Taiyi The Great One
A Supplement To Chapter 33
A RECORD OF ALL THINGS UNDER HEAVEN
As gathered from the oldest accounts that remain
PROLOGUE --- CHAPTER THIRTY-THREE
On the Matter of Taiyi --- 太一 --- the Great One
It is called Taiyi --- 太一.
Tai --- 太 --- means great. Supreme. Utmost. Beyond ordinary measure.
Yi --- 一 --- means one. The singular. The undivided. The number before all other numbers.
Together --- 太一 --- the Great One.
It is also written Taiyi --- 太乙.
Yi --- 乙 --- is the second of the ten heavenly stems --- 天干 --- Tiangan --- the system used to count cycles of time.
In this second form the name carries the sense of the first differentiation after the absolute beginning.
The character 乙 resembles a curved shoot emerging from the ground.
It is the shape of something that has just begun to emerge.
It is not yet upright.
It has not yet fully arrived.
Both forms --- 太一 and 太乙 --- refer to the same principle.
Both have been used in Chinese texts since at least the Warring States period --- 戰國時代 --- Zhanguo Shidai --- which lasted from 475 to 221 BCE.
Some scholars trace the concept further back.
Some trace it to the Shang dynasty --- 商朝 --- Shang Chao.
In Shang oracle bone inscriptions --- 甲骨文 --- jiaguwen --- there appears a name: Dayi --- 大一.
Da --- 大 --- means great. Big. Of large measure.
Yi --- 一 --- means one.
Dayi --- 大一 --- the Great One.
This is an alternate name for the foremost ancestor of the Shang dynasty.
It is also interpreted as a name for the supreme force of the universe worshipped by the Shang.
The identification of Shang Dayi with later Taiyi is debated among scholars.
The debate is recorded here.
It has not been resolved.
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On what Taiyi is.
Taiyi is not a god in the ordinary sense.
It has no form in the earliest accounts.
It has no body.
It has no biography.
It does not speak.
It does not act in the way that gods act.
Taiyi is the first principle that emerged from Wuji --- 無極 --- the Limitless.
Wuji --- the state before existence --- has been recorded in Chapter Two of this record.
From Wuji came the first movement.
That first movement is Taiyi.
Taiyi is the pivot point between non-existence and existence.
It is the moment the undivided began to divide.
It is the breath before the breath.
It is the condition that contains everything that will later become differentiated.
It has not yet differentiated.
It is still one.
The Zhuangzi --- 莊子 --- the classic Daoist text attributed to Zhuang Zhou --- 莊周 --- states in the chapter Tianxia --- 天下 --- Under Heaven: Guan Yin --- 關尹 --- and Lao Dan --- 老聃 --- another name for Laozi --- built their philosophy on the constant presence of both being and non-being, with Taiyi as the central axis.
The Laozi --- 老子 --- does not use the word Taiyi directly.
But the Laozi states in Chapter Fourteen: the unseen is called colorless. The unheard is called soundless. The intangible is called formless.
These three cannot be separately investigated.
They are mixed together and called Yi --- 一.
This Yi is understood by scholars as the same principle as Taiyi.
The Laozi also states in Chapter Forty-Two: the Tao gives birth to one.
One gives birth to two.
Two gives birth to three.
Three gives birth to the ten thousand things --- 萬物 --- wanwu.
The one that the Tao gives birth to is Taiyi.
This is the standard reading.
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On the Guodian bamboo slips --- 郭店楚簡 --- Guodian Chujian.
In 1993 archaeologists excavated a tomb in Jingmen --- 荊門 --- a city in Hubei province --- 湖北省 --- Hubei Sheng.
The tomb is designated Guodian Tomb Number One --- 郭店一號墓 --- Guodian Yi Hao Mu.
The tomb dates to approximately 300 BCE.
It is from the state of Chu --- 楚 --- during the Warring States period.
Inside the tomb were 804 bamboo strips --- 竹簡 --- zhujian --- covered in writing.
Among these strips was a text written on fourteen strips.
The first four characters of this text are: Taiyi Sheng Shui --- 太一生水.
Taiyi --- 太一 --- the Great One.
Sheng --- 生 --- means to give birth. To generate. To bring into being.
Shui --- 水 --- means water.
Together --- 太一生水 --- Taiyi Gave Birth to Water.
This is the oldest known text in which Taiyi is treated as a cosmological origin principle.
The text was buried for more than two thousand years.
The text was unknown to modern scholars before 1993.
The complete cosmological sequence recorded in the Taiyi Sheng Shui is as follows.
Taiyi gave birth to water.
Water returned and assisted Taiyi.
Together they completed heaven --- 天 --- tian.
Heaven returned and assisted Taiyi.
Together they completed earth --- 地 --- di.
Heaven and earth repeatedly assisted each other.
Together they completed the divine and the luminous --- 神明 --- shenming.
The divine and the luminous repeatedly assisted each other.
Together they completed yin and yang --- 陰陽 --- yinyang.
Yin and yang repeatedly assisted each other.
Together they completed the four seasons --- 四時 --- si shi.
The four seasons repeatedly assisted each other.
Together they completed cold and heat --- 寒熱 --- hanre.
Cold and heat repeatedly assisted each other.
Together they completed wet and dry --- 濕燥 --- shizao.
Wet and dry repeatedly assisted each other.
Together they completed the year --- 歲 --- sui.
The year repeatedly assists Taiyi.
Taiyi is therefore both the beginning and the destination that the cycle returns to.
The text uses the phrase fan fu --- 反輔 --- to return and assist.
This phrase appears in no other known ancient Chinese text.
It describes a cosmos that does not simply unfold in one direction.
Each thing that emerges turns back and strengthens what produced it.
The cosmos is a cycle of mutual nourishment.
Taiyi initiated the cycle.
Taiyi is also the axis around which the cycle turns.
The text was translated into English by professors Wen Xing and Robert G. Henricks of Dartmouth College.
Their translation is the standard reference for Western scholars.
A second interpretation by scholar Puglia in 2021 proposes that Taiyi in this text refers specifically to the sun.
The text states that Taiyi proceeds with the seasons --- 行於時 --- xing yu shi.
It completes a cycle and begins again --- 周而又始 --- zhou er you shi.
It hides in water --- 藏於水 --- cang yu shui.
These descriptions match the movement of the sun across the sky and its disappearance into the western sea at sunset.
This interpretation is noted.
It is not universally accepted.
Both interpretations are recorded here.
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On Taiyi in the Huainanzi --- 淮南子.
The Huainanzi --- 淮南子 --- was compiled under the patronage of Liu An --- 劉安 --- the Prince of Huainan --- around 139 BCE.
It is a collection of essays on cosmology, philosophy, and governance written by multiple authors.
The Huainanzi records a cosmological sequence that begins before Taiyi.
Before heaven and earth took shape there was a state of formlessness --- 芒芴 --- manghu.
This state is also called the Great Inception --- 太始 --- Taishi.
The Great Inception produced the Void --- 虛霩 --- Xukuo.
The Void produced the universe --- 宇宙 --- yuzhou.
The universe produced primordial qi --- 元氣 --- yuanqi.
Primordial qi had a limit --- 涯 --- ya.
The clear and light portions of primordial qi floated upward and became heaven.
The heavy and turbid portions sank and became earth.
In the Huainanzi Taiyi is not named as the origin point.
Taiyi is instead the undivided condition from which the process begins.
It does not act.
It is the state that makes all subsequent action possible.
The Huainanzi also contains a passage describing Taiyi as that which holds the three --- 三 --- san --- the three fundamental forces of heaven, earth, and humanity --- in unity.
In this passage Taiyi is the integrating principle.
It does not produce.
It holds together what has already been produced.
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On Taiyi and the North Star --- 北極星 --- Beijiexing.
Taiyi was connected to astronomy from the earliest records.
Ancient Chinese astronomers observed the night sky and identified a fixed point around which all other stars appeared to rotate.
This fixed point is the celestial pole --- 天極 --- tianji.
The Shiji --- 史記 --- Records of the Grand Historian --- compiled by Sima Qian --- 司馬遷 --- states: the central palace celestial pole star --- 中宮天極星 --- its one bright star is the permanent residence of Taiyi.
The star in question is the Pole Star --- 北極星 --- Beijiexing --- the star nearest to the celestial pole at any given time.
Due to the wobble of the Earth on its axis --- a phenomenon called axial precession --- different stars occupy the position of Pole Star across thousands of years.
Two thousand years ago the Pole Star was likely Kochab.
At the beginning of Chinese civilization it was Thuban.
Today it is Polaris.
In every era the star nearest the celestial pole was considered the dwelling of Taiyi.
The Han dynasty writer Zheng Xuan --- 鄭玄 --- wrote: Taiyi is the name of the god in the North Star --- Beichen --- 北辰. He lives there and is called Taiyi.
The Tang dynasty writer Zhang Shoujie --- 張守節 --- wrote: Taiyi is another name for Tiandi --- 天帝 --- the Emperor of Heaven.
In Han apocryphal texts the Big Dipper --- 北斗 --- Beidou --- is described as the instrument of Taiyi.
The Big Dipper is the ladle from which Taiyi pours out primordial breath --- 元氣 --- yuanqi --- into the world.
The Big Dipper is also described as Taiyi's heavenly chariot --- 天車 --- tian che.
Taiyi rides it around the celestial pole.
All other stars rotate around the axis where Taiyi resides.
This is why Taiyi was understood as the lord of all direction and all time.
The Lüshi Chunqiu --- 呂氏春秋 --- Master Lü's Spring and Autumn Annals --- compiled around 239 BCE --- states: the movement of the Pole Star corresponds with the sky, while the Celestial Pole itself remains fixed.
The stars move.
Taiyi does not move.
This is the astronomical expression of the philosophical principle.
Everything changes.
The axis around which everything changes does not change.
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On Taiyi as the supreme state deity under Han Wudi --- 漢武帝.
The Emperor Wu of Han --- 漢武帝 --- Han Wudi --- reigned from 141 to 87 BCE.
He is remembered as one of the most powerful emperors in Chinese history.
He expanded the Han empire in every direction.
He was also deeply interested in religion, the supernatural, and the search for immortality.
He was introduced to Taiyi by his shaman advisers --- 方士 --- fangshi.
The fangshi claimed the ability to summon Taiyi into the emperor's presence.
They performed rituals.
The emperor experienced what he believed to be the presence of the god.
In 118 BCE Han Wudi constructed a dedicated shrine to Taiyi within his Ganquan Palace complex --- 甘泉宮 --- Ganquan Gong --- located in what is now Xianyang --- 咸陽 --- in Shaanxi province.
This shrine was called the House of Life --- 壽宮 --- Shou Gong.
Han Wudi elevated Taiyi to the supreme position among all state deities.
He ranked Taiyi above the Five Emperors --- 五帝 --- Wudi --- the five cardinal directional gods that had governed the state religion of previous dynasties.
Han Wudi offered sacrifices to Taiyi personally.
He conducted these sacrifices at dawn.
The sacrifices were made facing northeast --- 東北 --- dongbei.
Northeast was understood as the direction from which Taiyi exercised its governance.
He organized the Suburban Sacrifice --- 郊祀 --- Jiaosi --- a grand state ritual offered to the highest deity.
Nineteen hymns were composed for use in these suburban sacrifices during his reign.
These hymns are called the Jiaosi Ge --- 郊祀歌 --- Hymns for the Suburban Sacrifice.
The first hymn addresses Taiyi directly.
In 113 BCE Han Wudi officially integrated the theology of Taiyi with the Confucian state religion.
He merged the Huang-Lao --- 黃老 --- tradition of Taiyi worship with the ritual system inherited from previous dynasties.
This integration made Taiyi the central deity of the Han imperial state cult.
After Han Wudi's death the specific cult of Taiyi as a named supreme deity gradually declined in the imperial system.
Later emperors shifted emphasis back to Heaven --- 天 --- Tian --- as the supreme object of state worship.
The concept of Taiyi did not disappear.
It migrated from imperial state ritual into Daoist religious tradition.
There it continued to develop.
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On Taiyi in the Songs of Chu --- 楚辭 --- Chuci.
The Songs of Chu --- 楚辭 --- Chuci --- is an anthology of poetry originally from the state of Chu --- 楚 --- compiled and edited during the Han dynasty.
It is one of the two foundational works of classical Chinese poetry.
The other is the Classic of Poetry --- 詩經 --- Shijing.
Within the Songs of Chu is a collection called the Nine Songs --- 九歌 --- Jiuge.
The Nine Songs are believed to derive from shamanic hymns performed in ritual ceremonies in Chu.
The first song in the Nine Songs is addressed to Donghuang Taiyi --- 東皇太一.
Dong --- 東 --- means east.
Huang --- 皇 --- means august. Imperial. Of the highest dignity.
Together --- 東皇太一 --- the August Great One of the East. The Supreme Sovereign of the East.
In this hymn Taiyi is addressed as a personal deity.
The hymn describes the preparation of an offering.
Jade rings --- 瓊芳 --- qiong fang --- are prepared.
Fragrant herbs are gathered.
Music is performed.
Pipes and zithers --- 瑟 --- se --- are played.
Drums --- 鼓 --- gu --- are beaten.
The deity is described as luminous and remote.
It cannot be approached directly.
It can only be honored from a respectful distance.
The hymn ends as the deity departs.
The hymn does not describe the deity's appearance.
It does not describe the deity's form.
It only describes the experience of being in the deity's presence and the grief of its departure.
This is the earliest surviving literary text in which Taiyi appears as an object of worship and devotion rather than as a philosophical principle.
Some scholars argue the complete title Donghuang Taiyi was a Han dynasty addition to an older text.
The original Chu hymn may have simply addressed Taiyi without the eastern directional title.
This debate is recorded here.
It has not been resolved.
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On Taiyi and the Taiping Dao --- 太平道 --- the Way of Great Peace.
The Taiping Dao --- 太平道 --- was a Daoist religious movement that emerged at the end of the Eastern Han dynasty --- 東漢 --- Dong Han.
It was founded by Zhang Jue --- 張角 --- and his brothers.
It attracted millions of followers in the late second century of the common era.
It culminated in the Yellow Turban Rebellion --- 黃巾之亂 --- Huangjin Zhi Luan --- of 184 CE.
The Taiping Dao honored Taiyi as a central object of devotion.
Its foundational scripture is the Taipingjing --- 太平經 --- the Classic of Great Peace.
The Taipingjing states: entering the room to contemplate the Tao is the way to ascend to Taiyi from Heaven.
In Taiping Dao practice Taiyi was not merely a cosmological principle.
Taiyi was the ultimate destination of spiritual cultivation.
The practitioner who achieved perfect unity with the Tao merged with Taiyi.
This was the highest attainment.
The Weishu --- 緯書 --- the apocryphal texts supplementing the Confucian classics --- describes Taiyi's powers in the world: Taiyi is the master of wind and rain, water and drought, war and revolution, famine and plague.
Taiyi governs all conditions of the human world.
By worshipping Taiyi one can invoke the gods.
By cultivating unity with Taiyi one can transcend the conditions that Taiyi governs.
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On Taiyi Jiuku Tianzun --- 太乙救苦天尊 --- the Heavenly Worthy Who Rescues from Suffering.
In Daoist religious tradition Taiyi did not remain an abstract principle.
It became a personal deity of salvation.
This deity is called Taiyi Jiuku Tianzun --- 太乙救苦天尊.
Jiuku --- 救苦 --- means to rescue from suffering. To save from bitterness and pain.
Tianzun --- 天尊 --- means Heavenly Worthy. The highest rank of Daoist deity below the Three Pure Ones --- 三清 --- Sanqing.
Together --- 太乙救苦天尊 --- the Heavenly Worthy of Great Unity Who Rescues from Suffering.
He is also called Xunsheng Jiuku Tianzun --- 尋聲救苦天尊 --- the Heavenly Worthy Who Rescues from Suffering by Following the Sound of Cries.
He is also called Dongjue Qinghua Dadi --- 東極青華大帝 --- the Qinghua Emperor of the Eastern Pole.
He resides in the Eastern Paradise --- 東方長樂界 --- Dongfang Changle Jie --- the Eastern World of Eternal Bliss.
This is distinct from the Western Paradise --- 西方極樂世界 --- Xifang Jile Shijie --- the Buddhist Pure Land of Amitabha Buddha.
Taiyi Jiuku Tianzun governs the eastern direction.
He is the counterpart to the Buddhist Bodhisattva Ksitigarbha --- 地藏菩薩 --- who was recorded in Chapter Twenty-Seven of this record.
Ksitigarbha is the Buddhist personification of compassion for souls in hell.
Taiyi Jiuku Tianzun is the Daoist personification of the same principle.
In Chinese folk religion both are worshipped for the same purpose.
The purpose is the relief of ancestors from suffering in the afterlife.
Taiyi Jiuku Tianzun holds five names across five realms.
In heaven he is called the Supreme Oneness Spirit of Luck --- 太一福神 --- Taiyi Fushen.
In the mortal world he is called the Great Benevolent One --- 大慈仁者 --- Daci Renzhe.
In hell he is called the Imperial Sovereign of Sunshine --- 日耀帝君 --- Riyao Dijun.
Among those outside the Dao he is called the Brilliant Lion King --- 獅子明王 --- Shizi Mingwang.
In the water realm he is called the Imperial Sovereign of the Pervasive Abyss --- 洞淵帝君 --- Dongyuan Dijun.
One deity.
Five faces.
One for each realm of existence.
He manifests in whatever form is required by whoever calls upon him.
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On his mount --- the Nine-Headed Lion --- 九頭獅子 --- Jiutou Shizi.
Taiyi Jiuku Tianzun rides a nine-headed lion --- 九頭獅子 --- Jiutou Shizi.
The lion is blue.
It has nine heads.
Nine --- 九 --- jiu --- is the ultimate yang number in Chinese numerology.
Nine represents heaven. It represents infinite power. It represents the highest attainment.
The nine heads look simultaneously in all nine directions of the underworld.
No suffering soul in any direction can escape the lion's sight.
When the nine-headed lion roars the sound is said to shatter the gates of the Nine Hells --- 九幽地獄 --- Jiuyou Diyu.
The roar breaks open the locked gates.
The light of Taiyi Jiuku Tianzun reaches the souls trapped inside.
The lion also appears in the Journey to the West --- 西遊記 --- Xiyou Ji.
In that novel it appears as a demon called the Grand Saint of Nine Spirits --- 九靈元聖 --- Jiuling Yuansheng.
It had escaped from its master while a boy attendant fell asleep for three days in heaven.
Three days in heaven equals three years in the mortal world.
The lion built a stronghold at a mountain called Bamboo Links Mountain --- 竹節山 --- Zhujie Shan.
It did not harm humans.
It did not seek to eat the monk Tang Sanzang.
This distinguishes it from most other demons in the novel.
It fought Sun Wukong --- 孫悟空 --- to protect its territory.
It was eventually subdued by Taiyi Jiuku Tianzun himself who came to retrieve it.
Sun Wukong could not defeat the lion alone.
Only its master could subdue it.
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On his appearance and ritual function.
Taiyi Jiuku Tianzun is depicted seated on a lotus throne --- 蓮花寶座 --- lianhua baozuo --- of five colors.
Two small lotuses support his feet.
His left hand holds a bottle of holy water --- 救苦水 --- Jiuku Shui --- water that relieves suffering.
His right hand holds a willow branch --- 柳枝 --- liuzhi --- with which he sprinkles the holy water.
Nine lions of five colors support his throne.
They breathe fire from their mouths.
His expression is serene.
He wears flowing robes.
He wears a low dark cap adorned with jewels.
He is surrounded by a radiant nimbus --- 光輪 --- guanglun.
He is worshipped during the ceremonies of the Three Origins --- 三元 --- Sanyuan.
He is the principal deity of the Yellow Register Rituals --- 黃籙齋 --- Huanglu Zhai --- rituals performed for the salvation of the dead.
He is invoked at funerals throughout southern China, Taiwan, and Southeast Asia.
Daoist priests perform a ritual called Breaking the Hell Gates --- 破地獄 --- Po Diyu.
In this ritual the priest uses a sword and bells to represent the lion's roar.
The priest symbolically breaks open the hell gates.
The soul of the deceased is guided out.
The soul is escorted to the Eastern World of Eternal Bliss.
His birthday is the eleventh day of the eleventh lunar month --- 十一月十一日 --- shiyue shiri.
Daoist temples that worship him contain a Hall of Supreme Oneness --- 太乙殿 --- Taiyi Dian.
Temples dedicated to him as the main deity exist throughout Fujian province --- 福建省 --- and among the Hokkien diaspora --- 福建華僑 --- Fujian Huaqiao --- in Southeast Asia.
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On Taiyi Zhenren --- 太乙真人 --- the Perfected Person of Great Unity --- and Nezha --- 哪吒.
In the Ming dynasty novel Fengshen Yanyi --- 封神演義 --- the Investiture of the Gods --- Taiyi appears in a third form.
In this novel he is called Taiyi Zhenren --- 太乙真人.
Zhenren --- 真人 --- means the Perfected Person. One who has achieved the highest level of Daoist cultivation.
In Fengshen Yanyi Taiyi Zhenren is ranked fifth among the Twelve Golden Immortals --- 十二金仙 --- Shier Jinxian.
The Twelve Golden Immortals are the elite disciples of Yuanshi Tianzun --- 元始天尊 --- the Jade Pure One --- the first of the Three Pure Ones.
Taiyi Zhenren resides in the Golden Light Cave --- 金光洞 --- Jinguang Dong --- on Qianyuan Mountain --- 乾元山 --- Qianyuan Shan.
He is the master of Nezha --- 哪吒 --- the lotus child recorded in Chapter Twelve of this record.
When Nezha killed himself to spare his father from the consequences of his actions Taiyi Zhenren intervened.
He gathered lotus roots --- 蓮藕 --- lian'ou.
He used his power to reconstruct Nezha's body from the lotus roots.
Nezha was reborn with a new body.
He was no longer his parents' biological child.
He was the child of the lotus.
He was the creation of his master's compassion.
Taiyi Zhenren also gave Nezha his famous weapons.
The Universe Ring --- 乾坤圈 --- Qiankun Quan.
The Red Armillary Sash --- 混天綾 --- Huntian Ling.
The Wind Fire Wheels --- 風火輪 --- Fenghuolun.
He is also depicted as the owner of the Nine Dragons Fire Cover --- 九龍神火罩 --- Jiulong Shenhuozhao --- a powerful artifact that burns opponents with the fire of nine dragons.
In the modern animated film Ne Zha --- 哪吒 --- released in 2019 --- Taiyi Zhenren is reimagined as a rotund, humorous figure who speaks with a Sichuan accent --- 四川口音 --- Sichuan kouyin.
This version bears little resemblance to the ancient cosmic principle from which the character originally derives.
Both versions carry the same name.
Two thousand years of development separate them.
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On the relationship between Taiyi and Pangu --- 盤古.
Pangu --- 盤古 --- was recorded in Chapter Four of this record.
Pangu is a creation deity.
He has a body.
He acts.
He splits the primordial egg.
He holds the sky above his head for eighteen thousand years.
He dies and becomes the world.
Taiyi is none of these things.
Taiyi is the condition from which beings with bodies eventually arise.
Pangu exists inside the process that Taiyi initiates.
Taiyi does not split the egg.
Taiyi is the reason an egg was possible.
Pangu is the mythological account of creation.
Taiyi is the philosophical account.
Both accounts are from different traditions within the same civilization.
They have coexisted in Chinese thought for more than two thousand years.
Neither account has been declared superior.
Neither account has eliminated the other.
This record does not resolve them.
The world did not require resolution.
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On what Taiyi represents.
Taiyi represents the moment before multiplicity.
Before there were two things there was one thing.
Before there was one thing there was nothing.
Taiyi is the bridge.
It is not nothing.
It is not yet something with form.
It is the transition between the two.
As a cosmological principle it answers the question: where did the first thing come from.
As a stellar deity it answers the question: what is the fixed center around which everything else moves.
As a salvation deity it answers the question: who will come for the soul when there is nowhere else to turn.
Three answers.
One name.
The name has been carried through more than two thousand years of Chinese civilization.
It has been carried through philosophy, astronomy, imperial ritual, Daoist theology, popular religion, and popular fiction.
In each form it carries the same essential meaning.
There is something that holds everything together.
There is something that was there before everything else.
There is something that does not move while all other things move around it.
The Chinese called it Taiyi.
The name is still in use.
End of Supplement