Model humanity:
107-512: Main philosophical traditions: Ritual traditions: Devotional traditions: Salvation churches and sects : Confucian churches and sects: The Wǔfāng Shàngdì ( 五方上帝 "Five Regions' Highest Deities" or "Highest Deities of the Five Regions"), or simply Wǔdì ( 五帝 "Five Deities") or Wǔshén ( 五神 "Five Gods") are, in Chinese canonical texts and common Chinese religion ,
214-439: A magnetic moment 580 times that of Earth because of Saturn's greater size. Saturn's magnetic field strength is about a twentieth that of Jupiter. The outer atmosphere is generally bland and lacking in contrast, although long-lived features can appear. Wind speeds on Saturn can reach 1,800 kilometres per hour (1,100 miles per hour). The planet has a bright and extensive system of rings , composed mainly of ice particles, with
321-432: A resonance with Titan, was discovered in 1848 by a British team. In 1899, William Henry Pickering discovered Phoebe, a highly irregular satellite that does not rotate synchronously with Saturn as the larger moons do. Phoebe was the first such satellite found and it took more than a year to orbit Saturn in a retrograde orbit . During the early 20th century, research on Titan led to the confirmation in 1944 that it had
428-563: A Confucian identity, with the foundation of the Holy Confucian Church of China which aims to unite in a single body all Confucian religious groups. Many of the movements of salvation of the 20th and 21st century aspire to become the repository of the entirety of the Chinese tradition in the face of Western modernism and materialism, advocating an "Eastern solution to the problems of the modern world", or even interacting with
535-470: A chthonic deity", and as such he is "a cosmic product of the conflation of Heaven and Earth". The Yellow God is in turn described as the "spirit father and astral double" of the Yellow Emperor. As a human being, the Yellow Emperor is said to have been the fruit of a virginal birth, as his mother Fubao was impregnated by a radiance ( yuanqi , "primordial pneuma"), a lightning, which she saw encircling
642-540: A clearly defined eyewall . Eyewall clouds had not previously been seen on any planet other than Earth. For example, images from the Galileo spacecraft did not show an eyewall in the Great Red Spot of Jupiter. The south pole storm may have been present for billions of years. This vortex is comparable to the size of Earth, and it has winds of 550 km/h. Saturn has an intrinsic magnetic field that has
749-495: A concern for salvation (moral fulfillment) of the person and the society. They are distinguished by egalitarianism , a founding charismatic person often informed by a divine revelation , a specific theology written in holy texts , a millenarian eschatology and a voluntary path of salvation, an embodied experience of the numinous through healing and self-cultivation, and an expansive orientation through evangelism and philanthropy . Some scholars consider these religions
856-568: A drag upon Saturn's magnetic field, slowing its rotation slightly relative to the rotation of the planet. An apparent oddity for Saturn is that it does not have any known trojan asteroids . These are minor planets that orbit the Sun at the stable Lagrangian points , designated L 4 and L 5 , located at 60° angles to the planet along its orbit. Trojan asteroids have been discovered for Mars , Jupiter, Uranus, and Neptune. Orbital resonance mechanisms, including secular resonance , are believed to be
963-477: A hot interior, reaching 11,700 °C (21,100 °F) at its core, and radiates 2.5 times more energy into space than it receives from the Sun. Jupiter's thermal energy is generated by the Kelvin–Helmholtz mechanism of slow gravitational compression ; but such a process alone may not be sufficient to explain heat production for Saturn, because it is less massive. An alternative or additional mechanism may be
1070-617: A later mythological character, is distinguished as the Yellow Emperor's foremost pupil, such as in the Huangdi Neijing . Huangdi represents the hub of creation, the axis mundi (Kunlun) that is the manifestation of the divine order in physical reality, opening the way to immortality. As the deity of the centre of the four directions, in the Shizi he is described as "Yellow Emperor with Four Faces" ( 黄帝四面 Huángdì Sìmiàn ). The "Four-Faced God" or "Ubiquitous God" ( 四面神 Sìmiànshén )
1177-557: A level where the pressure is about 2.5 bar and extend down to 9.5 bar, where temperatures range from 185 to 270 K. Intermixed in this layer is a band of ammonium hydrosulfide ice, lying in the pressure range 3–6 bar with temperatures of 190–235 K. Finally, the lower layers, where pressures are between 10 and 20 bar and temperatures are 270–330 K, contains a region of water droplets with ammonia in aqueous solution. Saturn's usually bland atmosphere occasionally exhibits long-lived ovals and other features common on Jupiter. In 1990,
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#17327766640841284-415: A much more diffuse core, with a mass equal to about 17 Earths and a radius equal to about 60% of Saturn's entire radius. This is surrounded by a thicker, liquid metallic hydrogen layer, followed by a liquid layer of helium-saturated molecular hydrogen , which gradually transitions to a gas as altitude increases. The outermost layer spans about 1,000 km (620 mi) and consists of gas. Saturn has
1391-465: A peppered coating of approximately 7% amorphous carbon . The particles that make up the rings range in size from specks of dust up to 10 m. While the other gas giants also have ring systems, Saturn's is the largest and most visible. There is a debate on the age of the rings. One side supports that they are ancient, and were created simultaneously with Saturn from the original nebular material (around 4.6 billion years ago), or shortly after
1498-546: A phenomenon in the Solar System. Whereas temperatures on Saturn are normally −185 °C, temperatures on the vortex often reach as high as −122 °C, suspected to be the warmest spot on Saturn. A persisting hexagonal wave pattern around the north polar vortex in the atmosphere at about 78°N was first noted in the Voyager images. The sides of the hexagon are each about 14,500 km (9,000 mi) long, which
1605-479: A ruling principle. Nothing is good in itself, without limits; good outcomes depend on the proportion in the composition of things and their interactions, never on extremes in absolute terms. Huangdi and Yandi are complementary opposites, necessary for the existence of one another, and they are powers that exist together within the human being. The worship of the Five Deities by both commoners and rulers of China
1712-431: A series of cloud features found in northern latitudes, nicknamed the "String of Pearls". These features are cloud clearings that reside in deeper cloud layers. Saturn's atmosphere exhibits a banded pattern similar to Jupiter's, but Saturn's bands are much fainter and are much wider near the equator. The nomenclature used to describe these bands is the same as on Jupiter. Saturn's finer cloud patterns were not observed until
1819-570: A simple, symmetric shape—a magnetic dipole . Its strength at the equator—0.2 gauss (20 μT )—is approximately one twentieth of that of the field around Jupiter and slightly weaker than Earth's magnetic field. As a result, Saturn's magnetosphere is much smaller than Jupiter's. When Voyager 2 entered the magnetosphere, the solar wind pressure was high and the magnetosphere extended only 19 Saturn radii, or 1.1 million km (684,000 mi), although it enlarged within several hours, and remained so for about three days. Most probably,
1926-507: A single group they are said to have the same number of followers of the five state-sanctioned religions of China taken together. Scholars and government officials have been discussing to systematise and unify this large base of religious organisations; in 2004 the State Administration of Religious Affairs created a department for the management of folk religions. In the late 2015 a step was made at least for those of them with
2033-416: A single phenomenon, and others consider them the fourth great Chinese religious category alongside the well-established Confucianism , Buddhism and Taoism . Generally these religions focus on the worship of the universal God ( Shangdi ), represented as either male, female, or genderless, and regard their holy patriarchs as embodiments of God. "Chinese salvationist religions" ( 救度宗教 jiùdù zōngjiào )
2140-411: A smaller amount of rocky debris and dust . At least 146 moons orbit the planet, of which 63 are officially named; these do not include the hundreds of moonlets in the rings. Titan , Saturn's largest moon and the second largest in the Solar System, is larger (and less massive) than the planet Mercury and is the only moon in the Solar System that has a substantial atmosphere. Saturn is named after
2247-522: A thick atmosphere—a feature unique among the Solar System's moons. Pioneer 11 made the first flyby of Saturn in September 1979, when it passed within 20,000 km (12,000 mi) of the planet's cloud tops. Images were taken of the planet and a few of its moons, although their resolution was too low to discern surface detail. The spacecraft also studied Saturn's rings, revealing the thin F-ring and
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#17327766640842354-577: A whole) based on a compilation of various measurements from the Cassini , Voyager , and Pioneer probes is 10 32 35 . Studies of the planet's C Ring yield a rotation period of 10 33 38 52 − 1 19 . In March 2007, it was found that the variation in radio emissions from the planet did not match Saturn's rotation rate. This variance may be caused by geyser activity on Saturn's moon Enceladus . The water vapor emitted into Saturn's orbit by this activity becomes charged and creates
2461-788: Is Zȃzȇl ( Hebrew : זאזל , romanized : Zazl ). Zazel has been described as a great angel , invoked in Solomonic magic , who is "effective in love conjurations ". In Ottoman Turkish , Urdu , and Malay , the name of Zazel is 'Zuhal', derived from the Arabic language ( Arabic : زحل , romanized : Zuhal ). Saturn's rings require at least a 15-mm-diameter telescope to resolve and thus were not known to exist until Christiaan Huygens saw them in 1655 and published about this in 1659. Galileo , with his primitive telescope in 1610, incorrectly thought of Saturn's appearing not quite round as two moons on Saturn's sides. It
2568-416: Is 74% of what it is at the poles and is lower than the surface gravity of Earth. However, the equatorial escape velocity , nearly 36 km/s , is much higher than that of Earth. Saturn is the only planet of the Solar System that is less dense than water—about 30% less. Although Saturn's core is considerably denser than water, the average specific density of the planet is 0.69 g/cm , because of
2675-469: Is a standing wave pattern in the atmosphere. Polygonal shapes have been replicated in the laboratory through differential rotation of fluids. HST imaging of the south polar region indicates the presence of a jet stream , but no strong polar vortex nor any hexagonal standing wave. NASA reported in November 2006 that Cassini had observed a " hurricane -like" storm locked to the south pole that had
2782-507: Is a contemporary neologism coined as a sociological category and gives prominence to folk religious sects' central pursuit that is the salvation of the individual and the society, in other words the moral fulfillment of individuals in reconstructed communities of sense. Chinese scholars traditionally describe them as "folk religious sects" ( 民间宗教 mínjiān zōngjiào , 民间教门 mínjiān jiàomén or 民间教派 mínjiān jiàopài ) or "folk beliefs" ( 民间信仰 mínjiān xìnyǎng ). They are distinct from
2889-519: Is a very ancient practice, dating back at least to the Neolithic . Already in the theology of the Shang dynasty , the supreme God of Heaven ( Shangdi or Di ) was conceived as manifesting in a fourfold form and will, the four 方 fāng ("directions" or "sides") and their 風 fēng ("winds"). The official religion and ritual of the state of Qin (9th century BCE–221 BCE) was largely based on that of
2996-410: Is also associated with Chīyóu ( 蚩尤 ), the god of some southern peoples, in both iconography and myth, as both Shennong Yandi and Chiyou fought against the Yellow Emperor, although Chiyou is traditionally considered more violent and has the horns of a fighting bull, while Shennong Yandi is more peaceful and has the horns of a plowing buffalo. He is the manifestation of the supreme God associated with
3103-471: Is also the Chinese name of Brahma . Huangdi is the model of those who merge their self with the self of the universal God, of the ascetics who reach enlightenment or immortality. In Sima Qian 's description of the Five Deities it is important to note that the Yellow Emperor was portrayed as the grandfather of the Black Emperor of the north who personifies as well the pole stars, and as the tamer of
3210-545: Is another name of the supreme God in Chinese traditions, associated to the northern culmen of the sky and the Big Dipper (or Great Chariot, or Ursa Major) in particular, and with the power of the wu ( 巫 shamans). He is also known, as a human culture hero and progenitor, as Xuānyuán ( 轩辕 "Chariot Shaft"), Xuānyuánshì ( 轩辕氏 "Master of the Chariot Shaft"), or Xuānyuán Huángdì ( 轩辕黄帝 "Yellow Deity of
3317-469: Is longer than the diameter of the Earth. The entire structure rotates with a period of 10 39 24 (the same period as that of the planet's radio emissions) which is assumed to be equal to the period of rotation of Saturn's interior. The hexagonal feature does not shift in longitude like the other clouds in the visible atmosphere. The pattern's origin is a matter of much speculation. Most scientists think it
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3424-673: Is significantly deficient compared to the abundance of this element in the Sun. The quantity of elements heavier than helium ( metallicity ) is not known precisely, but the proportions are assumed to match the primordial abundances from the formation of the Solar System . The total mass of these heavier elements is estimated to be 19–31 times the mass of Earth, with a significant fraction located in Saturn's core region. Trace amounts of ammonia, acetylene , ethane , propane , phosphine , and methane have been detected in Saturn's atmosphere. The upper clouds are composed of ammonia crystals, while
3531-433: Is similar in composition to Earth, but is more dense. The examination of Saturn's gravitational moment , in combination with physical models of the interior, has allowed constraints to be placed on the mass of Saturn's core. In 2004, scientists estimated that the core must be 9–22 times the mass of Earth, which corresponds to a diameter of about 25,000 km (16,000 mi). However, measurements of Saturn's rings suggest
3638-462: Is the goddess of fertility Bixia . His astral body is Jupiter . Hēidì ( 黑帝 "Black Deity" or "Black Emperor") or Hēishén ( 黑神 "Black God"), also known as the cosmological Běidì ( 北帝 "North Deity") or Běiyuèdàdì ( 北岳大帝 "Great Deity of the Northern Peak"), and identified as Zhuānxū ( 颛顼 ), today frequently worshipped as Xuánwǔ ( 玄武 "Dark Warrior") or Zhēnwǔ ( 真武 ),
3745-548: Is the manifestation of the supreme God associated with the essence of water and winter. His animal form is the Black Dragon ( 玄龙 Xuánlóng , literally "Dark Dragon" or "Mysterious Dragon") and his stellar animal is the tortoise-snake . His astral body is Mercury . Chìdì ( 赤帝 "Red Deity" or "Red Emperor") or Chìshén ( 赤神 "Red God"), also known as the Nándì ( 南帝 "South Deity") or Nányuèdàdì ( 南岳大帝 "Great Deity of
3852-625: Is the sixth planet from the Sun and the second largest in the Solar System , after Jupiter . It is a gas giant , with an average radius of about nine times that of Earth . It has an eighth the average density of Earth, but is over 95 times more massive. Even though Saturn is almost as big as Jupiter, Saturn has less than a third the mass of Jupiter. Saturn orbits the Sun at a distance of 9.59 AU (1,434 million km ), with an orbital period of 29.45 years. Saturn's interior
3959-525: Is the sparse Phoebe ring. It is tilted at an angle of 27° to the other rings and, like Phoebe , orbits in retrograde fashion. Some of the moons of Saturn, including Pandora and Prometheus , act as shepherd moons to confine the rings and prevent them from spreading out. Pan and Atlas cause weak, linear density waves in Saturn's rings that have yielded more reliable calculations of their masses. The observation and exploration of Saturn can be divided into three phases: (1) pre-modern observations with
4066-422: Is thought to be composed of a rocky core, surrounded by a deep layer of metallic hydrogen , an intermediate layer of liquid hydrogen and liquid helium , and an outer layer of gas. Saturn has a pale yellow hue, due to ammonia crystals in its upper atmosphere. An electrical current in the metallic hydrogen layer is thought to give rise to Saturn's planetary magnetic field , which is weaker than Earth's, but has
4173-420: The fangshi ( 方士 "masters of directions"), ritual masters who formulated what would have been called the " Huang–Lao " proto-Taoist religious movement, who presented themselves as the continuators of the traditions of the erstwhile kingdoms, and who emphasised the worship of local deities integrated into a theology in which the supreme God of Heaven was named Taiyi ("Great One"), and its human manifestation
4280-407: The A Ring ). The Cassini–Huygens space probe entered orbit around Saturn on 1 July 2004. In June 2004, it conducted a close flyby of Phoebe , sending back high-resolution images and data. Cassini 's flyby of Saturn's largest moon, Titan, captured radar images of large lakes and their coastlines with numerous islands and mountains. The orbiter completed two Titan flybys before releasing
4387-591: The Book of Rites . Some scholars even find influences from Manichaeism , Mohism and shamanic traditions . In the Ming and Qing dynasties many folk religious movements were outlawed by the imperial authorities as "evil religions" ( 邪教 xiéjiào ). With the collapse of the Qing state in 1911 the sects enjoyed an unprecedented period of freedom and thrived, and many of them were officially recognised as religious groups by
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4494-457: The Chinese folk religion consisting in the worship of gods and ancestors, although in English language there is a terminological confusion between the two. The 20th-century expression for these salvationist religious movements has been "redemptive societies" ( 救世团体 jiùshì tuántǐ ), coined by scholar Prasenjit Duara . A collective name that has been in use possibly since the latter part of
4601-573: The Confucians who pushed for a new ritual system and a religio-political centralisation around the worship of the God of Heaven by the emperor, the God of Heaven's son, and the worship of lesser deities who had to be approved by the Confucians themselves, who considered themselves the only ones capable of interpreting the signs of Heaven in accordance with the classics . On the other hand, there were
4708-517: The Dōngdì ( 东帝 "East Deity") or Dōngyuèdàdì ( 东岳大帝 "Great Deity of the Eastern Peak", which is Mount Tai ), is the manifestation of the supreme God associated with the essence of wood and spring, for which he is worshipped as the god of fertility. The Bluegreen Dragon ( 青龙 Qīnglóng ) is both his animal form and constellation, and as a human he was Tàihào 太昊 ( Fu Xi ). His female consort
4815-548: The Hubble Space Telescope imaged an enormous white cloud near Saturn's equator that was not present during the Voyager encounters, and in 1994 another smaller storm was observed. The 1990 storm was an example of a Great White Spot , a short-lived phenomenon that occurs once every Saturnian year, roughly every 30 Earth years, around the time of the northern hemisphere's summer solstice . Previous Great White Spots were observed in 1876, 1903, 1933, and 1960, with
4922-699: The Huángshén Běidǒu ( 黄神北斗 "Yellow God of the Northern Dipper "), of whom in certain historical sources he is described as the human form making an ontological distinction between the two. For instance, according to a definition given by apocryphal texts related to the Hétú 河圖 , the Yellow Emperor "proceeds from the essence of the Yellow God of the Northern Dipper", is born to "a daughter of
5029-449: The LHB (around 4.1 to 3.8 billion years ago). The other side supports that they are much younger, created around 100 million years ago. An MIT research team, supporting the latter theory, proposed that the rings are remnant of a destroyed moon of Saturn, named ″Chrysalis″ . Beyond the main rings, at a distance of 12 million km (7.5 million mi) from the planet
5136-617: The Xīdì ( 西帝 "West Deity") or Xīyuèdàdì ( 西岳大帝 "Great Deity of the Western Peak"), as a human was Shǎohào ( 少昊 ), and he is the manifestation of the supreme God associated with the essence of metal and autumn. His animal form is the White Dragon ( 白龙 Báilóng ) and his stellar animal is the tiger . His astral body is Venus . In mythology, Huangdi and Yandi fought a battle against each other; and Huang finally defeated Yan with
5243-599: The Zhou dynasty (c. 1046 BCE–256 BCE). The emperors worshipped the supreme God at a location in the suburbs of their capital Xianyang . The cults of the White, Green, Yellow and Red Deities had been celebrated separately in different parts of the state. In 677 BCE, Yong, an ancient sacred site where the Yellow Emperor himself was said to have sacrificed and the Zhou dynasty carried out jiào 醮 rituals, or "suburban sacrifices", became
5350-484: The early republican government . The founding of the People's Republic in 1949 saw them suppressed once again, although since the 1990s and 2000s the climate was relaxed and some of them have received some form of official recognition. In Taiwan all the still existing restrictions were rescinded in the 1980s. Folk religious movements began to rapidly revive in mainland China in the 1980s, and now if conceptualised as
5457-506: The naked eye , (2) telescopic observations from Earth beginning in the 17th century, and (3) visitation by space probes , in orbit or on flyby . In the 21st century, telescopic observations continue from Earth (including Earth-orbiting observatories like the Hubble Space Telescope ) and, until its 2017 retirement , from the Cassini orbiter around Saturn. Saturn has been known since prehistoric times, and in early recorded history it
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#17327766640845564-415: The poles and bulging at the equator . Its equatorial radius is more than 10% larger than the polar radius: 60,268 km versus 54,364 km (37,449 mi versus 33,780 mi). Jupiter, Uranus , and Neptune , the other giant planets in the Solar System, are less oblate. The combination of the bulge and the rotation rate means that the effective surface gravity along the equator, 8.96 m/s ,
5671-672: The "Great Deity the Heavenly King" ( 天皇大帝 Tiānhuáng Dàdì ) or "Highest Deity of the Vast Heaven" ( 昊天上帝 Hàotiān Shàngdì ), which are therefore other epithets for the supreme God of Heaven . This concept relates in the microcosm to the Heart , and the four souls being a reflection of qualities of the Shen in Chinese medical theory . Huángdì ( 黄帝 "Yellow Emperor" or "Yellow Deity"), also called Huángshén ( 黄神 "Yellow God"),
5778-423: The 1933 storm being the best observed. The latest giant storm was observed in 2010. In 2015, researchers used Very Large Array telescope to study Saturnian atmosphere, and reported that they found "long-lasting signatures of all mid-latitude giant storms, a mixture of equatorial storms up to hundreds of years old, and potentially an unreported older storm at 70°N". The winds on Saturn are the second fastest among
5885-554: The Chariot Shaft"), and as a cosmological symbol as Zhōngyuèdàdì ( 中岳大帝 "Great Deity of the Central Peak"). He represents the essence of earth and the Yellow Dragon ( 黄龙 Huánglóng ). The character 黄 huáng , for "yellow", also means, by homophony and shared etymology with 皇 huáng , "august", "creator" and "radiant", attributes of the supreme God. He is the deity who shapes the material world ( 地 Dì ),
5992-413: The Five Deities and the cult of Houtu ("Queen of the Earth"). In 135 BCE, the fangshi Miu Ji, from Bo in modern Shandong, insisted that Taiyi was the same supreme God, master of the Five Deities, worshipped since remote antiquity by the emperors through the three-victims sacrifice. The rite lasted seven days and took place at a temple with "eight entrances for the numina " in the southeastern suburb of
6099-517: The Northern Dipper (Great Chariot, or Ursa Major), or the celestial pole, while she was walking in the countryside. She delivered her son after twenty-four months on the mount of Shou (Longevity) or mount Xuanyuan, after which he was named. Through his human side, he was a descendant of 有熊氏 Yǒuxióng , the lineage of the Bear—another reference to the Ursa Major. Scholar John C. Didier has studied
6206-533: The Qing dynasty is huìdàomén ( 会道门 "churches, ways and gates"), as their names interchangeably use the terms huì ( 会 "church, society, association, congregation"; when referring to their corporate form), dào ( 道 "way") or mén ( 门 "gate[way], door"). Their congregations and points of worship are usually called táng ( 堂 "church, hall") or tán ( 坛 "altar"). Western scholars often mistakenly identify them as " Protestant " churches. The Vietnamese religions of Minh Đạo and Caodaism emerged from
6313-556: The Red Emperor, his half-brother, who is the spirit of the southern populations known collectively as Chu in the Zhou dynasty. The Wufang Shangdi were also thought to rule over points in the five cardinal directions , or "cardinal points". Huang Di rules over the center point. Cāngdì ( 蒼帝 "Green Deity" or "Green Emperor") or Cāngshén ( 蒼神 "Green God"), also known as Qīngdì ( 青帝 "Blue Deity" or "Bluegreen Deity") or Qīngshén ( 青神 "Bluegreen God"), and cosmologically as
6420-604: The Roman god of wealth and agriculture , who was the father of the god Jupiter. Its astronomical symbol ( [REDACTED] ) has been traced back to the Greek Oxyrhynchus Papyri , where it can be seen to be a Greek kappa - rho ligature with a horizontal stroke , as an abbreviation for Κρονος ( Cronus ), the Greek name for the planet ( [REDACTED] ). It later came to look like a lower-case Greek eta , with
6527-424: The Solar System's planets, after Neptune's. Voyager data indicate peak easterly winds of 500 m/s (1,800 km/h). In images from the Cassini spacecraft during 2007, Saturn's northern hemisphere displayed a bright blue hue, similar to Uranus. The color was most likely caused by Rayleigh scattering . Thermography has shown that Saturn's south pole has a warm polar vortex , the only known example of such
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#17327766640846634-525: The Southern Peak"), as a human was Shénnóng ( 神农 "Farmer God" or "Plowing God"), who is also the same as Yándì ( 炎帝 "Flame Deity" or "Fiery Deity"), a function occupied by different gods and god-kings in mytho-history. Shennong is also one of the Three Patrons, specifically the patron of humanity ( 人皇 Rénhuáng ), and the point of intersection of the Three Patrons and Huangdi. He
6741-784: The Sun is over 1.4 billion kilometers (9 AU ). With an average orbital speed of 9.68 km/s, it takes Saturn 10,759 Earth days (or about 29 + 1 ⁄ 2 years) to finish one revolution around the Sun. As a consequence, it forms a near 5:2 mean-motion resonance with Jupiter. The elliptical orbit of Saturn is inclined 2.48° relative to the orbital plane of the Earth. The perihelion and aphelion distances are, respectively, 9.195 and 9.957 AU, on average. The visible features on Saturn rotate at different rates depending on latitude, and multiple rotation periods have been assigned to various regions (as in Jupiter's case). Astronomers use three different systems for specifying
6848-591: The Three Powers ( 三才 Sāncái) they have a celestial, a terrestrial and a chthonic form. The Han Chinese identify themselves as the descendants of the Red and Yellow Deities . They are associated with the five colors , the five phases of the continuous creation (Wuxing 五行), the five key planets of the Solar System and the five constellations rotating around the celestial pole , the five sacred mountains and five directions of space (their terrestrial form), and
6955-409: The ancient theology about the origins of kings from Heaven's impregnation of earthly women, he commented: 王者之先祖, 皆感大微五帝之精以生 — Every ancestor of him who is the king was given birth to as the result of an influential movement [ gǎn 感 ] made by the spirits of the Five Deities. Other names by which the Five Deities are collectively known are: In some works they are conceptualized as a single deity,
7062-438: The atmosphere and the rings. During the flyby, the probe's turnable camera platform stuck for a couple of days and some planned imaging was lost. Saturn's gravity was used to direct the spacecraft's trajectory towards Uranus. The probes discovered and confirmed several new satellites orbiting near or within the planet's rings, as well as the small Maxwell Gap (a gap within the C Ring ) and Keeler gap (a 42 km-wide gap in
7169-530: The atmosphere of Titan came from materials in the Oort cloud , associated with comets , and not from the materials that formed Saturn in earlier times. Saturn's moon Enceladus , which seems similar in chemical makeup to comets, has often been regarded as a potential habitat for microbial life . Evidence of this possibility includes the satellite's salt-rich particles having an "ocean-like" composition that indicates most of Enceladus's expelled ice comes from
7276-516: The atmosphere. Jupiter has 318 times Earth's mass , and Saturn is 95 times Earth's mass. Together, Jupiter and Saturn hold 92% of the total planetary mass in the Solar System. Despite consisting mostly of hydrogen and helium, most of Saturn's mass is not in the gas phase , because hydrogen becomes a non-ideal liquid when the density is above 0.01 g/cm , which is reached at a radius containing 99.9% of Saturn's mass. The temperature, pressure, and density inside Saturn all rise steadily toward
7383-1013: The capital of Qin. It is attested that in 671 BCE, Duke Xuan (675–664) carried out the sacrifices for the Green Deity in Mi, south of the Wei River . Then, Duke Ling (?–384) instituted the sacred sites of Shàng ( 上 "Above") and Xià ( 下 "Below"), for the Yellow and Red Deities, in Wuyang , near Yong. Originally, the sacrifice for the White Deity had been carried out in 769 BCE by Duke Xiang (778–766) in Xi, near Lanzhou in Gansu . In 753 they were carried out by Duke Wen (765–716) in Fu, northeast Shaanxi . In 253 BCE
7490-497: The capital. In conformity with the instructions of Miu Ji, the emperor built a temple in the outskirts of Chang'an and appointed a great invocator ( taizhu ) to conduct the sacrifices. Twenty years later—under the influence of another prominent court fangshi , Gongsun Qing—the sacrifice was held by the emperor in person. A temple of Taiyi and the Five Deities was built in Ganquan, 70 km (43 mi) northeast of Chang'an. Regarding
7597-400: The cause of the missing Saturnian trojans. Saturn has 146 known moons , 63 of which have formal names. It is estimated that there are another 100 ± 30 outer irregular moons larger than 3 km (2 mi) in diameter. In addition, there is evidence of dozens to hundreds of moonlets with diameters of 40–500 meters in Saturn's rings, which are not considered to be true moons. Titan ,
7704-560: The core, which causes hydrogen to be a metal in the deeper layers. Standard planetary models suggest that the interior of Saturn is similar to that of Jupiter, having a small rocky core surrounded by hydrogen and helium, with trace amounts of various volatiles . Analysis of the distortion shows that Saturn is substantially more centrally condensed than Jupiter and therefore contains much more material denser than hydrogen near its center. Saturn's central regions are about 50% hydrogen by mass, and Jupiter's are about 67% hydrogen. This core
7811-573: The creator of the Huaxia civility, of marriage and morality, language and lineage, and primal ancestor of all the Chinese. In the cosmology of the Wufang Shangdi his astral body is Saturn , but he is also identified as the Sun God, and with the star Regulus (α Leonis) and constellations Leo and Lynx , of which the latter is said to represent the body of the Yellow Dragon. He corresponds to
7918-416: The cross added at the top in the 16th century to Christianize this pagan symbol. The Romans named the seventh day of the week Saturday , Sāturni diēs , "Saturn's Day", for the planet Saturn. Saturn is a gas giant , composed predominantly of hydrogen and helium. It lacks a definite surface, though it is likely to have a solid core. The planet's rotation makes it an oblate spheroid —a ball flattened at
8025-424: The emperor in person only to the worship of Taiyi and Houtu, or Heaven and Earth. Chinese salvationist religions Model humanity: Main philosophical traditions: Ritual traditions: Devotional traditions: Salvation churches and sects : Confucian churches and sects: Chinese salvationist religions or Chinese folk religious sects are a Chinese religious tradition characterised by
8132-485: The essence of fire; his animal form is the Red Dragon ( 朱龙 Zhūlóng ) and his stellar animal is the phoenix . He is the god of agriculture, animal husbandry, medicinal plants and market. In broader conceptualisation, he is the god of science and craft, and the patron of doctors and apothecaries. His astral body is Mars . Báidì ( 白帝 "White Emperor" or "White Deity") or Báishén ( 白神 "White God"), also known as
8239-689: The evaporation of liquid salt water. A 2015 flyby by Cassini through a plume on Enceladus found most of the ingredients to sustain life forms that live by methanogenesis . In April 2014, NASA scientists reported the possible beginning of a new moon within the A Ring , which was imaged by Cassini on 15 April 2013. Saturn is probably best known for the system of planetary rings that makes it visually unique. The rings extend from 6,630 to 120,700 kilometres (4,120 to 75,000 mi) outward from Saturn's equator and average approximately 20 metres (66 ft) in thickness. They are composed predominantly of water ice, with trace amounts of tholin impurities and
8346-530: The fact that dark gaps in the rings are bright when viewed at a high phase angle (towards the Sun), meaning that they contain fine light-scattering material. In addition, Pioneer 11 measured the temperature of Titan. In November 1980, the Voyager 1 probe visited the Saturn system. It sent back the first high-resolution images of the planet, its rings and satellites. Surface features of various moons were seen for
8453-550: The first time. Voyager 1 performed a close flyby of Titan, increasing knowledge of the atmosphere of the moon. It proved that Titan's atmosphere is impenetrable at visible wavelengths ; therefore no surface details were seen. The flyby changed the spacecraft's trajectory out of the plane of the Solar System. Almost a year later, in August 1981, Voyager 2 continued the study of the Saturn system. More close-up images of Saturn's moons were acquired, as well as evidence of changes in
8560-449: The five Dragon Gods ( 龙神 Lóngshén ) who represent their mounts, that is to say the material forces they preside over (their chthonic form). They have also been defined simply as five special forms of the worship of the God of Heaven, different "accesses" or perspectives, suitable for different situations, to serve Heaven. According to Zheng Xuan , the influence of their activity begets different categories of beings on earth. Explaining
8667-498: The fivefold manifestation of the supreme God of Heaven ( 天 Tiān , or equivalently 上帝 Shàngdì ). This theology dates back at least to the Shang dynasty . Described as the "five changeable faces of Heaven", they represent Heaven's cosmic activity which shapes worlds as tán 壇 , "altars", imitating its order which is visible in the starry vault, the north celestial pole and its spinning constellations. The Five Deities themselves represent these constellations. In accordance with
8774-420: The flybys of the Voyager spacecraft during the 1980s. Since then, Earth-based telescopy has improved to the point where regular observations can be made. The composition of the clouds varies with depth and increasing pressure. In the upper cloud layers, with temperatures in the range of 100–160 K and pressures extending between 0.5–2 bar , the clouds consist of ammonia ice. Water ice clouds begin at
8881-591: The generation of heat through the "raining out" of droplets of helium deep in Saturn's interior. As the droplets descend through the lower-density hydrogen, the process releases heat by friction and leaves Saturn's outer layers depleted of helium. These descending droplets may have accumulated into a helium shell surrounding the core. Rainfalls of diamonds have been suggested to occur within Saturn, as well as in Jupiter and ice giants Uranus and Neptune. The outer atmosphere of Saturn contains 96.3% molecular hydrogen and 3.25% helium by volume. The proportion of helium
8988-457: The god Saturnus the equivalent of the Greek god Cronus ; in modern Greek , the planet retains the name Cronus — Κρόνος : Kronos . The Greek scientist Ptolemy based his calculations of Saturn's orbit on observations he made while it was in opposition . In Hindu astrology , there are nine astrological objects, known as Navagrahas . Saturn is known as " Shani " and judges everyone based on
9095-449: The good and bad deeds performed in life. Ancient Chinese and Japanese culture designated the planet Saturn as the "earth star" ( 土星 ). This was based on Five Elements which were traditionally used to classify natural elements. In Hebrew , Saturn is called Shabbathai . Its angel is Cassiel . Its intelligence or beneficial spirit is 'Agȋȇl ( Hebrew : אגיאל , romanized : ʿAgyal ), and its darker spirit ( demon )
9202-582: The great-grandfather of Qin Shihuang unified the imperial cult of the four forms of God in Yong, constructing there altars for the White, Green, Yellow and Red Deities. In 219, Qin Shihuang, founder of the Qin empire (221 BCE–206 BCE), personally sacrificed at Mount Tai , the sacred mountain at the centre of Shandong , a site for the worship of the supreme godhead in the erstwhile states of Qi and Lu . He modelled
9309-468: The help of the Dragon (the controller of water, who is Huangdi himself). This myth symbolises the equipoise of yin and yang, here the fire of knowledge (reason and craft) and earthly stability. Yan 炎 is flame, scorching fire, or an excess of it (it is important to notice that graphically it is a double 火 huo , "fire"). As an excess of fire brings destruction to the earth, it has to be controlled by
9416-605: The label "secret sects" ( 秘密教门 mìmì jiàomén ) to distinguish the peasant "secret societies" with a positive dimension of the Yuan, Ming and Qing periods, from the negatively viewed "secret societies" of the early republic that became instruments of anti-revolutionary forces (the Guomindang or Japan ). Many of these religions are traced to the White Lotus tradition ("Chinese Maternism", as mentioned by Philip Clart ) that
9523-399: The largest moon, comprises more than 90% of the mass in orbit around Saturn, including the rings. Saturn's second-largest moon, Rhea , may have a tenuous ring system of its own , along with a tenuous atmosphere . Many of the other moons are small: 131 are less than 50 km in diameter. Traditionally, most of Saturn's moons have been named after Titans of Greek mythology. Titan is
9630-427: The liturgy, sacrificial protocol and architectural layout, the sites of Ganquan and Mount Tai followed the model of Yong. Besides the highest gods of the pantheon, the emperor or the central administration celebrated the cults of other gods, including those devoted to mountains and rivers, the sun and moon, stars and constellations, and heroes. In later times the expansion of the empire to different provinces and peoples
9737-421: The lower level clouds appear to consist of either ammonium hydrosulfide ( NH 4 SH ) or water. Ultraviolet radiation from the Sun causes methane photolysis in the upper atmosphere, leading to a series of hydrocarbon chemical reactions with the resulting products being carried downward by eddies and diffusion . This photochemical cycle is modulated by Saturn's annual seasonal cycle. Cassini observed
9844-540: The magnetic field is generated similarly to that of Jupiter—by currents in the liquid metallic-hydrogen layer called a metallic-hydrogen dynamo. This magnetosphere is efficient at deflecting the solar wind particles from the Sun. The moon Titan orbits within the outer part of Saturn's magnetosphere and contributes plasma from the ionized particles in Titan's outer atmosphere. Saturn's magnetosphere, like Earth's , produces aurorae . The average distance between Saturn and
9951-580: The modern county of Tongwei in Gansu . The sacrifices at Yong held a central positions and were carried out every three years by the emperor. If the emperor was absent, the rituals were performed by masters of rites, at various times throughout the year based on the ritual calendar of the Qin. In 113 BCE, Emperor Wu of Han innovated the Confucian state religion integrating the Huang–Lao conception of Taiyi with
10058-506: The modern discourse of an Asian -centered universal civilisation. The Chinese folk religious movements of salvation are mostly concentrated in northern and northeastern China, although with a significant influence reaching the Yangtze River Delta since the 16th century. The northern provinces have been a fertile ground for the movements of salvation for a number of reasons: firstly, popular religious movements were active in
10165-475: The only satellite in the Solar System with a major atmosphere , in which a complex organic chemistry occurs. It is the only satellite with hydrocarbon lakes . On 6 June 2013, scientists at the IAA-CSIC reported the detection of polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons in the upper atmosphere of Titan, a possible precursor for life . On 23 June 2014, NASA claimed to have strong evidence that nitrogen in
10272-525: The parallels that the Yellow Emperor's mythology has in other cultures, deducing a plausible ancient origin of the myth in Siberia or in north Asia. In older accounts, the Yellow Emperor is identified as a deity of light (and his name is explained in the Shuowen Jiezi to derive from guāng 光 , "light") and thunder, and as one and the same with the "Thunder God" ( 雷神 Léishén ), who in turn, as
10379-493: The planet detected by Voyager 1 and Voyager 2 , System III has a rotation period of 10 39 22.4 (810.8°/d). System III has largely superseded System II. A precise value for the rotation period of the interior remains elusive. While approaching Saturn in 2004, Cassini found that the radio rotation period of Saturn had increased appreciably, to approximately 10 45 45 ± 36 . An estimate of Saturn's rotation (as an indicated rotation rate for Saturn as
10486-420: The population of China, which is around 30 million people, claim to be members of folk religious sects. The actual number of followers may be higher, about the same as the number of members of the five state-sanctioned religions of China if counted together. In Taiwan, recognised folk religious movements of salvation gather approximately 10% of the population as of the mid-2000s. Saturn Saturn
10593-552: The region already in the Han dynasty , and they deeply penetrated local society; secondly, northern provinces are characterised by social mobility around the capital and weak traditional social structure, thus folk religious movements of salvation fulfill the demand of individual searching for new forms of community and social network. According to the Chinese General Social Survey of 2012, approximately 2.2% of
10700-751: The rotation rate of Saturn. System I has a period of 10 14 00 (844.3°/d) and encompasses the Equatorial Zone, the South Equatorial Belt, and the North Equatorial Belt. The polar regions are considered to have rotation rates similar to System I . All other Saturnian latitudes, excluding the north and south polar regions, are indicated as System II and have been assigned a rotation period of 10 38 25.4 (810.76°/d). System III refers to Saturn's internal rotation rate. Based on radio emissions from
10807-552: The sacrifice on that performed at Yong, in alignment with the Qin tradition, consisting of three types of victims—horses, rams and oxen. The ritual system of the early emperors of the Han dynasty (206 BCE–220 AD) was not different from that of the Qin, with the only change consisting in the integration of the Black Deity by Gaozu or Liu Bang (206–195), the first emperor of the dynasty. However, Han state religion soon found itself divided between two factions. On one hand there were
10914-494: The same tradition of Chinese folk religious movements. A category overlapping with that of the salvationist movements is that of the "secret societies" ( 秘密社会 mìmì shèhuì , or 秘密结社 mìmì jiéshè ), religious communities of initiatory and secretive character, including rural militias and fraternal organisations which became very popular in the early republican period, and often labeled as " heretical doctrines" ( 宗教异端 zōngjiào yìduān ). Recent scholarship has begun to use
11021-415: Was a major character in various mythologies. Babylonian astronomers systematically observed and recorded the movements of Saturn. In ancient Greek, the planet was known as Φαίνων Phainon , and in Roman times it was known as the "star of Saturn ". In ancient Roman mythology , the planet Phainon was sacred to this agricultural god, from which the planet takes its modern name. The Romans considered
11128-405: Was accompanied by a policy of identification or association of native gods and their cults to the imperial Han pantheon, so that the cults officially celebrated by the administration proliferated to the hundreds. In 31 BCE, Confucians at the court, especially Kuang Heng and Zhang Tan, disposed a reform of the state sacrifices, suppressing hundreds of local sacrifices and restricting those performed by
11235-459: Was already active in the Song dynasty ; others claim a Taoist legacy and are based on the recovery of ancient scriptures attributed to important immortals such as Lü Dongbin and Zhang Sanfeng , and have contributed to the popularisation of neidan ; other ones are distinctively Confucian and advocate the realisation of a "great commonwealth" ( datong 大同 ) on a world scale, as dreamt of in
11342-627: Was not until Huygens used greater telescopic magnification that this notion was refuted, and the rings were truly seen for the first time. Huygens also discovered Saturn's moon Titan ; Giovanni Domenico Cassini later discovered four other moons: Iapetus , Rhea , Tethys , and Dione . In 1675, Cassini discovered the gap now known as the Cassini Division . No further discoveries of significance were made until 1789 when William Herschel discovered two further moons, Mimas and Enceladus . The irregularly shaped satellite Hyperion , which has
11449-639: Was the ancestral Yellow Emperor whom the emperors had to imitate. The imperial temple at Yong which was established by the great-grandfather of Qin Shihuang was rearranged placing the altars of the gods each in its respective direction, and that of the Yellow Deity at the centre. Outside Yong, two other temples dedicated to the Five Deities were built during the reign of Emperor Wen (180–157), one in Weiyang, northeast of Chang'an , and one in Chengji near
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