Door gods posted at the Palace Museum in Beijing

There are a group of male gods that have been worshipped and honored for thousands of years. These male gods look strange, contrary to popular aesthetics, face value is so low that "hanging on the door to avoid evil". That's right, it's them, the door gods!

Door God, Lunar New Year on the door of a painting, as the Taoist and Han Chinese folk **** the same belief in guarding the gateway to the gods, the door God can drive away evil spirits, guard the home, to protect the peace and prosperity, to help the good fortune, descending good fortune, and so on.

The earliest door god: God Tantui Yubi

History, the word door god first appeared in the "Classic of Mountains and Seas": "East China Sea, Dushuo Mountain has a large peach tree, coiling three thousand miles of flexure, the inferior branch of the Northeast said that the ghost door, ten thousand ghosts in and out also. There are two gods, one said Shentian, one said Yubi, the Lord read the leader of the ghosts of the harmful people."

"Shentian" is a kind of plant called grass, can let a hundred insects do not invade, to avoid plague; "Yu base" is a spiral lion, once in danger to shrink into a hard shell, to take the meaning of the house to protect the peace.

Ancient myths have "humanized" Shentian and Yubi, and legend has it that they were brothers who were able to subdue evil spirits, and lived under the Dushuo Mountain, which is full of peach trees. Later, people wrote the names of God Tantui and Yubi on peach wood boards and hung them on their doors to drive away evil spirits, which later became known as "Peach Talismans". Wang Anshi's "TEEEL, a new peach for an old one" refers to the scene of the Spring Festival, when people change peach symbols.

The ugliest door god: Zhong Kui

The most common door gods we see nowadays appeared after the Tang Dynasty. At the end of the Tang Dynasty and the Five Dynasties, the position of the door god was taken by Zhong Kui.

Ming Xuande Emperor Royal Pen Zhong Kui out of the patrol picture

According to the "successive generations of gods and goddesses" records, Zhong Kui was originally the Tang Xuanzong years of the literacy and martial arts scholar, because of the low value of the list, angry and hit the death of the steps of the main hall. When the emperor later learned of this, he was so sorry that he gave Zhong Kui a red official's robe to bury him.

Zhong Kui in the earth due to the value of a big loss, but in the netherworld is very at ease, "ghost hunting" advantage full.

The most famous door gods: Jing De, Qin Qiong

Toward the end of the Song Dynasty, Zhong Kui's status was "promoted" and he was hung in the center of the house. The position of the god of the door was vacant again, and the founding ministers of the Tang Dynasty, Jing De and Qin Qiong, filled the position.

It is said that Emperor Tang Taizong killed his own brother in the Xuanwumen Incident and was disturbed by ghosts and had trouble sleeping. Qin Qiong and Yuchi Jingde volunteered to guard his door at night to ensure that the emperor could have a good night's sleep. With the two men guarding the door, Emperor Taizong of Tang really slept peacefully all night until morning, and he felt sorry for his subjects, so he had the image of the two men painted and pasted on the door. This incident spread to the people, and the common people recognized the character and ability of Jingde and Qin Qiong, so they also followed the trend of sticking their two images on the door to ward off evil spirits.

In the beginning, Qin Qiong and Jingde guarded only the front door, and there was another person guarding the back, and that person was Wei Zheng. Ancient doors often had two opposite doors, while the back door was a separate one.

Door deities on livestock doors: Jiao Zhan Meng Liang

After the fall of the Tang Dynasty, and after the wars of the Five Dynasties, a pattern of partial unification was restored in the Northern Song Dynasty. Most of the images of door gods in this period originated from heroic figures, such as Yang Yanzhao, Mr. and Mrs. Mu Guiying, and Yue Fei, a famous general who fought against the Jin Dynasty.

One very special combination was Jiao Zhan and Meng Liang. They became door gods because of their integrity and love for each other - "Jiao never leaves Meng, Meng never leaves Jiao". However, because of their bandit origins, they were generally not used as door deities for households, but were posted on pigsties and horse pens as door deities for livestock doors. It seems that the ancients in the selection of the door god, for its "origin" or to do some consideration.