When Yu Huang was born, he gave off light that filled the kingdom where he lived. When he grew older, he retreated and went into meditation (a state offocused thought) and eventually became immortal. Yu Huang was concerned mostly with helping to improve the living conditions of people, and after spending much time working on this issue, he resumed his meditation—which involved passing mental “trials” in order to become more powerful—so that he might find even better ways to help.
When he emerged from his meditation, which had lasted many millions of years, he discovered that a demon had amassed an army of monsters and was attempting to take over control of heaven. Although Yu Huang was not a god, he traveled to heaven to see what was
Yu Huang, the Jade Emperor, was the ruler of first heaven in Taoist mythology. He was considered a part of the Taoist Triad-—the founding fathers of Taoism—along with Tao Chun, ruler ofsecond heaven, and Lao Tzu, ruler of third heaven. © PRIVATE COLLEC-TION/THE BRIDGEMAN ART LIBRARY.
Happening. When he found that the gods were not powerful enough to stop the demon, he stepped forward and battled the demon himself. The two beings fought not with their fists or weapons, but with the
Power of their minds. In the end, Yu Huang was victorious. The gods were so grateful that they, along with other immortals and humans, chose to elect Yu Huang as their ruler and gave him the title of Jade Emperor.
World History
