Dinghai Pearls

The Twenty-Four Heavens

Twenty-four radiant pearls of Zhao Gongming, later turned into the twenty-four deva realms.

The Dinghai Pearls are the twenty-four luminous beads of Zhao Gongming, glowing with five-colored light. Cast at an enemy they strike with the force of mountains, and even the immortals of the Chan sect could not stand before them until the lamp-lighter Ran Deng carried them away. In Buddhist retellings the captured pearls became the Twenty-Four Heavens that support the cosmos.