The Nine Heavenly Goddess is the early God that helped Huangdi to subdue Chi You by teaching him military strategy. She is a divine God who invented compass and is the pioneer master and creator in Feng Shui.
The Nine Heavenly Goddess is an ancient goddess, depicted with a human head and a bird’s body. When Chiyou stirred up chaos, the Yellow Emperor dispatched his troops several times but could not defeat him. Therefore, the Heavenly Emperor sent the Nine Heavenly Goddess down to the mortal realm to assist in the war.
The Yellow Emperor’s War Methods of the Nine Heavenly Goddess records:
“The Yellow Emperor engaged Chiyou in nine battles and was defeated in all nine. He retreated to Mount Tai, where it was foggy and dark for three days and three nights. Then a woman appeared. The Yellow Emperor kowtowed twice, prostrated himself, and did not dare to rise. The woman said, ‘I am the Nine Heavenly Goddess. What do you wish to ask?’ The Yellow Emperor replied, ‘I wish to achieve victory in every battle.’ Thereupon, he obtained the war methods.”
Similarly, the Art of War of the Nine Heavenly Goddess states:
“The Yellow Emperor attacked Chiyou and besieged his city for three years without taking it…”
The Nine Heavenly Goddess passed on the war methods to the Yellow Emperor, including: the strategic doctrines of the Three Palaces, the Five Notes, and Yin-Yang; the magical techniques of Taiyi (Grand Unity), Dunjia (Mysterious Escape), Liuren (Six Ren), and Buzhou (Pacing the Dipper); the essential secrets of Yin and Yang; the book on commanding spirits and ghosts; the charts of the Four Spirits for determining victory and seizing opportunities; the secret formulas of the Five Weapons and the River Diagram (Hetu); and the Five Brightness Seals for subduing demons and summoning spirits. The exceptionally intelligent Yellow Emperor quickly mastered all these arts.
In addition, the Nine Heavenly Goddess directed the Yellow Emperor’s soldiers to capture the monstrous beast Kui‑niu on Mount Liubo in the Eastern Sea. They used its hide to make eighty large drums. These drums produced an extraordinarily resounding boom—the sound of a single drum could carry for six li, while the eighty drums together could be heard for five hundred li. If beaten continuously, the sound could reach as far as three thousand eight hundred li.
Thus, with the help of the Nine Heavenly Goddess, the Yellow Emperor ultimately triumphed over Chiyou and began to govern and transform the realm through the power of virtue.
The Nine Heavenly Goddess was the teacher of the Yellow Emperor and a disciple of the Holy Mother Yuanjun (the Primordial Sovereign). In ancient times, the Yellow Emperor was the ruler of the state of Youxiong. He assisted the grandson of Shennong (the Divine Farmer). But when Yugang (the last of Shennong’s line) declined, the feudal lords fought among themselves, taking up arms and each claiming one of the five directional colors, assuming titles according to the Five Phases. The descendants of Taihao called themselves the Green Emperor; the descendants of Yugang, of the Shennong line, called themselves the Red Emperor; the tribe of Gonggong called themselves the White Emperor; the descendants of Getian called themselves the Black Emperor. The Emperor himself arose from the ruins of Youxiong and assumed the title of the Yellow Emperor.
The Emperor was humble toward his ministers and courteous to the common people; he cultivated virtue with diligence. In the twenty-first year of his reign, Chiyou began his atrocities. Chiyou had eighty-one brothers, with beastly bodies but human speech, bronze heads and iron foreheads. They ate sand and swallowed stones, did not sow the five grains, and devised five kinds of cruel punishments to harm the common people. They forged weapons on Mount Gelu and disobeyed the Emperor’s commands.
The Emperor wished to campaign against them. He sought broadly for the wise and capable to assist him. He obtained Feng Tai by the seashore, and Li Mu by the great marshes. He took Dohong as his assistant, and Tianlao as his teacher. He established the Three Dukes to correspond to the Three Terraces (constellations): Feng Hou as the Upper Terrace, Tianlao as the Middle Terrace, and Wusheng as the Lower Terrace. He obtained a sacred tripod that heated itself without fuel, and he observed the sun’s course to calculate the calendar. He appointed Fenghu as general, and made the son of his consort Feixiu the crown prince. He used Zhang Ruo, Xi Peng, Li Mu, Rong Guang, Long Xing, Cang Jie, Rong Cheng, Da Nao, She Long, and many other ministers as his wings. He fought Chiyou at Zhuolu.
But the Emperor’s forces could not prevail. Chiyou created a great fog that lasted three days, confusing everyone both inside and outside the camp. Feng Hou, following the mechanism of the Northern Dipper, made a great chariot with a ladle that pointed south, to fix the four directions. The Emperor, filled with worry and indignation, fasted and purified himself at the foot of Mount Tai. The Queen Mother of the West sent an envoy, wearing a black fox-fur robe, to present a talisman to the Emperor, saying: “Pray with deep thought to Heaven, and surely there will be a response from the Supreme One.”
After several days, a great fog descended, darkening the daylight. Then the Nine Heavenly Goddess descended, riding a crimson phoenix and driving rosy clouds, clad in robes of nine-coloured embroidered silk. She gathered before the Emperor. The Emperor bowed twice and received her commands. The Goddess said: “I carry out the teachings of the Supreme One. If you have doubts, you may ask.”
The Emperor kowtowed and said: “Chiyou is violent and tyrannical, poisoning and harming the multitudes. All within the four seas cry out in distress, with no one able to preserve their lives. I seek the art of certain victory in one battle, to rid the people of this scourge. Is it possible?”
Thereupon the Goddess bestowed upon the Emperor the talismans of military trust of the Six Jia and Six Ren; the Lingbao Five Talismans, a book for commanding spirits and ghosts; the Five Brightness Seals for subduing demons and summoning spirits; the diagrams of the Five Yin and Five Yang for the art of Dunjia (Mysterious Escape); the charts of Taiyi (Grand Unity), the Ten Essences, and the Four Spirits for seizing victory through strategic mechanisms; the secret formulas of the Five Sacred Mountains and the River Diagram (Hetu) for refining essence; the Nine-Light Jade Sceptre, the Ten Absolute Spirit Banners, and the sword for commanding demons; the rosy cloud crown and fire-adorned girdle, dragon halberds and rainbow banners, emerald chariots and green carriages, dragon steeds and tiger riders, canopies of a thousand flowers, carriages of eight phoenixes, feather pennants, dark bamboo standards, rainbow banners, jade crescent ornaments—all divine and immortal objects; the seal of the Five Dragons, and the pearl of Nine Brilliances. The Nine Heavens’ tallies were given as military credentials, and five-coloured banners to distinguish the five directions.
The Emperor then again led the feudal lords into battle. Chiyou marshalled demons and strange spirits to form his battle arrays, with the Rain Master and Wind Earl as his guards, and Yinglong (the Responding Dragon) holding back water to attack the Emperor. But the Emperor subdued them all, and finally destroyed Chiyou on the plain of Juepei, in the region of Zhongji. He divided Chiyou’s limbs and buried them separately. Thereupon Yugang resisted his commands, and the Emperor also defeated him on the plain of Banquan. In the north he drove back the Xunyu (barbarian tribes), and greatly pacified the four quarters. He travelled to the four extremities, covering a total of twenty-eight thousand li. Then he cast tripods, established the Nine Provinces, appointed ministers of the Five Phases and Nine Virtues, observed Heaven and Earth, sacrificed to the hundred spirits, and set down laws and teachings. Afterwards, he mined copper from Mount Shoushan and cast a tripod at the foot of Mount Jingshan. A yellow dragon came down to receive him, and the Emperor ascended to Heaven riding the dragon.
All of this was accomplished through the talismans, writings, charts, and stratagems bestowed by the Nine Heavenly Goddess, which aided him in completing his great achievements.
