The City Deity (Cheng Huang aka sheng ong in hokkien)
Origins of the Worship
The City deity (Chenghuang) is the spirit who protects the cities and blesses the people, and is in charge of registers in the nether world. Explanations of the Chinese Characters says, "Cheng contains the people"; "Huang refers to the city wall and moat", and a "place without water is called Huang". The ancient meaning of Chenghuang is city moat.
So Ban Gu wrote, "build palaces and dredge the city moat". Chenghuang as the name of a spirit was firstly recorded in the "Biography of Murong Yan" in the History of the Northern Qi Dynasty. The biography says that Murong Yan guarded a city, in which "there was formerly a sacred shrine, and the divine was commonly called the City deity, to whom people often prayed both officially and popularly". The worship of the City deity became popular gradually after the Sui and Tang dynasties. The section "Official in Charge of Household Registration of Prefecture Xuan" in the Extensive Records of the Taiping Era says that people dreaded ghosts in Wu, so "every prefecture and county needed the City deity".
During the Five Dynasties, the City deity was already granted titles by imperial order. For example, the City deity of Hangzhou was titled the "King Who Follows Righteousness and Protects Peace", the City deity of Huzhou was titled the "King Who Enriches the People and Pacifies the City", and the City deity of Mengzhou was titled the "King of Numinous Response". In the Song dynasty, the worship of the City deity was classified as a national sacrificial rite. Records Made After the Guests Have Left written by Zhaoyushi of the Song dynasty mentions the worship of the City deity, saying, "Today the worship of the City deity prevails almost all over the country. The imperial family bestows temple inscriptions to him or confers titles of nobility to him. The nameless City deities take over the names of the spirits of their neighbouring prefectures, or use the names spread among the people. So they have various names in different prefectures and countries".
Following the ceremonies of the Song dynasty, the temples of the City deity were set up in the Highest Capital and the Great Capital during the Yuan dynasty, and the City deity of the Great Capital was given the title "Saintly Protector King". The worship of the City deity developed to its highest point in the Ming dynasty. In the second year of Hongwu during the reign of the First Emperor of the Ming dynasty (AD 1369), the City God of the capital was given the title "Bright and Numinous King Who Supervises the State, Governs the People and Increases Happiness by Heavenly Order"; the City deites of Kaifeng, Linbao, Taiping, Hezhou and Chuzhou were given the first principal rank, and other City deities of superior prefectures as the second principal rank; the City Gods of greatest prefectures were titled the "Marquises of Numinous Protection" and granted the third principal rank; the City deites of counties were titled the "Earls Who Manifest Protection" and granted the fourth rank. Simultaneously, it was regulated that the halls of the City deity should be set up after the pattern of government offices. They should be as high and wide as government offices, and corresponding imperial robes and crowns should be provided.
The First Emperor of the Ming Dynasty explained his intentions in a series of popularizations of the belief in the City God, saying, "I hold the City deity in esteem in order to make people obey the country's law and order. They dare not act recklessly". The worship of the City deity of the Qing dynasty continued to use the systems of the Ming dynasty. The officials of senior prefectures, greatest prefectures and counties of the Ming and Qing dynasties were required to firstly offer sacrifices to the City deity when they assumed office.
Protecting and Bringing Peace to the Country:
The major responsibility of the City deity is to protect the common people in his own city, including both protecting the safety and peace of the common people, and supervising the officials in this world and redressing their errors. The City God governs in Heaven's name, gets rid of villains, protects and brings peace to the country, benefits all things, judges people's life and death, and bestows people happiness and longevity.
The section "Investigations on Various Cults" in the Supplementary General Investigations on Important Writings quotes the First Emperor of the Ming dynasty, saying, "I arranged the City deity of the capital to command the spirits of superior prefectures, greater prefectures and counties, in order to inspect the good and evil doings of the people and then bring them good fortunes or disasters.
Neither the dead nor the living can be exempt". According to the "Biography of Murong Yan" in the History of the Northern Qi Dynasty, the armies of Liang of the Southern Dynasties stacked reeds so as to cut off the water route of the city Murong Yan was guarding. Then after Murong prayed to the City deity, wind rose and waves surged, which burst the reeds and rescued the army and civilians guarding the city.
Managing Nether World Registers:
Volume 124 of the Extensive Records of the Taiping Era quotes the Records of Retribution, saying that Wang Jianyi, Minister of War of Haongzhou in the Tang dynasty "was often suddenly seized with severe illnesses. He dreamed of a ghost envoy, who called himself Ding Ying and, holding a talismanic certificate in his hand, said that he was chasing after him by the command of the City God. Then Wang Jianyi followed the envoy to see the City deity.
The spirit ordered the attendants to fetch the underworld register to check. After that, he told Jianyi that he could still live for five years and he could be freed". This shows that the City deity was already concurrently in charge of household registers in the nether world. Nowadays, apart from the statue of the principal City deity, those of the judges and runners in the Fengdu Hell, who are the attendants assisting the City deity in managing the household registers in the nether world, are also enshrined in the temples of the City deity.
In Taoist rites, when the soul of the newly deceased is being surrounded, a "certificate" is always sent to the City deity in order to tell him to escort the soul to the altar place and offer food for it to take a form and wait for salvation. This reflects the fact that the City deity is in charge of household registers in the nether world.