter the water in search of immortality, instead going to Taishan Mountain to worship. The emperor instructed his troops to follow him surreptitiously and discovered that he saw nothing. General Wuli lied about seeing his teacher, but in reality, he had expended all of his magic spells, the majority of which were not completed. The Emperor then killed General Wuli.
In the winter of that year, Gongsun Qing, who was waiting for the immortals in Henan Province, claimed to have seen the immortals’ footsteps on the city of Gou, as well as a divine creature resembling a mountain chicken flying back and forth. The emperor came to Gou’s city to see the footprints and asked Gong Sun Qing, “I don’t suppose you will follow the example of Wencheng and Wuli in deceiving me, will you?” Gong Sun Qing replied, “Immortals do not seek the emperor, but the emperor seeks the immortals. In the way of seeking immortality, if one cannot relax one’s time a little, the immortals will not come. It may seem pedantic and strange to talk about such a thing as seeking the gods, but only by wa
This year, South Vietnam was destroyed, and one of the emperor’s favorites, Li Yannian, was able to meet with him since he was a musician. The emperor was very kind to him, so he asked the ministers to discuss the matter, saying, “Can it be said to be proportional that the folk sacrifices are accompanied by drums, dances, and music, but now I am performing the suburban sacrifices without music?” The public ministers said, “In ancient times, sacrifices to heaven and earth were accompanied by music, and it was thus that the gods of heaven and earth came to enjoy the sacrifices of the people.” Some said, “Emper
In the winter of the following year, the emperor proposed, “All emperors in ancient times had to stop using their armies before they could hold the Feudal Ceremony afterwards.” So the emperor went north to visit Shuo Fang, commanding an army of more than 100,000 men, and on his return, he made a sacrifice in front of the Yellow Emperor’s tomb at Qiaoshan Mountain, before disbanding his army when he arrived at Shuru. Then the emperor asked, “I have heard that the Yellow Emperor is not dead, but now there is his tomb; why is this?” Someone replied, “After the Yellow Emperor became immortal and went to heaven, the remaining ministers buried his clothes and hat here.” Later, when the emperor came to the Ganquan Palace to ascend Mount Tai to seal Zen, he used the same rites to first sacrifice to the god Tai I.
Since obtaining the Treasure Cauldron, the Emperor has explored closing the Zen with ministers and Confucian academics. Because the Zen Ceremony had not been held in a long time and was practically forgotten, no one knew the specific rites. The Confucian experts all advocated using the rites of the Son of Heaven shooting bulls and looking forward to sacrifices as described in the Zhou Rites and the King’s System to hold the big event. Duke Ding of Qi, who was already over ninety years old, said, “‘Feng’ should mean immortality. Emperor Qin Shi Huang was not able to ascend Mount Tai to hold the ceremony of sealing Zen. Your Majesty must go up, and once you reach a slightly higher place, there will no longer be any wind or rain to block your way, and so you will be able to ascend Mount Tai to hold the ceremony of sealing Zen.” The emperor therefore had the Confucian scholars practice the rite of shooting After a few years, the ceremony was set to take place. The emperor had already heard the words of Gongsun Qing and the Fangshi, saying that when the emperors before the Yellow Emperor performed the ritual of sealing Zen, they would invoke some strange things that could communicate with the immortals, and they intended to follow the method of welcoming the immortal Penglaishi at the time of the Yellow Emperor, in order to transcend the secular world and match the virtues of the Nine Emperors, and they also adopted Confucian professors were unable to recognize the special rites of Fengchan and were firmly bound by ancient books like as Poetry and the Book, so they did not dare to express their full potential. When the Emperor showed the Confucians the sacrificial vessels used in the Zen ceremony, some of them said, “This is not the same as that of the ancient times,” and Xu Yan also said, “The rituals performed by the officials of the Taichang Ancestral Halls are not as good as those of the ancient state of Lu.” The emperor dismissed Xu Yan and Zhou Ba, and deposed all of the Confucians.
In March, the emperor traveled east to Gou County and climbed Mt. Taihou on Mt. Songshan to hold a festival. The officials accompanying him seemed to hear someone shouting “Long Live” at the foot of the mountain. When they asked the people on the mountain, they all said they had not shouted it; when they asked the people at the bottom of the mountain, they all said they had not shouted it. As a result, the emperor granted 300 households to Mt. Tai Mo Shan to facilitate its
The emperor proceeded to tour the sea to the east and held ceremonies to honor the eight gods: the Lord of Heaven, the Lord of Earth, the Lord of War, the Lord of Yin, the Lord of Yang, the Lord of the Moon, the Lord of the Sun, and the Lord of the Four Seasons. The Qi people reported that there were nearly 10,000 immortals, spirits, and strange magic spells, but none of them were effective. Therefore, the emperor sent more ships and ordered those thousands of people who had reported about the sacred mountain on the sea to visit the Immortal of Penglai. Holding a talisman in his hand, Gongsun Qing first traveled to the mountains to wait for the Immortals, and when he arrived at Donglai, he said that he had seen a man at night who was several feet tall, and when he came near, he disappeared. His footprints were seen to be very large, much like those of beasts. Some of the ministers said that they had seen an old man with a dog, who said, “I would like to see the Son of Heaven,” and then disappeared in the twinkling of an eye. The emperor had already heard of the sighting of the footprints, but did not believe it until one of his ministers mentioned the old man, and then he really believed that the old man was a god. So he stayed at the seashore and gave the Founder a stagecoach and sent thousands of secret envoys to go and seek the Immortal.
In April, the Emperor returned to Feng Gao. The Emperor took into consideration that the rituals of sealing Zen were not the same as those mentioned by the Confucians and the Founder, and there was no record of them in the ancient books, which made it really difficult to carry out. The Emperor went to Liangfu Mountain again and held a ceremony to worship the gods of the earth. On the day of yi dao, he ordered the official Confucian scholar in the service of the Emperor to wear a white deer-skin cap and an official costume with inserted wattles, and to hold the ceremony of shooting a bull. At the foot of Mount Tai in the east to build an altar to sacrifice, and strictly follow the rituals of worship Tai a god. That altar used for sacrificing to the sky is one and two feet wide and nine feet high, while under the altar are placed the documents for sealing the throne, which are very secretive. At the end of the ritual, the emperor alone and his attendant, Huo Zihou, who was the captain of the car, ascended Mount Tai and also performed some rituals of sacrificing to the heavens. All these things were top secret and were not to be revealed. On the next day, they descended along the road on the northern slope of the mountain. On the day of the Cthulhu, an earth-sacrifice ceremony was also held at Mount Su Ran in the northeast at the foot of Mount Tai, with reference to the ritual of sacrificing to Houtu. In all these ceremonies, the Son of Heaven personally worshipped the gods of heaven and earth, wore a yellow dress, and used music in all of them. The altar was built with a mixture of five colors of clay, symbolizing the five directions, using a sacred mat of three-pronged grass taken from the Jianghuai area. At that time, there were also released some distant strange birds and beasts and white-furred pheasants and other animals, which added to the solemn atmosphere of the ceremony. But those animals such as bull, banner bull, rhinoceros and elephant were not used. The emperor and the accompanying ministers came to Mount Tai first, and left afterwards. During the time when the sealing ceremony was held, every night there seemed to be a bright light appearing, and during the daytime there were white clouds rising from the altar.
When the emperor returned from Zen, he sat in the Hall of Light, and his ministers came up one by one to congratulate him. Then, the emperor issued an edict to the imperial historian, saying: “I have assumed the supreme position of emperor with my own small body, and I am very careful that I may not be able to fulfill it. My virtue is shallow, and I know little about rituals and music. At the time of sacrificing to the God of Tai, the sky appeared to emit auspicious light, and I was very uneasy in my heart, as if I had seen something, and my heart was deeply touched by this strange sight, even though I wanted to stop but did not dare to, and I was eventually able to climb Mount Tai to sacrifice to the sky. After that, I was finally allowed to climb Mount Tai and make offerings to Heaven. When I arrived at Mount Liangfu, I later cultivated the area for offering sacrifices at Mount Su Ran. I wanted to improve myself and was delighted to begin anew with the scholars. Commoners were granted one ox and ten stones of wine every hundred families, as well as two additional pairs of cloth and silk for those over the age of eighty, widows, and orphans. The districts of Boxian, Bonggao, Sheqiu, and Licheng were excused from paying the annual rent tax. A general amnesty was granted, identical to the one granted in the year Yimao. Wherever I go, I will not worsen the people’s problems any further. If a crime was committed two years ago, it will not be prosecuted.” Then he issued another edict, saying, “In ancient days, the Son of Heaven would travel to Mt. Tai every five years to make sacrifices, and the lords who came to pay tribute had their own homes. All lords should be able to erect formal mansions at the foot of Mount Tai.”
After the Emperor’s Zen ceremony at Mount Tai, there was no wind or rain, and the Founders said that it seemed that these sacred mountains of Penglai would be found, so the emperor was very happy and thought that he might meet the immortals, so he traveled eastward again to the seashore to look out, hoping to meet the immortals of Penglai. Huo Zihou, the captain of the Bong Che, suddenly became seriously ill and died within a day, and the emperor then left
In the fall of that year, a comet appeared in the celestial region of the Eastern Wells Host and shone brightly. After ten days, another comet appeared in the region of Santaijuku, still shining brightly. A man named Wang Shuo, who could look into the sky, said, “I was observing at the time, and I saw that when that star appeared, it was shaped like a gourd melon, and in the course of a meal it disappeared again.” The official in charge said, “Your Majesty created the Han
In the winter of the next year, the Emperor went to Yong County to worship the Five Emperors, and when he returned, he worshiped the god Taiyi. The benediction read, “The Star of Virtue shines brightly in all directions, heralding good fortune and good fortune. The Star of Longevity also appears, and its light travels far and wide. The Star of Faith shines and bestows gifts, and the Emperor honors the gods with his offerings.”
In the spring of that year, Gongsun Qing said that he had met an immortal in Donglai Mountain, who seemed to be saying “I want to see the Son of Heaven”. The emperor therefore came to Gou’s city and appointed Gong Sun Qing as the middle doctor. He then went to Donglai and stayed there for a few days, but saw nothing but big footprints. The emperor once again sent several thousand Fangshi to search for divine wonders and pick up Lingzhi immortal medicine. The year was characterized by drought. The emperor then had no more valid reason to go on a tour, so he went to Wanli Sha to pray for rain, and made a sacrifice when he passed Mount Tai. On his return, he went to the mouth of the gourd and personally traveled to the place where the Yellow River had broken up, where he stayed for two days and sank his white horse in order to pay homage to the river god before leaving. The emperor ordered two ministers to lead troops to block the break and dredged two canals for the Yellow River, so that it reproduced the way it was after Dayu’s flood control.
When South Vietnam was defeated, Yue people Yongzhi told the emperor, “The Yue people have a culture of believing in ghosts, and every sacrifice can see the ghosts, and it is always highly spiritual. In the past, the monarch of Dong’ou respected the ghosts and gods and lived to be 160 years old. Because the emperor believed in it, the Yue Shrine and the method of divination with chicken bones gradually gained popularity. The emperor ordered the sorcerers of Yue to construct a Yue Shrine, with only an altar but no altar, to pay homage to the God of Heaven, the God of all ghosts.
Gongsun Qing stated, “Immortals can be seen, but His Majesty was always in a hurry when he went to seek a visit from them, which is why he could not see them. Now, Your Majesty, you can construct a pavilion and make offerings of dried meat and jujube fruits in the style of Gou Gou, and you should be able to invite the immortals. Besides, immortals love to live in pavilions,” so the emperor had the Gui Lian Guan and Gui Guan built in Chang’an, and the Yi Yanshou Guan built in the Ganquan Palace, and had Gong Sun Qing set up offerings with talismans in his hands to welcome the immortals. Then he built the Tongtian Terrace and set up all kinds of sacrificial vessels underneath it, hoping to attract the immortals. As a result, a front hall was built at Ganquan Palace, and the palace was expanded.
The emperor issued an edict saying, “The time of the heavens is drought, and it is to dry up the soil for the sealing altar, isn’t it?” After a year, Korea was conquered, and there was a drought in the summer. According to Gongsun Qing, “When the Feudal Ceremony was held in the time of the Yellow Emperor, there was a drought, and it was necessary to have a great drought for three years in order that the earth for the sealing of the altar should be dried as soon as possible.” Order the entire country to sacrifice to the Spirit Star, who is in charge of agriculture.
Another year passed, and the emperor journeyed to Yong County for suburban worship, making his circuits there as he passed through the road back to the middle of the country. In the spring, he arrived in Narazawa and returned by the Western River.
In the winter of the following year, the emperor went on an inspection tour of the southern counties, and after arriving at Jiangling, he went eastward. Climbing Mount Tianzhu in Qianxian, he called this mountain Nanyue. Taking a boat, he traveled down the river from Xunyang all the way through Firyang, passing through Pengli, and paying homage to the famous mountains and rivers he passed along the river. He then went north until he reached Langxie County.
At first, when the Emperor came to Mount Tai to hold the Feudal Ceremony, an ancient Mingtang was found in the northeast of the foot of Mount Tai, located in a treacherous and spacious terrain. The emperor intended to build a mingtang near Fenggao County, but was unable to know the shape and scale of the mingtang. A Jinan native, Gong Xue-bi, dedicated the Myeong-dang Tu, which was made during the reign of the Yellow Emperor. In the Mingtang Tu, there was a hall without walls, with a roof made of thatched grass, surrounded by a ditch, with a footbridge around the palace wall, and a building on top of the hall, which extended into the hall from the southwest, and was called Kunlun Dao, from which the Son of Heaven went into the hall to sacrifice to God. The emperor therefore ordered the construction of a bright hall on Bungkol’s Bun, according to the drawings brought by Kung Shee. When he came back to this place five years later to perform the sealing ceremony, he placed the deities of Tai I and the five emperors on the upper seat of the bright hall to hold sacrifices, and made the spirit seat of the emperor of Gao opposite to them. For the worship of the god Houtu in the lower room, twenty oxen, sheep and pigs each were used. The emperor entered from the Kunlun Road and began to worship in the bright hall, as in the rituals of suburban sacrifices. At the end of the worship, the offerings were burnt under the hall. Afterwards, the emperor once again ascended Mount Tai and held a secret sacrifice at the summit. When the five emperors were worshipped at the foot of Mount Tai, they all followed their respective directions, except for the Yellow Emperor and the Red Emperor, who were together, accompanied by the relevant officials. Fires were lit on Mount Tai, and fires were lit at the bottom of the mountain to echo the fires.
After two more years, the morning of the first day of the first month of the eleventh lunar month intersected with the winter solstice, and those who projected calendars thought that it would be orthodox to use this day as the starting point of the new calendar. The Son of Heaven himself went to Mount Tai, and on the morning of the first day of the first month of the eleventh lunar month, he The emperor here reverently worships the god Tai I.” The emperor traveled eastward to the sea again to examine the people who went to the sea to seek immortality and the multitude of fangshi, but he was unsuccessful, so he sent more messengers to the sea to seek immortality, longing to meet the god.
On the eve of the eleventh month, a fire broke out in Pailiangtai, and on the first day of the first month of the twelfth lunar month, the emperor himself went to Mount Goryeo to worship the god Houtu, as well as to the Bohai Sea to look at and worship an immortal mountain like Penglai, longing to travel to the foreign land where the immortals lived.
When the emperor returned to the capital after the Cymbeline Terrace was burned down, he went to court at the Ganquan Palace to receive the books of literature reported by the counties. According to Gongsun Qing, “The Yellow Emperor built the Green Spirit Terrace, which was burned down twelve days later, so the Yellow Emperor built the Ming Ting.” Mingting is the present Ganquan Palace.” Many of the Fangshi also said that ancient emperors also built their capitals in Ganquan. After that, the Son of Heaven received the lords at the Ganquan Palace and also built official residences for the lords at Ganquan. Yong Zhi said, “There is this custom in the land of Yue, that the house built again after a fire must be bigger than the one burned down, and it is used to suppress the fire.” So the Son of Heaven built the Jianzhang Palace, as large as a thousand gates. Its front hall was higher than the Weiyang Palace, and to the east was the Fengque, which was more than twenty feet high. To the west of it was the Tangzhongyuan, with a tiger circle tens of miles wide. The north side of the large pool was built, the pool of gradient platform more than 20 feet high, the name of the pool is called Tai Liquid Pool, the pool built Penglai, Fangzhang, Yingzhou and pot Liang four mountains, are modeled after the sea of fairy mountains, there are some carved in stone into the turtles and fish and things like that. It is the south side of the Jade Hall, Bikmen and birds and other statues. It also built the Divine Brightness Terrace and the Jinggan Building, both of which are more than fifty feet high, with a driveway connecting the platforms of the buildings.
In the summer, the Han Dynasty switched to a new calendar, using the first month of the summer calendar as the first month of the year, the official uniforms were changed to yellow, and the official seal of each official name was changed to five characters, thus changing the year to the first year of Taichu. This year, a crusade was launched against Dawan to the west, and a large-scale locust plague occurred. Mrs. Ding and Yu Chou of Luoyang, among others, performed rites.
In the following year, the concerned officials said that no cooked animals or other offerings were used in the sacrifice of the five ancient sacrifices in Yong County, and that there was no fragrant aroma. So the emperor ordered the shrine officials to offer cooked calves to the five ancient sacrifices, to choose the color of the animals’ coats according to the principle of the five elements, and to replace the strong horses with puppets as sacrifices. The strong horse
After another year, the Son of Heaven took a tour of the sea to the east, examining things like the gods and immortals, but nothing worked. According to some priests, “During the period of the Yellow Emperor, five towns were erected. The emperor agreed to build five cities and twelve buildings to welcome the gods and immortals in this place, which he dubbed “welcoming the New Year.” The emperor also went there personally to perform religious rituals while dressed in yellow.
Gong Xie Belt said, “Although a great ceremony of fealty was held on Mount Tai during the time of the Yellow Emperor, people like Feng Hou, Feng Jui, and Qi Bo also requested the Yellow Emperor to go to East Mount Tai to build an altar and offer sacrifices to Heaven, and to come to Mount Fan to set up a field and offer sacrifices to the earth in order to be in harmony with the runic symbols and to be able to live forever afterward.” The Son of Heaven then ordered the preparations for the sacrifices, and then coming to East Mount Tai, saw that it was short and did not correspond to its reputation, and ordered the Shrine Officers to perform the sacrifices, but not to hold the Feudal Ceremony. Later on, he ordered the public jade belt to go there to make offerings and sacrifices and to welcome the gods. It was only in summer that the emperor returned to Mount Tai and held the same Feudal Ceremony as before, which was held every five years, with the added ritual of sacrificing the land at Shilu Mountain. Shilu was located in the south at the foot of Mount Tai, and there were many among the Fangshi who said that it was the place where the immortals lived, so the emperor himself went there to offer sacrifices.
Five years later, the emperor returned to Mount Tai to perform the Feudal Ceremony, and on the way back, he worshipped Changshan.
Nowadays, the sacrifices set by the Son of Heaven, Taiyi and Houtu, are both personally worshipped in the suburbs every three years, creating the Han Dynasty’s Zen system, with Zen ceremonies held every five years. Bo also requested the construction of the Tai Yi Shrine and five other shrines, including the San Yi Shrine, the Hei Yang Shrine, the Ma Xing Shrine, and the Red Star Shrine, which were to be visited by the shrine officials of Kuan Shu on a regular basis every year. Together with the Hou Tu Shrine, there were six shrines in total, which were unified and managed by Tai Zhu. As for each of the eight gods, as well as the famous shrines in the next year and on Mount Fan, they were all worshipped when the Son of Heaven passed by, but if he left, they were forgotten. The shrines built by the Fangshi were all sacrificed by them individually, and when a person died, the sacrifices were over and the shrine officials were no longer in charge of the sacrifices. All other shrines were handled according to the original regulations. Since the emperor held the ceremony of sealing Zen, a total of twelve years had passed, and the gods and spirits that had been worshipped were all over the five mountains and four blasphemies. And the Founder’s priests who waited for the worship of the gods and went to the sea to visit Mount Penglai never got any results. Gongsun Qing these waiting for the gods and immortals of the Fangshi, still using the giant footprints as an excuse to justify, but not effective. The son of heaven is more and more tired of the ridiculous words of the priests, but always control them, and did not cut off with them, always still thirsty to meet the magic works. Since then, the Fangshi talked more about sacrificing to the gods, but the effect was visible to the people.
The Duke of Tai Shi stated, “I have accompanied the Emperor on his journeys, paying tribute to the gods of heaven and earth, as well as the great mountains and rivers, and participating in the Feudal Ch’an ceremonies. I also went into the Shou Palace to accompany the emperor in his sacrifices, heard the prayers of the Zhu officials, and carefully read and studied the words of the Fang Shi and the Shrine Officials, so when I returned, I discussed and demonstrated the activities of sacrificing to ghosts and gods from ancient times to the present day in chronological order. Gentlemen of future generations should be able to see the situation from here. The officials in charge have defined the specifications of the ceremonial containers used in the sacrifices, such as chopping boards and beans, jade and silk, as well as the ceremonies for paying reverence to the gods.
Phoenix Lee https://chinese-tradition.com/ancient-han-dynasty-the-emperor-wus-search-for-the-gods.html
