Gods of Blessing,Prosperity,Longevity,Happiness and Wealt

In China, folk worship prevai l s everywhere.A good example is the character of “fu” (meaning blessing) which is stuck on the right middle of front doors during Spring Festival.There is also the pious bow students make at the Wenchang Temple before the College Entrance Examination,the picture of the god of longevity used on birthday celebrations for the aged,the scroll hung above doorframes in farmhouses bearing the words “enjoying happiness everywhere”,and the eternally burning joss sticks and candles placed in front of the god of wealth in shops and restaurants.The folk worship of gods of blessing,prosperity,longevity,happiness and wealth is common in every corner of Chinese people’s lives.

Gods of Blessing,Prosperity,Longevity,Happiness and Wealt

The god of blessing started from the admiration of ancestors for Jupiter,a legendary master in charge of agriculture.Ancient people considered that the places shone on by Jupiter enjoyed good luck and blessing.Therefore,more than two thousand years ago there were already temples built by governments to offer sacrifices to Jupiter.During the Tang Dynasty (618-907),the image of the god of blessing changed.A prefectural governor of the Dao state called Yang Cheng was reputed to be the god of blessing.Previously,the Dao state was home to many short people and the royal court demanded that they serve as eunuchs.After Yang Cheng assumed office,he couldn’t bear to see the pain of common families being separated forever,so he risked death to submit a written statement to the royal authority.Finally,the practice was abolished.People recalled with deep gratitude his kindness and respected him as the god of blessing.After the Song and Yuan dynasties (960-1368),as the influence of Taoism deepened,the sky officer,one of three posts in the divine system of Taoism which include sky,ground and water,became the god of blessing.Since the Ming and Qing dynasties (1368-1911),this image basically hasn’t changed significantly.

The god of prosperity came from the worship of the prosperity star by our predecessors.The prosperity star used to be one of the six stars in the Wenchang Temple and later evolved into the Wenchang Star with responsibility for prosperity.After the imperial examination system emerged in the Sui and Tang dynasties (581-907),ordinary people could change their own fates by studying to secure official positions.As a result,the prosperity star came to be particularly admired.As the imperial examination featured in written articles,the star was also called the “civil star”.Although the god of prosperity was related to career prospects,becoming an official was,after all,an ambition for only a small minority and ordinary people were much more concerned about offspring.Then,in the Song Dynasty (960-1279),the god of prosperity became analogous to the God Zhang who was responsible for sending offspring.The picture of the god of prosperity we now see is of a ministry councilor embracing a baby.At present,the worship of the god of prosperity is mostly embodied in joss sticks and candles burning at the Wenchang Temple.Whenever there is an important exam,people go to offer sacrifices to the god of prosperity in the hope of being blessed.

The god of longevity also started from the worship of stars.But there is no consensus about which star it is.According to folk legend,the longevity star generally refers to the senior star in the South Pole.The ancients thought that if a senior star appeared,there would be political stability; if not,war was not far away.The functional range of the senior star keeps expanding,from the original power of deciding the life of a sovereign country to the life of ruling emperors and then to the life of all people in the world.Worship of the senior star in the South Pole started very early.After the unification of China by the Qin dynasty (221 BC-206 BC),there were already ancestral temples built to offer sacrifices to the longevity star.After the Ming and Qing dynasties (1368-1911),the practice of celebrating birthdays for the aged gradually developed into a custom.Now birthday celebrations for old people always begin from the age of sixty and round numbers are greatly valued.In addition,the ages of sixty-six,seventy-three,eighty-four,seventy-seven and eighty-eight are also especially celebrated.Sixty-six implies great smoothness in the Chinese language.Seventy-three and eighty-four are the ages at which Confucius and Mencius died,so people consider these as obstacles that once overcome,will initiate a much longer life.Seventy-seven is regarded as a happy birthday and eighty-eight a rice birthday,because the Chinese characters of seventy-seven are similar to the cursive writing of “xi” (meaning happy) and the character pattern of eighty-eight derives from “mi” (meaning rice).

The gods of blessing,prosperity and longevity all stemmed from the admiration of stars,so they are always worshiped as a whole.In the commonly seen picture of three stars shining from on high,the blessing star stands in the middle with an auspicious article in one hand; the prosperity star,dressed like a ministry councilor and embracing a baby,is to the right of the blessing star; the longevity star stands on the left with a high forehead and white beard holds a stick and a peach in its hands.

The god of happiness is an imaginary figure in folk belief.It doesn’t have an astronomical origin or a particular look.The popularization of this god is much later than the three gods mentioned already.The god of happiness has no fixed image.In New Year pictures,some look like the sky officer while others resemble the god of wealth.After the Song Dynasty,pictures of ancestors were worshiped as the god of happiness in most cases.Pious worship of the god of happiness can be commonly seen in various customs and activities,particularly in weddings.Previously,the location of brides sitting in,and getting on and off,sedan chairs had to face the god of happiness.The specific direction,however,was calculated according to the sexagenary cycle and the Eight Diagrams because locations of the god of happiness varied on different days and at different time points.During the Spring Festival,besides posting scrolls like “enjoying happiness everywhere”,there are still other customs designed to welcome the god of happiness.The direction of this god can be looked up in the Chinese almanac (locations from the first to the fifth day in the first month of the lunar year are noted in the Chinese almanac).In the early morning on the first day of the lunar year,people wear new clothes and walk out of their homes to embrace the god of happiness,and cows,horses,donkeys and mules that are confined in pens throughout the winter are also released at this time so that they can run free.If these animals manage to surprise a wild chicken or a rabbit,it is regarded as an auspicious sign.

The god of wealth is in charge of money and treasure in the world.The emergence of the god of wealth can be dated back to the Song Dynasty.There is more than one god of wealth among the people: there are principal and assistant gods of wealth as well as civil and military gods of wealth.The most famous of them is the military god of wealth Chao Kungming.He used to be a figure in a novel during the Jin Dynasty (265-420) who was a ghost general engaged in taking the lives of others.In the Yuan Dynasty (1271-1368),he appeared as a god of plague but gradually changed into a positive god who had the power to expel disease and disaster.In the Ming Dynasty (1368-1644),he evolved into a god of wealth.Worship of the god of wealth mainly happens around Spring Festival.On New Year’s Eve,people welcome the god of wealth; on the second and fifth days of the first month,they worship the god of wealth.In addition many shops and restaurants will pay respects to a god of wealth - Guan Yu - all year round.Guan Yu is a resolute and steadfast figure in the novel The Romance of the Three Kingdoms.Maybe it is because of his strong adherence to friendship and credit is a necessary quality for businesspeople that he is regarded as the god of wealth.