The Romance of the Gods, also known as the List of Gods, has one hundred chapters.
The prototype of "Romance of Gods" can be traced back to "King Wu Attacks Pinghua" in the Southern Song Dynasty, and may also refer to "Romance of Shang and Zhou Dynasties" and "Journey to the East of Eight Immortals in Kunlun". Based on the history of King Wu's attack on the Zhou Dynasty and the Shang and Zhou Dynasties, the book describes that the immortals in the sky were divided into two factions to participate in this struggle, supported King Wu's action of explaining religion, and helped Zhou Wang intercept religious action. After several contests, Zhou Wang failed in self-immolation, and Jiang Ziya deified the dead dignitaries of both sides.
Under the guidance of the mythical world outlook, The Romance of the Gods tells people about the ancient national war-the Shang and Zhou Wars. Many important cultural phenomena involved are not independently completed by a certain scholar, but belong to national consciousness and psychology. In this sense, it has the nature of epic, from Pinghua to characters and then to drum words in the form of folk circulation. The Romance of the Gods mythologized the King of Wu, an important historical event in the history books, in order to reshape the image of ancient gods, restore the reputation of mythical heroes, rebuild the genealogy of gods, and make the chaotic immortal Taoism form a complete system: the upper level is immortal Taoism, the middle level is immortal Taoism, and the lower level is humanistic Taoism. It can be said that "Love of the Gods" is a mythical epic that was born in human adulthood under the background of cultural rumination.