Chapter Three: the Land God in Chinese Popular Religion

I. Introduction:

Divine stones and trees are most often worshipped in Taiwan as the Land God. The Land God (Tho.-tt-kong or Tudi Gong) is the most renowned deity in Chinese popular religion. He can be seen almost in every family and village, along roads, on the banks of canals, etc (cf. Chamberlayne 1966:167; Brim 1974; Werner 1977:528).(note.1) For instance, older residents of Tainan City claim that in former times every neighbourhood had its own Land God, and evidence gathered by Kristofer Schipper appears to bear them out (Schipper 1975; cf. Wolf 1974:134). John C. Ferguson says that: "the most persistent type of religious worship in China is that offered to the spirits of the Earth" (qtd. in Day 1974:59).(note.2) In Yilan County, there are 67 kinds of deities venerated in 545 temples (and shrines) registered themselves in the county goverment. Among these temples, 168 are dedicated to the Land God. There are, I guess, more than two hundred Land God shrines which are not registered. Therefore, it is evident that he is the most popular deity in Yilan, and, possibly, in Taiwan.

The God is conceived of as in charge of a specific geographically defined jurisdiction. But even though the locality he controls is small,(note.3) he has a specific place in Chinese popular religion and is universally worshipped throughout Chinese societies. Thus arose the proverb, "The Land God is worshipped at the both sides of the field (Chhan-tau Chhan-bue Tho.-ti-kong)," attesting to the profusion of small shrines dotted amongst the fields and rice paddies.

Although not as powerful as the Heavenly Emperor or the Royal Lords, the deity is in charge of many things. Every house has its own Land God as guardian of the family.(note.4) Businessmen worship him for wealth and to guard their riches. Farmers worship him for agricultural fertility and harvests. Those who are in mountain areas adore him, because he is regarded as a god of mountains (Suan-sin).

Moreover, the graves of the properly buried and remembered each have their own tutelary deity. Although the deity is also said to be a kind of Land God, he is formally known, according to the title inscribed on the stone tablet beside every grave, as "Houtu" or "the Earth Governor" (Feuchtwang 1992:95; see figure 112).(note.5) When every year offerings are placed at the graves of ancestors, the Earth Governor receives side offerings accompanied by gold spirit-money (Feuchtwang 1992:49).

II. Names and Images of the God:

According to Yang (1961:97), the Cult of the Land God was introduced in the first century BCE. Schipper (1977:662-64) maintains that the indroduction derives from the politico- religious mass movement of that time. This mass movement tried to realise the ideal society of the past in a new world order based on the principle of Great Equality (Taiping).

The official name of the Land God is "Hok-tek cheng-sin" ("Fude Zhengshen"), which is translated as "Orthodox Spirit of Good Merit" by Schipper (1977:660).(note.6) However, he is colloquially called "Pak-kung" by Hakka people (Suenari 1985:36) and "Tho.-tt-kong" by Hollo people in Taiwan. That the Land God is referred to as "kong" might mean therefore that his image is always depicted as an old man. Many Chinese male deities are often referred to by this title.

There is no consensus among foreign scholars for the translation of the term Tho.-ti-kong (Tudi Gong). It is translated as "the earth god" (e.g. Ahern 1973:6; Fried 1974:131; Maspero 1981:3; Suenari 1985:36), "the Earth God" (e.g. Diamond 1969:99; Brim 1974:98; Wei & Coutanceau 1976:28; Werner 1977:413f), "the Earth Gods" (e.g. Berkovits and others 1969:77), "the local earth gods" (e.g. Baity 1975:58), "the local god" (e.g. Smith (1899) 1969:138; Bredon & Mitrophanom 1927:456), "the Place Gods" (e.g. Sangren 1987:61). "the God of the locality" (e.g. Burkhardt 1958b:151), "the Locality God" (e.g. Wolf 1974:134; Feuchtwang 1992:47) "the gods of the Locality" (e.g. Maspero 1981:110), "the Tutelary Deity" (e.g. Baity 1975:273), "land gods" (e.g. Hsiao Kung-chuan 1960:275f). Moreover, Ling Shun-sheng translates it as "the local deities" (1967:133), "the god of earth" (1967:133) and "local divinities" (1967:136) to indicate the same deity in an article. Chamberlayne translates it as "the earth-god" (1966:167), the local gods (1966:166), "the local earth gods" (1966:164) and "the god of the soil (1966:167) to indicate the same deity in a article also. Some scholars even reserve the Hollo term "Tho.-ti-kong" to describe the god (e.g. Ahern 1973:7; Wang Shih-ch'ing 1974:81; Harrell 1981:131). These English translations are all valid, and indeed, they reflect different understandings of this deity.

In Taiwan, "Tho.-ti-kong" is sometimes thought of as a single being for all localities, and sometimes as a class of beings each of which rules over a particular piece of land. However, the most important function of the God is to be in charge of a piece of land or sometimes related to the land as a whole. Therefore, I shall translated the term "Tho.-ti-kong" as "the Land God" and it will be capitalised hereinafter.(note.7)

The Land God can be worshipped with a stone or tree representing him and without any image or deity statue. However, if being worshipped with an image, he is usually depicted in pictures and in statues as a mild-faced, kind elder with a long white beard (e.g. Wei & Coutanceau 1976:28f; Proksch 1984:39; Sangren 1987:124),(note.8) wearing a round cap and the costume of local elder (Weller 1987:39).(note.9) Moreover, He is sometimes portrayed as holding a long walking stick in the right hand and nothing in his left hand, some with a long walking stick in the right hand and a golden ingot (guan-po) in left hand, some with a jade sceptre (Ju-i) in the right hand and a golden ingot in his left hand.(note.10)

I asked some respondents if there is any preference among these diverse images. They told me that it depends on the area the believers inhabit and the cult to which they adhere. For example, if the God is worshipped as the Earth Governor (Houtu; see figure 112), a statue with a long walking stick is preferred as they believe that without a stick to help him walking, the old God would be reluctant to patrol. But if the Land God is identified with a guardian of business or a god of wealth, a statue with a golden ingot and a jade sceptre is favoured because both objects in Chinese culture symbolise wealth (Schipper 1977:660).

Schipper also identifies the round cap that the God wears as "Yuanwai Mao" of wealthy country elders with no official rank but great influence.(note.11) The portrayal is typical to the traditional local leaders whose virtue and experience have earned them the respect of all (1977:660-64). We might say that because respect for the aged is an important value in Chinese social ideology, in order to pay respect to the Land God much beloved by adherents, they moulded him as a kind, old local elder with a round cap.

However, there are some divergences. For example, some statues of the Land God wear the official hat and official robe. I was told in some field sites that as long as an official who was born in this locality governed the Land God, the statue of the Land God of the locality is permitted to wear official clothes.

The God also appears riding on the back of a tiger (cf. Wei & Coutanceau 1976:28f). I was told that only the Land God who governs the mountain areas is depicted as tiger-riding. In addition, at the ritual of the universal salvation (pudu), the God is constructed with bamboo and paper as brightly coloured, human-sized images with fearsome faces standing directly in front of the temple that hosts the ritual (Weller 1987:18).

Once the specific function of the Land God is decided, people go to a deity statue sculpture workshop. They explain to the sculptor what image they prefer. The sculptor, then, mold a statue according to a image book. The image book consists of the statue images of most popular deities.

III. Distinctive Traits of the God:

There are some traits that distinguish the Land God from other Chinese deities. The most important of these is that he is territorially bound.

1, Territorially Bound:

There are some Chinese sayings such as "the God at the East end of the village is helpless at the West" (Burkhardt 1958a:155) or "if the God of the Soil of the east mountain goes to the west mountain, he will not be efficacious", so that "the T'u-ti at the east end is powerless at the west end" (Chamberlayne 1966:171). Nonetheless, the saying that "The Land God is worshipped at both sides of the field (Chhan-thau Chhan-bue Tho.-ti-kong)", on the one hand, portrays the popularity of the God, but on the other hand, it illustrates the fact that the God of one part of a locality has no control over the rest of that locality.(note.12) Actually, the Land God is conceived of as in charge of a specific geographically defined jurisdiction, within which his duties are usually compared by informants to those of a "local policeman" or "local junior official" (cf. Jordan 1994:153).(note.13)

Because of the territorial boundedness of the God, usually he is worshipped only by those people belonging to his district and not by outsiders. Whoever moves to a new district must accept the duties of the cult there, and whoever leaves a district is likewise relieved of any and all cult responsibilities.

2, Office instead of Person:

It is of interest that the term "Land God" or "Fude Zhengshen" is a title of office and not the honourific title of a single specific person. Usually, even though worshippers do not care much about the distinction, for the ritual specialists and people who take more than a casual interest in temple affairs, the divine titles of deities can be commonly divided into two types, personal titles and titles of office. The divine title such as "Fuyou Dijun" ("the Trusted and Helpful Imperial Lord") for the god Lyu Dongbin, "Kaizhang Shengwang" ("First Divine Patriarch of Zhangzhou Prefecture") for the god Chen Yuanguang, "Zhongtan Yuanshuai" ("Guardian of the Central Altar") for the deity Li Nozha, are all titles for specific persons. They are usually thought of as particular deified persons with saintly qualities, the emphasis being on the deity's moral character and good works (cf. Wolf 1974:140f).

On the other hand, there are titles of office, the most notable of which are "Tian'gong", "Chenghuang" and "Fude Zhengshen". These titles are explicitly compared with the imperial bureaucracy and often treated as administrative positions that can be occupied by different people. Any person may be elected to an office after his death. There are many legends telling of changes made in who should be deified as the Land God, or the City God. The previous one was either promoted or demoted and a new person took over (cf. Werner 1977:528; Cohen 1987:291). Partly due to this specific trait, there are so many different legends delineating the origins of the Land God (Baity 1975:245). I shall narrate these legends in the following sections of this chapter and in the next chapters.

3, Usually Worshipped at Home:

In Taiwan, people usually worship the Land God, among other gods, in their family altar everyday instead of going to temple. On the first and fifteenth days of every lunar month (that is, at the new moon and the full moon) (Sangren 1987:62; Weller 1987:30), he is especially venerated with incense and sometimes several kinds of sacrifices. However, businesses usually stay open on the first and fifteenth to take advantage of the twice-a- month activity, so businessmen such as stall-holders, traders, shop-keepers etc. because they worship the Land God as a wealth god, conduct these rituals instead on the second and sixteenth day of the each lunar month and also have feasts given by employers for their workers (Weller 1987:55).

Almost every locality has its own Land God temple. However, due to the distance or other factors, many people only go to the God's temple twice-monthly or for his birthday festival annually, and worship the God at the family altar everyday (cf. Harrell 1981:133; Feuchtwang 1992:40).

Every traditional Taiwanese family has an altar to carry out some important aspects of religious activities such as the worship of the Land God. The altar stands in the main hall or living room of the family, opposite the principal door. The family altar is usually called the "red table" (cf. Jordan 1985:93).(note.14)

The worship of the Land God at home is usually carried out by the seniors in the family. Since the seniors are prominent in the lives of young children, the example and instruction they provide are major influences on the children's later religious attitudes. The seniors tell religious stories, show children how to practise rituals. Secular education in modern schools often derides popular religion as "superstition," but many of the basic religious conceptions of the young are shaped by the activities of the family (cf. Cohen 1987:293).

4, Unique Location of His Temple:

The location of a temple of the Land God is very important for local people. Usually, it is situated on the edge of the locality (Jordan 1994:153) and should face the upper reach of the biggest stream in order to "guard (the locality) at the end of the stream" ("pe chui-buei") while other deities do not have such a function. Sometimes a dispute might arise over the locality or direction of the Land God temple should face. If this is the case, the God is supposed to decide the site and orientation of its own temple (Wang Shih-ch'ing 1974:83).

IV. Main Functions of the God:

The Land God is multi-functioned in Chinese popular religion. However, the main task of the Land God is to look after the piece of land he governs. He is indispensable to everything concerning the land. For example, the belief is that it might be dangerous to break the earth, since it contains "energies" which are hard to deal with (Cohen 1987:290). Therefore, when the first breaking of earth on a new site takes place for construction or destruction of a house, a temple, a grave, a bridge, or the like, an important person is to be invited to host the ceremony of "Ground-breaking" ("Pho-tho").(note.15) This is marked by the presentation of offerings on the ground to the Land God who governs this piece of land. Only after the host has asked the permission of the God, the piece of land can be broken (Day 1974:67; Wolf 1974:134; Feuchtwang 1992:94).

He is of considerable importance in farming villages, since he is in charge of the land and prosperity; the quality of the crops depends on him.(note.16) No Chinese peasant is supposed to plough his lands until the Land God is worshipped. In traditional China, farmers place small piles of seed in the places where they hope that later great heaps of grain will stand. Various types of grain and cereals are deposited as the centre of successive circles to grant a plenteous harvest in the present year. In Taiwan, the Land God is also the patron deity of farmers. A legend states that the Land God was the agricultural official under Emperor Yao. People worship him because he first taught agricultural skills. Also, a legend describes that the Land God was Mr. Go., a retired official who taught agricultural skills to farmers. Therefore farmers asked the City God to apotheosise him "Hok-tek Cheng-sin". However, the custom that placing small piles of seed by farmers is different from China. In Taiwan, farmers usually place small piles of rice seed in front of or in the hand of Emperor Shennong, a legendary hero who is said to be the inventor of the plough and the first Chinese agriculturist (cf. Werner 1977:415).(note.17)

In addition to asking the God for a good harvest, farmers may ask him to do various things. In Nantou County, pioneering farmers of the area built temples of the Land God for warding off hostile aborigines (Liu Zhiwan 1961:117). The banana farmers built temples for the God to get rid of wild swine (Liu Zhiwan 1961:117). After they settled down in this area, they started to ask the God for improving health and curing diseases (Liu Zhiwan 1961:118).

2, In Charge of Wandering Souls:

Harrell (1974:196) describes that there is a small shrine in a village in the southern Taipei basin that houses bones dug up when a road into the area was being constructed. After it was built, a temple of the Land God was also built a short distance down the road. He remarks that it is so because visitors to the area would see god (i.e. the Land God) before they saw the wandering souls which are supposed housed in the small shrine. He adds that similar constructions can be found by roadsides and in cemeteries throughout Taiwan. Correspondingly, Ahern (1981:405) also records that there is a slaughter house in a village, where buffalo and horses are frequently slaughtered. People in the community were so fearful of the dangerous souls of the slaughtered animals - it was said that one could hear their screams at night - that the owner of the factory built a special temple of the Land God on the premises to control them.

These two field workers, however, offer no explanation for the choice of the Land God, as opposed to some other deity, in these cases. In fact, according to Chinese popular religion, one of the main tasks of the Land God is to be in charge of souls. Chamberlayne (1966:177) records that when the first signs of approaching death appear, the ceremony of "summoning back the soul" of the dying one takes place. Usually the family and friends will go to the shrine of the Land God of the locality, where they light incense-sticks and candles before the God whilst they call out, "Come back, So and So". Then other members of the party will reply, "He has returned". This may occur a large number of times. The Land God is here invoked to help in calling back the soul of the dying person.

When the death has taken place, then the Land God has to be informed. As soon as night sets in, the members of the family light up lanterns, and, weeping, proceed to inform the God. On arrival, they inform him that a member of the family has departed this life. They beg the God to show kindness towards him, stating that during his earthly life he was weak and infirm and toiled hard along the pathway of life. After a display of firecrackers and the offering of incense, everyone returns home. On the second day, the family return - dressed as before in white, with sackcloth bands around their hair - to receive back the soul, which they believe has been hospitably cared for in the temple of the Land God (cf. Chamberlayne 1966:177).

In Taiwan, the souls of the deceased are believed to be wandering about in the underworld. The Land God, then, comes to lead the souls there (Sangren 1987:138). When they wash their hands with the water offered by the God, they will notice their hands are beginning to rot and realise that they are dead (Feuchtwang 1974b:120).

From the role that the Land God plays in the following two rituals recorded by Ahern (1973:221-5) in a small village in northern Taiwan we can also understand the Land God is in charge of souls. The first one is his performance in an episode of a rite known as "the Rite of Merit" (Cho-kong-tek). Most people in the village studied by Ahern insisted that although their ancestors might commit some wrong or other, none of them would suffer miserable reincarnation since "the Rite of Merit" performed on the eve of the funeral would cancel out all misdemeanors.(note.18) The performance requires the services of a ritual specialist and several assistants. It was said that because the road to the underworld is beset by dangerous monsters and unknown obstacles, the deceased might succumb to some fatal disaster long before arriving unless he or she receives the help of the rite.

When all was arranged, a musician played a jaunty tune on a stringed instrument while an assistant hobbled in, dressed like an old man. With his white beard, staff, and bent frame, he was immediately recognised by everyone as the Land God. At first, the God simply wandered around the audience, making jokes and delighting the children, but eventually, the priest, who acted as the descendants' emissary, told him that someone needs help crossing the bridge into the underworld; at this the cloth stretched between the two tables became the centre of attention as a representation of the bridge. The Land God began to circle the bridge, followed by a line of the deceased's direct descendants. As they circle, the Land God talked about how difficult it was to cross the bridge without the help of a god because of the terrible monsters and demons waiting below to snatch up anyone who took a wrong step (Ahern 1973:223).

The descendants, knowing that the God must be paid for such an invaluable service, dropped coins into a bowl under the table every time they completed a circle. The Land God led them on and on, until the amount of money collected satisfied him. He often urged them to make more donations by exclaiming that the prices of food and medicine had gone up recently, and that a person needed more money to live on today.

Occasionally, the priest interrupted to plead that there was enough money in the pot and to ask that the Land God consent to lead the deceased across. Finally, the God agreed, collected his money, and hobbled off stage. Then after the descendants slowly walk the length of the cloth bridge and ensured the dead had been safely guided across the dangerous outskirts of the underworld and had been given ample funds to provide himself with food and protection while he was there, the performance was completed.

The second ritual referred to as "looking around the underworld" (Kuan-lt-im) is also performed with the help of an appropriate ritual specialist (Ahern 1973:228-231). Through the ritual, people were able to descend into the underworld in hopes of catching a glimpse of a deceased relative or of finding an explanation of misfortune in the underworld. When the specialist who possessed the necessary knowledge of incantation came to the village, he put a client in trance and begin to shake. Finally, he said quietly, in a low voice, "There's no road." When the client repeated that he could not find the road, the specialist decided that the problem must be the Land God who led the way wanting money. Accordingly, he began to burn paper money for the Land God on the floor in front of the entranced client. Only when satisfied amount of money offered, would the God lead the way.

Thus, we can now understand the choice of a Land God temple in the ethnographic cases reported by Harrell and Ahern, and cited above. The Land God is able to keep dangerous souls at distance from the community or field where people inhabit (Berkovits and others 1969:76; Wolf 1974:134) and thus serves as the boundary marker between mankind and the ghosts (e.g. see figures 110 & 111).

3, Symbol of Community:

One important function of the Land God in Taiwan is that he or his temple is a symbol of community. Only after a temple to him is installed is a sense of community established. The field reports written by many scholars appear to bear this out. Ahern (1973:27f), in her field site, was often told by a local leader that the Land God Temple of the settlement is "for everyone who lives here. We all live in the same place and worship at the same earth-god temple."(note.19) Harrell (1981:131) observes that all the villagers of a settlement, and no outsiders, participate in its yearly festival at a temple of the Land God. The organisation of religious rituals thus supports geography and formal administration in defining the settlement as a discrete community, separate from its neighbouring communities.

If a household moves to the territory, it then participates in the festival of the Land God in its new neighbourhood rather than that in its old one (Sangren 1987:93). The festival of the Mazu Goddess Temple of Songshan, the biggest festival of the area, each of the 13 administrative units which are territorially defined for the big festival is based on its own Land God temple. When an administrative unit is split up generally a new temple is built for the new unit (cf. Baity 1975:273).

From my field interview, I was told that originally the dwellers of Khe-te hamlet had to go to worship the Land God at another village where they are from. About 20 years ago, when the dwellers of the hamlet became numerous, they could not tolerate not having their own Land God temple to guard their own hamlet, so they worked to built the temple.(note.20) Similarly, Suenari (1985:37f) reports that a shrine of the Land God, one of the oldest in the area where he did research, had many worshippers from a newly established market street in spite of its location in the paddy field. But the number of worshippers decreased to a few after a new shrine of the Land God was built on the market street since the residents of the street came to worship their own new shrine on the street.

The field work of Wang Shih-ch'ing (1974:80-82) in the Shulin area of Taipei County can also indicate that Taiwanese regard the Land God temple as a symbol of a community. From the time of its earliest settlement, the history of the Shulin area has been one of amalgamation, of people of diverse origins uniting to create organisations that overcome their differences. The first example is the establishment of the Land God Temple in Tandi District. Tandi was a district of ethnic strife between residents with diverse origins. However, after many difficulties, the residents there started considering themselves a community and decided to establish a temple for the Land God in 1765. They contributed money to buy a piece of paddy land that was given over to the support of the temple and annual worship of the Land God to demonstrate that they were all members of a community.

A second example is the settlement of Lan lineage. Despite the fact that Lan lineage resided in Sanjiaopu District, they did not participate in the festival of the Land God there. Instead, because they considered themselves as an independent social unit from the District, they set up their own Land God Temple.

A third example about the establishment of the Land God Temple in Pengcuo District is noteworthy. Despite its early settlement and its importance as the site of a rent-collection station, Pengcuo was the last district to establish a Land God Temple among its surroundings. Of the eight districts into which the Shulin area was partitioned during the Qing Dynasty, Pengcuo District had the deepest ethnic divisions. Its settlers included Hakka people from Guangdong Province as well as Hollo people from both Zhangzhou Prefecture and Quanzhou Prefecture. Hollo people from Zhangzhou Prefecture and Quanzhou Prefecture of this district fought each other many times; having gained an advantage, they declared a truce in 1861, at which time they blamed their troubles on their Hakka neighbours and drove them out of the area. To affirm the truce, and perhaps also to celebrate their victory over the Hakka, they jointly built a temple of the Land God and purchased a piece of paddy land, donating its earnings to the temple as an endowment (Wang Shih- ch'ing 1974:81).

In fact, the worship of a common god can provide an unusual, if not unique, possibility for the residents to interact in occasions such as reciprocal exchanges of helping hands and gifts in rituals of life crisis, owning the common property and sharing the decision making process. It acts as a cohesive force to transcend the threat of the narrowly compartmentalised interests of the family as well as the clan, immigrant groups, or ethnic loyalties among the same community (cf. Ahern 1973:71; Wang Shih- ch'ing 1974:80-82; Baity 1975:238; Suenari 1985:29; Overmyer 1987:281) to the state of "following the custom of the neighbourhood".(note.21)

It is remarkable that since the Land God is not an ancestor who is always venerated by a family or a lineage, nor is he a particular god such as the Three Mountain Kings (Sam-san Kok-ong or Sanshan Guowang) who was usually worshipped by an ethnic people, through creating and maintaining of the temple of the Land God, all residents of the same settlement expect to cooperate.(note.22) This might be one of the reasons that Taiwanese people like to choose the Land God to be their community god. (note.23)

4, Patron Deity of Wealth:

In some areas of China, the Land God is worshipped with two figures. On the left hand side, there is the figure of a boy - called Tongnan (the Boy) or Jintong (the Golden Boy). On the right hand side, there is the figure of a girl - called Tongnyu (the Girl) or Yu'nyu (the Jade Girl). These two children are believed to be very auspicious in bringing wealth and precious gifts, especially fertility, to the village (Chamberlayne 1966:173). Sometimes, the wife of the Land God is also associated with a patron deity of wealth (Day 1974:65).

In Taiwan, the Land God is held to be a god of wealth. There is a widespread legend narrating that the God was originally a "Shoucainu", a "slave who zealously guarded the money of his wealthy master" (Schipper 1977:661). Another legend states that the name of the Land God was Tongxiao who lived on the earth one hundred years ago. During his mortal life, he gave his wealth to the poor and engaged in many charitable works, but his property never decreased. Therefore it was said that his possessions were bequeathed to him from the heavens, and were an inexhaustible supply (Wei & Coutanceau 1976:31f), as would be suitable for a god of wealth.

In fact, it is unlikely that a shop is without the statue of the deity. Many people told Schipper that "there would be nobody to guard the money," when he asked friends in Tainan why a street without the Land God might be subject to ridicule (1977:772).(note.24)

5, Recorder and Reporter:

The God is also believed to keep records of all that goes on of the locality and report the same regularly to the City God, his superior. While customs vary, usually the announcement of births and deaths and other important events in the village is made at the temple of the Land God (Hodous 1929:62). Wolf (1974:134) also notes that most people in the Sanxia area reported vital events to the God (Burkhardt 1958a:154f; 1958b:151; Maspero 1981:111).

V. Guardian of Community:

From the above descriptions, especially of the five major functions of the Land God, it is not surprising that Taiwanese regard him as the guardian of community. Actually, each community considered independent from others has its own altar of the Land God. Schipper (1977:770) notes that the Land God played an important role as the first cult established by new settlers' communities to protect them against demons and aborigines alike when the island was being colonised. There is a widespread legend that in ancient times a courageous county official drove out ghosts from one locality after another with such vigor that they dared not return, he was deified as the Land God (Schipper 1977:660f) to guard the community. A legend collected by Baity (1975:245) has a similar notion. It says that the head monk of Zhonghe Temple of Taipei was a venerable old man of 94 at the time that his study was undertaken. He had a wife a few years his junior, as well as a son. Some of his parishioners were heard to say that after he died, he might hopefully become the Land God of his parish, meaning that his spirit might guard the area from evil.

During my field work, I heard an interesting story. It is that about five years ago, a young man came from neighbouring county to the site of the stone Land God of San-tiau Hill (#S23) to build a sheet-metal shelter for the God. The act surprised the neighbours of the God. He explained that: "My father came to tell me in a dream that he was a good man when he lived in the world. When he died, he was deified and was appointed to become the Land God of this area to guard it". "But unfortunately," he continued: "he told me that because the temple has no big tree to shade, he was very hot here. Therefore he asked me to build the shelter here for shade (see figure 24)." (note.25)

In Xinzhu City, I found a deity statue of the Land God whose face looks different from Han Chinese people. I was told by a deity statue sculptor that it is "the aboriginal Land God" ("Huan-a Tho.-ti"). He told me that before the Chinese came, the area was inhabited by an aboriginal tribe. In memory of the aboriginal landowners of the area, Chinese worship them as the Land God of this area and hope that "the aboriginal Land God" will guard the community.

From the role that the Land God plays in the rite "Nocturnal Detecting" and the procession the goddess Mazu in a town we can also observe that the Land God is considered as the guardian of the community.

The rite "Nocturnal Detecting" ("Am-hong") is a religious procession for the purpose of expelling malign influences from an area. The most well-known of these rites is held in a historical town in central Taiwan. I summarise a rite described by DeGlopper (1974:47f) below:

After dark a procession of perhaps fifteen deities in sedan chairs passes along every street and alley in the town all night in near silence and near total darkness. Householders, usually in their night clothes, stand in their doorways with incense sticks and worship as the deities pass. The participants are mostly young men in their regular clothes and are not expected to go into trance.(note.26) There is an intense but somewhat hurried and furtive atmosphere about the whole event. The rite is rather spooky. There are no bands, no floats, no costumed troupes of performers one sees in processions in Taiwan. Most importantly, the rite is led by the Land God together with the City God.

On the day of a festival of the goddess Mazu of a town in north Taiwan where Sangren (1987:99) conducted his field research, the statues of the goddess accompanied by many gods, are carried in procession through the temple's domain. Before the procession, which begins about nine o'clock in the morning, many households not scheduled to sacrifice pigs bring less elaborate offerings to the tables in front of their homes. At the head of the procession is the Land God, followed by the god Kaizhang Shengwang (First Divine Patriarch of Zhangzhou Prefecture), and then the temple's own statue of the goddess, and finally, three visiting goddess statues.

Some scholars even observe that in traditional Chinese world, any offence against the moral law of a community is considered an offence against the Land God who guards it (Bredon & Mitrophanom 1927:455f; Burkhardt 1958a:154f).

VI. The Earth Governor and the Land God:

Probably because Chinese believe that souls dwell in somewhere under the land, in Taiwan and generally in southeastern China, the grave site is guarded by the Earth Governor ("Hio- tho." or "Houtu") who is also regarded as a kind of Land God. When represented by a stone tablet by the side of the grave, the name is read as Houtu, and when represented by an image, it is depicted exactly the same as the Land God (cf. Hodous 1929:59; Diamond 1969:99; Schipper 1977:770; Paper 1990:31) and of course male.(note.27) When people visit the graves, they also worship the Earth Governor. One day, Ahern (1973:166) was told by a family that it could not find the site of one of its ancestors' grave. After looking in vain for hours, the family burned prodigious amounts of spirit money for the Land God, asking him to help in the search. This verified that the Land God is occasionally identified with the Earth Governor.

However, the myth of the Earth Governor is slightly different from the Land God that guards hamlet, street, or ward territory (Feuchtwang 1974b:121). For instance, a legend says that a man, only three days after marrying, was called to do military service and was killed on duty at the Great Wall of China. His soul visited his wife in a dream, begging her to come and find his bones to bury them properly. But when she came to the Great Wall, there were so many bones that she did not know how to identify her husband's. An old man with a white beard, the Land God, advised her that if she cut her finger and let blood drop from it the bones at which it would stop dripping would be those of her husband.(note.28) In this way she found and collected her husband's bones together in her skirts and carried them home weeping. She wept so profusely on to the bones that they began to come to life again. But the Land God considered it unjust that her husband should be singled out from the other soldiers to be brought back to life. When the wife had to go and find food to eat he offered to guard the reviving bones for her. On her return she found that they had lost their life again. She was very angry, and that is why there is a stone represented the Land God beside every grave; "to keep the dead dead" (Feuchtwang 1992:95).

A similar legend tells the story of a heroine Meng Jiangnyu, who, having lost her father, longed in vain for a husband. As the First Emperor of Qin Dynasty was then building the Great Wall, he called up all young men. Wan Xiliang did not want to go and hid away from his home. On the fifth day of the fifth month (Dragon Boat Festival) he was in the garden of Meng Jiangnyu's house. When she came out of the house, the lad hid in a tree above a pond. Meng Jiangnyu proceeded to bathe in the pond, whereupon she saw the image of the boy reflected in the water. She told him that, having seen her nude, he had to marry her. A wedding feast was held, but the old man who ran the general store was not invited. He reported Wan Xiliang to the authorities. The young man died while doing forced labour at the Great Wall, and his corpse was incorporated into the structure. Meng Jiangnyu went to look for her husband. Her tears made the wall collapse and many skeletons were uncovered. An old man told her that the bones that would absorb her blood were those of her husband. She thus found the skeleton and as her tears fell upon them flesh grew anew on the bones. The old man told her that if she put the body in a bag, it would be easier to carry. She did so and it became a skeleton once again. Out of spite, Meng Jiangnyu transformed the old man into the guardian of her husband's grave (Schipper 1977:661f), the Earth Governor to keep the body of Wan Xiliang.(note.29)

VII. Conclusion:

We have found that the belief of divine stones and trees recorded in textual data as the Land God, which has a very ancient basis as we saw in the last chapter, is also well preserved in modern Chinese society. The present chapter helps us understand the God better. We have identified several different traits and functions of the Land God. These traits communicate themselves in some degree to others (e.g. there is a common feature that he is depicted as a local elder devoted to his community) and are linked in a semantic chain: a local elder who is loyal to his locality transferred to a guardian of family, of community, of agriculture, of mountain, of grave, of business place, and thus wealth.(note.30) This fact clarifies why many Chinese elders devoted to their communities are thought as being deified as the Land God and that the term "the Land God" is a title of office and not the honourific title of a single specific person; why he is venerated at the family altar everyday; that he is worshipped only by those people belonging to the specific locality and not by outsiders; that he is territorially bound; that his temple is situated on the edge of the locality and should face the upper reach of the stream to guard the locality. (note.31)

However, no matter how the roles of the Land God are transferred and how these roles are semantically chained, he is, in Chinese popular religion, rather a "keeper" than a "challenger" of society. We see that being a locality god, he keeps hostile aborigines, wild swine, dangerous souls and others at distance from his locality. Being a community symbol, he transcends residents with diverse origins, making them homogeneous and keeping the heterogeneous people outside. In structuralist parlance, he is to "keep outsiders outside". Being a wealth god, he is the keeper of the shop's prosperity. Being a grave god, he is the boundary marker between mankind and the ghosts, namely, to "keep the dead dead".

In addition, I believe the fact that the common feature that the God is always depicted as an local elder who is loyal to the piece of land he governs is hardly accidental or insignificant. I attribute this to the result of the standardisation of the Land God and will examine my hypothesis in the following chapters.

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(note.1)

Yang (1961:98) holds that the cult was particularly well developed in south China.

(note.2)

I think the term "spirits of the Earth" refers to "Tudi Gong".

(note.3)

Chinese cosmology and the structure of imperial bureaucracy often correspond. Wolf (1974:131-82) argues that just as lower-level bureaucrats govern small administrative districts and higher-level officials control larger ones, so lesser gods reign over small local systems while more exalted gods rule the larger religion (see also Sangren 1983:5).

(note.4)

Not only the ground underneath the house, but the home itself, the walls and kitchen have their respective Land God. There are the protective Lanqian Tudi of the domestic stable; the Niu Tudi and Zhu Tudi protectors of the cows and pigs; the Gou Tudi of the drain-ditch; the Men Tudi and Buji Tudi of the cotton and the looms, respectively; as well as those very common Qiao Shen Tudi of the bridges and Shan Shen Tudi or mountain spirits beneath the graves. Moreover, for the convenience of the worshippers, entitled "Zhong Tu" or the "United Land Gods" a means by which all piece of land governed by the Land God may be appeased at the same time (Day 1974:67).

(note.5)

I follow Karlgren's interpretation (1930:11) and translate the Mandarin term "Houtu" as "the Earth Governor".

(note.6)

Schipper (1977:663) points out that the term "fute" or "good merit" appears to be of Buddhist origin, in connection with a kind of hostel operated by monks in Central Asia.

(note.7)

The term "Tudi Gong" is most frequently translated as "the Earth God". However, the shortcoming of the translation is that it might lead people to mistake "Tudi Gong" for the counterpart of "Dimu", "the Earth Mother" (see also Chapter Six).

(note.8)

Ahern (1973:67) reports that a couple who often hiked in the mountains near a small town in Taipei County claimed that an old man with a long, white beard had emerged out of a torrential rainstorm and had led them to safety in the temple of the Land God, thereafter immediately disappearing. They identified the mysterious man as the manifestation of the Land God.

(note.9)

Burkhardt (1958c:15), notes that in Hong Kong the Land God wears a red waistcoat and blue official robes.

(note.10)

Schipper (1977:660) also says that the image of the God in a historical Taiwan city is always seated, since in the urban area he does not need to walk a lot.

(note.11)

Schipper (1977:660) says that the Land God wears a "dragon robe". However, I have not found any depiction like this, it seems unlikely, which is not surprising because only an emperor could wear this.

(note.12)

Interestingly, since modernization, the Land God seems to be less territorially bound. In Taipei though he is still district guardian to an extent, today one finds its statues carried in pilgrimage all over the island when the people associated with such a Land God temple decide to organise a pilgrimage (Jordan 1994:153).

(note.13)

Therefore, such a territorially bound deity is regarded unsuitable for adopting children since he is powerless outside of the small territory. We shall discuss the topic in Chapter Six.

(note.14)

The red table is divided into two zones. One of these, the area at the left, where the ancestral tablets are placed, is devoted to ancestral worship. All the rest of the altar is devoted to the worship of gods. Worship is private in these cases. Normally only family members worship at the altar and are unable to name the deities whose pictures are placed over the altar table. They identify them simply as deities (Shenming) (cf. Diamond 1969:100).

In front of it is a lower table, square on top, and cubical in general appearance. This is called a "table of the eight immortals". It can be used to hold sacrificial food during sacrifices. The red table, on the other hand, is a far more sacred object, on which one does not carry out activities other than worship and does not normally store goods, and which one does not readily move about the room. When sacrifices take place outdoors for some reason, neighbors will sometimes carry their eight immortals tables outside to make temporary altars there (cf. Jordan 1985:93).

(note.15)

In some cases, several important people will host the ceremony together. Above all, these people should be very auspicious, to bring fortune for the ceremony.

(note.16)

Therefore, he is less important in fishing villages. Diamond (1969:99) reports that there is no specific shrine for him such as are found in agricultural communities.

(note.17)

The worship of Emperor Shennong is widespread in Taiwan. For instance, in Yilan County, there are six temples dedicated to him, one was initiated by government in 1812 and the others sponsored by common people. We shall discuss the topic in Chapter Eight.

(note.18)

The ritual is intended specifically to benefit the person who has just died, though ancestors who died earlier and have not yet received a rite like this may also benefit (Ahern 1973:222).

(note.19)

The term "earth-god" is Ahern's translation of "Tho.-ti-kong" which I translate as "the Land God".

(note.20)

The temple is located beside the Stone God Khe-te Hamlet (#S34; see figure 36).

(note.21)

This is a Taiwanese saying (cf. Baity 1975:275f).

(note.22)

The cooperation may sometimes give way to conflict. Please see Ahern (1973:71) for the discussion of the topic.

(note.23)

In Taiwan, many gods are associated with particular ethnic groups and are believed to act as patrons of their constituencies in the celestial bureaucracy. "Kai-chiang seng-ong" is a patron of Taiwan's Zhangzhou people. Gods with clear ethnic connections were usually found in communities dominated by a single ethnic faction but not now (cf. Wang Shih-ch'ing 1974:89; Sangren 1987:73).

(note.24)

The god is sometimes thought as a god connected with gambling. On inquiring why a statue of the Land God in Weihaiwei was accompanied by two female images, R.F. Johnston (1910: 374; qtd. in Wolf 1974:145) was informed that "the lady on his left (the place of honour) was his wife and the lady on his right his concubine." Two explanations were offered as to why the Land God of this particular place had been allowed to increase his household in this manner: one was that he had won the lady by gambling for her, the other was that the Land God of this place had appeared to one of the villagers in a dream and begged him to provide him with a concubine as he had grown tired of his wife.

The Land God of a corner in Peking City was reported that at a gambling match with the Land God of another Ward, he staked and lost his wife. It is also reported in Hong Kong that fortuitous contact with a Bo Gong (the name of the Land God of in Hakka) might lead to remarkable blessings. One villager tells the story of a man who saw a Bo Gong and then won first prize at the horse races (Berkovits and others 1969:76). See also Chapter Seven of this thesis.

(note.25)

Normally, when a new temple is built, a tree is planted beside it. I shall study the custom in Chapter Eight.

(note.26)

DeGlopper (1974:47) observed that those who showed signs of possession were immediately replaced and left behind by the rest of their group.

(note.27)

Houtu originally always meant a male god (Fitzgerald 1961:36). The change of sex from a male to a female deity, Houtu Nainai, is thought to have been made in the early part of the Ming Dynasty. It is quite natural that Land, representing Yin (negative energy) and the productiveness of nature impregnated by the life-giving sunlight and rain from Heaven, or Yang (positive energy), should be worshipped as the Goddess-Mother. This shift took place quite late, however (Day 1974:59).

(note.28)

Another version of this story has it that the bones which would absorb her tears of mourning would be her husband's (Feuchtwang 1992:95).

(note.29)

Ahern (1973:203), when inquiring why the Taiwanese must open the graves of their ancestors six or seven years after death to "pick up the bones" (khio-gut) and arrange them in a ceramic pot, was told by one old man a similar legend that a long time ago an emperor wanted to build a great wall around his kingdom. To provide a labour force, he conscripted thousands of young men. Conditions were so terrible for the workers that many men died and were buried under or within the wall. When one young worker had not returned home for some time, his wife set out to find him. When she learned that he was dead, she cried until the entire wall fell down. Then in order to find her husband's bones, she bit off her finger tip and let the blood flow onto the ground. Whenever the blood hit one of her husband's bones, that bone came up and joined together with the others until the skeleton was complete. People told her to carry the skeleton in her arms so that her tears would fall on it, making veins of blood on the bones, and resulting perhaps in a return to life. Just then, the wife of the Land God offered different advice. She said it would be better if the woman were to carry the skeleton on her back. But as soon as the wife did this, for she readily accepted the advice of a goddess, the skeleton fell apart. The wife of the Land God gave this bad advice because she was feeling evil-hearted and thought that there were enough people in the world already. After the bones fell apart, the woman put them in a pot and buried them, marking the place with a stone. Thereafter, people continued doing this. Today, our picking up of the bones is equivalent to the wife's using her bleeding finger to find her husband's bones. We pick up the bones in order to let the dead live again.

(note.30)

The term and notion "semantic chain" is created by Duara 1988:778- 795) to explain the historical development of the myths and symbols of Guandi (Guan'gong). However, when I use the term in this thesis, I do not necessarily mean the traits and functions of the Land God have developed historically, since they are not derived from a definable original text (cf. Katz 1990:217).

(note.31)

Moreover, in the next chapter we will find that different versions of legends portraying the God also have common features and these versions can be linked by a semantic chain.