Myth CodexRotA Wiki

Immortals of the Celestial Court

Gods, immortals, and beasts of Chinese myth — from the creators Pangu and Nüwa to the Monkey King — recorded across millennia of legend.

Know what you want? Search. Just browsing? Narrow by tradition or kind below.

Traditions
Filter by kind
20 entries

C

Chang'eGoddess of the MoonThe moon goddess who swallowed the elixir of immortality and rose beyond reach — honoured each Mid-Autumn Festival with mooncakes and lanterns.Deity

D

DiyuThe UnderworldThe Chinese underworld — a bureaucracy of ten courts where the dead are tried, serve sentences for what they did, and are then sent back into rebirth.Realm

E

The Eight ImmortalsThe Baxian of Daoist LegendEight Daoist immortals — a beggar, a drunk, a girl, a courtier, a flute player — who cross the sea by their own strange powers instead of by boat.ConceptErlang ShenThe Three-Eyed Warrior GodThe three-eyed god of Guankou who tamed the floods and was the only celestial general able to beat the Monkey King in a fair fight.Deity

F

FenghuangThe Vermilion PhoenixThe radiant bird of Chinese myth — ruler of all birds, marked with the five virtues, whose rare appearance announces a just reign and an age of peace.CreatureThe Four SymbolsAzure Dragon, White Tiger, Vermilion Bird, Black TortoiseThe four beasts of the Chinese sky — dragon, tiger, bird and tortoise-and-snake. A star map first, a mythology second, and both for over two thousand years.Concept

G

GuanyinBodhisattva of CompassionThe bodhisattva who hears the cries of the world — an Indian Buddhist figure who became, in China, the most beloved of all female deities.Deity

H

Houyi (Hou Yi)The Archer Who Shot the SunsThe archer who shot nine of the ten suns out of the sky, won the elixir of immortality, and lost it to his wife Chang'e.Hero

J

Jade EmperorRuler of HeavenSovereign of Heaven and head of the celestial bureaucracy — the emperor of the gods, who governs the cosmos the way a dynasty governs a realm.Deity

L

Long, the Chinese DragonThe Celestial DragonChina's dragon — a benevolent, scaled power of rain, river, and sea, emblem of imperial authority and the only mythical beast in the zodiac.Creature

M

MazuEmpress of Heaven, Goddess of the SeaA Fujian fisherman's daughter who died young around 987 and rose, title by imperial title, to become Empress of Heaven and the sea goddess of the Chinese coast.Deity

N

NezhaThe Third Lotus PrinceThe child god who killed a dragon prince, returned his flesh to his parents, and was rebuilt out of lotus — China's most rebellious divine infant.DeityNuwaThe Mother GoddessThe serpent-bodied creator goddess who shaped the first humans out of yellow earth and patched the broken sky with five-coloured stone.Deity

P

PanguThe First BeingThe primordial giant who split chaos into heaven and earth, and whose body at death became the mountains, rivers, winds, and stars of the world.Deity

Q

QilinThe Chinese UnicornThe gentle omen-beast of Chinese myth — scaled, horned, treading on no living thing. It appears when a sage rules, and its capture foretold Confucius' death.Creature

S

Sun WukongThe Monkey KingThe Monkey King — a stone-born immortal with seventy-two transformations who fought heaven to a standstill, then walked to India as a monk's disciple.Deity

X

Xiwangmu (Queen Mother of the West)Queen Mother of the WestA tiger-toothed mountain spirit who became China's greatest goddess of immortality, keeper of the peaches that ripen once in three thousand years.Deity

Y

Yanluo (King Yan)Judge of the DeadThe magistrate-king of the Chinese underworld, who tries every soul against a written record and a mirror that shows what they actually did.DeityYu the GreatTamer of the Flood, Founder of the XiaThe hero who ended China's great flood by dredging channels instead of damming them, walked the Nine Provinces, and founded the Xia — if he existed at all.Hero

Z

Zhong KuiThe Demon QuellerThe ugly failed scholar who killed himself on the palace steps and came back as heaven's demon-catcher — hung on doors at New Year to eat what haunts the house.Deity