Tag: Chinese Myth Figures

Huangdi was the Lord of Central Heaven; the four directions of heaven were in the charge of other lordi respectively. The Lord of Eastern Heaven Fuxi , with Goumang the god of wood as his assistant, was in charge of the spring; the Southern, Yandi, with Zhurong the god of fire, the summer; the Western, Shao Hao, with Rushou the god of gold, the autumn; the Northern, Zhuanxu, with Xuanming the god of water, the winter. Taking up residence in the central heaven, Huangdi, with his assistant Hou Tu the god of earth, was in charge of all four seasons and all the directions. Legend goes that Huangdi had four faces so that he could see the four directions at the same time. No matter what happened, no matter where it did, nothing escaped his eyes. As the supreme ruler of the kingdom of gods, he had everyone under his rule. Huangdi reigned in an impartial and rigorous way.

In the very ancient time, a man went on a long journey and left a beautiful daughter and a horse at home. When the father was not in, the daughter would keep the horse as a company and fed it with grass and fodders every day. The daughter became very lonely at home and missed her father very much. One day, she fed the horse and said to him, "Horse, if you can find my father and cany him back, I will marry you as your wife."

As a god that can bring in wealth and riches, the God of Wealth is worshiped by most Chinese. Each

The town god, or  "Cheng Huang" in Chinese, is a local guardian god of ghostdom according to Taoism. It was originated from sacrificial practices in ancient times. "Cheng" originally refers to high wall built with earth, while "Huang" refers to dry moat outside a city wall. The ancient people built city walls to guard the safety of people in town, and therefore there appeared high ramparts, towers, gates, city walls and moat. In their minds, god appeared in everything closely related to people’s life and safe production, for which the city wall and moat were sanctified as the guardian of the town. Moreover, since the town god holds a position equal to mayor in real world, people’s worship to the town god has evolved along with the development of city.

In former times, door gods of China were divinities Taoists and common people believed to guard doors, as well as portraits of door gods for posting on doors. Door gods are widely popular among the Chinese people. Chinese New Year is the time for posting door god portraits. In the past, people believed that posting an image of a door god on the door could keep evil spirits away and bring back peace and luck. Door gods were even included into gods worshipped by Taoists, who would perform sacrificial rituals in honor of them.