Hello, and welcome to Chinese Folk Tales.
This is Beibei.
Today, we're going to talk about some interesting traditions in Chinese culture.
For example, how people in northern parts of China eat dumplings during the spring festival, but people in the south prefer rice cakes instead.
And one thing that people from the north and south have in common is to put up spring festival couplets around their doors, and also paintings of door gods.
What are door gods?
Well, that's what today's show is all about.
The tradition of putting up paintings of door gods on one's doors or gates started in Han Dynasty, which was roughly about 2000 years ago.
Traditional gates and doors used to have two sides, double doors.
So there will be two door gods, one on the left door and one on the right door.
One would think that as deities or gods they will look benevolent and kind, with smiling faces and maybe a round belly like the Buddha, but not the door gods.
While some are pot-bellied, but they're made to look more like demons swinging their weapon, ready to kill.
You don't want someone like that inside your gate.
Why, though, do they have to look so fierce?
Well, legend has it that the original door gods lived on the Du Shuo Mountain.
That was no ordinary mountain.
A giant peach tree grew on the very tip top of the mountain, and the branches of this tree curved and twisted, reaching a radius of 3000 miles.
Can you imagine?
The layers of leaves were so thick that no light could shine through, so the world underneath the canopy was completely dark.
There was a door not under the tree, but on top of the tree.
That was where floating souls and ghosts would enter on their way to the underworld.
To brighten up the scenery a bit, a golden rooster lived on top of the tree.
Every morning, at the crack of dawn, the rooster would stretch its neck and crow at the top of its voice for the world to hear.
The other ordinary roosters, like human beings versus deities, would then get the message and start crowing too, waking up the world.
The door to the underworld on top of the tree needed to be guarded, because even ghosts got lonely and bored in the underworld.
And some would sneak through the gate and roam around the world to pass some time, I suppose.
But once the rooster crows, they've got to go back.
The very first pair of door, gods were responsible for guarding the gate to the underworld and making sure that the wandering souls would be back on time.
If any of them had committed any crimes or had been mischievous toward the humans, they would be roped up and sent to the tigers.
See?
That's why the door gods had to look like demons, so that even bad ghosts would fear them.
But they were kind to humans.
It was their job to protect the people.
The real door.
Gods lived on the mountain with a giant peach tree and people wanted their own door gods too.
So they painted them on red paper and glued these paintings onto their gates facing the outside to ward off wandering ghosts and lost souls.
The door gods are here to protect our homes.
In the beginning, their images or the names of the door gods were carved onto plates of peach tree wood and these would be hung on the door.
These were the peach wood charms against evil.
They were harder to make, so most people just used paper paintings.
And later they evolved into the spring couplets written on red paper and pasted onto the two sides of the door frames guarding against evil, and sent forth auspicious wishes for a brand new year.
The two door gods that I mentioned were the very first, and their names are too difficult to read so I won't mention them.
Later, there came new generations of door gods.
In the Tang Dynasty, there were generals in real life.
A popular one was called Qin Chong, who had a white face like powder, white slanted eyes and flowing beard.
The other one had a dark face, like pitch black, and round eyes and a beard.
They're fully armored, with golden helmets on their heads, and bows and arrows too, looking like they're ready for battle.
There is an interesting story when it comes to these real general turned door gods, and it has something to do with another dragon king too.
The dragon king of the Jing River.
Legend has it that this dragon king committed a hideous crime and was sentenced to death by some celestial judge.
The dragon king didn't want to get his head chopped off.
He found out that the one responsible for bringing down the axe was a minister working for Emperor Tang Taizong.
The dragon king begged the emperor to save him.
The emperor felt bad for the dragon king and agreed to help him.
The execution time was set at 1145 on a certain day.
When that day came, Emperor Taizong called the minister into office.
So that's like the imperial palace.
The minister was getting ready for the execution already.
But he couldn't say no to an order from the emperor.
So he hurried in to see the emperor, hoping he would be freed soon enough.
The emperor, however, had the chessboard laid out and invited the minister for a game.
I have a dragon head to chop off, the minister must have thought.
But the emperor dragged things on, as if he had all the time in the world.
But in fact, the emperor was in a hurry too.
The game dragged on and on and both were so distracted that one time the emperor actually blurted out Is it 1145 yet?
The minister was a smart guy and figured things out immediately.
So he said, yes, it is.
And he took a break and fell asleep.
Fell asleep?
Why did he fall asleep?
Because he did not have time to kill the dragon king in person.
So he killed him in sleep.
Yep, that's how the story went.
So things got a bit hard to explain.
The Emperor did want to help and did try to help.
But it didn't help.
The Ghost of the Dragon King haunted the Emperor's dreams every night.
The poor Emperor couldn't sleep.
So he ordered his two generals to stand guard in full armor right outside the door.
And that worked.
The dragon king's ghost didn't dare to come in anymore.
But the emperor felt bad about having the generals staying awake all night.
Every night.
So he asked to have the two generals painted.
And these were put up around the doorframe.
Probably hoping that the dragon king's night vision wouldn't be that great.
The two Tang Dynasty generals were door gods of the first order, so their paintings go on the doorframe of the main gate.
There are normally many other gates and doors inside a palace or a courtyard, and they all need to be guarded too.
So there are actually all kinds of door gods.
For example, there are door gods for civil servants, dressed in appropriate attire, no swords or shiny blades.
And there are female door gods, in the image of beautiful fairies.
There are even door gods in the image of Magu Fairy, the one holding the giant peach and offering longevity wishes.
No matter their gender or looks the door.
Gods are there to protect, to safeguard homes and palaces against evil, day and night.
So next time when you see these paintings on red paper, you'll know that they carry the wish of the Chinese people for peace and safety.
All right, that's it for today and hope to see you next time.
If you've got any questions or feedback, please feel free to contact us via email at podcast at cricomcn or find us on Twitter China Plus Pods.
