Fengshen Yanyi

"Fengshen Yanyi" (zh-tsp|t=封神演義|s=封神演义|p=fēngshén yǎnyì) (translated as "The Investiture of the Gods" or "The Creation of the Gods"), also known as "Fengshen Bang" (zh-ts|t=封神榜|s=封神榜), is one of the major Vernacular Chinese novels written in the Ming Dynasty. The story deals with the decline of the Shang Dynasty and rise of the Zhou Dynasty, intertwining numerous elements of Chinese mythology, including gods and goddesses, Chinese immortals, and spirits. It is, to an extent, representative and descriptive of life in China at the time, where religion played a major role in everyday life. The authorship of Fengshen Yanyi is attributed to Xu Zhonglin (許仲琳; 许仲琳) (d. 1566) or Lu Xixing (陸西星; 陆西星) (d. 1601).

Plot summary

This epic novel (Yanyi refers to the Chinese equivalent of the Western epic) is a fantastic retelling of the overthrow of unscrupulous and merciless ruler Di Xin (also known as Zhòu) of the Shang dynasty by King Wu of Zhou. The story integrates oral and written tales of the many Daoist heroes and immortals, and various spirits (usually represented in avatar form as foxes, chickens, and sometimes even inanimate objects like Jade Pipa) that take part in the struggle. Enchanted by his concubine Daji, who is actually a fox spirit in disguise, Di Xin murders loyal ministers with draconian punishments like incineration on a red-hot pillar of brass or being fed to a pit of snakes. He even attempts to kill his own sons. After the fall of the Shang Dynasty and exorcism of Daji by Jiang Ziya, King Wu of Zhou builds his own dynasty, creating the Zhou feudal system. The slain heroes, even those on the "enemy" side, are endowed with heavenly ranking, being essentially elevated to the position of gods, hence the title.

ome famous anecdotes

In "Fengshen Yanyi", there are many stories (altogether 100 stories) in which many gods, goddesses and immortals came to the Earth and changed the fate of everything with their magical power. Here are some famous ones:

Nüwa and Di Xin

When Di Xin came to a temple of Nüwa, an ancient Chinese goddess, and perform his worship, he noticed that the Nüwa statue was very tempting. Then the lewd emperor cried indecent words like “it would be good if I could marry Her” before the statue, and wrote lustful poems on the walls to show his immense adoration likewise. Nüwa got furious with the insult. Foretelling that Di Xin would be the last emperor of the Shang Dynasty, she sent a one-thousand-year-old fox spirit, a nine-headed pheasant, and a jade-made Pipa spirit to lure Di Xin and render him unaware of his people, which indirectly resulted in the uprising of Zhou and made the decline of Shang more reasonable.

Daji was a kind-hearted beauty originally, and was ordered to enter the palace to be Di Xin’s concubine. The wicked fox spirit murdered Daji on the way to the palace, embodying the exact same appearance of the killed girl and attended the palace’s invitation.

Daji and Bo Yi Kao

Di Xin obliged King Wen of Zhou to stay in You (that is, today’s Henan) for almost seven years, during which King Wen of Zhou’s eldest son, Bo Yi Kao, came to the capital of Shang, Zhaoge (today’s Hebi, Henan) and ask for Di Xin’s mercy. The fox spirit fell in love with the handsome young man, and requested Di Xin to permit Bo to teach her play the guqin. Taking advantage of the guqin lessons, Daji ensnared Bo with her splendour. Bo, however, refused Daji for any liaisons, and called her a shameless woman. The irate Daji made a complaint to her husband that Bo had bullied her. Gnashing his teeth, Di Xin killed Bo and minced him into paste, cooked it into congee and served to King Wen of Zhou. King Wen of Zhou knew divination, and, by means of the Eight Diagrams, he realised the congee was made from his beloved son. Suppressing the great pain and sadness in his heart, King Wen of Zhou ate up the congee and determined to avenge his dead son.

King Wen of Zhou and Jiang Ziya

Jiang Ziya (or Jiang Taigong, also known as Lu Shang) was an apprentice of an immortal living deep inside an unvisited mountain, and he left his master at the age of 72. He loved fishing, but, strangely enough, he only used a straight fishhook, without bait, three feet above the water, for angling. His neighbours felt odd at his strange fishing skills, and, out of curiosity, asked the old man for the reason of it. “What I’m angling is not a single fish,” smiled Jiang, “but the emperor and the great many vassals. Only those who really wish to be fished would be finally fished by me.” Jiang meant he was waiting for a man who could recognise and need his talent.

Some people told King Wen of Zhou about the weird old man, and the aggressive vassal had a looming interest in Jiang Ziya. One day, King Wen of Zhou paid a visit to Jiang. Jiang did nothing but demanded King Wen of Zhou to help him pull his cart. King Wen of Zhou did so and stopped pulling after he moved eight hundred steps forwards. Jiang told the vassal that his future kingdom (that is, the Zhou Dynasty) should exist for eight hundred years. King Wen of Zhou wished to pull the cart for more few steps, but he was too exhausted to move forwards. Jiang became the prime minister of Zhou afterward. King Wen was succeeded by King Wu.

Bi Gan lost his heart

From the prophecy revealed by the oracle bones, Jiang Ziya predicted that Di Xin’s loyal and benevolent courtier, Bi Gan would die soon, thereby giving a charm to Bi. Before long, Daji, the evil vixen told her husband that she had a heart attack and only a “delicate seven-aperture heart” (Qiqiao Linglong Xin) could relieve her agony. No-one in the palace had that kind of heart — except Bi, who was given a heart by the goddess Nüwa, when he drowned once during his childhood. Bi, loyal as he is, swallowed the charm given by Jiang, grabbed his heart and pulled it out of his body to be given to Di Xin. Bi did not lose his life, nor shed a single drop of blood. Instead, he walked out of the palace and did what Jiang instructed: go straight home immediately without looking back. If he succeeded in doing this, he would recover after one day.

Yet upon the last few steps on reaching home, a female huckster yelled from behind Bi, “Hey! Cheap cabbages without stems (xin)!” (i.e., Baoxin Cai, literally a vegetable with a stem covered inside; xin, heart, rhetorically refers to the stem in this case).

Bi, curious and unsuspicious, turned back and asked the huckster, “How can there be cabbages without stems? ” The old lady donned an evil grin and replied, “You’re right, sir. Cabbages cannot live without stems as men cannot live without hearts (xin).” Bi shouted in his loud voice, fell to the ground and died without knowing that the lady hawker was a disguise made by the jade-made Pipa spirit. Thus, Jiang who was able to foretell Bi’s death, could not prevent the tragedy from happening.

In modern culture

The novel has maintained a strong presence in modern Chinese culture. It has also been the adapted into Japanese popular culture, though almost always in heavily modified form, sometimes leaving almost no trace of the original. It has been the subject of numerous television series and video games, including several recently translated for the Western Market, such as Battle Houshin ("houshin" is the Japanese reading of "Fengshen") and "Fengshen Yanyi": Legends of Gods and Heroes. It has also been substantially adapted for the manga "Hoshin Engi". The most marked and lasting effect, though, is the use of the name - as "Fengshen Bang" - as a term in modern Chinese meaning "hit list" (as in a top 10 list or similar, such as music charts). Fengshen Bang (封神榜) is also the name of a modern Chinese TV series based on the "Fengshen Yanyi", starring Fan Bingbing as Daji, Ma Jingtao as King Zhou of Shang.

Adaptation

* "Tales of the teahouse retold: investiture of the gods" (by Katherine Liang Chew) ISBN 0-595-65161-5

See also

*Chinese mythology
*Religion in China
*Zhou Dynasty
*Shang Dynasty
*Welkin Lords
*Hoshin Engi

External links

* [http://www.poisonpie.com/words/others/somewhat/creation/index.html Creation of the Gods: A Somewhat Less Than Critical Commentary]