Editing Chinese mythology (section)

==Cosmology==
{{Further|Category:Locations in Chinese mythology|Chinese mythological geography}}
[[File:Bronze mirror with cosmological decoration from the Belitung shipwreck, ArtScience Museum, Singapore - 20110618.jpg|thumb|Bronze mirror with cosmological decoration from the [[Belitung shipwreck]], including [[Bagua]].]]

Various ideas about the nature of the earth, the universe, and their relationship to each other have historically existed as either a background or a focus of mythologies. One typical view is of a square earth separated from a round sky by sky pillars (mountains, trees, or undefined). Above the sky is the realm of Heaven, often viewed of as a vast area, with many inhabitants. Often the heavenly inhabitants are thought to be of an "as above so below" nature, their lives and social arrangements being parallel to those on earth, with a hierarchical government run by a supreme emperor, many palaces and lesser dwellings, a vast bureaucracy of many functions, clerks, guards, and servants. Below was a vast under ground land, also known as [[Diyu]], Yellow Springs, Hell, and other terms. As time progressed, the idea of an underground land in which the souls of the departed were punished for their misdeeds during life became explicit, related to developments in Daoism and Buddhism. The underground world also came to be conceived of as inhabited by a vast bureaucracy, with kings, judges, torturers, conductors of souls, minor bureaucrats, recording secretaries, similar to the structure of society in the Middle Kingdom (earthly China).

===Mythological places and concepts===
{{see also|Chinese spiritual world concepts|List of mythological Chinese mountains|List of mythological Chinese rivers|Category:Locations in Chinese mythology}}
The mythology of China includes a mythological geography describing individual mythological descriptions of places and the features; sometimes, this reaches to the level of a cosmological conception. Various features of mythological terrain are described in myth, including a Heavenly world above the earth, a land of the dead beneath the earth, palaces beneath the sea, and various fantastic areas or features of the earth, located beyond the limits of the known earth. Such mythological features include mountains, rivers, forests or fantastic trees, and caves or grottoes. These then serve as the location for the actions of various beings and creatures. One concept encountered in some myths is the idea of travel between Earth and Heaven by means of climbing up or down the pillars separating the two, there usually being four or [[Eight Pillars]]  or an unspecified number of these Sky Ladders.

====Directional====
The [[Four Symbols|Four Symbols of Chinese cosmology]] were the [[Azure Dragon]] of the East, the [[Black Tortoise]] of the North, the [[Bai Hu|White Tiger]] of the West, and the 
[[Zhu Que|Vermillion Bird]] of the South. These totem animals represented the four cardinal directions, with a lot of associated symbolism and beliefs. A fifth cardinal direction was also postulated: the center, represented by the emperor of China, located in the middle of his Middle Kingdom (Zhong Guo, or China). The real or mythological inhabitants making their dwellings at these cardinal points were numerous, as is associated mythology.

====Heavenly realm====
{{Further|Chinese constellations}}
[[File:Guo Xu album dated 1503 (11).jpg|thumb|The creation of the [[River of Heaven]] (Milky Way) across the sky.]]
[[File:众神图changsha.jpg|thumb|Ming dynasty [[Shuilu ritual paintings|Shuilu ritual painting]] of celestial deities]]
The Heavenly realm is described by the Chinese word "Tian," which can be translated into English as both "[[Heaven]]" and "sky." Sometimes this was personified into a deity (sky god). In some descriptions, this was an elaborate place ruled over by a supreme deity, or a group of supreme deities, Jade Emperor being associated with Daoism and Buddhas with Buddhism. Many astronomically observable features were subjects of mythology or the mythological locations and settings for mythic scenes. These include the sun, stars, moon, planets, Milky Way (sometimes referred to as the [[River of Heaven]]), clouds, and other features. These were often the home or destination of various deities, divinities, shamans, and many more. Another concept of the Heavenly realm is that of the Cords of the Sky. Travel between Heaven and Earth was usually described as achieved by flying or climbing. The Queqiao ({{zh|labels=no|c=鵲橋 |p=Quèqiáo}}) was a bridge formed by birds flying across the Milky Way, as seen in [[The Cowherd and the Weaver Girl]] mythology surrounding the [[Qixi Festival]]. The [[Galactic Center|hazy band of stars]] of the [[Milky Way]] was referred to as the "Silvery River" or the "River of Heaven".

====Subterranean realm====
[[File:Tainan Madou Dai Tian Temple Eighteen Levels of Hell.jpg|thumb|Tainan Madou Dai Tian Temple Eighteen Levels of Hell]]
{{Main|Diyu}}
{{Further|Yama (Buddhism)}}

According to mythology, beneath the Earth is another realm—an underground world generally said to be inhabited by the souls of dead humans and various supernatural beings (see [[hun and po]]).  This [[hell]] is known by various names, including [[Di Yu|Diyu]] or the Yellow Springs. In more recent mythology, the underground inhabitation of the dead is generally described as somewhat similar to the land above: it possesses a hierarchical government bureaucracy, centered in the capital city of [[Youdu]].  The rulers of the underground realm are various kings, whose duties include parsing the souls of the dead according to the merits of their life on earth, and maintaining adequate records regarding that process.  (An example of one such ruler is [[Yama (Buddhism)|Yánluó wáng]] ("King Yanluo")).  Souls are parsed and adjudicated for torturous punishment by balancing ones' crimes in life against any merits earned through good deeds.  Various other functions within Diyu are performed by minor officials and minions, examples of whom are [[Ox-Head and Horse-Face]], humanoid devils with animal features. In some versions of mythology or Chinese folk religion, souls are returned from Diyu and reincarnated after being given the Drink of Forgetfulness by [[Meng Po]].

====Earthly realm====
[[File:Great Generals of the Desert and the Spirits of Grasses and Trees Who Dwell in the Void of Water and Land.jpg|thumb|Ming dynasty [[Shuilu ritual paintings|Shuilu ritual painting]] of military and nature spirits.]]
Much mythology involves remote, exotic, or hard-to-get-to places. All sorts of mythological geography is said to exist at the extremes of the cardinal directions of earth. Much of the earthly terrain has been said to be inhabited by local spirits (sometimes called fairies or genii loci), especially mountains and bodies of water. There are [[Grotto-heavens|Grotto Heavens]], and also earthly paradises.

====Seas, rivers, and islands====
{{See also|Category:Mythological rivers|List of mythological Chinese rivers}}

Various bodies of water appear in Chinese mythology. This includes oceans, rivers, streams, ponds. Often they are part of a mythological geography, and may have notable features, such as mythological islands, or other mythological features. There are mythological versions of all the major rivers that have existed in China in between ancient and modern China (most of these rivers are the same, but not all). Sometimes these rivers are said to originate from the Milky Way or Kunlun. Anyway, they are said to flow west to east because [[Gonggong]] wrecked the world pillar at Buzhou, tilting Earth and Heaven away from each other at that sector. Examples of these mythologized rivers include the [[Yangzi]] (including various stretches under different names), the [[Yellow River]], the mythological [[Red River (mythology)|Red River]] in the west, near Kunlun, and the [[Weak River]], a mythological river in "the west", near "Kunlun", which flowed with a liquid too light in specific gravity for floating or swimming (but unbreathable). Examples of features along mythological rivers include the Dragon Gates ([[Fish in Chinese mythology#Carp|Longmen]]) which were rapid waterfalls where select carp can transform into dragons, by swimming upstream and leaping up over the falls. Examples of islands include  [[Mount Penglai]], a paradisaical isle in the sea, vaguely east of China but sometimes conflated with [[Japan]].

====Mountains and in-between places====
{{Further|List of mythological Chinese mountains|Sacred Mountains of China}}

Various other mythological locales include what are known as fairylands or paradises, pillars separating Earth and Sky, ruined or otherwise. The Earth has many extreme and exotic locales – they are separated by [[Eight Pillars|pillars between Earth and Heaven, supporting the sky]], usually four or eight. Generally, Chinese mythology regarded people as living in the middle regions of the world and conceived the exotic earthly places to exist in the directional extremes to the north, east, south, or west. Eventually, the idea of an eastern and western paradise seems to have arisen. In the west, according to certain myths, there was Kunlun.<ref>{{Cite book |last1=Bellingham |first1=David |title=Myths and Legends |last2=Whittaker |first2=Clio |last3=Grant |first3=John |publisher=Wellfleet Press |year=1992 |isbn=1-55521-812-1 |location=Secaucus, New Jersey |page=132 |oclc=27192394}}</ref> On the eastern seacoast was [[Feather Mountain]], the place of exile of Gun and other events during or just after the [[Great Flood (China)|world flood]]. Further east was [[Fusang]], a mythical tree, or else an island (sometimes interpreted as Japan). The geography of China, in which the land seems to be higher in the west and tilt down toward the east and with the rivers tending to flow west-to-east was explained by the damage Gonggong did to the world pillar [[Mount Buzhou]], mountain pillars separating the sky from the world (China), which also displaced the Celestial Pole, so that the sky rotates off-center.

====Kunlun====
[[File:Lamp Representing the Realm of the Queen Mother of the West (1st–2nd century CE).jpg|thumb|Lamp Representing the Realm of the Queen Mother of the West (1st–2nd century CE)]]
{{Main|Kunlun (mythology)}}

In the west was Kunlun, although it is also sometimes said to be towards the south seas. Kunlun was pictured as having a mountain or mountain range, [[Kunlun Mountain (mythology)|Kunlun Mountain]] where dwelt various divinities, grew fabulous plants, home to exotic animals, and various deities and immortals (today there is a real mountain or range named Kunlun, as there has in the past, however the identity has shifted further west over time). The [[Qingniao|Qing Niao]] bird was a mythical bird, and messenger of [[Xi Wangmu]] to the rest of the world. Nearby to Kunlun, it was sometimes said or written and forming a sort of protective barrier to the western paradise or "fairyland" named Xuánpǔ ({{lang|zh|玄圃}}) where also was to be found the jade pool Yáochí ({{lang|zh|瑤池}}), eventually thought to exist on mount Kunlun (which itself was thought to possess cliffs insurmountable to normal mortals was the [[Moving Sands]], a semi-mythological place also to the west of China (the real Taklamakan Desert to the west of or in China is known for its shifting sands). There were other locations of mythological geography around the area of Kunlun such as [[Jade Mountain (mythology)|Jade Mountain]] and the various colored rivers which flew out of Kunlun. For example, the Red, or [[Red River (mythology)|Scarlet River]] was supposed to flow to the south of Kunlun.{{sfn|Birrell|1993|p=136}}