Bai · deity · Bai traditional religion; continuing · deity
Zheng Hui was a Han Chinese official, magistrate of Xizhou, captured by Nanzhao in 756. Esteemed for his learning, he was made tutor to a succession of Nanzhao crown princes and rose to the highest ministerial office, Qingpingguan, becoming the principal architect of Nanzhao's realignment away from Tibet and back toward the Tang. After his death he entered the Bai benzhu pantheon as a deified ancestor and patron, exemplifying the way in which even outsiders who served the Erhai polities with distinction could be incorporated as tutelary lords of the community; he is regularly named among the ancestral and cultural-hero benzhu of the Dali region alongside the founder Xinuluo.