The worship of the sun, moon, and stars has ancient origins. Before the Western Han Dynasty, Yongzhou already had dedicated shrines for their veneration. According to the "Records of the Grand Historian: Treatise on the Feng and Shan Sacrifices," "In Yong, there are over a hundred temples for the sun, moon, Orion, stars, the Northern and Southern Dippers, Mars, Venus, Jupiter, Saturn, the twenty-eight mansions..." Taoism holds that stars are the essence of all things; the sun, moon, and stars each possess their own deities and jurisdictions, and must not be offended. Within the Taoist pantheon, star deities hold a remarkably high status and are vast in number. Examples include the Five Planets and Seven Luminaries, the Lords of the Northern and Southern Dippers, the various Star Lords of the Ziwei Enclosure, the Taiwei Enclosure, the Tianshi Enclosure, the outer throne of the Ziwei, and the Twenty-Eight Mansions. They are respectively under the jurisdiction of the Ziwei, the Tianhuang, and Doumu.
