Erlang Shen

The Three-Eyed God

Domain: War, the Hunt & Water Control
Alignment: Lawful Neutral
Element: Thunder
Relics of Power: Three-Pointed Double-Edged Spear

Speak with Erlang Shen

The full Codex

5 sections of this entry are open to everyone: the summary, the people, the symbols, the lineage and the sources. The other 9 (Name and epithets, In the ancient sources, The myths, Worship and archaeology, How the god was depicted, What scholars debate, After antiquity, Did you know?, Codex relic) are part of the full Codex: PRO opens the whole study of all 500 deities, and without a subscription you can read one full entry a day, just like in the app.

See PRO Get the app

The People

People

Chinese

Region

China

Period

c. 1600 BC – present

The Chinese deities bring together traditions of Taoism, Buddhism, and folk religion, worshipped for millennia across China. Presided over by the Jade Emperor, they form a vast celestial bureaucracy mirroring the earthly empire. They are honored in temples, at Chinese New Year, and at the altars of homes and ancestors.

Chinese New Year greets the gods with fireworks, dancing lions, and offerings to the Kitchen God, who ascends to heaven to report on the family's conduct. The Dragon Boat Festival honors the poet Qu Yuan, and at Qingming families sweep the tombs and venerate the ancestors.

At a glance

Erlang Shen is the supreme celestial warrior of martial integrity, mastery over the forces of water and relentless demon hunter in the traditional Chinese and Taoist pantheon. Endowed with a mystical third celestial eye in the center of his forehead that burns away illusions and unmasks any spectral disguise, he wields the monumental three-pointed, double-edged spear (Sanjian Liangren Qiang) and rides escorted by his loyal celestial hound Xiaotian Quan. His heroic figure fuses the historical veneration of the hydraulic engineer Li Erlang, tamer of the Min River floods at Dujiangyan, with the mythological saga of Yang Jian, the virtuous nephew of the Jade Emperor who split a mountain to save his imprisoned mother. His unshakable bravery and ingenious engineering secure the fertility of the soil and the safety of the peasants.

12 min read · Reviewed on September 28, 2026 · How we research

Sacred symbols

The third eye, the trident spear, the celestial dog and the seventy-two transformations

Family

Parents

Jade EmperorPrincess Yaoji (mother of Yang Jian)

Erlang Shen

Genealogy according to Fengshen Yanyi, capítulos 40 a 90; Xiyouji, capítulo 6; Sanjiao Soushen Daquan; Song Shi

Sources and further reading

Primary sources

Wu Cheng'en, Xiyouji. translation: Anthony C. Yu, 1977.
Xu Zhonglin, Fengshen Yanyi. translation: Zhizhong Gu, 1992.
Tuo Tuo, Song Shi. translation: Herbert Franke, 1976.
Anônimo, Sanjiao Soushen Daquan. translation: Livia Kohn, 1993.

Studies

Meir Shahar, Erlang Shen and the Taming of the Min River. Harvard Journal of Asiatic Studies, 2013.
E. T. C. Werner, Myths and Legends of China. George G. Harrap & Co., 1922.
Arthur Waley, Monkey: Folk Novel of China. Grove Press, 1943.
Kristofer Schipper, The Taoist Body. University of California Press, 1993.

Name and epithets

The honorific theonym Erlang Shen (二郎神) is composed of the character er (二, the number two or the second son), lang (郎, a noble term given to young aristocratic warriors or valiant generals) and shen (神, deity or celest…

In the ancient sources

Xiyouji, 1592 CE. Journey to the West by Wu Cheng'en recounting his duel with Sun Wukong featuring seventy-two transformation arts Fengshen Yanyi, 16th century CE.

The myths

The Hydraulic Taming of the Min River and Subduing the Dragon. In the ancient regional chronicles of Sichuan preserved in the Huayang Guo Zhi, it is told that, before the monumental irrigation works of Dujiangyan were b…

Worship and archaeology

The worship and popular veneration of Erlang Shen represent one of the most revered, influential and uninterrupted civic and ritual traditions in the whole province of Sichuan and in several coastal port cities of China…

How the god was depicted

The classical iconography of Erlang Shen in the history of traditional Chinese art, from the fresco murals of the Yuan dynasty at the Yongle Gong temple to the contemporary sculptures of Taoist temples, is the definitiv…

What scholars debate

Integration of Hydraulic Hero Li Erlang and Mythic Warrior Yang Jian. Historians of Chinese religions and anthropologists such as Meir Shahar and David Johnson debate the complex convergence and syncretic fusion that am…

After antiquity

In the contemporary international cultural imagination, in animated film, in martial arts blockbusters and in the modern global video game industry, Erlang Shen has established himself as one of the most visually fascin…

Did you know?

The Dujiangyan irrigation system built by Li Bing and Erlang has functioned without interruption for over twenty-two hundred years.

Codex relic

Three-Pointed Double-Edged Spear. A two-bladed, three-pointed spear with which he subdues untamable monsters and demons.

The rest of this scroll is sealed

The legends, the myth, the cult and relics are part of the full Codex. You can open 1 full entry for free every day; to open all 500 deities with no limits and no ads, subscribe to Codex PRO.

See Codex PRO Get it on Google Play