YUHUANG, the Jade Emperor, has been the supreme deity of the Chinese popular pantheon since at least the tenth century CE.

An essential and deeply rooted feature of Chinese culture is the concept of a single, centralized empire under the sovereignty of an emperor who is a sacerdotal as well as a secular ruler. This concept influenced religion in many ways. Both the Daoist and the popular pantheon are modeled on the civil bureaucracy of the Chinese state. Communication between the gods and encounters between deities and mortals often involve ritual similar to that between the vassal and his sovereign or the administrator and his superior.

The highest deity of the religion of antiquity, the Emperor on High (Shangdi) already was the ruler of a heavenly court. About the supreme deity of folk religion we know nothing until the ninth century CE. Belief and cult of the Jade...