Investiture of the Gods: A Plain-Language Retelling

Investiture of the Gods is a famous Chinese mythological novel from ancient times. It tells the story of political upheaval at the end of the Shang dynasty and King Wu’s campaign against Shang. The author recasts historical events as tales of gods and demons, incorporating folk religion and myth, so much of the novel is devoted to battles of magic between immortals and Buddhas. The novel concludes with Jiang Ziya conferring titles upon the gods and King Wu of Zhou enfeoffing the feudal lords. As Mr. Lu Xun put it: “The feudal states were granted to reward meritorious officials, and the gods were enshrined to appease the ghosts of the worthy. The deaths of humans and gods alike were attributed to the workings of fate... At its root, it is nothing more than the beliefs of the occult practitioners.”