Xuan Wu (god)

The Dark Warrior ( Xuanwu玄武) - other names are True Warrior ( Zhenwu真 武) - also North Kaiser / Emperor of the North ( Beidi北 帝) or Emperor Zhenwu ( Zhenwu dadi真 武大帝) and Emperor Xuanwu ( Xuanwu shangdi玄武 上帝) - applies as one of the most powerful deities of Daoism. He is worshiped by the Wudang fighters as their patron. Especially in the time of the Song and Ming dynasties, his cult had great success.

The Dark Warrior is considered as a deity of healing and exorcism. In the Han Dynasty, the Dark Warrior was cosmologically as one of the four animals of the cardinal directions. Iconography, he was represented as a serpent that winds around a turtle. His correspondences were the winter, the water, the color black and the northern sky area.

Later, he developed into an independent deity, probably as early as the 7th century. In the Ming period Zhenwu had its greatest importance. From this period dates his iconography with bare feet and loose hair that comes from the appearance of spirit media.