Stock Photo - Zhao Gongming was a character from the classic Ming Dynasty novel 'Fengshen Yanyi'. Zhao Gongming was a good friend of General Wen Zhong, also known as Grand Tutor Wen, who served King Zhou of Shang. Zhao Gongming was described as being a Taoist hermit with magical powers, and agreed to help King Zhou fight against King Wu and the Zhou army due to his close friendship with Wen Zhong.<br/><br/> Despite knowing that King Zhou was a cruel and tyrannical ruler, Zhao Gongming continued to fight for him, wielding various magical weapons and supernatural powers to decimate his rivals. He was so powerful that even the legendary sage Jiang Ziya concluded that he could not beat him, therefore turning to black magic instead. He enlisted the help of a Taoist sorcerer by the name of Lu Ya, who made an effigy of Zhao Gongming and then struck him down through a dark ritual, thus ending the threat of Zhao Gongming.<br/><br/> At the end of the novel, when Jiang Ziya began deifying various heroes and generals who had fought in the last years of the Shang Dynasty, he acknowledge Zhao Gongming's bravery and valour, uplifting him to a god of wealth and fortune, becoming an embodiment of the god Caishen.