So much for historical record.  The legend of Yue Huang relates that in ancient times there existed a kingdom named Kuang Yen Miao Lo Kuo, whose king was Ching Te, his queen being called Pao Yueeh.  Though getting on in years, the latter had no son.  The Taoist priests were summoned by edict to the palace to perform their rites.  They recited prayers with the object of obtaining an heir to the throne.  During the ensuing night the Queen had a vision.  Lao Chuen appeared to her, riding a dragon, and carrying a male child in his arms.  He floated down through the air in her direction.  The Queen begged him to give her the child as an heir to the throne.  “I am quite willing,” he said.  “Here it is.”  She fell on her knees and thanked him.  On waking she found herself enceinte.  At the end of a year the Prince was born.  From an early age he showed himself compassionate and generous to the poor.  On the death of his father he ascended the throne, but after reigning only a few days abdicated in favour of his chief minister, and became a hermit at P’u-ming, in Shensi, and also on Mount Hsiu Yen, in Yuennan.  Having attained to perfection, he passed the rest of his days in curing sickness and saving life; and it was in the exercise of these charitable deeds that he died.  The emperors Ch’eng Tsung and Hui Tsung, of the Sung dynasty, loaded him with all the various titles associated with his name at the present day.

Both Buddhists and Taoists claim him as their own, the former identifying him with Indra, in which case Yue Huang is a Buddhist deity incorporated into the Taoist pantheon.  He has also been taken to be the subject of a ‘nature myth.’  The Emperor Ching Te, his father, is the sun, the Queen Pao Yueeh the moon, and the marriage symbolizes the rebirth of the vivifying power which clothes nature with green plants and beautiful flowers.

T’ung-t’ien Chiao-chu

In modern Taoism T’ung-t’ien Chiao-chu is regarded as the first of the Patriarchs and one of the most powerful genii of the sect.  His master was Hung-chuen Lao-tsu.  He wore a red robe embroidered with white cranes, and rode a k’uei niu, a monster resembling a buffalo, with one long horn like a unicorn.  His palace, the Pi Yu Kung, was situated on Mount Tzu Chih Yai.

This genie took the part of Chou Wang and helped him to resist Wu Wang’s armies.  First, he sent his disciple To-pao Tao-jen to Chieh-p’ai Kuan.  He gave him four precious swords and the plan of a fort which he was to construct and to name Chu-hsien Chen, ’the Citadel of all the Immortals.’

To-pao Tao-jen carried out his orders, but he had to fight a battle with Kuang Ch’eng-tzu, and the latter, armed with a celestial seal, struck his adversary so hard that he fell to the ground and had to take refuge in flight.