Five Forms of the Highest Deity

Five Forms of the Highest Deity
Diagram and associations from the Huainanzi.
Simplified Chinese
Transcriptions Standard Mandarin Hanyu Pinyin Wǔfāng Shàngdì Wade–Giles Wu Fang Shang Ti
Five Deities
Chinese	五帝
Transcriptions Standard Mandarin Hanyu Pinyin Wǔdì Wade–Giles Wu Ti

The Wǔfāng Shàngdì (五方上帝 "Five Forms of the Highest Deity"), or simply Wǔdì (五帝 "Five Deities") or Wǔshén (五神 "Five Gods") are, in Chinese canonical texts and common Chinese religion, the five main deities proceeding from the universal God. They have cosmological significance as they describe space as a tán 壇, "altar". According with the Three Powers (三才 Sāncái) they have a celestial, a terrestrial and a chthonic form. The Han Chinese identify themselves as the descendants of the Red and Yellow Deities.

They are associated to the five colors, the five phases of creation, the five key planets of the Solar System and the five constellations rotating around the celestial pole, the five sacred mountains and five directions of space (their terrestrial form), and the five Dragon Gods (龙神 Lóngshén) who represent their mounts, that is to say the material forces they preside over (their chthonic form).

Other names by which the Five Deities are collectively known are:

Huángdì (黄帝 "Yellow Emperor" or "Yellow Deity"), also called Huángshén (黄神 "Yellow God"), also known simply as Xuānyuán (轩辕, said to have been his name as a human) or by the epithet of Xuānyuán Huángdì (轩辕黄帝 "Xuanyuan the Yellow Deity"), is the Zhōngyuèdàdì (中岳大帝 "Great Deity of the Central Peak"). He is the most important god in the cosmology of the Wufang Shangdi and possibly the most important god in Chinese religion. He represents the essence of earth and the Yellow Dragon (黄龙 Huánglóng). He is the deity who informs the material world (地 Dì), creator of the Huaxia civility, of marriage and morality, language and lineage, and primal ancestor of all the Chinese. His astral body is Saturn, but he is also identified as the Sun God, and with the star Regulus (Alpha Leonis) and constellations Leo and Lynx, of which the latter is said to represent the body of the Yellow Dragon.