Yang Ren

Yang Ren originally served as a senior minister under King Zhou of the Shang dynasty. After he remonstrated against the construction of the Deer Terrace, King Zhou ordered his eyes gouged out and cast his body aside. As his corpse lay abandoned, his righteous fury surged skyward, drawing the attention of the Daoist immortal Qingxu Daode Zhenjun, who rescued him and restored his sight with elixirs—causing a hand to grow within each eye socket, each palm bearing a divine eye capable of perceiving both the celestial court above and the netherworld below. Descending the mountain with the Five-Fire Seven-Bird Fan, Yang Ren aided the Zhou forces: he fanned away the toxic flames wielded by Lü Yue, commander of the Pestilence Department, shattered the Pestilence-Plague Array, and burned to death generals Chen Geng and Li Ping. He perished during the Battle of Mianchi at the hands of Zhang Kui. Upon bestowing divine titles, Jiang Ziya enshrined him as the Jiazi Taishui Deity, placing him in charge of the Daily Merit Officials—a distinct position from Jin Bian Dajiangjun (General Jin Bian), the Jiazi-year deity in the folk tradition’s sixty-Taishui pantheon.