From the Birth of Chaos to the Myriad Worlds

The Chinese pantheon of immortals is a unique part of our cultural heritage, yet most people find its vast hierarchy hard to make sense of. So who was the earliest and mightiest figure in this pantheon? Which great gods came into being when chaos first began to separate? Whose incarnation was the Supreme Lord Lao? Was the Celestial Worthy of the Primordial Beginning actually Pangu? What was their relationship with the goddess Nuwa? Why was the Lantern-Bearing Daoist also called the Ancient Buddha of the Burning Lamp? How did Buddha come to be? Who was the South Sea Guanyin before becoming a bodhisattva? Why did Patriarch Subhuti take Sun Wukong as his disciple? And why is Marshal Tianpeng tied to the story of Chang'e and Hou Yi? Before the Jade Emperor, who ruled the Three Realms?