Danzhu

Also spelled Tan-chu. The son of Yao, a Chinese king of the twenty-third century BCE. King Yao deemed his son Danzhu to be unworthy and hence chose Shun as the successor to the throne. Danzhu hence died with deep bitterness in his heart, and as time passed, the bitterness harbored by his spirit intensified due to distorted historical accounts about him.

In correcting these historical distortions about Danzhu, Sangjenim revealed: “If Danzhu had ruled in the time of Yao and Shun, edification and proper governance would have spread to even the most remote villages, disparaging epithets for others’ tribes would have disappeared, and a distance of ten thousand ri would have seemed no farther than next door—in short, the world would have become one family” (4:24:15-16).

In His work of renewal, Sangjenim chose the resolution of Danzhu’s bitterness and grief as the departure point for the resolution of the bitterness and grief of all spirits and humans in the Early Heaven.