100 Traditional Culture You Have To Know About China: Caishen(财神 Deity of wealth)

This is China's 财事, deity of wealth. Sometimes the stereotype of some friends from other cultures is really interesting. For instance, Chinese people are very rich. Well, I can't say if we are rich or not, but the sure thing is we really love money. Who doesn't love it? We love make it, spend it, give it, collect it, save it, and even bury it. And we have deities of money more than one. To talk about the deity of wealth, we have to talk about the worship of wealth of Chinese people first. It can be divided into 4 stages. Ritual, objects, fetish, deities. In the pre-Qin period, the Asians would pray for wealth through sacrificial offerings and divination. Yushu in the Qin's legacy reported that the day of Gengshen is good for worship or sacrifice because the heaven would bless people this day and people would become wealthy in 3 years. In the Han dynasty, the medium of people's worship of wealth gradually became objects. The money tree, fish, and lotus were all the main signifiers of praying for money at the time. In the Northern Song dynasty, people's worship of wealth began to focus on objects endowed with special meanings, or we can say fetish. Cai Ma, an image of a horse printed on yellow paper, was widely used to pray for wealth. At the New Year's Day, people would buy Cai Ma and place it on the door to pray for the next year's wealth. The personified deity of wealth formally made his debut in the Yuan dynasty. The first member was Zhao Gongming. His previous duty was to manage the plate. By chance, he got this special job opportunity and became the deity of wealth in China. His fan group also emerged at that historical moment. In the Ming and Qin dynasties, members of deities of wealth entered a period of rapid expansion. Guan Gong, who was paid not much attention for a long time, Finally, he joined the deities of wealth in the Qin dynasty, and his popularity even reached that of Confucius. The previous days, in modern times, after a hundred years of screening, the group of deities of wealth has expanded to nine people, and each member has his own division of labor. Bi Gan, the eastern deity of wealth, is in charge of the treasury. Guan Yu, the western deity of wealth, is in charge of martial arts and commerce. Chai Rong, the south deity of wealth, is in charge of fortunes of officialdom. Zhao Gongming, the north deity of wealth, is an all-around member and is the center of the group. Wang Hai, deity of wealth in the midway, in charge of trade. Fan Li, the south's deity of wealth, is in charge of economy. Li Guizhu, the north's deity of wealth, is in charge of fortune and luckiness. Duan Muzi, the southwest deity of wealth, is in charge of culture. Liu Haichan, the northwest deity of wealth, is the only intern in the group and is still in the investigation period. But fighting Liu Haichan, okay, I believe in you. In short, Chinese deities of wealth should have perfect qualities, such as loyalty, filial piety, faithfulness, righteousness, benevolence, and courage. They should also train hard and go through the precipitation of history. It is also important to achieve positive influence to debut, such as earning money in the right way, realizing common prosperity, and so on. So now, you know who to worship?