1. In Chinese mythology, Dongfang is considered a Daoist xian and the spirit of Venus who incarnated as a series of ancient ministers including Laozi.
10 Facts About Dongfang Shuo
1. 2.
Dongfang Shuo is depicted in the Wu Shuang Pu by Jin Guliang.
3.
Dongfang Shuo's Chinese given name was Shuo and his courtesy name was Manqian.
4.
The primary historical sources for Dongfang Shuo are biographies in the early Chinese dynastic Twenty-Four Histories.
5.
Dongfang Shuo was a native of Yanci in Pingyuan, present-day Ling County in Shandong, where his tomb and a shrine are located.
6.
Dongfang Shuo was impatient for an imperial audience and devised a scheme that involved frightening the court dwarfs who worked in the stable.
7.
Dongfang Shuo told them the emperor was going to have them killed because they could not do the work of ordinary men, and suggested that the next time Wu passed by, they should kowtow and beg for mercy.
8.
Little by little, Dongfang Shuo gained the confidence of the emperor.
9.
Dongfang Shuo wrote various texts, essays, and poems; other writings attributed to him are doubted by textual scholars.
10.
Dongfang Shuo was supposedly an embodiment of Sui or Taibai, had a miraculous birth, possessed supernatural powers, and went through numerous reincarnations, including Laozi and Fan Li.