Putting up or changing
door gods, is an important custom among the Chinese during Spring
Festival. Door gods are pictures of deities posted on the door outside
and inside the house. They are expected to keep ghosts away, protect
the family and bring peace and good fortune. They are named according
to function. There is the main door god, the secondary door god, the
back door god and the wing room door god.
A
typical Chinese house has a huge front gate/door with two wings that
open in the middle. The door gods always come in pairs facing each
other. It is considered bad luck to place the figures back-to-back.
The image of a chubby baby is considered as a wing room door god, symbolizing good luck, longevity and fertility.
The
main door god comes in several different forms. The earliest door gods
were Shen Shu and Yu Lei. They were assigned to guard the entrance to
heaven under a magical peach tree that grew on Mount Tu Shuo, where
they either let people pass into heaven, or rejected them, based on
their life's deeds. The Jade Emperor decreed that those who had done
evil should be caught, bound and thrown to the tigers. Zhong Kui the
ghost-catcher was a door god in the Tang Dynasty. Strictly speaking
Zhong was not a real door god but a mythical ghost-catcher and he is
often called the "backdoor general".
Nowadays,
the most common door gods are Ch'in Shu-pao and Yuchi Gong, who became
popular during the Yuan Dynasty. Ch' in has pale skin and usually
carries swords; Yuchi has dark skin and usually carries batons.
According to a Tang Dynasty legend, the emperor ordered the two
generals to guard his door while he slept to keep away a ghost that had
been bothering him. With the two men standing guard at the door, the
emperor slept peacefully. The next day, the emperor, not wanting to
trouble his two loyal generals, called on men to hang portraits of the
two men on either side of his door. Ordinary families soon adopted the
imperial custom, putting woodblock prints of the ever-vigilant generals
on their front gates in the hope of attracting good luck and fending
off evil spirits.
