On The Evolution Of The Image Of Li-jing

The apotheosis of Li-jing, a famous general in T'ang Dynasty, is a typical case inthe history of China. The transformation of the image of Li-jing experienced severalimportant periods.Firstly, Li-jing was under the official deification of all later dynasties because ofhis great achievements. From T'ang , the extensive construction of his memorialtemples, the folk sacrifices offered and the spread of his legends turned Li-jing from ahistorical talent to a mundane god who is in control of weather and disease. Secondly,a great amount of writings which said to be composed by Li-jing were forged toaccelerated the transformation of Li-jin to a Taoist supernatural being. Thirdly, thereexisted a prevailing worship of Vaisravana in T'ang Dynasty who was regarded as aninvincible marshal to help the country to defeat enemies. Since Li-jing was anoutstanding militarist who took a lead of all the other military commanders, he wasreputed as deity and assimilated as the Heaven Marshal Li holding a pagoda.Then, the author analyzed the expressive stories about Li-jing in ancient narrativefictions, and pionted out that the expansion of Li-jing's stories originated from themodification and reformation of some widespread short stories of T'ang, with someinstructions of Taoism which played an important part in the formation and evolutionof the image of Li-jing.Through the study of this case, we can comprehend the regular pattern of thecourse of a certain character's apotheosis and how those different elements functionedin the formation of personality cult.