Chinese Ghost and Gods

Chinese folk religion is the underlying belief system of more than a billion Chinese people. Go into any Chinese home, office or restaurant and you will see altars, statues or paper 'good luck' images. And wherever there is a Chinese community there are temples and Earth God shrines. In Chinese thought, the world is populated by a vast number of spirits, both good and evil. Such spirits include nature demons (kuei-shen), evil spirits or devils (oni), and ghosts (kui).

Evil spirits are believed to avoid light, so many rituals involving fire and light have developed, such as the use of bonfires, firecrackers, and torches. Evil spirits are also traditionally believed to travel in straight lines, which explains many curvy roads throughout China. But not all spirits are evil - some are just unhappy.

As evidenced by the practice of ancestor worship, most Chinese people believe the souls of the deceased endure after death and must be kept happy by offerings and honor.
If a spirit is not kept happy, perhaps because it had a bad death, an improper burial or has no descendents to perform the proper rituals, it becomes a ghost (sometimes called a "hungry ghost," a term with Buddhist origins).

Ghosts may attack human beings to prompt them to meet the ghosts' needs or at least to draw attention to their plight. Ghosts receive the most attentions during Ghost Month, the seventh month in the Chinese lunar year, and especially during the Ghost Festival on the fiftteenth day.

Here are a few of the gods of Chinese folklore:

The Kitchen God

The Spring Festival (or the Chinese New Year) is the most important event for the Chinese. The Spring Festival is on Feb. 5 for Year 2000 and it is the Year of the Dragon. It is said that people born in the Year of the Dragon inspire trust, are honest, sensitive and sincere, never flattering, and their opinions are usually valid.

Traditionally the Spring Festival actually begins its course a week before the Chinese New Year (the 23th of the last month from Chinese lunar calendar), with the practice of offering a sacrifice to the Kitchen God, a god sent from Heaven to each family to take charge of family's affairs and make a report on what the family has done in the past year to Heaven annually on the date of the 23th. Strangely enough, the sacrifice to the Kitchen God is a lotus root-like sticky cake made of a kind of confection, a typical Chinese traditional candy, instead of the usual cows, pigs or sheep.

The purpose of the practice is compromising, for people are making full use of the sticky cake to prevent the Kitchen God from speaking ill of the family in Heaven by sticking his mouth. Of course, it seems to be quite a tacit agreement between the Kitchen God and his prayers; he is always accepting the sweet food from the people around. This tradition is no longer popular in cities now, but may still be observed in some areas of countryside.

From the 23th to the 28th, it is the seed time for the great festival. People are usually found themselves buying various things which vary from new clothes to delicious food. The Spring Festival is also the time for all family members getting together. Usually most people are trying to get home from different places before or on the New Year's Eve (the 29th) so the week before the Chinese New Year is the busiest travel time in China.

The Gate and Door Gods

In China, there used to be a custom to put drawings of the gate gods on gates during the Chinese New Year. As you may know, there are many gods worshiped in China, especially during traditional festivals. Though Chinese have the traditions of worshipping many gods and most people usually follow the traditions, religions have never been as deeply rooted in Chinese as those in many other countries. The Chinese people are more practical in philosophy or gods. So different gods are invited for different occasions. For an example, when they were lack of money, the god of fortune would be the guest at the table of sacrifice. So we say, 'A god in need is a god indeed.' No matter how things happened, however, you can always find a story proving its inevitability of being there. And the presentation of the gate gods had no exceptions as well.

It is said that long ago there grew a peach forest. The king of the peach trees shaded two stone huts in which lived two brothers, Shen Tu and Yu Lei. Both of them were so strong that in front of them lions would bend down their heads, leopards shivered at them and tigers gave in entirely to promise to serve as guards in the forest. And the two brothers lived there on the peaches.
In the Northeast of Mount Duso, there lived a monster which was said the son of a spirit of a bull. By right of the uncommon strength, it made itself the king of that area.

When it heard that the delicious peaches on the mountain of Duso were magic in turning an evil into a god, he couldn't wait to go there. Of course, the monster was refused absolutely by the brothers. The monster was so angry that he led more than 300 ghosts to fight against the brothers. After a fierce fight, the monster was defeated completely and ran away. But the monster wouldn't bury its axe. In the dark, he sent a few of the strongest ghosts to attack the brothers' huts.

Though the ghosts appeared with blue faces, long buckteeth and dark red eyes, the brothers were very calm and they determined to give them a hard blow. The elder brother fought ahead with a hard stem of a tree and the younger followed with a strong reed rope. When the brother beat down one of the ghosts, the younger would tie it hard and put it into the mouth of a tiger. The bothers, Shen Tu and Yu Lei, won the battle at that night and the ghosts never dared to annoy them again.

Thus, the reputation of the brothers was spread quickly around the area, and they also helped a lot of people in the area. Many years later, when the bothers died, people thought they had got into the Heaven and became gods there and served as guards by the gate of the Heaven. Because the gate gods were once lived in the peach forest, people thought the branches of peach trees were full of magic. So it began to get popular for people to hang a peach board with the bothers' names on it on each side of their door pinning their hope for peace on the two giants. When paper was used, a picture of them was put up instead of those peach boards.

The Town God

In almost every large and medium-sized city in China, one can find a Chenghuang Temple or Town God Temple. In the temple, sits a statue of the town god. Usually, there are one or two sacrificial ceremonies each year. The ceremonies are important occasions for both old and young.

Traditionally, people imagined that the city was protected by a god known as Chenghuang (town god). Under his protection, people could live peacefully. Chenghuang's duty was just like that of the county head in feudal China. Taoists accepted him not only as an executive but as a law officer as well. It was believed that Chenghuang was empowered by the celestial ruler to exterminate evils in towns and cities and make citizens live a prosperous and happy life. He was even capable of granting what people prayed for. He gave rain when it was too dry and gave sunshine when there was too much rain. He brought big crop harvests for farmers and flourishing business for traders. As historical records indicate, the first known Chenghuan Temple was built as early as 239 A.D in the Three Kingdoms Period.

Interestingly, the town god had his mold in the practical society. The mold was always a hero who had done a lot and sacrificed his life for the public. People honored him as a god and believed that he would bring them peace and happiness. That's why the town gods in different cities often have different looks. Even today, every year at a fixed time, people come to the temples and show their respect for their protectors by kowtowing and offering some sacrifices. Chenghuang is a god in Taoism, but monarchs of different faiths in history all put him in a very important position