Primordial Divinity (Tai Di)

The Primordial Divinity (Tai Di or Taidi, Chinese: 太帝; pinyin: Tài dì, literally "Utmost God") is a concept in Chinese culture, traditional religions and mythology. It refers to the source of the universe, the supreme being or utmost mind, master of the order of nature enlivened by gods and progenitors.

The Tai Di has been represented in various ways, at different times and in different contexts, according to the contextual sensibilities: in Taoist theological thought the Jade Emperor (Yu Di), Taiyi Tianzun (the "Great Oneness"), Hongjun Laozu ("Ancestral Master of the Great Duality"), or the undefinable Tao; in mythological thought Yu the Great; in Chinese folk religion and Confucianism Tian (the "Great All" or the "Universe") or Shangdi (the "Highest Emperor").

Meaning

Taidi (Chinese: 太帝; pinyin: Tài dì) means "Great Emperor", "Great God", "Great Spirit" or "Great Energy", given the etymology. The first character – 太, tài – means "great", "large", "primordial", "utmost"; the second – 帝, Dì – is the same character used in the name of Huangdi—the Yellow Emperor, originator of the Chinese civilisation—and the title huangdi, emperor of China, and is usually translated with the latinate word "emperor", from Latin imperator, verb im-perare, that means "generating from within", thus the same meaning of "god" (Germanic: *ǥuđán, "in-voking", "calling within"), "spirit" (Latin: spiritus, "breath", "insufflation"), or "energy" (Greek: en-ergeia, "internal urging").