The Minister of Thunder

Pleased to meet you. Wên Chung (Wen Zhong), The Minister of Thunder...At your service...

The Ministry of Thunder and Storms from Chinese mythology is a great illustration of how on one hand, the Chinese world view was different from everyone else's, and at the same time the same as everyone else's...

Different: Where other cultures saw all powerful thunder and rain hero gods who wielded absolute power over the clouds, thunder and lightning, the Chinese saw a well coordinated team of officials who worked together in harmony to provide a good service to gods and people...

The same: All legends featuring the members of the Ministry of Thunder and Storms are full of animal and plant calendar markers...Just like mythologies in all the other cultures...They are all basically deified calendars of the rain and thunderstorm season in China...

Apart from Wên Chung, The Minister of Thunder AKA Lei Tsu, the Ancestor of Thunder, other officials employed at the Ministry of Thunder and Storms were: 

Lei Kung, the Duke of Thunder

Tien Mu, the Mother of Lightning

Feng Po, the Count of Wind

Yu Shih, the Master of Rain

In this post I will talk about the Minister of Thunder himself...

Here we go:

This divinity rides on a "black unicorn"...

Not this 🙂

This. What The Minister of Thunder is actually riding on is a qilin (qirin), a "legendary hooved chimerical creature that appears in Chinese mythology"...

Apparently: "There are variations in the appearance of the qilin in historical China, owing to cultural differences between dynasties and regions"...But, as you will see, all the variations are just different complex animal calendar markers for rain and thunderstorm season...

During the Jin dynasty (266–420 AD), the qilin was depicted as wreathed in flame and smoke, with a dragon-like head, scales, and the body of a powerful hooved beast such as a horse...

This was basically longma, the dragon horse that I talked about in my post "Longma".

In short, a being which is an animal calendar marker for the rain season in the Yellow and Yangtze rivers area. 

Which starts when horses start to mate (Apr/May) 

And peaks at the hottest time of the year, the time of fire breathing dragons, Jul/Aug...

In the Eastern Han dynasty (1st-3rd AD) we find depictions of Qilin which very much resemble a winged bull. Like this one currently in the Portland Art Museum...

This is interesting...The rain and thunderstorm season in China starts in Apr/May, the time when wild Eurasian cattle calving season starts...

And it peaks in Jul/Aug, the time when wild Eurasian cattle mating season, marked by vicious bull fights, starts...

So bull dragon = horse dragon as a calendar marker for rain and thunderstorm season in China...

The last qilin incarnation was a particular fanciful animal with the head of a dragon, the antlers of a deer, the skin and scales of a fish, the hooves of an ox and tail of a lion...This thing...

Ok, we have already seen what ox and dragon mean as animal calendar markers...What about deer? Remember my post about this amazing "Mythical beast from Xian"? 

In it I explained that deer that live in North Eastern China, where these "mythological creatures" originate, shed their antlers at the beginning of the rain season...

The antlers "grow" as the rain season progresses and reach their maximum size at the end of the rain season...And interestingly, the Qilin antlers are young, growing antlers...

And so these growing deer antlers are the symbol of the growth that rain season brings and also the marker for the period between the beginning and the end of the rain season...

What about the fish...Well, did you read my post about the "Dragon Gate"? If a carp jumps over this gate, it turns into a Dragon...This magical transformation of jumping fish into dragons takes place during the rain season too...

Finally, what about a lion? Well, Eurasian lions main mating season starts in Jul/Aug, in Leo...Hence lions being associated with dragons...Oh, by the way, the peak of the rain and thunderstorm season is in Leo...

All and all, whichever incarnation of the Qilin "mythical beast" we look at, it is always a complex animal calendar marker for rain and thunderstorm season in China...

Thunderstorm distribution in China...The really bad part starts Apr/May, peaks Jul/Aug, ens Sep/Oct...

Oh, BTW, Qilin can shoot fire from its mouth (dragon, the hottest time of the year), and its voice is like a thunder (peak thunderstorm season)...

Really appropriate for the mount of The Minister of Thunder...

Anyway, the legend about how Wên Chung became The Minister of Thunder is very interesting too...Basically this story is just another complex calendar marker...This time for the peak of the thunderstorm season...Where you would expect to find The Minister of Thunder...

So: Wên Chung was not always The Minister of Thunder...Originally he was one of the highest ranked officials in the Shang Dynasty (1600 - 1046 BC). He served under King Da Yi for many years, and after Da Yi's death crowned Da Yi's son Zi Shou (King Zhou) as the new king...

But "upon seeing the idiocy and corruption within the king and his ministers", he opposed king Zhou and fought against King Zhou's army. He eventually lost the fight, and went on the run, riding on his "unicorn" (Qilin)...

Rain and thunderstorm season begins...

While on the run, he got into a fight with Ch’ih Ching-tzu, The Fire God, who managed to stop Wên Chung's "unicorn" (Qilin)...Lei Chên-tzŭ, "The Son of Thunder god Lei Kung or Lei Kung's alter ego, and Wên Chung's adopted son" then struck Wên Chung's Qilin and cut it in two...

The hottest time of the year (fire god)...The most thundery time of the year (thunder god)...Is in the middle of the rain and thunderstorm season (Qilin cut in half)...

BTW, check my Post about Lei Chên-tzŭ, "The son of thunder". You'll love it...

Wên Chung tried to escape, but Yün Chung-tzŭ, The Master of the Clouds and Lightning surrounded Wên Chung with fire and fire dragons. The sky was like a furnace, and the earth shook from thunders...

Again, the hottest time of the year, the peak of the thunderstorm season...

And there Wên Chung died...Only to be made immortal and made The Minister of Thunder, "plenipotentiary defender of the laws governing the distribution of clouds and rain" 🙂

The hottest time of the year, the peak of the thunderstorm season, is also the peak of the rain season...

So that's it from me and The Minister of Thunder...

To read more about ancient animal and plant calendar markers, start here…then check the rest of the blog posts related to animal calendar markers I still didn't add to this page, and finally check my twitter threads I still didn't convert to blog post...I am 9 months behind now...

PS: in case anyone wonders why the hell is "oldeuropeanculture" wasting his time writing about Chinese mythology, I do this to show that people all over Eurasia and North Africa, since at least Neolithic, have used animals and plants as calendar markers in the same way...

The "symbolic dictionary" I used to decipher Chinese mythological symbolism can also be used to decipher European, Mesopotamian, Egyptian, Levantine, Central Asian, Siberian...ones...And I have used it in many twitter threads and blog posts to explain all the weirdness found in these mythologies...

References:

"Myths of Thunder, Lightning, Wind, and Rain"

"Religions in China - Leishen 雷神, the God of Thunder"

"Leizhenzi"

"Chinese mythology A to Z"

"Chinese mysteries"

Longma

I never know where the day will take me...And today took me to China, to meet Longma...Longma is a fabled winged horse with dragon scales in Chinese mythology. The Chinese word longma combines long 龍 "dragon" and ma 馬 "horse"...

Longma is most famous for its connection with the mythical Hetu 河圖 "Yellow River chart; Yellow River map"...A magic document of extraordinary importance for Chinese culture...

The Yellow River is the second-longest river in Asia, following the Yangtze River, and the sixth-longest in the world. It is along the Yellow River that some of the earliest agricultural societies in China had developed...

The Yellow River has changed its course, settling in new beds, with different outlets to the ocean, many times in the past, causing death and devastation to the human population living along its banks...

The most devastating event of this type was in Chinese history recorded as The Great Flood of China. It was a major flood event which lasted for two generations and which resulted in great destruction, famine and population displacements...

According to mythological and historical sources, this flood is dated to the third millennium BCE, or about 2300-2200 BCE, during the reign of Emperor Yao. 

Interesting. 

Ever heard of The 4.2-kiloyear BP event?

This was one of the most severe climatic events of the last 10000 years. Starting around 2200 BC, it probably lasted the entire 22nd century BC. And probably caused the collapse of the Old Kingdom in Egypt, the Akkadian Empire in Mesopotamia, the Indus Valley Civilisation...

What about China? Have a look at this. This is the map of the world showing the effects of this global weather event. The dotted areas by drought or dust storms. The hatched areas were affected by wet conditions or flooding...

Now have a look at this...You can see that the border between the area affected by aridity and the area affected by flooding goes right between Yellow river and Yangtze river...

Now if I know anything about climate, having such opposing forces so close together for so long can mean only one thing: the whole area was most likely thrown into a complete chaos of droughts followed by floods followed by droughts followed by floods followed by...

The story of the "Great Flood" and the heroic attempts to abate the disaster is a narrative fundamental to Chinese culture. It explains the founding of the first Chinese dynasties, whose main task was the provision of food for their people through control of the great rivers...

According to the tradition, the main river which went crazy during this period was the Yellow River, and one of the keys to the eventual successful efforts to control its waters was the Yellow River Map, Yellow River Chart...

The magic document which enabled people of China to understand the behavior of the Yellow River and to subdue and control it. The Yellow River Chart, Hetu 河圖, which was brought to people by Longma, the dragon-horse...

Which is why Yellow River Chart, Hetu 河圖 is alternately named longtu 龍圖 ("the Yellow River sent forth the dragon chart") and matu 馬圖 ("the Yellow River sent forth the horse chart")...

The fact that it is said that it was Yellow River which itself sent forth the chart that allowed people to subdue it and control it, is very interesting...

Is this the way to say that the observation of the erratic behavior of the Yellow River over the period of the "Great Flood" enabled people to figure out the natural laws which govern their environment...

The chart is directly linked to the most important Chinese natural concepts: 2 principals, 5 Elements, 8 trigrams...Basically, this "magical" document is at the root of the Chinese understanding of nature...

And this "magic" document was sent to people by the Yellow River itself and brought to people by horse-dragon...

Why horse dragon?

Well, because of the climate in the Yellow River valley, and the animal calendar markers that describe it...

TATATAAAA!!! 🙂

I talked about dragon as the symbol of sun's heat which is associated with drought and death in many of my articles, for instance "Dragon who stole rain", "Letnitsa treasure", "Pegasus and Chimera", "Angra Mainyu", "Lion radiating heat", "Seven headed dragon", "Bactrian snakes and dragons"...

In Europe, Levant, Middle East, Central Asia, Iran...There is an association between fire breathing dragons and the burning sun of the hottest, driest part of the year (Jul/Aug) which causes droughts and death...

But not in China, where dragon is bringer of water and life...

Why?

The reason why Chinese dragon is linked with water is because of the climate in the Yellow River valley. Here are climate charts from 4 places along Yellow River (Zhengzhou, Xian, Ordos, Jinan)...

You can clearly see that Jul/Aug, the hottest part of the year, the time of fire breathing dragons, is also the wettest part of the year...So dragon in China really does bring water...I talked about it in these articles: "Chinese dragon" and "Tiger and dragon"...

It is the harmony between the rain water (Yin) and sun's fire (Yang) that keeps the Yellow River in check. Too much Yang and not enough Yin and you have droughts. Too much Yin and not enough Yang, and you have floods...

And you know how dragon is always coiling, writhing, changing direction, jumping up and down during Chinese dragon dance...

I wonder what this represents? The ever changing, unpredictable behavior of the heavenly fire-water dragon which controls the climate in the Yellow River valley...And if so, how old is this? Does it date to the time of the Great Yellow River Madness?

That explains dragon bit in dragon-horse. But what about the horse bit? Believe or not, I already explained that bit and the whole dragon-horse concept in this article, "Mythical beast from Xian", without even knowing about the existence of Longma, which I only discovered today...

It's all in there. Important bit: The horse fertility is governed by the sun. So the natural horse mating season starts in Apr, peaks on summer solstice and finishes in Sep. 

Hence horse as a solar symbol in Eurasia. I talked about it in my article "Hayagriva"...

This also makes a horse a great animal calendar marker for the hot (and in China also wet) half of the year...Just like a dragon, horse also brings both sun's heat (Yang) and rain water (Yin)...

Which makes dragon and horse interchangeable animal calendar markers...

And so...Longma, Dragon-Horse...

"A being with a horse's body, and dragon scales". 

"A being who is the [qi 氣] vital spirit of Heaven and Earth"

Also the being that pulls the sun chariot of the sun goddess Xihe...Surprise surprise 🙂

But that's a story for another article...Soon...

To read more about ancient animal and plant calendar markers, start here…then check the rest of the blog posts related to animal calendar markers I still didn't add to this page, and finally check my twitter threads I still didn't convert to blog post...I am 9 months behind now...