Jerome Yuchien's Ph.D Thesis
Chapter Four: Festival Dates of the Three Deities (part III)
1, because they are newly deified:
I do not mean that all newly deified deities have no birthday celebration. However, the examples I cite below are really such cases. According to the local inhabitants of Ho-peng Ward, the Stone God (#S15; see figure 15) and the stone Granny (#S16; see figure 16) of the Ward have been adorned with red ribbons for only the last ten years or so and have been worshipped only by lottery gamblers. So, no day is fixed for the festival in honour of these two deities.
The stone and the tree venerated in front of Khe-te Land God Temple are also newly deified. I was told that the stone was found only about 10 years ago by a farmer cultivating his rice field. About five years ago, some gamblers from outside the village came to deify it as the Stone God (#S34; see figure 36) and apotheosised the temple tree of the Land God as the Tree God (#T21; see figure 87). So far, there is no festival day for these two gods.
In addition, people hold no festival for the Tree God of Kim-bin Ward (#T6; see figure 71), the Tree God of To.-sian Ward (#T15; see figure 80), and the Tree God of Sin-hong Ward (#T17; see figure 82).
2, because they have negative energy:
The name "Good Brothers" is a euphemism in Chinese popular religion for the ghosts. People usually collect the remains of unidentified and unworshipped dead found in the area and set a stone to represent them. The unidentified dead, like the living, need a place to live, food to eat, clothing to wear and money to spend. The well-being of the dead depends upon the living who worship them at some specific time such as the Ghost Month. The stone Good Brothers of Bah-tau Hamlet (#S22; see figure 23), the stone Good Brothers of E-kham-te Hamlet (#S26; see figure 28) and the Stone God of Tham-te Ward (#S57; see figure 62) are all for the worship of the "Good Brothers" and thus have no specific festival for them.
Besides, the Tree God of So.-o Urban-town (#T10; see figure 75) is located behind a martyr's shrine named "Chio-pai Kong (literally, the Stone Tablet God)", the Tree God of Chhau-lia Lane (#T25; see figure 91) is located beside a small Tai-chiong- ia (the enshrined posthumous bones, a kind of responsive deity) temple, and the Tree God of Lam-kian West Road (#T34; see figure 101) is worshipped along with some posthumous bones. Since they are so spooky, people would rather keep them at a distance, and do not like to hold birthday festival for these deities.
3, because they are associate deities of other patron deities who adopt children:
Here I must make it clear that I do not mean that all Stone and/or Tree Deities worshipped as the associate deity beside the patron deity do not have birthday festivals. I only mean that because of this reason, many Stone and/or Tree Deities do not have their own festival. For example, the fact that the Stone Grandfather of Ka-seng Ward (#S3; see figure 3) does not have a festival is probably because he is only the associate deity of the Stone Goddess of Ka-seng Ward (#S2; see figure 2), the patron deity of the Temple. People think that it is good enough to hold a festival for the patron deity and ignore the associate deity.(note.9)
4, because they are too marginal to pay attention to:
The Deities represented by stones and/or trees are usually only well-known within their own local area. However, some stone and tree deities are even so obscure that only a few adherents know their existence. Hence, it goes without saying that they do not have annual festivals. For instance, the location of the Divine Stone of Giong-tek Boulevard (#S41; see figure 43) is often covered by grass and many of the neighbours are not aware of his existence. A local inhabitant told me that most believers who initiated the cult have moved out of the area, nowadays only a few people came to worship it and certainly do not hold birthday festivals for him.
The case of the Stone God of Pak-tau District (#S47; see figure 50) is similar. He is located under a big temple named "Tin-an Kiong" dedicated to the Royal Lords (in Taiwanese, Ong- ia). Therefore, it is difficult to realise that there is a cult of the Stone God under the big temple. Due to the marginal location, he attracts only a few believers and consequently does not have an annual festival.
One more example is the situation of the Tree God of Lo-chui Village (#T24; see figure 90). His existence is known only by a few people living nearby and is sometimes worshipped by them with incense sticks. Actually these incense sticks under the tree are the only visible evidence that the Autumn Maple tree is deified. Thus, it is unlikely that people would celebrate birthday festivals for him. Besides these, there are many more deities which are too marginal to attract enough believers to hold annual festivals for them.(note.10)
In brief, these four factors - that they are too junior, too marginal, too subordinate, and too spooky to gain enough devotees - all illustrate that these natural objects are minor and marginal. (note.11)
IV. Anthropomorphism of the Land God:
Why, then, do the believers make every effort to identify these divine stones and trees with a birthday? Beside it is a suitable time to hold a annual festival, I attribute the main reason to the pressure of anthropomorphism. From ancient times, since Ancestor Worship dominated Chinese religion, many natural features (e.g. rivers, mountains, rain, wind, stars), animals (e.g. lions, centipedes, the 12 creatures of astrology), artificial objects (e.g. doors, stoves, walls, moats) have been more or less anthropomorphised in Chinese world and have been identified with former kings, the heroes of past legend or deified ancestors of the first settlers (Bonsall 1934:28; Fitzgerald 1961:37; Waley 1971:43; Wright 1977:39; Overmyer 1987:258). Since then, most deities are typically depicted in anthropomorphic form. (note.12)
For instance, "Heaven" is often anthropomorphised as the Heavenly Emperor or the Jade Emperor (Cohen 1987:290). Similarly, the Stove God is depicted in human form, an anthropomorphic image of him is printed on paper and kept above the kitchen stove. He is sometimes said to be the Jade Emperor's nephew (Sangren 1987:162). Moreover, the bed is anthropomorphised as a couple of deities pictured sitting side by side, in official costume, with their tablets of rank in their hands (Maspero 1981:118).
In order to demonstrate that these deities are deified human beings, they are even offered the necessities of mundane life (cf. Dudbridge 1990:627f). For instance, the City God, which was originally not a human deity, is worshipped in temples which include living quarters for his family as well as the hall in which they conduct their public business. Behind the main hall of the City God temple in Shanghai City is a room for the god's father and mother and an apartment occupied by his wife and four daughters (Ayscough 1924:147; qtd. in Wolf 1974:145). Similar equipment dedicated to the City God can also be found in the Yilan City.(note.13)
As far as the Land God is concerned, if being worshipped with an image, he is usually depicted in pictures and in statues as a mild-faced, kind elders with a long white beard.(note.14) In Taiwan he is often worshipped with his wife, the Land Goddess. In China, he was sometimes even venerated with a concubine (Burkhardt 1958a:155; Chamberlayne 1966:170). In such cases, the deity statue of his wife should be set on the left hand side of the God where she may have a seat of honour and the statue of his concubine was smaller and was placed on the right hand side. Fried (1974:131) even found in a small shrine of south-east China that the God was worshipped along with a son.
Moreover, there are many legends portraying the Land God anthropomorphically.(note.15) Some of them are recorded in the popular story books and some are passed on orally. In the following section I shall select some well-translated legends at random for the discussion of this topic.(note.16)
A legend widespread in Taiwan states that the Land God was originally a tax-collector by the name of Tiun hok-tek, who lived during the Zhou Dynasty. Even though in an unpopular post, he was extremely fair to the people, and both understood and sympathised with their difficulties. During his life he performed many deeds of kindness and charity. However, after his death, his post was succeeded by a man who taxed the people indiscriminately and unreasonably. Therefore, the people thought back to the administration of the good official Tiun Hok-tek, and so as to be able to perpetuate his memory forever, they built a temple and worshipped him as the god Hok-tek Cheng-sin (Wei & Coutanceau 1976:29) (For simplicity, I shall call the legend "Legend I" hereinafter).
A similar legend also sees the Land God as originally a kind tax collector of the Zhou Dynasty. Since he wanted everyone to be equally rich, he refused to take money from the poor. But his wife protested that if all people were rich, who would they hire to carry their daughter's wedding palanquin. Faced with this argument, he acquiesced. When he died his post was succeeded by an avaricious man, who squeezed every copper out of the peasants. Compared to him, he seemed like a god, so they began to worship him and a cult grew (Proksch 1984:38) (I shall call the legend "Legend II" hereinafter).
Another legend asserts that the name of the Land God is Tiun Beng-tek, who was a servant in an important official's menage of the Zhou Dynasty. His master, at the time, worked in a place far from home, and was missed very much by his youngest daughter. One day the young girl asked the servant to accompany her to visit her father. The servant carried her on his back to go to her father's faraway post. But on the way they encountered a fierce snow-storm during which the servant wrapped the little girl up warmly in the clothes off his own back; as a result, he froze to death. After his demise, the words "The God Hok-tek of Lam-Thian- mng" appeared in the sky. The master, because of his vast gratitude to the saviour of his young daughter, built a temple to him and worshipped him as a god (Wei & Coutanceau 1976:29f). The other version of this legend referred to by Schipper (1977:661) maintains that from that time on he was deified as the Land God and as the Earth Governor (I shall call the legend "Legend III" hereinafter).
A fourth legend tells that, during his mortal life, the Land God was a faithful servant. One year, when there was great havoc caused by bandits in the neighbourhood, though an old man, he carried his master on his back to safety. At that time it was winter and bitterly cold, so he took off his clothes and gave them to his master to wear. He himself froze to death and as a result, the Jade Emperor (Giok-hong-sion-te) rewarded him by appointing him the Land God (Wei & Coutanceau 1976:29) (I shall call the legend "Legend IV" hereinafter).
A fifth legend says that the Land God was an elder who kept a general store. One day he found an egg which looked like a duck egg, and took home but which, when it hatched, produced a snake. The elder kept it and reared it. Unfortunately, whenever he was absent, the snake ate the chickens and the ducks of other people. Thereupon he turned the snake loose. But it grew and attacked people and cattle. The emperor heard of it and ordered the snake to be subdued. As no one else answered the emperor's call, the elder took the order himself and killed the snake. He was canonised as the Land God (Schipper 1977:661) (I shall call the legend "Legend V" hereinafter).
A sixth legend says that he was a candy merchant who lived a long time ago. One day he bought himself a tiny snake, took it home and cared for it. But the snake grew larger day by day, and its appetite grew with it, so that the candy left over from each day's business became insufficient to rear it. In the end, the candy merchant took his by now full-grown pet and released it in the mountains. As it happened, later on there were reports of a large snake which lived in the mountains, and which often came out of hiding to harm any person unlucky enough to be in the vicinity. Upon hearing this, the emperor ordered the snake be eradicated; but no one dared risk his life to carry out this imperial decree. The candy merchant, however, thought that because he had reared the snake, he would be able to approach and kill it without coming to any harm in the process - assuming, of course, that it was his erstwhile pet. Thereupon he sought an imperial audience, and asked that, if he should succeed in killing the snake, the emperor would cede the throne to him. The emperor gave his promise, whereupon the merchant made his preparations, and went out to the mountains and killed the snake. As previously agreed upon, he then became emperor. However, this was a position to which he was totally unsuited, and eventually he asked the former emperor to reoccupy his own throne, and make him a prince instead. Therefore, the real emperor gave his authority over all matters concerning the land in his realm, and after the former candy merchant's death, he was worshipped as a god (Wei & Coutanceau 1976:31) (I shall call the legend "Legend VI" hereinafter).
