The Taoist City God is originated from people worshipping the natural world and is the god that guards the city in the ancient times legend. In the records of memorial ceremonies of early Zhou Dynasty, there were words of water (that is Huang) and city wall (that is Cheng). In ancient times, Chinese called the water moat outside a city wall as " pond ", and dry moat outside a city wall as “Huang”. The Taoist City God as god is allegedly derived as according to the records of << Zhou Li >> from the water (that is Huang) and city wall (that is Cheng) of memorial ceremony made to the Eight Zha God.
The Taoist City God was originally God of nature but accompanying the development and transformation of society; the people bestowed on him even more social functions. Hence, the Taoist City God gradually progressed to become God of the society. The most original and key function of the Taoist City God is to guard the city, protect the people, avert calamity and remove troubles. After the Song Dynasty, Taoism takes the City God as God of cutting down the evils, removing ferocity, protecting the country and ensuring peace in the nation. Referring to him as a God who is able to response to the calls of the people, bring rain when drought is prevailing, clear up the sky when rainy, in order to protect abundant grain to sufficiently satisfy the people need. The City God also acts a local officer of hell by administering the underworld affairs of that locality and all things that people fails to reach. People believe him to possess the power to punish and appease the evil spirits. Taoist priests performing rite to reach the underworld to release a soul of a newly deceased from purgatory have to notify the City God by way of a “City God official document" in order to be able to arrest and escort the soul of the newly deceased to the altar. In a word, the scope of duty of City God is closely related with the life of the common people and it seems that the common people, believes in the City God’s ability to protect their livelihood and live, brings many material benefits and utilities. So, the belief in City God just becomes widely popular and a religious activity of the common people with energetic influence.
|
|
The earliest City God
Temple recorded in Chinese history was the Wuhu City God Temple built in 2nd
years, Chitu era of Wu Kingdom during the Three Kingdoms period (AD 239).
Since the Han Dynasty, accompanying the gradual prosperity of the
City god's belief, the City God temples also spread all over the various
places of the whole nation. During the Ming and Qing dynasties, almost
every county town has one to two City God temple(s) of grand construction
and sight. Among them, the
ones of size and reputation are the City God temple of Songjiang Fu (Songjiang
county of present day Shanghai), the Anhui Jiqi county City God temple,
the Jianning Fu City God temple in Fujian, the City God temple at Fujian
Anxi county town, the Hebei Province Xinle county city God temple, Hunan
province Chengzhou City god's temple etc.
The pattern of construction of the city god's temple is imitated to
the government office in feudal China.
The major parts are door, audience hall, sleeping quarters, labor
room, burning furnace, drama building and clock tower etc.
The deity of the City god is placed center in the audience hall. On
two sides of the hall stand the judge, constables ox head, horse face and
impermanent black and white of the underworld.
Most city god's temples often have two city god deities, one made
of clay, secured in the audience hall; another is of wood carving, to be
used for the procession tour outside the temple.
The city god procession tour outside the temple is generally made
in three seasons of spring, autumn and winter respectively once, and this
is called the "3 procession event".
The birthday majority of
City God is ordered during the fifth lunar month and the birthday of
Beijing Capital City God Temple is on the 11th of the fifth
lunar month. However, there
are many temples fixed His birthday on the 28th day of the
fifth lunar month, the City God Temple at Fujian Anxi county is one of
them.
The belief of the city god
is faith in gods of a nation-wide scale. Since the Song Dynasty, it had
been included in the national memorial ceremonies, and from the Ming
Dynasty, a standard memorial ceremonial timing, unified memorial ceremony
and memorial scripts had even been stipulated.
While the present memorial ceremony of City God temple is basically
traditions adopted from the successive dynasties, it is a fairly typical
folk custom activity of unique characteristics.