Author: CHUNG Yoon Ngan
Date: 05-02-04 07:58
Chinese Story: The Door Gods
門 神 公
Even though we are living in the 21st century, there are still many people following the ancient tradition by sticking the portraits of two so called "Door Gods" on to their front doors hoping that they would stop any evil spirit entering their houses. The story behind the origin of this superstitious happened about 1,300 years ago.
During the reign of Emperor Tai Zong Li Shimin (太宗皇帝李世民 AD 627 to 649) of Tang Dynasty (唐朝 618AD to 907AD), there lived a Dragon King, who was in charge of the rain, in a river called Jinghe (涇河 in the present day province of Gansu 甘肅省). The Dargon King had an old friend by the name of Yuan Shou-Cheng (袁守誠) and they had been friends for many years.
One day, while they were drinking and having friendly chats the Dragon King laid a bet with his friend that he could delay the rain from falling by an hour and reduced the quantity of rain by about one tenth.
The Dragon King performed a magical trick and the rain indeed had come late and the quantity of rainfall on earth was reduced. Wei Zheng (魏徵), the officer in charge of recording events in the Tang Court, was disturbed by the unusual raining pattern. He conducted an investigation and found out that the Dragon King had manipulated the weather pattern. Wei Zheng had the Dragon King arrested and put on trial for causing a lot sufferings to the people due to the shortage of rain. Eventually, the Dragon King was sentenced to death by execution which would be carried out at three o'clock in the afternoon three days after the sentencing.
That night, the Dragon King appeared in Emperor Tai Zong's dream and asked the Emperor for help. He told the Emperor the whole affairs and begged him to stop his official, Wei Zheng, for carrying out the execution. The Emperor promised him that he would stop Wei Zheng from leaving the palace on the execution day.
On the day of execution and after lunch, Emperor Tai Zong summoned Wei Zheng to the palace. Shortly after, Wei Zong arrived at the palace. In order to keep Wei Zong in the palace the Emperor asked him to play chess.
The Emperor and We Zheng were happily playing chess. However, just before three o'clock, Wei Zheng had fallen asleep on the chess table. Emperor Tai Zong Li did not wake him up lest he would go to execute the Dargon King. Emperor Tai Zong waited there watching him snoring. The Emperor was happy because he knew that Wei Zheng would miss the appointed time for the execution of the Dragon King. However, the Emperor did not know that while Wei Zheng was asleep his dream rushed to Jinghe and had the Dragon King beheaded.
That night, the headless ghost of Dragon King came to the Emperor's chamber demanding the Emporer to return his life. The ghost accused the Emperor for breaking his promise. The Emperor told the ghost that he did not let Wei Zheng leave the palace that afternoon and he was sleeping on the chess table in front of him and it was not possible that Wei Zheng had executed him. The ghost told the Emperor that he had been executed at three o'clock in the afternoon. Suddenly the Emperor realized that Wei Zheng had executed Dragon King in his dream. But it was too late and the Dragon King was already dead.
Night after night, the ghost of the Dragon King came to the his chamber where the Emperor slept, demanding for the return of his life. It was impossible for the Emperor to sleep while the ghost was howling outside his chamber. Strangely, no one could hear the howling except him, the Emperor who could not stand the disturbances every night. Emperor Tai Zong became ill and all the physicians in the ciuntry could not cure him.
Qin Shubao (秦叔寶) and Wei-Chi Jingde (尉-遲敬德), the two generals, heard the news that the Emperor was sick and being disturbed by a ghost. That evening, the two generals came to the palace with full military uniforms to see the Emperor. They told the Emperor that they would stay on guard at the palace doors during the night.
That night, the Emperor did not hear any howling. Emperor Tai Zong presumed that the ghost was afraid of his two generals. Night after night, the two generals stayed at the doors of the chamber and the ghost did not appear. But the Emperor could not allow his generals to stay on guard every night. So he ordered an artist to draw the portrays of the two generals and sticked them on the doors of his chamber. Eventually, the ghost disappeared and the Emperor's illness was cured.
News about the portraits of the two generals and the ghost spread far and wide in the country and other artists drew the portraits of the two generals and sold them for money. People bought the pictures and sticked them on their doors in order to stop any potential ghost entering their houses. People named the pictures as door gods and it became a tradition of sticking the pictures of these two generals on their doors on the eve of the New Year.
CHUNG Yoon-Ngan (鄭永元)
All rights reserved 02052004
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