“The most noble god in heaven is Taiyi” is written in “Historical Records·Book of Fengshan”, which clearly states that Taiyi is the most noble god among the gods. “Han Shu·Astronomy” mentions: “The brightest star in the central palace is where Taiyi lives.” “Han Shu·Suburban Sacrifices” explains in more detail: “In ancient times, the emperor offered sacrifices to Taiyi in spring and autumn in the southeast suburbs.” This means that in ancient times, when the emperor offered sacrifices to heaven, he was offering sacrifices to Taiyi, and the sacrificial activities were carried out in spring and autumn, usually in the suburbs in the southeast. During the reign of Emperor Wu of Han, the sacrificial activities of Taiyi were set on the fifteenth day of the first lunar month. Since his status is so important, who is this Taiyi god?
Qu Yuan used a considerable amount of space in “Chu Ci” to reproduce some ancient folk songs for offering sacrifices to gods, named “Nine Songs”. There is a chapter called “Donghuang Taiyi” which says: “Taiyi is the name of a star, the supreme god of heaven. The temple is located in the east of Chu, to match the East Emperor, so it is called Donghuang.” This means that Taiyi God is a star in the sky, in charge of the east of Chu State, so he is called Dongdi, Donghuang, and therefore Donghuang Taiyi. His status is roughly equivalent to Dongwanggong mentioned in Taoism. In the “Yiwei Qianzaodu” by Zheng Xuan, it is believed that “Taiyi is the name of the god of Beichen. He lives in his place, called Taiyi.” Here, Taiyi God has become the “God of Beichen”, the star master in the north. Another view is that the Taiyi God (or Donghuang Taiyi) mentioned by Qu Yuan in “Nine Songs” is Zhurong, the highest god respected by the Chu people. Such differences are probably based on differences in regions and customs. It is undeniable that in the local mythology system of Chu State in the pre-Qin period, Taiyi God was considered to be the highest god, and some people called him the sun god. As the Qin Dynasty completed the great unification, the belief in Taiyi God gradually began to transform from the highest regional god to the belief of the whole people, and the status of Taiyi God also improved significantly. “Records of the Grand Historian: The Chronicle of Qin Shihuang” records: “In ancient times, there were the Emperor of Heaven, the Emperor of Earth, and the Emperor of Tai, and the Emperor of Tai was the most noble.” The “Emperor of Tai” mentioned here is Taiyi God, whose status is below the Emperor of Heaven and the Emperor of Earth, and is a synonym for the Emperor of Man. According to textual research, the Emperor of Man is before the Three Emperors, probably a respectful title for Taihao.
During the reign of Emperor Wu of the Han Dynasty, the status of Taiyi God continued to improve. “The General Meaning of the Five Classics” also said that “The Emperor of Heaven is also called Taiyi”, believing that Taiyi God is the Emperor of Heaven, who lives in the North Star and is surrounded by all the stars, and his status is slightly equivalent to the Lord of the Stars, and “Taiyi’s assistants are called the Five Emperors”, and Donghuang Taiyi, who was originally only the Eastern Emperor, officially rose to the main god of the Five Directions and Five Emperors. Regardless of which ancestor Taiyi God is, all the statements mentioned here are personification and imagery of Taiyi God. Only the book “Huainanzi” mentioned in the annotation of “Taiyi God” that “the hole is the same as heaven and earth, chaos is simple, and things are formed before creation, which is called Taiyi. They all come from one, but they are different. There are birds, fish and beasts, which are called divided things… All things are born from Taiyi”, which means that Taiyi is the innate qi of creation, the original qi that generates all things in heaven and earth. This kind of explanation secretly fits the cosmology and generation theory held by Taoism. In Taoist theory, all things in the universe are born from the operation of yin and yang, yin and yang are born from Wuji, Wuji is born from chaos, which means that Tao gives birth to one, one gives birth to two, two gives birth to three, and three gives birth to all things. At the same time, Taoism has the theory of one qi turning into three pure ones, believing that the universe in a chaotic state originally gave birth to a point, which is the Taiji state, and Yuanshi Tianzun began to rule it. Yuanshi is the source of all things, and also refers to the primordial qi when heaven and earth were not divided. This is exactly the title of Taiyi. Taiyi creates all things, and all things are inseparable from Taiyi, which is close to the concept of “Tao”. The difference is that Taiyi’s Qi is personified as “Donghuang Taiyi”, while the personification of Daoqi is the image of the three ancestors Yuanshi Tianzun, Lingbao Tianzun and Daode Tianzun. Although the personification of Taiyi God and Daoqi present different appearances of the innate great god, in ancient times, “Tai”, “Da” and “Tian” can all be used as homophones, and Taiyi’s Tao is the Tao of Heaven. Giving birth to all things and being in all things is the principle of Taiyi, and it is even more the wonder of the Tao.
There is an article in the early Taoist works that is worth studying. This article, titled “Da (Tai) Yisheng Shui”, focuses on the Taoist theory of cosmogenesis. Its content focuses on the relationship between “Taiyi” and heaven, earth, four seasons, yin and yang, etc., and mentions the Taoist idea of ”reducing the surplus and supplementing the deficiency”. A careful reading will find that this “Taiyi” and “Taiyi God” are also similar in nature. The book says: “Taiyi gave birth to water. Water in turn assisted Taiyi, thus forming the sky. The sky in turn assisted Taiyi, thus forming the earth. The sky and the earth assisted each other again, thus forming the gods. The gods assisted each other again, thus forming yin and yang. Yin and yang assisted each other again, thus forming the four seasons. The four seasons assisted each other again, thus forming cold and heat. Cold and heat assisted each other again, thus forming wetness and dryness. Wetness and dryness assisted each other again, and the year ended.” Here, the origin of the universe is attributed to water – this is also one of the views generally accepted by the scientific community today – it is believed that “Taiyi gave birth to water” and water “assisted Taiyi” at the same time. The two are complementary and inseparable, and from this, it is inferred that the heaven and the earth, the gods and the four seasons were born. In the article “Taiyi gave birth to water”, it is also determined that “Taiyi” is the origin of all things, which coincides with the statement in the book “Huainanzi”. In Qu Yuan’s poems and lyrics, no matter what changes occur in the priesthood of the “Taiyi God” believed in Chu, he always remains in the image of the Lord of the Stars. The ancients believed that the stars in the sky corresponded to the rotation of the four seasons, and the fortunes and disasters on earth, and that the heavens, the earth, and man were all generated and controlled by some unknown force. To some extent, worshipping Taiyi God is a worship of the heavens, the earth, and nature, and a belief in the life of all things. This is the same as the Taoist view of the universe that the Tao follows nature.
