Chinese Mythology: An overview.
Chinese mythology can be a confusing topic to study, mainly because of how mixed historians are about history versus myth, and that early Chinese mythology was only discovered through Confucian works in our modern era. An important fact to note about deities in Chinese Mythology is that many of them were once mortal, and attained godhood, this means that a real person may have ascended from mortality into godhood, such as the god Guan Yu. Many of the early Chinese emperors ascended to godhood, and even some of the more recent ones. Chinese gods were also very different from other polytheistic gods of the time, since many ascended from mortality, they bring their mortal failings with them, which means they can make mistakes, whereas other gods in other cultures were made to be perfect and infallible. Oftentimes, the Chinese people would make light of the gods' mistakes, and include them alongside their heroic tales. Many of China's gods were descended from Hinduism, especially the later gods after the first century. the four heavenly kings being a good example. The Gods mentioned here will focus on the Taoist Gods in China, since Buddhism has spread to almost all of Asia, it is difficult to see them from exclusively a Chinese point of view. Taoism is a religion and philosophy found in China and other parts of Central Asia, supposedly founded by Lao Tzu as a philosophy, it soon evolved from a philosophy into a religion, still practiced in certain parts of China, Taiwan, and a few other places. Taoism focuses on creativity and effortless action, as made apparent in it's thoughts on the universe, the flow of water being effortless. In practice, political Taoism also takes this approach, with a limited government and more individual freedom. Lao Tzu in life practiced and preached his Taoist philosophy, that of effortless action without thought, to be closer to the Tao, or a state of immense creativity, symbolized by an infant or a block of wood, both wanting to be formed.