White Tiger

money and consumer goods. The paper offerings are burned and help the dead relatives live a life of ease in the Afterlife.
    Buddhism, with its philosophy of reincarnation, is also prevalent, with the belief that a person who casts off worldly needs can attain a perfect state of alignment with the Universe, or Nirvana. People who have attained this state are called Buddhas (there is more than one) and may return to Earth in human or animal form to help those in need. Kwan Yin is one of the most famous of these Bodhisattvas and the image of a Buddha on a car dashboard or in a roadside altar is often that of Kwan Yin.
    Taoism is a complex and fascinating spiritual philosophy. Through internal and external energy manipulation, alchemy and spiritual enlightenment, a person may achieve perfect alignment with the basic nature of the universe, the Tao. To talk about the Tao is to escape its meaning because it is wordless. The essence of the Universe is formless, without structure or striving, and nameless; therefore, to achieve the Tao many practitioners cast off all physical pursuits and pursue a simple ascetic life of solitude and meditation. Once having reached the divine state of Taoist Immortality, these Immortals ascend to Heaven to join the Heavenly Bureaucracy, with the Jade Emperor presiding over a vast court of fascinating mythological personalities.
    Both Taoist and Buddhist deities exist side by side in Chinese mythology; in the legend of the Monkey King ( Journey to the West ), the Monkey creates havoc in Heaven and the Celestial Taoist Bureaucracy is unable to stop him. The Buddha himself intervenes and subdues the Monkey, giving him the task of travelling to India to collect Buddhist scriptures to return to the people of China.
    All of the spirits of those who are Immortal—be they Buddhist icons who have achieved enlightenment, spirits who represent forces of nature, or historical figures who are regarded as having attained Immortality—arecollectively called Shen. All Shen are believed to exist on a higher plane, but are able to come to Earth either through incarnation as an ordinary person or by taking the form of an ordinary person. The world is therefore believed by many to be full of Shen who live among us as humans.
    The ideas of life after death and reincarnation are seamlessly joined together into the concept of Hell. After someone dies, their soul is judged and if it is found to be Worthy, it is escorted directly to the lowest level of Hell and released to Heaven to join the ranks of the Immortals. Those who are not Worthy are judged by the ten ranks of Courts in Hell. If found guilty, they are punished by demons for each set of crimes they have committed during their lifetime. When they have completed their punishment they are given a Soup of Forgetfulness and released back into the world to be reincarnated. Thus existence is an endless series of births, deaths and punishments, which continues until one is judged Worthy of Immortality.
    The Four Winds (the White Tiger, Black Turtle, Red Phoenix and Blue Dragon) are slightly different from the Raised Immortals. They are more like signs of the zodiac than actual gods. They represent the four points of the compass and four of the five elements or essences of the universe: the Tiger is Metal; the Phoenix is Fire; the Dragon is Wood; and the Turtle is Water. The fifth essence of Stone or Earth is the Centre and represented by the Jade Emperor himself. The five essences are used throughout the practice of fung shui to provide symbolic references to both the compass points and the relevant essences; for example, turtle figurines will be placed on the northern side of a house to increase its water influence.
    Xuan Wu himself is a fascinating and paradoxical god. He developed from the Black Turtle of the North, which sometime in its history was combined with a snake to become a combined serpent/turtle icon. The ancient Chinese believed that male turtles had no sex organs andthat female turtles mated with snakes to produce eggs. Xuan Wu symbolises this union. Calling a man a ‘turtle’ also refers to this legend; it’s calling him a cuckold whose wife is finding her satisfaction elsewhere. Chinese place a great deal of importance on family history and ancestry, so the idea that a female turtle mates with multiple males to produce clutches of eggs with mixed parentage is abhorrent. To call someone a ‘turtle egg’ is to call their parentage into