The City-God Cults of T'Ang and Sung China

8/2/2019 The City-God Cults of T'Ang and Sung China

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Harvard-Yenching Institute

The City-God Cults of T'ang and Sung ChinaAuthor(s): David JohnsonReviewed work(s):Source: Harvard Journal of Asiatic Studies, Vol. 45, No. 2 (Dec., 1985), pp. 363-457Published by: Harvard-Yenching InstituteStable URL: http://www.jstor.org/stable/2718969 .Accessed: 31/03/2012 10:15

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The City-God Cults ofT'ang and Sung ChinaDAVID JOHNSONUniversityf California,Berkeley

( ITY gods, or ch'eng-huanghen ; occupied a place ofI ..4considerable importance in the official religion of Ming andCh'ing China.' Every county and prefectural capital had its ch'enghuangmiao J, city-god temple, which was maintained in part at

Much of the research and writing of this paper was carried out while I was supportedby a grant from the Committee on Studies of Chinese Civilization of the AmericanCouncil of Learned Societies, and while I was a senior fellow of the Society of Fellowsin the Humanities, Columbia University. Without their generous assistance the workcould not have been completed. Earlier versions of the paper were presented at theHarvard University Mellon Seminar on High Culture and Popular Culture in EastAsia, and at colloquia at Princeton, the University of Pennsylvania, Harvard, andBerkeley. I am grateful to my audiences for their stimulating comments, and to myhosts for their hospitality.1 The term "ch'eng-huanghen"presents the translator with insoluble problems. "Ch'eng-huang"-"wall and moat"-was a synecdoche for "city" in T'ang and Sung times.(See Naba Toshisada gtvfljo, "Shina ni okeru toshi no shugoshin ni tsukite" _-W-te -cett;>ttr, Shinagaku jV5 7.4 (1934): 544-54.) Although theterm never lost its primary meaning, I think it is clear that in this expression it ought tobe translated as "city." "Shen"is where the real problem lies. Here we see once againthat the more important a term is to a culture, the more difficult it is to translate. Ren-dering it as "god(s)" can certainly be criticized, but so can all the other possibilities,and at least "city god" sounds natural in English. Leaving important religious termsuntranslated is common practice-one need think only for a moment or two to come upwith tao, karma, satori, and many others-and I would have used "ch'eng-huang hen"throughout if it had not resulted in so many unworkably awkward sentences. As it is,I use the Chinese term and "city god" interchangeably.

363


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364 DAVID JOHNSONstate expense. There the newly-appointed magistrate or prefect paidhis respects upon arrival, and there he carried out a regular programof sacrifices during his term in office. But unlike some other membersof the official pantheon, the city gods were also frequently theobjects of passionate popular devotion. In many cities, the annualfestival of the city god was one of the most important religiousoccasions of the year. After the fall of the Ch'ing, worship of citygods continued to play a significant role in Chinese popular religion,despite the opposition of reform-minded intellectuals and localofficials, and it flourishes to this day in Taiwan, Hong Kong, andelsewhere outside mainland China.We know much more about the minute particulars of city godworship during the Ch'ing dynasty and the Republic than in earlierperiods, and study of the rituals of the cults, such as the annualprocessions, as well as their internal organization, their relationswith the community at large, and all the rest of their living socialreality and human significance, naturally must rely heavily onmaterials from late imperial times. But in this paper I am concernedwith the early history of the cults: when and where the idea of acity god originated, and why it spread; what the leading charac-teristics of the city gods were; and what they meant to people inthe period when they were still a relatively new feature on the reli-gious landscape. Origins always have a certain fascination, but theorigins of the city-god cults are especially interesting, because theyare closely connected with important developments in the socialand economic history of T'ang-Sung China.In the following section I discuss briefly the four earliest namedcity gods I have discovered. I then move on to three other earlyexamples, selected because they represent important types ofch'eng-huangshen. The last of these is particularly interesting andwell-documented, and I discuss it at some length. After thus intro-ducing some specific city gods, I will examine the general problemof the origins and significance of city god worship.2

2 The foundation on which this paper rests is a master list of all known T'ang and Sungch'eng-huang iaosites. After extensive research, I discovered 150 such sites. They are shownon Map 2. The master list is printed as an appendix to this article; it also serves as akey to the maps. The main sources used in the research were:1) Ch'iuanT'ang wen ; (Hiraoka Takeo 5, et al., Todai no sambun akuhin,fl;c9tff& [Kyoto: Jimbun Kagaku Kenkyuijo, 1960], a complete table ofcontents of Ch'iian T'ang wen, was searched item by item, with the help of Miss


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CITY-GOD CULTS 365SEVEN EARLY CITY GODS

The oldest text in which a ch'eng-huang henis identified by nameis a fragment from Nan Yungchouchi iJ,I14YThfirst half of the sixthMargaret Chu.)2) Inscriptions. (The tsa-k'o49IJ section of Yang Tien-hsiun ffi, Shih-k'ot'i-pa so-yinrev. ed. [Shanghai: Shang-wu yin-shu kuan, 1957], was searcheditem by item from early T'ang to mid-Yuan, again with the assistance of MargaretChu.)3) Forty-two local histories written during the Sung and Yuan dynasties, listed in YvesHervouet, ed., A Sung Bibliographv(Hong Kong: The Chinese University Press,1978) and in Chang Kuo-kan NiF, Chung-kuoku fang-chih k'ao i!gJi:z(Shanghai: Chung-hua shu-chui, 1962). (I was unable to see four potentially im-portant ones: Hsien-ch'unP'i-ling chih JiRG [30 chiuan; 1268]; Ch'ung-hsiuCh'in-ch'uan hih t{gS)IIk [15 chiuan;1365]; and two reconstructed Yuan localhistories, Wu-hsi chih f and Nan-hai chih .4) Sung and Yuan sui-piindexed in Saeki Tomi b Chiigokuuihitsusakuinrpi I and Chuigokuuihitsuzatcho X sakuin Kyoto: Toyoshi Kenkyukai, 1954 and 1960).5) Sung wen-chi ndexed in Saeki Tomi, Sodai bunshu akuin ; (Kyoto: KyotoDaigaku Toyoshi Kenkyuikai, 1970).6) Sung hui-yaochi-kao , (Peking: Chung-hua shu-chui, 1957; rpt. of 1936facsimile reproduction by National Library of Peking of the 1809 ed.), ch. 1204.7) The important essays on city-god cults in Chao Yu-shih LA , Pin-t'ui lu 1_Q(1224), (Ts'ung-shuchi-ch'eng d.), 8.93-95, 9.100.8) Collections of anecdotes generally considered fictional, but containing some reliablehistorical material, principally T'ai-p'ing kuang-chi JTZ (978), (Peking:Jen-min wen-hsiueh ch'u-pan she, 1959), and Hung Mai j, I chienchih A ='(second half of 12th c.), (TSCC and Pi-chi hsiao-shuo a-kuaneds.). (Only six sitescome from the last class of sources, and each was carefully evaluated before inclu-sion.)

Teng Ssu-yii's pioneering study, "Ch'eng-huang k'ao" ;t, Shih-hsiueh ien-paoP**Q 2.2 (1935): 249-76, provided invaluable bibliographic information in theearly stages of the research.In compiling the master list I intentionally confined myself to sources from the Yuanor earlier (except for inscription collections). Many Ming and Ch'ing local historiescontain information about city-god temples that are alleged to have been founded in T'angor Sung times, or even earlier. (See, for example, Chi-anfu chih + [53 chiian;1876],8.1Oa.) Much of it is unreliable, but some is authentic. (See n. 90, below, for furtherdiscussion of this problem.) Unfortunately, to survey all extant Ming and Ch'ing localhistories for information about city-god cults, and then to evaluate the reliability of allundocumented statements alleging early dates, was a task far beyond my capacity.(Verifying or refuting a single problematic claim can entail many days of detailedresearch.) But to do anything less than a full survey would have introduced unacceptablebiasses into the results. So I compiled the master list strictly on the basis of pre-Mingmaterials, even though this meant eliminating some sites that were genuinely early. Of the150 city-god cults identified, 103 were in existence by 1201; thirty-nine more are men-tioned in Pin-t'ui lu (1224) with no indication of date; and eight more were in existencebefore the fall of Sung in 1279.


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366 DAVID JOHNSONcentury) preserved in T'ung tien -A (completed 801): "In the city[of Ku-ch'eng !RA] there is a temple to Prime Minister Hsiao n[Ho {i ]. It is traditionally said that he acts as the ch'eng-huanghen."3Hsiao Ho rendered great service to Han Kao-tsu in the establishmentof the Han dynasty, and was extremely powerful during Kao-tsu'sreign. In 202 B.C. he was given a very large fief (ten thousandhouseholds) in Tsuan X hsien.4 The site of the capital of Tsuanhsien in Han times was just northeast of Ku-ch'eng hsien in T'angand Sung times (modern Ku-ch'eng hsien, northern Hupei) .5Hsiao Ho's descendants continued to hold fiefs there for at leasteight generations.6 T'ai-p'ing huan-yu hi t'I' d quotes Nan Yungchouchizas saying that Hsiao Ho was enfeoffed in a temple in theold Han city of Yin-ch'eng ; north of Ku-ch'eng (148.8a.10).So it is clear that Hsiao Ho and his descendants were very influen-tial in the second and first centuries B.C. in the area known asKu-ch'eng county in T'ang and Sung. But when Ho began to beregarded as ch'eng-huang henthere is not known.7

In 751 an inscription commemorating the reconstruction of thecity-god temple of Wu chiin 185 (Soochow) was composed by theprefect, Chao Chii-chen jL,Wft.8 The text contains the earliestsurviving description of a city-god temple, and important evidence

3 (Shih-t'ung ed.), 177.943C,s.v. "Ku-ch'eng."4 Shih chi _ (Peking: Chung-hua shu-chii, 1959), 53.2015; Han shu & (Peking:Chung-hua shu-chii, 1962), 39.2008, 2009; 16.541-42.5 T'ung-tien 177.943C; T'ai-p'ing huan-yitchi J;?- (ca. 980) (Taipei: Wen-haich'u-pan she, 1969, rpt. of 1803 ed.), 145.8a.5.6 Han shu 39.2012-13, esp. 2013.4. See also Han shu 16.541-44.7 Although the connection of Hsiao Ho with Tsuan hsien is very clear from his Shihchi and Han shu biographies, some commentators have suggested that he was in factenfeoffed in Ts'o 1,7 hsien of P'ei chiun ft5. (E.g., Ch'ien Ta-hsin A)"Ff and WuCho-hsin a f, quoted in Wang Hsien-ch'ien 3Et', Han shupu-chu4Ma [Peking:Shang-wu yin-shu kuan, 1959], pp. 2608, 2660.) Chung-kuoi-mingta tz'u-tien i4Ji43jiGR follows this view (see p. 1389C, s.v. "Tsuan hsien"), but it is effectively refuted byT'ung-tien,T'ai-p'ing huan-yiuhi, Shih chi, and Han shu,in my opinion. No cogent reason is

ever advanced for placing Hsiao Ho's fief in P'ei chun, but it appears that the confusionarose because P'ei chiin had a county whose name was written J1i,, but pronounced"tsuan," and which therefore was confused with our Tsuan hsien. (See Shih chi 53.2016,note 1.)8 "Hsin hsiu Ch'un-shen chiin miao chi" 1 Ch'iianT'ang wen (Taipei:Ching-wei shu-chii, 1965, rpt. of 1814 Palace ed.), 296.19b-21b.


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CITY-GOD CULTS 367of early official attitudes toward the idea of a city god. The Soochowch'eng-huang hen is identified in the text as the lord of Ch'un-shen4F5, known originally as Huang Hsieh At. He served as primeminister of Ch'u for twenty-five years under King K'ao-lieh ;and was assassinated in 237 B.C.9 He had been presented with fiefs"east of the River" the region south of the Yangtze, between(roughly) modern Wu-hu and the sea-in 247 B.C., and had subse-quently walled the ancient site of Wu-hsti -Rd-modern Soochow-and made it his capital.10 (Ch'u had come into possession of theterritory of the former state of Wu when it defeated and absorbedYueh in 334 B.C.) According to a tradition current as late as the endof the tenth century, when the lord of Ch'un-shen returned to Ch'uas prime minister, he left his son behind as "acting lord.""1 Thereis nothing in the sources to confirm this (Shihchisays his family waswiped out after he was assassinated),12 but the existence of the tradi-tion is clear evidence of the importance of the lord of Ch'un-shenin local legend.

The temple building is said by a mid-eleventh century source tohave originally been the historical lord of Ch'un-shen's palace, andthere is a hint in the 751 inscription that the notion was current atthat time too. 13 The author of the inscription also calls the temple "theyamen of the god" (tPX), an interesting turn of phrase, whose signifi-cance will become clearer in the third section, below.14 In the mainhall of the temple, a statue of the lord of Ch'un-shen occupies theplace of honor, with Chu Ying A, one of his retainers, at his side,receiving offerings "in association" with his master.The "acting lord" [the lord of Ch'un-shen's son] oversees affairs in the westernchamber; the senior retainers are assembled in ranks in the eastern hall. Li Yuan'sassassins are killing in the west; the charioteer and horses are vividly depicted inthe east. The spirit with the ancient grievance is greatly requited; once again rever-

9 Shih chi 78.2397, 2398.10 Ibid., 78.2394 and note 3.11 T'ai-p'inghuan-yii hi (cited note 5), 91.1b. 10. Also alluded to in the inscription of 751:Ch'iian T'ang wen296.20b.7.

12 78.2398.13 Ou-yang Fei RR &, Chi-kuu-mu f] (Hsing-su ts'ao-t'ang chin-shih ts'ung-shued.), 3.17b, quoted in Teng Ssu-yii, "Ch'eng-huang k'ao" (cited note 2), p. 252B;Ch'iianT'ang wen 296.20b.9-2 1a. 1.14 Ch'uan T'ang wen 296.21a.5-6.


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368 DAVID JOHNSONence is expressed as if he is present. His family, dignified and impressive, exhibits amelancholy glory; his armed attendants, solemn and severe, heighten their awe-some reputation.15

The lord of Ch'un-shen's cult evidently had developed a richiconography by the mid-eighth century. Most of the persons men-tioned appear in his Shih chi biography (e.g., Chu Ying, the seniorretainers, Li Yuan's assassins), but the "charioteer and horses" donot, and may come from legends about him. Even though the textis compressed and allusive, it is obvious that in eighth-centurySoochow, the city-god cult was very vigorous, since it was patronizedby the prefect himself. He, however, attacked the belief that thelord of Ch'un-shen was the city god. "The [god's] name oughtproperly to be 'Prime Minister Huang,' and the mistaken practiceof referring to him as 'ch'eng-huang'ought to be eradicated.'"16 Suchresistance to the idea of a city god, or at least to the transformationof established community gods into ch'eng-huang hen, seems to havebeen fairly common among officials in early T'ang times; I willreturn to it later. The main point to bear in mind at the moment,however, is that the lord of Ch'un-shen was said by Shih chi, a sourcewith great authority among all educated people, to have walled thesettlement that eventually became Soochow. This is probably themain reason why he eventually came to be thought of as the god ofthe walls and moat of Soochow.

The third T'ang text that I have discovered which identifies acity god is one of the most important sources of information aboutthe early cult. It was written in 862 to commemorate the construc-tion of a new city-god temple in Yuan A chou (modern I-ch'untS, in west-central Kiangsi). The man who wrote it, Liu Hsianggwi is otherwise unknown. Since he claims no rank or title in thetext, he was probably a local gentleman of leisure and some literaryattainments.

Liu Hsiang's text informs us that the ch'eng-huang hen of ninth-century Yuan chou was Kuan Ying 40. He had been one of Han15 Ibid., 21a.1-5. Translation tentative.16 Ibid., 21a.6.17 "Yuan chou ch'eng-huang miao chi" '4+ Chz'uanT'angwen802.10b-12a.


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CITY-GOD CULTS 369Kao-tsu's most effective generals, and played a major role in thefounding of the Han dynasty. He was active throughout Kao-tsu'sreign, and was instrumental in overthrowing the Lii family andplacing Wen-ti on the throne in 179 B.C.18The inscription states thataccording to Han shu, Kuan Ying built the old walls of Yuan chou"in the spring of the sixth year of the reign of Kao-ti [201 B.C.]."19In late T'ang times Kuan Ying was probably considered to bethe ch'eng-huang hen of other Kiangsi cities as well. Chao Yii-shihM - (1175-1231), a great authority on city gods and a native ofLin-chiang chiin WlzW (modern Ch'ing-chiang 'jM hsien, Kiangsi),only about 125 km. east of Yuan chou, wrote that "nowadays KuanYing is said to be the city god of most of the prefectures and countiesof Chiang-hsi."20 This doubtless is hyperbole, but in another essay,Chao names seven cities besides Yuan chou, all in modern Kiangsi,that worship Kuan Ying as their ch'eng-huangshen: Lung-hsing fuIRY1f (modern Nan-ch'ang shih iMT1), Kan 0 chou (modernKan hsien), Chiang iTE hou (modern Chiu-chiang )LiZ hsien), Chichou (modern Chi-an @ hsien), Chien-ch'ang chiun 4A(modern Nan-ch'eng i;i hsien), Lin-chiang chiin (Chao's nativeplace), and Nan-k'ang chun !1AS (modern Hsing-tzu R-7Thsien).21Other early sources reinforce the connection of Kuan Ying withthree of these places: Lung-hsing (also known as Yii-chang M'),Chi chou, and Chien-ch'ang.The reconstructed Yui-chang ku-chin chi M*N;eE, by LeiTz'u-tsung Vk' (386-448), states that "in the fifth year of thereign of Han Kao-tsu, the marquis of Ying-yin, Kuan Ying, pursuedHsiang Yu and destroyed him. Then he pacified Chiang-nan. Inthe fifth year, [Yii-chang was] first established as a prefecture. KuanYing built the prefectural capital."22 Clearly the tradition that

18 Biographies in Shihchi 95 and Han shu 41.19Ch'iian T'ang wen802. 1Ob.4-5.20 Pin-t'ui lu (cited note 2), 1.13. Presumably Chiang-hsi Circuit is meant, largely thesame as the modern province of Kiangsi.21 Pin-t'ui lu 8.94.22 ShuofujI1 (Shang-wu shu-chuied.), 51.la. See also p. 2b. T'ai-p'ingyii-lan J;-%,(983) (Peking: Chung-hua shu-chii, 1960, rpt. of Southern Sung ed.), 183.5b, quotes"Yi-changchi": "Kuan Ying built the [capital of Yii-chang] prefecture." T'ai-p'inghuan-yiuchi (cited note 5), 106.4a, quotes "Yiu-chang hi": "In the sixth year of the reign of HanKao-ti, the generalissimo KCuanYing built [the capital of Nan-ch'ang hsien]." Nan-ch'angwas the metropolitan hsien of Yu-chang chiin/Lung-hsing fu.


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370 DAVID JOHNSONKuan Ying built the capital of Yii-chang chiin/Lung-hsing fu earlyin the reign of Han Kao-tsu was in existence well before T'ang times.Even in the Ch'ing, the ancient Han walls east of modern Nan-ch'ang hsien were known as "Kuan Ying's walls."23 Sunghui-yao

W, records the bestowal in the fifth month of 1134 of an imperialname board on "the temple of the ch'eng-huang hen of Chi chou,the Han dynasty marquis of Ying-yin, Kuan Ying."24 If the cultwas so well established that it received imperial recognition, it hadprobably been in existence there for some time. Finally, a fifteenth-century inscription commemorating the reconstruction of theChien-ch'ang fu city-god temple, quoting from a twelfth-centurywork, Hsui-chiangchih , says that the shen of the Chien-ch'angch'eng-huangs Kuan Ying, marquis of Ying-yin of the Han dynasty.25Thus in T'ang and Sung times Kuan Ying was believed to be thecity god not only of Yuan chou but of numerous other cities inKiangsi as well. Early sources say he built the wall of Yuan chouand of at least one other of the cities in which he was worshipped(Lung-hsing/Yii-chang). (In addition, a late source says that KuanYing established Yui-tu l!, one of the subordinate counties of Lunghsing.) 26 Yet there is almost no evidence at all in the standardsources to connect Kuan Ying with Kiangsi. Contrary to the remarkin Liu Hsiang's commemorative inscription, Han shu says nothingabout Kuan Ying building the wall of Yuan chou. It says only thatin the tenth month of the sixth year of Kao-tsu's reign, it was orderedthat the county capitals and the seats of imperial family fiefs bewalled.27 Kuang Ying had no fief in Kiangsi, nor did he everadminister any of the prefectures or counties in that region. In fact,the only bit of evidence in Shih chi or Han shu that places KuanYing in the Kiangsi region at all is the remark in his biographythat after he defeated Hsiang Yii's forces at Tung-ch'eng AiA

23 Aoyama Sadao, Shina rekidaichimeiyoran ZfCtt41 , (Tokyo: Daian Shoten,1967; rpt. of 1932 ed.), p. 172B, s.v. "Kuan Ying ch'eng," citing Tu-shihfang-yii chi-yaoWQ)7 ;I (ca. 1670).

24 Sunghui-yaochi-kao(cited note 2), 1204.18b.9-11 (ts'e 19, p. 773Bb, lines 9-11).25 Chien-ch'angfu hihJf (10 chiian;1909 rpt. of 1872 ed.), 9C.56b.8-9. The author ofHsii-chiang hih, Hu Shun-chiu - , was prefect of Chien-ch'ang in 1156, according toChung-kuoufang-chihk'ao (cited note 2), p. 560.26 Yu-tuhsienhihB5,9 (16 chuan;1874), 1.2b.2-4, 3a.8-9.27 Hanshu 1B.59.


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CITY-GOD CULTS 371(near modern Ting-yuan t' hsien, in northeastern Anhui),28 he"crossed the Yangtze. . . and secured the prefectures of Wu t[Soochow], Yii-chang, and Kuei-chi ' [Shaohsing]. Then hereturned and secured fifty-two counties in Huai-pei."29 That wouldhave been an epic campaign: to go from northeastern Anhui toSoochow and Shaohsing via Yii-chang is a journey of about athousand kilometers. To move an army over those distances wouldhave been a notable feat. Yet it is not mentioned in Kao-tsu's annalsin Shih chi or Han shu, nor does it appear in Tzu-chiht'ung-chien.All of this has led scholars to conclude that Kuan Ying has beenconfused with another Han general, Ch'en Ying MR, said by Shihchi and Han shu to have "secured Yii-chang and Che-chiang f4iM"after Hsiang Yu was defeated.3o But there is no other evidence forCh'en Ying's involvement in Kiangsi. So this skepticism seemsmisplaced. It is impossible to reconstruct the actual movements ofKuan Ying during the early years of Han, but we cannot ignorethe fact that so many cities in Kiangsi claimed him as their tutelarydeity in T'ang and Sung times. For some reason, Kuan Ying cameto play an important part in the legendary history of the region.This may have been an essentially literary development goingback to the brief passage in Kuan Ying's Shih chi and Han shu bio-graphies, but this is very unlikely. Why not some other Han general?Why not Ch'en Ying? No, the evidence of widespread local traditionsuggests that Kuan Ying had an important role in the impositionof Han administration in at least some parts of the Kan River basin,

28 Tzu-chih t'ung-chienjpMK (Peking: Ku-chi ch'u-pan she, 1956), 11.352, com-mentary, quoting K'uo ti chihjijhj (639).29 Shihchi 95.2671; Han shu 41.2083.30 Shihchi 18.887-88; Han shu 16.537. See Pin t'ui lu (cited note 2), 1.13. Note too thatin the S/suic/hing /hu /si/s i 7j(f ? (1797), 39.12a, and in other editions of Shuichingchu now lost, the sixth-century commentary states that "in the sixth year of Han Kao-tsu'sreign [the emperor] first commanded Kuan Ying to make [Nan-ch'ang hsien] the capitalof Yii-chang prefecture. This city was built by Kuan Ying." But many other editions ofShui chingchu, including those of Wang Hsien-ch'ien and Ssu-pu ts'ung-k'an,give "Ch'enYing" for "Kuan Ying." This "improvement" of the text seems to go back to an "official

edition" V*, whose note is quoted in Wang Hsien-ch'ien's and other editions: "Theoriginal edition [),j*] and recent editions all mistakenly say 'Kuan Ying.' This has nowbeen corrected. The table of Kao-tsu's meritorious marquises in Shih chistates that 'Ch'enYing, the marquis of T'ang-i, secured Yui-chang.' Han shu agrees." But this emendationitself may well be misguided, as Wang Hsien-ch'ien himself recognized in his Han shupu-chu4ga (Peking: Shang-wu shu-chui, 1959), 5:3543.


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372 DAVID JOHNSONcreating a collective memory that served as the basis of later legends.By the time the idea of a city god began to spread, and city-god cultswere being established in Yuan chou and other Kiangsi cities, KuanYing must have already achieved something like the status of atutelary deity of the region, and hence seemed a natural choice tothe inhabitants of many cities there.

In T'ang times the city god of Shaohsing was P'ang Yu WOIE.The sources show very clearly why he was so regarded. Hisbiographical notice in T'ang shu states that he was physicallyimposing and very strong, and a good tactician and strategist. Hewas a native of the Ch'ang-an region. In the civil wars at the endof the Sui, he first led "crack troops from Kuan-chung" and joinedforces with Wang Shih-ch'ung EE-tHJ~,ut later went over to theT'ang side with "ten thousand cavalry." This understandablyendeared him to T'ang Kao-tsu, who placed him in a series ofimportant military posts. One of the last of these was the governor-generalship of Yueh chou.3' The administrative seat of this largeterritory was the city now known as Shaohsing. It appears frominscriptions of 908 and 1098 that during the time he was in chargethere, just after Yueh chou had come under T'ang control, heopened wasteland for cultivation, relocated the walls of the inner

31 Hsin 7'ang shuVO- (Peking: Chung-hua shu-chiu, 1975), 193.5546-47.32 Wang Ch'ang IE7i, ed., Chin-shihs'ui-pien (Taipei: Kuo-feng ch'u-pan she,1964; rpt. of 1805 Ching-hsiin t'ang ed.), 119.7b.3, 7b.6 (date: 9a.6); Juan Yuan ,ed., Liang Chechin-shihchih WfF *g (1890; preface, 1824), 7.4b.11 (date: 7.5b.2-3).There are many questions concerning P'ang Yii's administration of Shaohsing. To startwith, Hsin T'ang shu states that he held the post of tu-tuO (governor-general), whileChia-t'ai Kuei-chichih f (1201; 1926 rpt. of 1808 ed.), 6.5a.4, says that he heldthe post of tsung-kuanJ (commander-in-chief). This is a significant difference, becausethe Yueh chou commander-in-chiefship was created in Wu-te: 4, and was changed to agovernor-generalship in Wu-te: 7 (Chiu T'ang shu W [Peking: Chung-hua shu-chii,1975], 40.1589). Li Tzu-t'ung 4y was in control of northern Chekiang, includingShaohsing, from at least Wu-te: 3 to the eleventh month of Wu-te: 4, when he surrenderedto the T'ang (Tzu-chiht'ung-chiencited note 28], 188.5899, 189.5938. See also ChiuT'angshu 56.2274). Thus a commander-in-chiefship was established in Yueh chou, with itsheadquarters in Shaohsing, as soon as T'ang control was established in Wu-te: 4 (seealso Chiu T'ang shu 40.1589). If P'ang Yu held the position of commander-in-chief ofYueh chou, he must have been the first T'ang administrator of the area, but if he wasgovernor-general, he would have had a predecessor. I think it likely that he was the firstT'ang representative in Yueh chou, because of the tradition that he constructed new


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CITY-GOD CULTS 373city, and constructed new prefectural offices.32 He stayed in theYueh chou post for an unknown length of time.33 Not too long afterleaving it, he died.34 Shortly after his death, a shrine or temple waserected in his honor in Shaohsing.35The 908 inscription states that the shen "stands guard over thehills and mountains of the city, and controls the good and badfortune of both soldiers and civilians [i.e., the entire population]."It praises the magnificence of the temple, and tells us that it had alifelike statue of P'ang Yu and statues (or paintings) of armedattendants.36 The first of many imperial titles was bestowed on theshen in 907.37 After a major reconstruction in 1097-98, the templehad arcades and gates encircling it, and inside, on either side of thestatue of the god, punishments and rewards (for good and badadministrative offices and moved the wall of the inner city. But this cannot be proven,since evidence on his career is very scarce, and the sources have little to say about earlyseventh-century administrators of Yueh chou. It should be noted that Chia-t'aiKuei-chichihstates that "according to the register of T'ang prefects, the General of the Guard ofthe Right [P'ang Yu] was appointed [prefect of Kuei-chi chiin R] in Wu-te: 1, and wastransferred to the post of governor-general (tu-tu) of Yang chou in the seventh month ofWu-te: 2." (Quoted in Shao-hsing u-chih g [80 chIuan;1792], 41.45b.4-5). ButShaohsing was probably not in T'ang hands in Wu-te: 1, and there was no governor-generalship of Yang chou until Wu-te: 9 (T'ai-p'ing huan-yiuhi [cited note 5], 123.1b-2a). So this evidence cannot be accepted.33 His tenure in office there could not have been long. Both K'an Leng and LiTa-liang 7 held the position of governor-general of Yiieh chou under T'ang Kao-tsu, and thus not later than 627 (Chiu T'ang shu 56.2270, 62.2387). Shao-hsingu-chih25.15b says that Li Ta-liang received his appointment in Wu-te: 7 (624), but I have beenunable to confirm this date. (I have also been unable to confirm the statement in Shao-hsing u chih that a fourth man, Li Chia R,ebalso held a governor-general-type post inYiuehchou under Kao-tsu). (Ibid.) It may well be that P'ang Yiuheld office only duringthe period 621-624, after Li Tzu-t'ung's surrender, and before the governor-generalshipwas created.

34 Only one other post is mentioned in the Hsin T'ang shubiographical notice after theYueh chou governor-generalship. (The same passage states that he died during T'ai-tsung's reign, so after 627). The 908 inscription says that during his tenure in office hewas "loved and honored by those who lived in the city, and the common people sangsongs" about him, and that "before long, the markets were suspended and laments arose[because of his death]" (Chin-shih s'ui-pien119.7b.7).35 Ibid., 119.7b.8; also 8b.5-6: "It has been nearly 300 years [in 908]" since thetemple was erected.36 Ibid., 119.7b. 8-9.3 Wu-taihui-yao-* (Shanghai: Shang-hai ku-chi ch'u-pan she, 1978), 11.192.The 908 inscription was written in celebration of this honor by the ruler of the state ofWu-Yiieh, who had requested the title.


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374 DAVID JOHNSONbehavior) were depicted in so vivid a manner that they frightenedthose who looked at them.38 The same text states that the templeis located one hundred paces from the prefectural yamen.39 A localhistory completed in 1201 tells us that "the people of the prefectureworship [P'ang Yu] very devotedly. They believe that the shen'sbirthday is the twelfth day of the ninth month; the offerings areespecially profuse at that time."40 The very highest authoritiesalso were capable of feeling gratitude to the city god of Shaohsing.In 1131 the emperor bestowed on him a new noble title along withan official name-board for the temple, "because demonic forceswere inactive and the palace was untroubled during the year thatthe temporary imperial capital was at Kuei-chi [Shaohsing]."Then in 1160 another title was bestowed, "because the imperialcarriage [transporting the coffin] of the Empress Hsien-jen ffM=hascrossed the river without mishap.''41 It is notable that in both ofthese cases, the Shaohsing ch'eng-huang hen was believed to controlsupernatural or demonic forces.To sum up, P'ang Yu was a military man, and a northerner, whoadministered Shaohsing and the surrounding region for two orthree years immediately after it was brought under T'ang control.When he died, probably within five or so years after leavingShaohsing, a shrine or temple was set up in which to offer sacrificesto his spirit. His cult flourished, and at some unknown time in thenext three centuries, P'ang Yu came to be thought of as city god ofShaohsing.

The four cases just discussed comprise the earliest evidence knownto me concerning the identity of specific city gods. Material becomesmore plentiful when we reach the Sung dynasty, and it sometimesconcerns cults that are as old or older than the ones just reviewed.To examine it all would be redundant, but three cults are suffi-

38 LiangChe chin-shih hih (cited note 32), 7.4b.9.39 Ibid., 7.4a.10O.40 Chia-t'aiKuei-chichih6.5b.5-6.41 Ibid., 6.5b.1-2. Hsien-jen t'ai-hou was Kao-tsung's mother. She died in 1159 (Sungshih *_ [Peking: Chung-hua shu-chu, 1977], 243.8640, 8643). See also Sung hui-yaochi-kao 1204.18b, which records these bestowals in slightly different language. It is not clearwhat river is meant.


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CITY-GOD CULTS 375ciently interesting to deserve separate notice; they represent kindsof city gods that we have not yet seen.The first of these is Ying Chih-hsu SME, city god of Yun JVichou(modern Kao-an -%2 hsien, Kiangsi). Unlike the four city godsdiscussed above, Ying has no biography in the official histories.The only early sources with information about his life that I havefound are two inscriptions. The first was written in 1116 by a monk,Hui-hung MA, to fulfill a pledge he had made to the city god ofKao-an chun Th(i.e., Yun chou). In it he says that he had wantedto write an account of the ch'eng-huang hen for a long time, becausethe other accounts were inadequate. He also describes how the godappeared to him in a dream and inspired him to write the rhymedmingA at the end of the text.42 In the inscription we read that YingChih-hsu was a commoner who lived near the city of Kao-an. Herecruited a small army during the disorders at the end of the Sui,then attacked and drove away the local warlord, Lin Shih-hung19t?. He defended the city of Kao-an during the interregnum, andwas appointed prefect by the T'ang in recognition of his "merit."43When he died, he was given a very high posthumous title by theemperor. Hui-hung says that Chih-hsu has been worshipped in histemple for nearly 500 years.44 This suggests that it was founded inthe third or fourth decade of the seventh century, which fits wellwith the other dates in Ying Chih-hsui's biography.The second text is much more detailed. It was written by a localliterary man named Wu Yun-tao fAitf, in the late thirteenthcentury, for the explicit purpose of preserving the details of YingChih-hsii's deeds as man and as god.45 Neither of the two Kao-an

42 "Kao-an ch'eng-huang miao chi," Kao-anhsienchih (28 chiuan; reface dated 1871),22.1 la-l2a. Other accounts inadequate: 11b.1-2. Encounter with the city god: I 1b.4-7.This and the following text both concern the prefectural ch'eng-huangmiao, even thoughthey are included in the county history (The county ch'eng-huangmiao was founded onlyin 1659. See Jui choufu chih )J[fe [24 chuian;1873], 3.16a.).

43 Kao-anhsienchih22.11 a.7-1 1. It is worth noting that there was a prefecture centeredon the city of Kao-an for only a short time during the T'ang. T'ai-p'ing huan-yii hi statesthat Ching a chou was established there in 622, its name changed to Yin chou in 624,and Yun chou abolished in 625 (106.12b-13a.). This is consistent with other evidencethat suggests that Ying was a local strongman who had received his appointment in returnfor accepting T'ang sovereignty.

44 Kao-an sien hih22.1 b.1.45 Ibid., 22.13a-14b. For the author's purpose, see 14a.1 1-14b.2. Biographical informa-tion about Wu Yun-tao is very scarce. The only material I have found is in Kao-anhsien


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376 DAVID JOHNSONtexts commemorates the building or repair of the ch'eng-huangmiao,which is quite unusual. Instead, they both are straightforward ac-counts of the city god and his cult, written by private individualsseemingly to inform the general public. This is probably one of themain reasons why Wu Yun-tao's text contains so much popular loreabout Ying Chih-hsii.

Wu states that Ying Chih-hsiu was seven feet tall, and had a finebeard.46 "His nature was heroic and martial. People feared andobeyed him."'4 He goes on to describe the methods Chih-hsiiemployed to defend the city against the forces of Lin Shih-hung.First, he sent a man posing as a shoe peddler to the camp of theinvaders. All the shoes were exceptionally large, and when the agentwas asked why, he replied that that was the size shoe the people ofKao-an wore. Later, the invaders were sold tangerines from which,when peeled and sectioned for eating, bees flew out, stinging manyof them to death and frightening the others. Finally, when theenemy force was about to set out on the Shu Q River,48 "the shendrew his sword and gave a shout. The water, responding to thesound, ceased to flow." This succeeded in frightening the invadersaway. 49After Ying Chih-hsu was made prefect, he continued to protectthe people. West of Mi X Mountain there was a deep pool in whichlived an enormous water buffalo with a golden hide and a vermilliontail. At night this monster would burst out of its lair, injuring peopleand ruining the crops. But when its tail was cut off, at Chih-hsii'sorder, it sank into the ground and did no more harm.5o Shortlychih 16.4b, and in Wei Ch'ing-chih ; Shih-jenyiu-hsieh -J 3 (quoted ibid.),and these give no dates. But Wu seems to have been a contemporary of Wei, and Weiwas active ca. 1240, according to Wen-hsiieh-chiaa tz'u-tien. The text itself mentions thegranting of an imperial name-board in 1124, and also mentions fighting near Kao-anbetween government troops and the "Hsin-feng g bandits" in which the sheninter-vened (14a.2-3). Jui chou u chih 3.16a states that when government troops attacked"Hsing-feng bandits" in 1288, the city god made an appearance. Of course there mayhave been Hsin-feng bandits in other years, too, but I believe it is likely that the sameincident is being referred to in each case. This would date the text after 1288.46 Literally, "seven ch'ih."The T'ang ch'ih was around 30 cm.; the U.S. foot is 30.5 cm.

47 Kao-anhsienchih22.13a.7-8.48 Another name for the Chin Q River, which flows through Kao-an; see ibid., 4.1 lb.49 Ibid., 4.13a.10-13b.5. Additional details on the bee-infested tangerines from28.1a.10-1 1.50 Ibid., 4.13b.7-9.


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CITY-GOD CULTS 377after this, a phoenix was seen hovering at the rear of the prefecturaloffices.

Ying Chih-hsui died seated on a stone in the lotus position, wearinga formal headdress and robe. After his death, "the people of theprefecture decided to erect a shrine.'"51 As a spirit, he protected thecity as devotedly as he had while he was alive. When the Hsin-fengbandits attacked, he caused supernatural soldiers, wearing tigerskins on their heads, to appear on the city wall. This was enoughto make the invaders flee. Even today, writes Wu, "if there is floodor drought, locust plague or epidemic, he never fails to respond toearnest entreaties.'52We learn from the inscription that Ying Chih-hsii's wife, brothers,and sons had all been ennobled and were worshipped in the templealong with him, and that his home, his study, and his tomb were alllocated in the vicinity of Kao-an.53 Clearly, the cult was extremelyvigorous, and a rich body of legend concerning Ying Chih-hsiihad developed in Kao-an.

Several other features of this cult should be pointed out. YingChih-hsu was a local man,54 not a general or powerful officialfrom' another region. He was a natural leader, and he controlledKao-an for a number of years. Most imporant, he died in office,and his temple was erected not far from the yamen where he hadheld sway.55Pin t'ui lu g (1224) states that the city god of Nan-feng MR

51Ibid.,I 4.13b.I1-1I4a.1.52 Ibid., 4.14a.4-5.53 Ibid., 4.14a.6-10. It is interesting to note that in Ch'ing times his tomb was believedto be in (or near) Feng-hsin *, about 25 km. north of Kao-an. See Nan-ch'angMRfu chih (66 chiian; 1873), "Tien ssu" td, p. 87a. I have not been able to identify Yiu-chang shu $ which Nan-ch'ang u chih is quoting in this passage, and have simplyassumed that it is a Ch'ing work.54 Hui-hung says Ying was a native of Hui chen ;1 (reading :i as ,), in Kao-an,while Wu Yun-tao says he was a native of T'iao-lu hsiang fi,,R. I have been unable tolocate Hui chen precisely, but T'iao-lu hsiang was sixty 1iwest of Kao-an in Ch'ing times(Kao-an hsienchih27.8a). The Shih-tsuta-ch'iuan .R.-k (Yuan), quoted in Kao-anhsien

chih 8.1a, states that Ying was a native of Chiu-chiang )LuI (in northern Kiangsi) wholater moved to Ching Y chou (Kao-an). Even if this is correct, it is still clear that Yingspent much of his life in Kao-an.55 Wu Yun-tao's text says that the phoenix was sighted "behind the county offices,"and that place came to be called Phoenix Hill. Even in Ch'ing times the ch'eng-huangmiaowas on the western part of Phoenix Hill, and Phoenix Hill was "behind the prefectural[fu] yamen" (Kao-anhsien chih 4. la.7-8).


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378 DAVID JOHNSONhsien (modern Nan-feng hsien, Kiangsi) was a T'ang man namedYu Mao-hung j+W.56 He must have been worshipped as ch'eng-huang shen already in T'ang times. Pin t'ui lu says that he had beenmagistrate of Nan-feng, and an inscription dating from very earlyin the fourteenth century adds that he "laid out the city and itssuburbs, dug [irrigation] channels and ponds, built the yamen,and gathered people together."57 His biography in the Chien-ch'ang

fu chih t says that Yu was a native of Ch'ung-jen in Fu chou_t1I-'V (about seventy-five kilometers northwest of Nan-feng) whowas made acting magistrate of Nan-feng in the K'ai-yuan periodof the T'ang dynasty thanks to merit earned in battle. (T'ai-p'inghuan-yiichi [ca. 980] states that Lu Yuan-min D5A memorializedin K'ai-yuan: 7 [719] that the land was fertile and water plentiful,but frequently subject to depredations, and that subsequently itwas made into a county again. Perhaps Yu Mao-hung's administra-tion began about that time.)58 He built five reservoirs on the Hsi aRiver, which irrigated over four thousand mou of land. He alsoconstructed a stone irrigation canal to lead water from Chun WMountain down onto the plains below, which then became extremelyfertile. "Even today, his generosity feeds the people." After he died,the people erected a shrine and made sacrifices to him there.59Elsewhere in the Chien-ch'ang u chih we read that Yu set up theyamen of Nan-feng hsien in the Chia-ho t post station, that in837 the yamen was moved, and that (either then or later) theChia-ho post station was made into the ch'eng-huangmiao.6o

To summarize: Yu Mao-hung was a man of obscure backgroundfrom a place about seventy-five kilometers northwest of Nan-feng,who was made acting prefect there in the T'ang K'ai-yuan periodbecause of his military successes (entirely unspecified). He laid outthe city (perhaps even constructing the wall?), built a yamen, andconstructed elaborate irrigation works. After he died, he became

56 (Ts'ung-shuchi-ch'eng d.), 8.95.2.57 "[Nan-feng] chou ch'eng-huang miao chi" [f-A] +I1*ra E, by Liu Hsiin .JJ#(1240-1319), Chien-ch'angfuchih (cited note 25), 9C.34a.3. This text was written in partto commemorate the completion of a new ch'eng-huangmiao in early 1301, and so wasprobably composed around that time.58 T'ai-p'ing huanyui hi (cited in note 5), 110.7b.2-3.59Chien-ch'angfu hih 6F.3a-b.60 Ibid., 2C.4a.6, 2B.9a.6-7.


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CITY-GOD CULTS 379the object of a cult, and at some point came to be worshipped as thecity god. The city-god temple was located in the post station hehad used as his yamen. Here the man who (so it seems) founded thecity and ran it, and who made it prosperous, was worshipped asch'eng-huang henin the very building he had once used as his office.The dynamics of cult development here are very clear.

The final case I wish to discuss concerns T'ai > chou (modernLin-hai 0 hsien, in eastern Chekiang). The earliest text that namesthe ch'eng-huang hen there is an inscription, dated 1010, commemo-rating the bestowal by the emperor of a new name Yu-hsi 3iE onthe Chiu-shui Monastery iAk4Zn.The monastery was located onDragon Mother nFl: Mountain, which is about thirty kilometerssouth of Ning-hai hsien and about forty kilometers east-northeastof T'ai chou.61 The text is extremely interesting, though not reliablein detail. The monk who wrote it was less well-informed aboutthings such as administrative history than a local scholar wouldhave been, but on the other hand knew, or was willing to write down,legendary material that a member of the local elite might wellhave suppressed. The stele has a large decorative title in seal script,saying "Record of the Dragon King." The title proper reads"Account of the Imperial Decree Concerning Yu-hsi Monasteryand the Dragon King of Dragon Mother Mountain, Ning-haiCounty, T'ai Prefecture." The text begins as follows:The GeographicMonographJ11 says: Lin-hai prefecture was established in the [SanKuo] Wu dynasty. [Its offices were] on Ta-ku ;k Mountain, in the northern partof the [city of T' ai] chou. The county [offices] and garrison [headquarters] werenearby. Ch'iu Huang 1WR [vice-president of] the Department of State Affairsunder the [San Kuo] Wu, dwelt on this mountain. Huang died young. The[dragon-] mother [that is, Huang's wife, the mother of the dragon king] encoun-tered an old man. He slept with her, and she became pregnant. In due course shegave birth to a son, whose name was T'an iR. When he had grown to manhood heunderwent a divine transformation into a dragon of the chiao-li R.A kind. One dayhe thought of streams and marshes, and thunder and rain arose. With his motherhe went to Tung-pei Mountain in Kuang-tu P L[Jj, where they concealedthemselves.62 No one could find them. That is why the mountain is called "Ch'ii

61 See the map of T'ai chou, which appears to be fairly accurate, in the map sectionof T'ai choufu chih (140 chian; 1936).62 Kuang-tu is listed in Chia-tingCh'ih-ch'eng hih , (1223; 1818 ed.), 2.12b,


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380 DAVID JOHNSONMother Mountain )ffl1j'." It is 1,500 changhigh, and 130 1i in circumference.There are three pools on it. These are their grotto dwellings, where they stir aboutfreely, hidden beneath the suirface. Clouds and mists constantly arise there.63

This is followed by a story about a monk named Chih-che ta-shihVAg. In 589 he met an old woman on Ch'ti Mother Mountainwho seems to have been the Dragon Mother herself. She asked forinstruction in the precepts of Buddhism; the monk, realizing whatshe was, exhorted her and her relatives to provide rain for the peoplewhenever drought threatened the prefectural city. The next day,the mansion in which he had spent the night turned into a pool.Ever since then, writes the monkish author, whenever there isextremely hot weather, the prefect of T'ai chou solemnly goes outto " 'welcome at a distance' the water of the pools, [inviting it] intothe city to give sustenance to the people." Rain comes promptly inresponse to this ritual, and the harvests in T'ai chou are alwaysbountiful. 64The inscription's emphasis on the never-failing care of the dragonking of Ch'ui Mother Mountain is not surprising, because theprosperity of the monastery with which its author was affiliatedwas probably closely bound up with the dragon pools. In fact, themonastery was originally founded (in 810) because Chiu-shui Poolff-no doubt the dragon that dwelt there was the true object ofgratitude-had responded to prayers, presumably for rain.65 Atabout that time, a Dragon King Hall was built there, completewith a statue of the god. And the granting of an imperial name-boardto the monastery in 1008-the grand event this text celebrates isexplicitly attributed by the author to the assistance of the dragonking.66as a village under Chu-k'ai hsiang*;A?%, which wa3 seven 1inortheast of Ning-hai *jhsien. But since this is nowhere near the actual site of Dragon Mother Mountain, ac-cording to the map cited in note 61 and the literary evidence in Ch'ih-ch'enghih,a differentKuang-tu must be meant. Or the sentence may read: ". . . went toward Kuang, crossedTung-pei Mountain, and concealed themselves." But I can find no "Kuang" in Ning-haihsien.

63 "Ch'ih T'ai chou Ning-hai hsien Lung-mu shan Yu-hsi yuan Lung-wang chi"|:[J118g4fiXS3iRE2,T'ai chou hin-shihu kH Chia-yeh'ng ts'ung-shued.), 2.14b.4-9. I have been unable to identify the work being quoted here. The use of2L instead of in the title of geographical works is uncommon.

64 Tbid., 2.14b.10-15a.7.65 Chia-tingCh'ih-ch'enghih29.1 la.66 T'ai chouchin-shihu 2.15a.8-10, 15b.6-7. Date from Chia-tingCh'ih-ch'enghih29.1 Ia.


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CITY-GOD CULTS 381But it was not just the monks of Yii-hsi Monastery to whom the

dragon king of Dragon Mother Mountain/Chiu-shui Pool wasimportant. We have already seen that in the early eleventh centuryprefects of T'ai chou performed ceremonies directed at the dragonpools during periods of drought, and that in 810 the dragon of Chiu-shui Pool had answered prayers for rain. And the cult probablywas already old'in the ninth century, as we shall see. Finally, andthis is the crucial point, the inscription states that "in the secondyear of Wu-te in the T'ang dynasty [619], the grand astrologer,observing the stars, changed the name of Hai i4 chou [the successorof Lin-hai chiin] to T'ai chou. The old residence of Mr. Ch'ui [i.e.,Ch'ii Huang] was made into the yamen. Everyone says that thech'eng-huangshen is his son."67 Thus in early Sung, and no doubtearlier, the city god of T'ai chou was believed to be a dragon kingwho resided in a mountain pool about forty kilometers from the city.Moreover, the T'ai chou prefectural offices were located in a buildingor group of buildings that had been the residence of the city god/dragon king's father.

Clearly Ch'ii T'an was a very different kind of city god than thosewe have examined up to now. A number of them had probablybeen the objects of cults before their metamorphosis into ch'eng-huangshen-this is almost certainly the case with Kuan Ying, for example,since he was worshipped as city god in so many places but theyall were apotheosized human exemplars of one sort or another, notsomething as alien as a dragon king.Of course, this dragon king was not wholly alien. He had beenhuman, or half-human, during his childhood and youth. He hada human name, and had been a member of a prominent local family(as we shall see). In fact, the myth about the T'ai chou city godthat is reflected in the 1010 inscription seems to be an amalgam oftwo themes or groups of elements. One concerns the dragons, motherand son, of Dragon Mother Mountain, with in this case the motherreceiving the most attention. The other, subordinate in this textbut not in others we will look at, connects the Ch'ii family andT'ai chou, and in particular places the T'ai chou yamen in the oldhome of Ch'ii Huang. The two themes are joined together by makingthe dragon mother the wife of Ch'u Huang. But they do not fit

67 T'ai chouchin-shih u 2.15a.7-8.


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382 DAVID JOHNSONtogether particularly smoothly. We wonder whether Ch'ii T'an'smother was human or divine, and how Ch'ii T'an can be both thecity god of T'ai chou and the dragon king of Chiu-shui Pool, twenty-five miles or so away.68 To come to a proper appreciation of thech'eng-huanghenof T'ai chou, it is necessary to reconstruct the earlierhistory of each of the two groups of elements, and the reasons fortheir amalgamation. The evidence is scanty, but the outlines of thestory are fairly clear.Belief that there was a potent dragon dwelling in Chiu-shui Poolon what later came to be known as Dragon Mother Mountain wasprobably very ancient. The dragon may originally have been thoughtof as female. This is suggested by the large role played by Ch'uiT'an's mother in Sung versions of the myth, by the strong traditionthat she was buried on Dragon Mother Mountain,69 and by thename of the mountain itself. E. H. Schafer has argued that dragonwomen and water goddesses, even in the south, were frequentlysupplied with "fathers, husbands, or brothers as their lords andprotectors" in the post-Han period, "as Chinese society becameincreasingly male-oriented and even male-dominated."70 Providingthe dragon of Chiu-shui Pool with a son may have been part of sucha masculinizing process. The establishment in 810 of Chiu-shuiMonastery, which as we have seen was closely associated with thedragon king cult, may well reflect the conscious promotion of thecult of a male dragon at the expense of the older, and less respect-able, worship of a female dragon there. Schafer also speaks of theprogressive secularization and humanization of the medieval watergoddesses this is one of the main themes of his The Divine Woman-and the transformation of the Chiu-shui dragon goddess into the

68 This double role scandalized the early-thirteenth century editor of Chia-tingCh'ih-ch'engchih: see 25.8a.3-5. A strong reluctance to legitimize the idea that a city god couldbe a dragon king is apparent in the imperial proclamation accompanying the grant of anew noble title to the T'ai chou ch'eng-huanghen n 1168: "Even today the people of T'ai-ling , believe they can see his traces at Yu-hsi. He went into reclusion with his mother."This is compatible with the beliefs of the inhabitants of T'ai chou, but avoids saying any-thing that suggests that Ch'u T'an and his mother were not fully human. ("T'ai chouch'eng-huang feng kao" {, Ch'ih-ch'eng hi jt [Ssu-k'u ch'iuan-shuhen-pen, enthseries, ed.], 11.6a.4. This collection was compiled in the Sung by a man whose hao wasYiu-hsi, the name of the dragon pool and monastery on Dragon Mother Mountain!)

69 Chia-tingCh'ih-ch'enghih22.12b.2-3, 25.7b.8-9, 38.5b.2.70 TheDivine Woman Berkeley: University of California Press, 1973), pp. 120-21.


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CITY-GOD CULTS 383mother, more human than divine, of Ch'ii T'an the dragon king,may exemplify this process.If this hypothesis about the early history of the Chiu-shui dragoncult is approximately correct, it would appear that the secularizingand masculinizing of the dragon of Chiu-shui Pool began quiteearly, because it is already well advanced in the earliest evidenceI have discovered about the cult. This is a quotation from a workof the second half of the fourth century, Yuan Shan-sung's ASiplCh/in kuo chih , preserved in Yii-chih-t'angt'an-hui .a Ming compilation. It reads: "In Ning-hai there is a DragonMother Mountain. Ch'ii Huang, [vice-president of] the Departmentof State Affairs in the [San Kuo] Wu, had a son named T'an. T'anand his mother moved from Ta-ku Mountain and concealed them-selves there. Then T'an changed into a dragon. His mother alsobecame an immortal.' 7 In addition, this fragment shows clearlythat the connection between the Chiu-shui dragon and the Ch'iifamily had already been made. Before asking why this happened,let us look at the background of what I have suggested is the secondgroup of elements in the myth of the T'ai chou city god: the Ch'uifamily, T'ai chou, and the tradition that a Ch'iu mansion was madeinto the T'ai chou yamen.

The first point to be noted is that the main choronym for thesurname Ch'ii given in the medieval clan lists is Lin-hai chuin/T'aichou.72 This means that the Ch'ii family was a dominant force inT'ai chou during the era of the official clan lists late fourth to earlyeighth century, roughly. But when and for how long they enjoyedsuch eminence it is impossible to say, for the Ch'iis have left almost

7' Hsu_Ying-ch'iu fA, Yii-chih-t'ang'an-hui(Pi-chihsiao-shuoa-kuaned.), 24.13a.6.According to Ssu-k'uch'iian-shusung-mu, his work is made up of quotations from otherbooks. It is explicitly compared by the editors to T'ai-p'ing kuang-chiand Shuo-fu,whichof course are compilations. The passage in question is not headed with the title of asource, but presumably is one of a number of quotations from Chuin-kuohih, which is thelast source cited. A virtually identical passage, lacking only a few of the characters in theChuin-kuohihversion, quoted from an "Old Account" (Vf$), appears in Chia-tingCh'ih-ch'engchih, 25.7b.7-8a.3. I have been unable to identify the "Old Account," and it ispossible that the phrase means simply "old [oral] tradition." But Ch'ih-ch'eng hih fre-quently cites this source, so I am inclined to believe it was a book.72 David Johnson, The Medieval ChineseOligarchy (Boulder: Westview Press, 1977),Appendix IV: Clan List A, line 31; Clan List E, line 69. For the definition of "choronym,"see p. 165, note 46.


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384 DAVID JOHNSONno traces in the historical record between Han and Sung. The entryfor "Ch'ii" in Ku-chin hsing-shih-shupien-cheng , forexample, is brief and uninformative, and the standard biographicalindexes list only one or two Ch'uis from this period.73

This makes it seem all the more significant that a man namedCh'iu Huang did in fact hold the position of vice-president of theDepartment of State Affairs in Wu times, ca. 250, according to thelate third century San kuo chih.74 The brief notice does not tell uswhere Huang came from, or whether he had a son named T'an.But the Ta-wen 4rpl, by Hu Chung AIP, which dates from the earlyfifth century or earlier, states that Ch'ii was a native of Ju-nan *M(near modern Ju-nan hsien, in southern Honan).75 Hu seems to havebeen an authority on Wu history, having also written a ChronicleofWu and a Classification f theCommoners nd Patriciansof the Wu Court.76Thus it is unlikely that Ch'ii Huang was a native of T'ai chou. He ora descendant could have moved to T'ai chou, or the Ch'iis livingthere may simply have claimed Huang as an ancestor to enhancethe family's reputation.77 Whatever the explanation, there is nodoubt that the connection between the Ch'iu family and T'ai chouin medieval times was very real, since Lin-hai/T'ai chou was themain choronym for that surname.

We have already seen that the two themes in the dragon kingmyth had begun to come together as early as the fourth century (ifI have dated correctly the passage from Yu-chih-t'angt'an-hui). Whydid this happen? We have very little evidence, but we do know thatin the third and fourth centuries eastern Chekiang was still compara-73 A number of men surnamed Ch'iuwho lived in the medieval period were actually ofnorthern "barbarian" stock and hence are irrelevant for our purposes. See Yao Wei-yuankfir,, Pei-ch'aohu hsingk'ao4L#AWi!Ti (Peking: Chung-hua shu-chu, 1962), pp. 137-42.

74 San kuo chihb (Peking: Chung-hua shu-chiu, 1959), 59.1369-70. See also Tzu-chih t'ung-chien cited note 28), 75.2386.75 Quoted in P'ei Sung-chih's commentary to San kuo chih, completed in the secondquarter of the fifth century (Sankuo chih 59.1370, note 2).76 Chiu T'ang shu (cited note 32), 46.1995B.77 One puzzling problem has resisted solution: the entry for Ch'u Huang in Chung-kuo

jen-ming ta tz'u-tiencalls him a native of T'ien-t'ai X which after T'ang times was acounty under T'ai chou. This information appears to have been copied into Wong Fook-luen tk , San kuochih so-yin I (Hong Kong: Research Institute for Far EasternStudies, Chung Chi College, Chinese University of Hong Kong, 1973), p. 64, s.v. "Ch'usHuang." I have been unable to discover the source of this information, and suspect thatit is due to an editorial error in Chung-kuojen-minga tz'u-tien.


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CITY-GOD CULTS 385tively untouched by northern orthodoxies. (T'ang writers on theorigins of the idea of a city god regularly mention the belief of thepeople of Wu and Yiieh in demons and other unorthodox superna-tural creatures.)78 It could well have happened that from time totime, locally powerful families, seeking to legitimize or reinforcetheir positions, claimed kinship with potent local deities. The Ch'iismay have done something similar in T'ai chou by claiming that thepowerful water goddess of Chiu-shui Pool had in fact been the wife(or widow) of a member of the Ch'ii family. And there is evidencethat the original name of Dragon Mother Mountain was Ch'iuMother Mountain )fHiftii.79 The son with which the legendizersprovided this goddess was thus both a dragon and a Ch'ii, neatlyembodying the alliance of the human and supernatural grandeesof T'ai chou that they had wished to contrive. This is one way, atleast, of reconstructing the sources of the two main themes in themyth of Ch'ii T'an, and their subsequent amalgamation. But ourmain concern is with the transformation of Ch'ii T'an the dragon-king into the city god of T'ai chou. How did this come about?

The account of the city-god temple in the oldest surviving historyof T'ai chou, the Chia-ting Ch'ih-ch'eng chih (1223), begins in thisway:The [prefectural]ch'eng-huang iao s northeast of Ta-ku Mountain. It was erectedin the fourth year of Wu-te in the T'ang dynasty [662]. The wife of Ch'iuHuang,[vice-president of] the Department of State Affairs under the [San kuo] Wu,dreamed that she encountered a god. She bore a son, whose name was T'an. Heunderwent a divine transformation. He could summon up clouds and rain. Laterhe and his mother concealed themselves in the mountains. Today T'an is wor-shipped as the city god, and the old home of Mr. Ch'u is used as the prefecturalyamen. Prayersto him at times of flood or drought are usually efficacious. He wasgiven the title "Hsing-sheng yung-an wang" Rli07-EE by one of the rulers of thestate of Wu-Yueh [907-978].80

There follows a list of later titles and honors bestowed by the78 See, for example, T'ai-p'ingkuang-chi cited note 2), 303.2400.1.79 The 1010 "Record of the Dragon King" states that Ch'ii-mu shan was re-namedLung-mu shan in 932 (T'ai chouchin-shih u [cited note 63], 2.15a.9-10). But I have notbeen able to confirm the existence of a Ch'ui-mushan in medieval times. There is no entryfor the name in the commentaries to Shui chingA(y, Wenhsiuan ; or Tzu-chih t'ung-chien,nor does the name appear in Hou Han shu *Afi or San kuochih,or in the titles ofitems in T'ai-p'ing kuang-chi r T'ai-p'ingyii-lan.80 Chia-tingCh'ih-ch'enghih (cited note 62), 31.lb.2-5.


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386 DAVID JOHNSONemperor, including one for sending rain in response to prayers andanother for protecting the imperial party during their flight fromthe north after the Jurchen conquest, together with a resume ofconstruction and renovation projects.According to this account, then, the city-god temple of T'ai chouwas established in 622. Now, in 591 a Lin-hai chen V, (garrison)was established on Ta-ku Mountain, and shortly thereafter theyamen of Lin-hai hsien was shifted to the site of the garrison. At theend of the Sui a prefecture called Hai i4 chou was established, withits capital at Lin-hai. It came under T'ang control in 621, and wasre-named T'ai chou in 622.81All of this is recounted in detail some of it unreliable in apreface to a list of prefects copied from the wall of the main hallof the T'ai chou yamen. The preface, dated 978, states that whenSui defeated Ch'en in 589, Lin-hai prefecture was abolished. Atsome unspecified time thereafter, "Lin-hai chen was [established]at Ta-ku Mountain. There was a complement of a thousand soldiersto defend its walls. The [yamen of] Lin-hai county was moved to asite in front of the garrison." Later, Lin-hai county was changed toHai chou and then to T'ai chou. "The old [yamen of] T'ai chouwas on Ta-ku Mountain, in the residence of a local man, Ch'uiKuang X. The site was superior, so it was located there. Mr. Ch'ii'ssecond son, Hui-t'an NH., made the house into the prefectural[yamen] when he served as prefect."82Here we have a distorted version of the basic legend about Ch'iiHuang, Ch'ii T'an, and T'ai chou. The author, believing that T'aichou had been established in 619, and that the prefectural yamenhad at one time been a residence of the Ch'ii family, assumed thatCh'ii Huang and Ch'ii T'an, the only two members of the familywhose fame had survived locally into the late tenth century, hadthemselves been involved in the transformation of the house into ayamen. Either inadvertently or deliberately, he got their namesslightly wrong, as well as placing them in the wrong era. On the

81 Yu-ti chi-sheng .#4jj33Effca. 1221, edition of 1849), 12.3a-4a; Chia-tingCh'ih-ch'engchih 1.2b. There is little agreement among the sources on these changes. I have followedthose cited, which seem relatively reliable.82 Tseng Hui -t, "T'ai chou chiin-chih t'ing-pi chi" , Ch'ih-ch'eng hi(cited note 68), 2.4a.6-4b.5. Date from 4b.6.


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CITY-GOD CULTS 387other hand, his account of the establishment of the new capital ofLin-hai/T'ai chou seems to be substantially correct.83

Thus it appears that some time during the Sui, a fortified placewas established on Ta-ku Mountain, in or near the city that hadexisted there, usually called Lin-hai, for many centuries. Shortlythereafter, the seat of civilian administration was moved right nextto the fortifications-a prudent step in view of the unsettled condi-tions prevailing at the time. The offices were installed in what was,or had been, a mansion belonging to the Ch'ii family. A few yearslater, when T'ang took control of the area from the last of a seriesof regional strongmen, a city-god temple was established nearby.84It would seem that the Ch'ii family had long been associated withTa-ku Mountain. It is notable that even the Chin version of the Ch'iiT'an myth states that T'an and his mother moved from Ta-kuMountain to their pools on Dragon Mother Mountain.85 It may bethat the 1010 account of the bestowal of titles on Chiu-shuiMonastery and the dragon king is substantially correct when itstates that already in Wu times prefectural offices had beenestablished on Ta-ku Mountain.86 But correct or not, governmentoffices were established there at one point. The question is, why?The site was high up, accessible only by a steep path.87 Defense mayhave been a consideration, but I believe that the association with thedivine emanations that still clung to the place was more important.

83 It is tempting to speculate that Tseng Hui provides us with the bestversion of thelegend, because that would suggest that the T'ai chou ch'eng-huanghencult originated in amanner similar to several of the others we have studied; that is, by crystallizing arounda local figure who wielded great power in the Sui-T'ang transition. The only concreteevidence that stands in the way of this interpretation is the anecdote from the Chindynasty Chun-kuo hih(see above, p. 383), and that, as we have seen, is not unassailable.But Tseng Hui's preface is inaccurate in other ways, as is pointed out by the editor ofChia-tingCh'ih-ch'eng hih,for example on p. 5. lb.5-6. Moreover, the name Ch'u Hui-t'andoes not appear in the early T'ang portion of the actual list of prefects (ibid., 8.8a if.).What is finally most convincing is the unanimity of all other Sung sources-many ofwhich I have not discussed-on the basic outline of the legend, plus the entire absence ofany evidence about an early T'ang prefect of T'ai chou named Ch'udHui-t'an.

84 See p. 2b of the map section of Chia-tingCh'ih-ch'enghih,which shows the chou ch'eng-huangmiaoand Yung-ch'ing yuan j3


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388 DAVID JOHNSONIf the Ch'ii family was still powerful in local affairs at that time,the siting of the yamen could in addition have had substantial localpolitical significance; but unfortunately we do not know if this wasthe case.

Whether or not the Ch'iis were defunct by the time the offices ofLin-hai/T'ai chou were established on Ta-ku Mountain, the asso-ciations of the place with the dragon-pair of Dragon MotherMountain must still have been very much alive. Their cult or, byT'ang times, the cult of Ch'ii T'an, the dragon king-was probablyone of the most important in the area. In times of drought, it washe to whom prayers for rain were offered. So, when the idea of acity god reached T'ai chou, it was natural that people there choseCh'ii T'an as their city god; especially since the city god was believedto be a kind of celestial magistrate, and everyone knew that theprefectural offices were actually an old residence of the Ch'iufamily-indeed, of the father of the city god himself.88

CONTEXTThe first and most fundamental point to make about these citygods is that they all have different names: they are the spirits ofdifferent persons. They share a label, not an identity. Thus we aredealing here not with belief in a specific deity like Maitreya orMa-tsu, but with the idea that there was a class of divine beings whowere especially concerned with cities. It is true that some spiritswere worshipped as ch'eng-huang hen in many cities. I have foundthree for the T'ang-Sung period: Kuan Ying, Chi Hsin i and-much less important than the first two-Chou Ho AMPL.ll threefought for Liu Pang against Hsiang Yu at the founding of the Han,and two died violently. I suggested earlier that worship of KuanYing was probably deeply rooted in Kiangsi well before T'ang times,and the same may be true of the others. But this still leaves un-answered the question of why these particular individuals becamethe objects of widespread worship, and why they were so readily

88 This tradition was very strong in Sung times, at least. It appears not only in thesources already cited-the 978 preface to the list of magistrates, the 1010 "Record ofthe Dragon King," and the 1223 Ch'ih-ch'eng hih (31.1b.4 and elsewhere)-but also inPin t'ui lu (cited note 2), 8.95.1.


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CITY-GOD CULTS 389transformed into city gods.89 Still, these were exceptions; most citiesdid not share their ch'eng-huang hen with anyone else.Our subject, therefore, is a specific religious idea, the idea thatcities had their own tutelary deities. When did this idea first appearin China? Was it a very ancient notion, as seems likely, or not?The earliest use of the term "ch'eng-huang hen" I have found is inthe fragment from Nan Yungchouchi preserved in T'ung tien, alreadyquoted.90 Nan Yung chou chi was probably written around 550.91

89 This is properly the subject of a separate study, but I should point out that bothKuan Ying and Chi Hsin have entries in the eighth-century primer, Meng ch'iuV. (asdo Hsiao Ho and the lord of Ch'un-shen). The book, which was widely used in T'ang andSung times, consists of rhyming couplets, with each four-character line alluding to aninstructive or emblematic incident in the life of a particular figure from Chinese history.(For example: "Chi Hsin impersonates the emperor," alluding to the episode in whichChi, dressed as Liu Pang and accompanied by 2,000 women wearing armor, succeededin deceiving Hsiang Yu long enough for Liu Pang to escape from the city of Jung-yang,where he had been trapped. See Burton Watson, tr., Recordsof the Grand HistorianofChina,2 vols. [New York: Columbia University Press, 1961], 1:64). Inclusion in Mengch'iuguaranteed that a person would become a by-word for whatever quality or virtuethe incident alluded to. This could have prepared the ground for later acceptance as acity god. Yet only a small fraction of the individuals included in Meng ch'iu ever becamech'eng-huanghen,so this is at most a contributing cause. (On Mengch'iusee Burton Watson,tr., Meng Ch'iu: FamousEpisodesFrom ChineseHistory andLegend[Tokyo: Kodansha Inter-national, 1979], and Hayakawa Mitsusaburo JI)'- R], ed., Mogyu [Tokyo: MeijiShoin, 1973], 2 vols.).90Above, p. 365. I should emphasize that I have dated the emergence of the city-godidea by tracking the earliestusesof the terms"ch'eng-huang shen" and"ch'eng-huang miao."I have found claims that specific city-god temples were founded in the fourth, third, second,and even first centuries A.D., but the sources containing the claims date from the twelfth tothe nineteenth centures. Two early examples: Ch'un-hsiSan-shanchih F Lj (1182;Ssu-k'uch'uan-shuhen-pen, ixth series, ed., rpt. of 1780 ed.), 8.16a, states that the ch'eng-huangmiao of Fu 4 chou was built in the T'ai-k'ang period of the Chin dynasty (280-289); and Pin t'ui lu (cited note 2), 8.93.6, states that the ch'eng-huangmiao of Wu-hu am(near modern Wu-hu hsien, Anhui) was established in 239. These two sources are nine orten centuries removed from the events they are describing, and although it is not impossi-ble for genuine traditions, bolstered by inscriptions and other written evidence, to persistfor so long, such claims have to be scrutinized carefully. And in fact, in these two cases,and in the other five or so that I have come across in which very early founding dates arealleged, the dating can be refuted. (The demonstrations are far too lengthy to includehere.) I have concluded that if there is a kernel of truth in such statements, it is this: thestructures that housed the city-god temples in the twelfth century or whenever may con-ceivably have been built in the third century or earlier, but not for use as ch'eng-huangmiao.The language of the texts can usually be interpreted in this sense, though whether it wasintended by the authors to be so interpreted is another matter. This is why I have paidgreat attention to the dates of texts, rather than the dates alleged in the texts, in trying todetermine when the city-god idea first began to spread.


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390 DAVID JOHNSONThe second and third earliest uses of the term are in two officialhistories presented to the throne in the first half of the seventhcentury, Pei Ch'i shu IL31 and Nan shih -jQ.92 In the first we readthat "there was a shrine (MI3PR)n the city [of Ying S chou] to a godknown popularly as the ch'eng-huang hen, to whom both officials andprivate citizens constantly prayed." The passage goes on to saythat in 555 Mu-jung Yen A:-9 prayed to the ch'eng-huang hen forassistance when Ying chou was besieged, and that the god intervenedvery effectively.93 The passage in Nan shih also involves Ying chou.Lun, Prince of Shao-ling XP5SEQ, took control of the city in 550.When he was in the process of setting up his administration, anumber of uncanny events took place, including this one: "Duringthe sacrifice to the ch'eng-huang hen, when the ox was about to becooked, a red snake came twining out of its mouth."94

91The work is no longer extant, but we know that its author, Pao Chih , servedin the Bureau of Literary Virtue tZ!', which was established in 531 (Liang shu gl[Peking: Chung-hua shu-chu, 1973], 49.690). He is also said to have served Hsiao IX;$, Prince of Hsiang-tung 4H3, and since Hsiao became Emperor Yuan of Liang in552, his service must have been prior to that date (Nan shih _P [Peking: Chung-huashu-chu, 1975), 62.1531). We also know the birthdate of one of his colleagues in theBureau of Literary Virtue: Hsu Ch'ih f4}j was born in 472 (Liang shu 30.448). All thissuggests that 550 is a reasonable estimate of when Nan Yungchouchi was written. See alsoChang Kuo-kan, Chung-kuo ufang-chihk'ao (cited note 2), pp. 475-76.

92 Pei Ch'i shu was completed in 636, but the author, Li Po-yao > (565-648), drewheavily on the work of his father, Li Te-lin jfg# (530-590), who had helped compile theNational Historyof Northern Ch'i. The contents of Pei Ch'i shu can therefore be fairly re-garded as largely of the middle and late sixth century (PeiCh'ishu 2 [Peking: Chung-hua shu-chiu, 1972], Introduction, pp. 1-2). Nan shihwas given official approval in 659,but its author, Li Yen-shou 7!E, seems to have made considerable use of his father'sincomplete history of the Northern and Southern Dynasties, and since his father died in628, it is clear that at least some of the contents must date from the early seventh andlate sixth centuries (Nan shih, Introduction, pp. 1-2). Note that L. C. Goodrich datesNan shih "c. 629." See L. S. Yang, Topicsin ChineseHistory (Cambridge: Harvard Uni-versity Press, 1950), p. 35.

93 Pei Ch'i shu 20.280-81. Date: 280.13. There were several places called Ying chou atthat time. The one involved in this anecdote was on the site of the present-day Wu-ch'angan, Hupei. This is proved by the remark on p. 281.1 that Ying-wu Island , wasupstream from the city.

94 Nan shih53.1324. That this Ying chou is the same as the Ying chou of the precedinganecdote is proved by the account of these events in Tzu-chiht'ung-chien cited note 28),163.5035, which says that when the Prince of Shao-ling reached Chiang-hsia Er with hisarmy, the prefect of Ying chou came out to greet him in the suburbs and offered to cedethe prefecture to him. Chiang-hsia was the capital of Ying chou, and was on the site ofmodern Wu-ch'ang, Hupei. Note that Sui shuF (Peking: Chung-hua shu-chii, 1973),23.658, gives an identical account of the red snake portent, but connects it with a differentLiang prince.


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CITY-GOD CULTS 391These are the earliest references to ch'eng-huang hen worship known

to me. They all can be placed around the middle of the sixth century.After the seventh century, references to city-god cults become moreplentiful, and by the end of the T'ang there is evidence that the ideahad become firmly entrenched, as we shall see. But what about theperiod before the T'ang? Were there really no ch'eng-huangshencults then? This is a point of central importance for my argument,and so I shall describe in some detail my search for evidence ofpre-T'ang city-god cults.

My approach was very straightforward: I looked for uses of theterms "ch'eng-huang hen" and "ch'eng-huangmiao" in concordancesand indexes to pre-T'ang works, of which the following are themost important:Wenhsiian IIC3*(early sixth century), the first great anthology of Chinese literature,and its seventh-century commentary by Li Shan , (which quotes many

earlier works, now lost) ;95Shih-shuohsin-yiu"JfLf (early fifth century) ;96the collected works of T'ao Ch'ien PJjM (365-427) ;97the collected poems of Lu Chi 5&i (261-303) ;98the collected poems of Hsieh T'iao AA)JL464-499) ;99Shui ching Ak,8and its early sixth-century commentary, the most important medie-

val repository of information on physical and cultural geography;'00San kuo chih and its extensive fifth-century commentary;101Hou Han shu and its commentaries ;102

95 hiba Rokuro t, R5s,d., Monzenakuin ;_ 1,4 vols. (Kyoto: Kyoto DaigakuJimbun Kagaku Kenkyuijo, 1957-59).96 Takahashi Kiyoshi ffi, ed., Sesetsu shingo sakuin : (Hiroshima:Hiroshima Daigaku Bungakubu Chuigoku Bungaku Kenkyushitsu, 1959).97Horie Tadamichi , ed., To Emmei shibun sogo sakuin F

(Kyoto: Ibundo Shoten, 1976).98 Goto Akimasa jfkE, ed., Riku Ki shi sakuin f I (Tokyo: Shoundo Shoten,1976).99Shiomi Kunihiko J_A)$)jW,ed., ShaSenjo hi ichijisakuin i (Nagoya:Saika Shorin, 1970).100Cheng Te-k'un f ed., Shui ching chuyin-te 7 f a F1114 (Harvard-YenchingSinological Index Series, no. 17).101William Hung, ed., San kuo chih chi P'ei chu tsung-ho in-te f(Harvard-Yenching Sinological Index Series, no. 33), and Wong Fook-luen, San kuochihso-yin (cited note 77).102 Hou Han shu chi chu-shih tsung-ho in-te i,114 (Harvard-YenchingSinological Index Series, no. 41); Wong Fook-luen, Hou Han shu so-yin *,gj (HongKong: Research Institute of Far Eastern Studies, Chung Chi College, Chinese Universityof Hong Kong, 1971); Fujita Shizen gif , Gokanjo oi shiusei i 3 vols.(Kyoto: Kyoto Daigaku Jimbun Kagaku Kenkyuijo, 1960-62.)


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392 DAVID JOHNSONHan shu and its commentaries;103Shih chi and its commentaries; 104the treatises on economics of Shih chi, Han shu, Chin shu, Wei shu, Sui shu, and

others 105Pao-p'u-tzu neip'ien t4=} and waip'ien 4S8, a Taoist compendium probablyof the early fourth century;106

the five chief classics: I ching, Shang shu, Shih ching, Ch'un-ch'iu, and Li chi;107Tso chuan;108andChou i.109

The terms "ch'eng-huang hen" and "ch'eng-huangmiao" appear innone of these works.

Nor do they appear in the detailed table of contents of the hugenineteenth-century collection of ancient and medieval prose entitledCh'uan shang-kusan-tai Ch'in Han san-kuo liu-ch'aowen __

/N*_->C.110or do the two terms appear in the title of any inscrip-tion earlier than 729 in the "miscellaneous inscriptions" (tAI)section of Shih-k'o t'i-pa so-yin JAJI,111 or in the indexes totwo Sung collections of inscriptions from the Han and Weidynasties. 12

103 Han shu chichu-pu sung-hoyin-te& fiQ. jj,-- 1i14(Harvard-Yenching SinologicalIndex Series, no. 36), and Wong Fook-luen, Han shu so-yin (Hong Kong: ResearchInstitute of Far Eastern Studies, Chung Chi College, Chinese University of Hong Kong,1966.)104 Shihchi chi chu-shih sung-hoyin-te i4 (Harvard-Yenching Sinologi-cal Index Series, no. 40), and Wong Fook-luen, Shih chi so-yin (Hong Kong: ResearchInstitute of Far Eastern Studies, Chung Chi College, Chinese University of Hong Kong,1963).105 Shih-huo hih shih-wuchungtsung-hoyin-te ?jE,fi, ij4 (Harvard-YenchingSinological Index Series, no. 32).106 Kristofer Schipper, ed., Pao-p'u tzu nei- [wai-] p'ien t'ung-chienXr (Paris: Institutdes Hautes Etudes Chinoises de l'Universite de Paris, 1965, 1969.)107 Morimoto Kakuzo A*-A , ed., Gokyo akuinIHff,gI, 4 vols. (Tokyo: MeguroShoten, 1935-44).108 Ch'un-ch'iuching-chuan in-te 8 i4 (Harvard-Yenching Sinological IndexSeries, supplement no. 11).109 Chou1iyin-te fu chu-shu in-shu yin-te N4 IF ig (Harvard-YenchingSinological Index Series, no. 37).110 Ch'iian hang-ku . . p'ien-mingmu-luchi tso-cheo-yin : .. . t H R H I(Peking: Chung-hua shu-chu, 1965).111Cited note 2.112 Uchino Kumaichiro p8kjfftX $, ed., Kan Gi hibun kimbunkyomei akuin (Reishakuhen) and ... (Reizokuhen) , (-E) (Tokyo: KyokutoShoten, 1966).


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CITY-GOD CULTS 393Many pre-T'ang short stories concerning the realm of gods and

ghosts, or summaries of such stories, are preserved in the greattenth-century collection, T'ai-p'ing kuang-chi . As city godsbecame a familiar feature of the religious landscape, they naturallybegan to appear in such stories. A search of the two sections mostlikely to contain evidence of city gods the twenty-four chaptersdealing with "gods" (chiuan291-315) and the eleven on "resurrec-tions" (ch/uan 75-86), containing altogether around three hundredstories turned up no mention of a city god in any story dating frombefore the third quarter of the eighth century."13A separate searchof the early fourth-century collection of tales of the supernatural,Sou shen chi 4t*4', also uncovered no uses of the terms ch'eng-huangshen or ch'eng-huangmiao."l Nor did I find any references to citygods or city-god temples in collections of translated pre-T'ang tales,such as The Man Who Sold a Ghost.115 The absence of city gods inpre-T'ang descriptions of the world of the dead is very significant,since they seem to have been thought of from the beginning assupernatural magistrates, with authority over the souls of peoplewho died in their jurisdictions.All this evidence, negative though it is, suggests very stronglythat the idea of a city god did not appear much earlier than the first

113 The earliest was in a story taken from a lost work by Niu Su 4:R called Chi wen#B 3rg "Hsiuan chou ssu-hu" '.J+Ij7pI T'ai-p'ing kuang-chi cited note 2], 303.2399-2400.)When was Chi wen written? Next to nothing is known about Niu Su, so dating must bebased predominantly on internal evidence. Forty-two selections from Chi wenpreservedin T'ai-p'ing kuang-chigive some kind of date as part of the narrative. The latest of theseis a reference to T'ang Su-tsung (r. 756-762). (The reference in ch. 331, number 5, to"Chen-yuan 23" is clearly a mistake for "K'ai-yuan 23;" there was no Chen-yuan 23, andan event clearly subsequent to this one is said to have occurred in "mid-T'ien-pao".)Most of the dates are in late K'ai-yuan and early T'ien-pao, say 730 to 750. The editorof T'ang-jenhsiao shuo }J\I (Shanghai: Shanghai ku-chi ch'u-pan she, 1978; p. 239)states that the uncanny anecdotes recorded in the book are set mostly in the periodfrom the K'ai-yuan era to the Ch'ien-yuan era (713-760). I think it is probably safe todate Chi wen to the third quarter of the eighth century. Of course, some of the materialin it may have been taken by Niu Su from earlier collections now lost; some may evenhave originated in local storytelling. Even if Niu Su had been the first to adapt them fora reading audience, they could still have been in existence for generations before helearned of them. This is a general problem with T'ai-p'ing kuang-chi s a historical source,and needs to be always kept in mind by anyone using it. Still, in this case I see no reasonto doubt the cumulative impression left by the three hundred or so stories I have used."14Kan Pao :, Sou shen chi (Ts'ung-shuchi-ch'eng d.).

115 Gladys and Hsien-yi Yang, tr. (Peking: Foreign Languages Press, 1958).


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394 DAVID JOHNSONhalf of the sixth century. Moreover, it probably did not becomeparticularly important until the eighth century. The earliest text inthe Ch'uan T'ang wen . that mentions a city god in its title isdated 717; 116 as we have seen, the earliest inscription dealing with acity-god temple listed in Shih-k'o t'i-pa so-yin is dated 729, and theearliest story in the "gods" and "resurrections" sections of T'ai-p'ingkuang-chi n which a ch'eng-huanghen is mentioned is not earlier thanthe third quarter of the eighth century. According to my data,two temples were in existence by the mid-sixth century, and a thirdwas founded in 622. An additional twelve are known to have beenin existence during the eighth century, fifteen more in the ninth,twenty-three more in the tenth, two more in the eleventh, fortymore in the twelfth, and sixteen more in the thirteenth." 7

China, as everyone knows, was a civilization of city builders.Walled cities were common during the Eastern Chou, and almostcertainly were characteristic features of the Chinese landscape inWestern Chou and even Shang times as well.18 Moreover the

116 Chang Yiieh , "Chi ch'eng-huang wen" J t, Ch'iuanT'ang wen (cited note8), 233.9a-b.117 It would be extremely useful to list all ch'eng-huang iao n chronological order by dateof founding, but unfortunately that is impossible. A few texts say when a temple wasfounded, but most simply supply evidence that a temple was in existence at the time thetext was written. For example, of the twenty-three temples listed above for the tenthcentury, I have evidence of the founding of only five; for the rest, thirteen were grantedtitles or received offerings during that period, and the remaining five are mentioned intenth-century texts of various sorts: a memorial, an edict, an inscription, and so on.Therefore we cannot readily map the spread of the ch'eng-huanghen dea. I have done the

next best thing: given for each century the number of temples or cults founded duringthat period, plus the number of temples or cults of whose existence we learn for thefirst time in texts datable to that century. This means that a cult assigned to the tenthcentury may actually have been founded in the eighth century, but despite this defect,the chronological data are still very suggestive, as we shall see.Thir

The City-God Cults of T'Ang and Sung China

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