The Dingxiang Wang cult
Creators: name: Schluessel, Eric
Publisher: name: Database of Religious History (DRH)
Year: 2023

description: Dingxiang Wang is a multifaceted deity from the area of Changsha, Hunan, China, who became an important object of Hunanese worship both within and beyond the province in the nineteenth and twentieth centuries. The earliest mention of this deity dates back to the Song, during which he was described as the city god (chenghuang) of Tanzhou. He first appeared with frequency in the Qing as a local deity, and then the city god (chenghuang) of Shanhua County, Hunan, which was centered in Changsha. Legends describe him variously as the spirit of an upright demon-quelling official, a flood-calming official, or a locust-eating official, all of whom sacrificed themselves for Changsha. In 1847, he is said to have emerged from the Xiang River and possessed the body of a water-seller, and then marched to the magistrate’s yamen and reported for duty as the city god. He thus took on the aspect of a scholar-official, and several accounts indicate that he advised many hopeful participants in the provincial examinations. In 1852, during the Taiping siege of Changsha, Dingxiang Wang was one of at least two deities (including Li Zhenren) whose images were brought to the top of the city walls in an attempt to repel the enemy. Dingxiang Wang was reported to have been effective: When he was turned towards the battlefield, enemy cannon-fire was repelled, and the Taiping soldiers scaling the walls were pushed into midair. His legends state that he manifested as a spectral general who paced the walls and could be seen in a pavilion atop the wall, planning and directing the battle. For this service, Dingxiang Wang received the official moniker “yongzhen.” Dingxiang Wang thus became closely associated with the Xiang Army (Hunan Army), a military force that emerged from Changsha-area social networks. Its leaders, including Zeng Guofang and Zuo Zongtang, then received visions and guidance from Dingxiang Wang during their campaigns across the Qing. Dingxiang Wang was known to Xiang Army soldiers not only as a healer, but as a protector, as they fought the Taiping, Nian, and northwestern Muslim rebels all the way to Kashgar in Xinjiang. His worshippers, including the army's leaders but particularly demobilized soldiers, left temples to him across China, where he began to take on other meanings. Dingxiang Wang manifested again in the Sino-French War (1884–1885), in which he protected the coast from foreign cannons, following which he received another title, "fushun." The two known images of him reflect the same combination of aspects: he appears as an upright Confucian scholar-official, but with a tiger skin over his shoulders, indicating military prowess. In Xinjiang, meanwhile, a distinct tradition emerged by the early 1890s—not long after the arrival of Hunanese settlers in 1877—in which the Dingxiang Wang legend was adapted to reflect soldiers' experiences in the borderland, while the deity himself was referred to as "Fangshen." The deity was now said to have been an exiled soldier who, earlier in the Qing, had bravely protected his fellows by diving into a flooded fortress, saving them but sacrificing himself. By the 1910s, he was considered the special city god of Han settlers in Xinjiang. At the same time, he appeared as the protector of Changsha and of Nanjing in the Warlord Era, while newspaper reports indicated that in the 1920s he manifested several times in Changsha in order to punish the wicked. Worship continued in the homeland only until the late 1930s, at which point he fell into obscurity. This was the occasion for the compilation of an important temple gazetteer in Nanjing, where one of his “temporary residences” (xinggong) was very active as a center of Hunanese life. He was still known in Xinjiang into the 1990s. The Dingxiang Wang cult thus defined a complex diasporic community.