The story of God-Beating Whip

When Jiang Ziya received the charge of the investiture on Mount Kunlun, Yuanshi Tianzun gave him the Investiture List and the God-Beating Whip together. Jiang Ziya carried both down the mountain and first built the investiture terrace on Mount Qi.

The God-Beating Whip is made of several jointed sections of wood bearing talismans, and can bind only those gods whose names are on the Investiture List. Jiang Ziya carried it with the Western Qi army and took it out whenever an immortal commander came to the field.

When Wen Zhong was beaten and fled towards Jueleng Ridge, Jiang Ziya pursued him into the hills and struck at him with the whip. Bound by the Investiture List, Wen Zhong could hardly avoid it, and was afterwards trapped by Yunzhongzi’s Heaven-Reaching Divine Fire Pillars.

When the Shang–Zhou war was over, Jiang Ziya climbed the investiture terrace with the apricot-yellow banner in his left hand and the God-Beating Whip in his right. Bo Jian brought the souls below, and Jiang Ziya read out the divine offices one by one from the commission of Yuxu Palace.

When the three hundred and sixty-five true gods had gone to their posts, Jiang Ziya put away the roll and the whip and left the terrace. The God-Beating Whip had done the work of binding the gods on the roll, and was never used again as an ordinary weapon of war.