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This is true. Shangti translates as Emperor Above (Actually the correct spelling is "Shang Di" and often referred to as Huang Tian Shang Di or "Sagely Heaven, Emperor Above") and the common belief was that the earthy emperor was a direct descendant of Shang Di.
The Chinese worship of Shang Di along with Judaism and Zoroastrianism are the oldest monotheistic religions know. Of these, only Judaism & Zoroastrianism remain fully intact today, however none of these are practiced exactly as they were over 4,000 years ago.
I am assuming you are using this example to try and persuade people that Monotheism, such as Christianity is the only real religion and thus should be embraced. There are at least two fundamental problems with this train of thought:
1) Although all of these religious faiths are monotheistic, that is where the similarities end. Christianity today is NOTHING like the Shang Di practices, Zoroastrianism faith or Judaism of ages past. Then again, Christianity today is nothing like Christianity of 2,000, 1,000 or even 500 years ago. Christianity professes that their god is unchanging and that the Christian teachings are divinely inspired and the direct message of their god. So if god can?t change, how can his directly inspired message? Anyway, the worship of Shang Di also included the deification of the Sun, moon and the Earth, similar to Angels of modern Christianity; while Zoroastrianism in addition to being monotheistic is also monist, meaning that all is of one essence, principle, substance or energy and that there is one, universal, unified set of laws underlying nature. Thus, god must obey the same laws as mortals. This is unlike Christianity that puts god above everything since he created everything. The flaw is that none of these faiths can exist simultaneously with Christianity, since Christianity holds that Jesus is the ONLY way to salvation. Thus, anything without Jesus is false and impure.
2) Most people who practiced the religion of Shang Di gradually moved away from it in favor of something more realistic, something more practical and beneficial. (Taoism, Buddhism and so forth) the same is generally true of most religions. Judaism has never been a religion of mass numbers, but Christianity split from it 200 years ago. Zoroastrianism was once the dominant religion of much of Western and Central Asia, however today fewer then 200,000 practice this religion. Christianity is constantly changing in order to "Keep up with the times" or else it risks alienating people and loosing them. For instance, female priests, homosexual friendly churches, allowing divorce and/or abortions and many other examples until what is called "Christianity" today is NOTHING like the Christianity of 100 or 1,000 years ago. Even so, many practitioners look outside the various churches to "supplement" their spiritual practice. In short, to say, "Hey, ancient people use to believe in one god, so it must be true!" is about as sound as proclaiming, "Hey! Many ancient civilizations believed the earth surface was flat, so it must be the truth!"
The best way to deal with multiple religions in the world is a simple one:
Practice your faith to the best of your ability regardless of what that faith may be. If through your behavior you inspire others to inquire as to what your beliefs are, then share as much as they choose to accept, then let it go. If they want to learn more, they will. If they don?t then they wont. Don?t preach and use worlds like "the Only way..." or "You must..." or "If you don?t then..." this is not a healthy or friendly approach. Personal, I believe that there are as many ways to awaken to spiritual truth as there are beings on the face of the earth.
Enjoy!
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Did you know that before Taoism, Buddhism, and Confucianism, the ancient chinese wors
