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the death of his mother who had been defenestrated on orders from her husband, King Zhou, as punishment for bearing such a 'monster.' Yin Jiao was determined to destroy not only his father but also the Imperial Concubine, Da Ji, the Nine-tailed Fox Spirit and current royal favourite who had caused the death of Yin's mother by her calumnies. Yin was presented with two magic weapons by the Goddess Tian Fei, a gold club and a battle-axe, and after the final great battle between the forces of the declining, sinister and corrupt Shang dynasty and the victorious future Zhou dynasty at Wan Xian Chen, Yin Jiao fought first on the side of his father, King Zhou. Later, after switching sides and fighting for the good King Wu, he was unfortunately decapitated by a general during the battles having been sandwiched by the Buddha Randeng between two mountains. He was deified during the general deification at the end of the war by Jiang Ziya, the future Prime Minister of the new dynasty, on the authority of the Jade Emperor. Yin Jiao, at the end of the novel, having been sent by Heaven to bring dread calamity down on to King Zhou because of his blasphemies and evil ways, volunteered to be the executioner of his father and his father's concubine, Da Ji. He was proclaimed Prince Jingming and was rewarded by the Jade Emperor for his bravery and filial piety with the titles of Taisui, Marshal Yin and with the presidency of the Ministry of Time. In the novel, the full title of Yin Jiao, the younger son of the evil King Zhou of the Shang dynasty, is Dou Lei Taisui Yin Yuanshuai.

RC

and as one of the Twenty-four Heavenly Lords he is also referred to as Yin the Heavenly Lord (Yin Tianjun).

An entirely different story is given in another novel, the Shenyi Jing which tells of Jin Chong, the son of Pan Gu the creator of the world, who lived in the mountains of Shandong province. Jin was canonised as Taisui by Fu Xi, a primeval ruler and sage, the first of the three emperors of the legendary period, for his many good deeds and was made responsible to Heaven for supervising the activities of all the spirits and demons. Few Chinese would appear to know this story.

Doré, who refers to Taisui as the Patron of the Harvests, explains that Yin Jiao's baby name whilst living with He Xiangu was Jin Nazha. This adds further confusion to the legends surrounding Li Nazha [the Third Prince - San Taizi], a very popular deity who appears with great frequency in Chinese legends and fairy tales.
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the altar and the altar table is a typical temple offertory box into which devotees have thrust cash offerings [Photograph 3],

Both the sad emperor Tang Ming Huang and his putative doctor, Lei Haijing, are both popular religion cult deities revered particularly in Fujian communities. Images vary from temple to temple, all being standard scholar-official figures with none having any special attribute or feature

Some believe that Lei Haijing, commonly referred to as Marshal Tian Dou, (Tian Dou Yuanshuai), when his image is on an altar, was a doctor who accompanied 'the Emperor in the West' during his flight. After Lei died during the emperor's escape to Sichuan province his spirit remained on, guarding and protecting the emperor who

Saw and recognised the two characters 'Tian Dou' of his protector floating in the air. And once he had arrived in the relative safety of Sichuan the emperor created Lei Haijing - Marshal Tian Dou.

Others claim that Lei was a musician popularly referred to a thousand or more years ago in Fujian as the 'Marshal'. Lei Haijing is another patron of actors, but predominantly from southern Fukienese communities. There are two Marshals Tian Dou revered on altars within Fukienese communities, with their legends so enmeshed that they virtually become one and the same deity.

In the most commonly repeated legend Tian Dou was a young prince named Lei Haijing, whose age has varied from ten to his mid-twenties. He lived in Fujian province where he was obsessively keen on practical jokes and opera. As a twenty-year old he lived for pleasure and one day having used his position and rank to force a married woman spend the night with him woke to find that she had painted a crab around his mouth in indelible ink, some say to punish him, others to ensure that his lasciviousness received wide publicity. The prince got away with it the first time by telling his friends that he had painted the crab on his mouth for amateur theatricals; however, when he forced her yet again to spend the night with him she painted another crab on his forehead which this time he was unable to explain away. Another version claims that he slept with a young girl who as a joke painted the crab around his mouth whilst he slept and again, several nights later, as he had been so annoyed at the first joke she drew one on his forehead
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to teach him a lesson. In yet another rendition it is suggested that he had the crab painted on his forehead by his fellow pupils as a joke whilst he was asleep and who, at the same time, stuck two willow branches behind his ears. When he woke up his chagrin was so great that he committed suicide. Another story maintains that he was a most beautiful child and his sister-in-law in a fit of jealousy painted a crab around his mouth whilst he slept preventing his soul from returning [meaning that he died as a result because Chinese know only too well that one's soul roams far and wide whilst one is asleep]. The Jade Emperor took pity on him and, so the story goes, adopted him as one of his sons, or in another version, allowed his soul to return to his body. In yet another legend he was a Suzhou man who supported troupes of actors. Another legend, related in a Chaozhou temple in Indonesia, tells of a boy who had been working in the fields, stomach empty and very hungry. He fell asleep at the side of the field whereupon a small crab crawled into his open mouth giving him sufficient sustenance to continue. He grew up to be a good farmer, a good neighbour who helped protect his community and who loved music more than anything else. He was, however, conscripted into the army and sent north to fight the Xiongnu [Huns] of central Asia, where he rose in rank until as a marshal and undefeated he returned to his home in Fujian province. He was deified after death as a local community protector. One of the major factors of his victories over the Xiongnu had been the impressive uniforms he had provided for his men which completely over-awed the central Asian barbarians. These uniforms became the stuff of actors' outfits and because of his love for music, and as the crab had saved his life, his image has the crustacean painted around his mouth and he is now the patron of actors and musicians [Photograph 10].

The legend of the Marshal Tian, better known as San Tian Dou Yuanshuai, the third of the three Tian brothers, another form of this deity, has also been confused by devotees somewhere along the line with the well-known legend of the 360 musicians and the Pestilence Wangye. In the Tian Brother's story they were said to be musicians engaged by the Xuan Zong emperor as his music masters. The emperor, whilst sick, dreamed that their playing had restored him to good health which on waking he found to be true. He then ordered them to stop a plague which was ravaging Fujian province, which again they did and were deified by the Celestial Master Zhang, the Daoist deity.
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