Setting of the Jade Emperor

While the tale of the Jade Emperor is purely fictional, many of its details correlate to real life characteristics.  Many of these examples pertain to physical locations that occur both in the myth and in reality.  In fact, this story, which was compiled during the Tang Dynasty, has details based on the nearby landmarks.  One of these includes the birthplace of Yu Huang.  As the legend has it, the future Jade Emperor was born in a kingdom of China.  Based on the time of the myths origin, one can hypothesize that Yu's hometown would be similar to a kingdom from the Tang Dynasty.  The modern day Tang Dynasty Village in Singapore is a theme park that shows what the village of Chang'An would have looked like in the Tang Dynasty.  The Jade Emperor would have grown up in a town such as this.

Using details from the story, the more information on the physical setting of the myth can be determined.  To find out the geographical location of the myth, one can examine the time when Yu Huang went to meditate on a cliff.  The fabled Bright and Fragrant Cliffs might not exist, but it was based off of nearby landmarks, such as Mt. Hua.

 Thus, it can be concluded that the setting of the tale must be near cliffs and inside the Tang Boundary.  This leads to the conclusion that the Jade Emperor myth took place in a village near the Loess Plateau during the Tang Dynasty.