Chinese Folklore

China has a multitude of folklore which has evolved significantly over the millennia, and which varies drastically by region. As such, what we currently know about Chinese folklore is ultimately very little compared to the sum total of all Chinese folklore.

In the words of Raymond Deloy Jameson:

> "The myths of the Greeks and Romans can be studied because so few have been preserved for us; the myths and legends of the Chinese have not been studied in a systematic sense because there are too many of them."
>
>

He says that every motif from the myths of Europe can be seen in Chinese myths, and often predate the European equivalents by a number of centuries.

## Difficulties in Studying

The main difficulties in studying Chinese folklore are as follows:

1) It has had thousands of years of continuation.

2) The sheer size of China, and the changing locations of China's borders over time.

3) Many different cultures existing within China, with some cultures only being part of China at a specific point in regards to 2.

4) Cultural diffusion between the cultures referred to by 3.

5) Scholarly class altering folklore for their own purposes.

6) Priestly class altering folklore to fit their beliefs.

7) Bias in the people writing down folklore at any given time.

8) Christian missionaries trying to demonstrate the evil effects of Chinese superstitions, and ethnographers imposing European systems on Chinese beliefs, leading to the idea in the west that there is very little variation in customs and beliefs within China.

## History

Before the 5th century BCE, folklore in China had become separated into the folklore of the aristocracy, and the folklore of the commoners, though there was significant overlap in various places due to socio-political changes, such as the appearance of a feudalistic society.

As philosophical schools arose, many stories were modified to fit with these new philosophies, as were they with the import of new religions and political ideas.

Aspects of China's folklore can be attributed to all of China's past cultures, and it is now very difficult to identify which culture was responsible for which ideas. Scholars of diffusion theory, zodiac myths, and similar fields have often tried to fit patterns within Chinese folklore into their ideas, with varying degrees of success. They often struggle due to how some foreign ideas are easily accepted and adapted in some regions but not in others, with ideas further evolving over time, making it very difficult to fit it into comparative studies without much thought and specific research.

### Pre-History and Early History

The most notable of the earliest Chinese cultures was in the Yellow River Basin, west of the Shantung Peninsula. In modern terms, this includes the provinces of Shandong, Hebei, Henan, Shanxi, Shaanxi, and Gansu, heading towards the western reaches of Modern China. The Shang Dynasty (c. 1500-1100 BCE) was present in this region, and they produced "late" type bronze works, as well as practicing a form of divination magic using characters scratched onto bones or tortoise shells.

In the early 20th Century, it was stated that the objects produced by this culture stand up well against similar ones produced in Europe and North America since the renaissance. As far as scholars in the early 20th Century could tell, religious beliefs were fairly similar between the Shang Dynasty and the lower classes in early 20th Century China.

Textual references to aboriginal cultures in this time, some of which still exist in isolated locations within this region, indicate that the founders of the Shang Dynasty, as well as some later Dynasties originating in this region, migrated into this region and displaced the original populations.

Textual sources on this period are inadequate for the most part, as the first classical Chinese histories are from the Zhou Dynasty (c. 1100-221 BCE), and many of those were destroyed in the Qin Dynasty (221-206 BCE), before being reconstructed in the Han Dynasty (206 BCE - 221 CE), with things being added or removed as they deemed necessary for their state. As such, most of what is written about the Shang Dynasty can't be trusted without archaeological verification.

Sima Qian's *Records of the Grand Historian*, dating to the Han Dynasty, are considered the most useful early account of Chinese history due to it providing a mythologised account of pre-Chinese history in the region:

#### Mythologised Pre-Chinese History in the *Records of the Grand Historian*

According to the *Records of the Grand Historian*, the universe was initially ruled by the Twelve Emperors of Heaven, who ruled for 198,000 years, then the Eleven Emperors of Earth each ruled for 18,000 years each, for a total of 198,000 years, followed by the Nine Emperors of Mankind, who ruled for 45,000 years, and then the Sixteen Sovereigns who nothing is known about.

They were followed by Fu Shi and Shên Nung, culture heroes who invented arts and crafts. Fu Shi and Shên Nung had the heads of humans and the bodies of serpents. Shên Nung was the first to discover agriculture. Huang Di was a human who taught the people the forms of government, crafts, manners, and streams.

The Xia Dynasty (c. 2205-1557 BCE) was then founded by Yü the Great, though it is debatable as to whether it shared a continuous culture with later Chinese dynasties. Yü worked for thirteen years to control the floods which the land was prone to, refusing to enter his home until they were dealt with, only going close enough to hear his children. He is respected even in modern times as the perfect civil servant.

#### Early Beliefs and Customs

A number of early beliefs dating to the Shang Dynasty (and potentially earlier) have survived to the modern day, though due to how they have evolved in different parts of China in the ~3100 years since then, only incredibly generalised statements can be made about them. The earliest elements are as follows:

* "Yin-yang", greatly elaborated on by the Taoists, originates in the basic concept that balance is the law of existence, symbolised by the circle bisected by a sine curve. It came to represent the opposition between the positive and negative forces in the universe as part of overall balance (e.g. male/female, heaven/earth, etc.). This went on to become important in Tibetan Buddhism, with sex between a man and a woman representing the highest form of balance mankind is capable of as it shows opposites in union. Yang became attributed to the male sex and heaven, whilst Yin became attributed to the female sex and earth, as well as to body parts. Maintaining balance between all these things serves as the foundation of Taoism, Chinese geomancy, and Chinese folk medicine. The maintenance of balance is also what leads to days being considered auspicious or inauspicious in Chinese culture, as new undertakings that are not done regularly should only be started when the forces of nature are favourable for the restoration of balance in such a way as that undertaking helps restore balance. Maintaining balance is suggested by Jameson as a key reason why rites and sacrifices have been preserved since the dawn of China.
* Divination, in the Shang Dynasty at least, was a practice done by the aristocracy. Early Chinese characters would be scratched onto tortoise shells and bones, which would then be heated up. The heat would cause the surface to crack, and the patterns of cracks would be interpreted by a priest. This was generally used to determine auspicious days for sacrifices, travel, and going to war. Writing was considered sacred in ancient China, and even in modern China is something to be protected and preserved from all damage. As such, one can conclude that the knowledge of writing and the interpretation of the oracle bones was originally a secret known only to the priests.
* *Wu* cults, led by a *wu* priest, operated all throughout Shang Dynasty society. Their learnings would be passed down through collegiate bodies, and included trance states, singing, and dancing. Some scholars are of the opinion that these cults led to the development of theatre in China. They also served as mediums, and many recorded rites are similar to shamanistic practices performed in modern Mongolia and Siberia.
* Priest Kings and their Cults of Heaven, Earth, Soil, and Grain, unlike the the yin-yang, divination, and *wu* cults, were an invention of the Zhou Dynasty, not the Shang Dynasty. The main duty of these priests was to pacify T'ien (heaven), personified as Shangdi, and Di, the earth. T'ien/Shangdi, in accordance with the yin-yang, was male, and Di was female. Hou T'u was the god of the fields, Shê was god of soil, and Hou Chi was the god of millet. The ruler, as the Son of Heaven, was the only one with the authority to perform ceremonies to T'ien. At times he would also perform rites to Hou T'u and Hou Chi, thought by scholars to be an attempt to bridge the gap between the traditions of the agrarian Shang people and the Zhou people, who were formerly nomadic. Other nobles and officials would perform rituals to Hou T'u and Hou Chi for more specific areas, instead of the state as a whole. A sacrifice to Shangdi would be performed on the first day of the agricultural year, which in the lunar calendar signifies the coming of spring. Immediately following this sacrifice, official calendars would be circulated, specifying the days for planting, harvesting, and other domestic activities, and grain from the royal granaries was distributed. For this sacrifice, the king, as Son of Heaven, wore an outfit of green and yellow, possibly as a representation of an earlier figure known as the "corn king".
* Ancestor Worship was also instituted by the Zhou Dynasty. Even in modern China it is of great importance to the people, and it has been linked by scholars to fertility cults. Even from the earliest time in Zhou China, this was a well-developed cult. The belief is that a human has two souls: one animal (*p'o*, created during conception) and one human (*hun*, created at birth). P'o is the physical soul which follows the corpse to the tomb, is nourished by the descendants' sacrifices, and is lost if the body is destroyed. If the p'o leaves the corpse and finds some other way to nourish itself, it becomes a *keui* (ghost/demon) and creates chaos in the wider world. The hun faces a number of challenges after the person's death, including having to escape the earth spirit who wants to eat it, and bypassing the Heavenly Wolf that guards the gate of Shangdi, it reaches the palace of Shangdi, where it is sustained by sacrifices by their descendants, answers their divinations, and intercedes with Shangdi on their behalf. If the entirety of a clan dies out and the sacrifices stop, both the p'o and hun become hungry and, driven mad by their hunger, become malicious demons. It is speculated that the tablets which the sacrifices were placed before may have had a phallic origin in the distant past.

Sacrifices were performed *at least* as far back as the Zhou Dynasty:

* When an aristocratic male died, his wives and retainers were likely the first sacrifices to him, and this practice is reflected in modern times by burning papier-mâché at the grave of a deceased relative.
* There would be a ceremony each year wherein an attractive virgin woman was sacrificed to the God of the Yellow River to be his bride. There would be a period of feasting before the ceremony, after which the "bride" would be dressed in a ceremonial outfit, put on a marriage bed in a boat, and launched into the river. The unwillingness to deprive a river god of a sacrifice is a potential explanation for people in some parts of China being historically hesitant to rescue drowning people.

Spirits of rivers and mountains were also revered during the Zhou and potentially also Shang Dynasties. Whenever something occurred that could upset the balance of the world, such as crossing a river or mountain, making an alliance, travelling, or the transition from one age to another, a ritual had to be performed in an attempt to restore balance. Many of these rituals have survived to the modern day, though the importance placed on them varies greatly by both community and individual.

### Rationalists

The Rationalists were the Zhou Dynasty philosophers, historians, and theologians who worked to preserve and reinterpret the beliefs and customs of the Shang Dynasty, and they were the inheritors of the teachings of Shang Dynasty priests, including the knowledge of reading and writing, which allowed them to gain powerful positions in royal courts. When China fractured, many Schools of Rationalists were formed, many with tendencies in direct opposition to each other. These Schools numbered in the hundreds.

Two of the most prominent of these schools were the Confucians and the Taoists. The Confucians felt that China had to return to the practices of wise rulers from the distant past, and thus researched into the past and codified the ancient legends and rituals into the Five Classics of the Confucian Canon. These books are:

* *I Ching*, the Book of Changes, devoted to the art of divination, particularly the "P'a Kua" set of eight trigrams.
* *Shu Ching*, the Book of History
* *Li Chi* and *Chou Li*, the Books of Rites
* *Shih Chin*, the Book of Poetry
* *Spring and Autumn Annals*

All of these were once ascribed to Confucius himself, but now only the *Spring and Autumn Annals* is occasionally ascribed to him. The other four have two main similarities: they represent clearly the views of Chinese antiquarians of the 5th century BC, a period of rationalisation and social change before the rise of the Qin Empire, who were invested in improving the morality of the people, and all of these texts have been ascribed to multiple authors at one time or another and, ultimately, their actual authors are unknown. The fact that they are all associated with Confucianism even in the modern day is a testament to the influence of Confucius and his ability to come up with a solution to the need of a doctrine which would satisfy the Chinese people.

The Taoists, considered the contemporaneous rivals of the Confucians, also worked to preserve Chinese folklore. They are considered the rivals of the Confucians because, whereas the Confucian school taught the importance of rationalism and following rules about morality, the Taoist school taught that laws regarding morality should be ignored. The goal of Taoism is to seek balance in the Tao, or Way: a balance between the individual and the outer world, both the scientific and the supernatural, and once such a balance has been struck, to gain immortality as a result.

For their studies of the individual aspect of the Tao, the Taoists studied physiology; the idea being that, through the proper exercises, the balance of yin and yang in the body could be restored if one become dominant over the other. Over time these exercises evolved into meditative rituals. They also studied chemistry in the hopes of creating an elixir of immortality, resulting in the creations of substances such as gunpowder. Divinations were used to determine upcoming events that would cause imbalances, and magical talismans would be used to ward off such events. They also recorded rites of passage between different phases of life, and from the dissemination of this information, many regional variants arose.

It is important to note that, in modern terms, the ancient Taoist and Confucian schools are different from the modern religions bearing the same names which evolved from them: modern Confucianism has been forced to make many changes over the centuries in order to keep its position of importance in China, resulting in differences between the more traditional, ritualistic Confucianism practiced in rural regions, and the more studious form practiced in the cities where more foreign ideas have been adapted into Confucianism. Likewise, Taoism has become less centralised and, according to R. Jameson, much of the lore has been forgotten by its modern practitioners.

Buddhism was imported to China from India during the Han Dynasty, and certain aspects of traditional Chinese folklore and Buddhist belief were combined. For example, Bodhisattvas became known as Pusas (a type of god), and they were integrated into the Chinese pantheon. It is suggested by Jameson that this was for practical reasons: the average person didn't particularly care about the origins of a god if it meant the god would help them. Further foreign imports that were merged into the wider Chinese folklore include, but are not limited to, the adoption of concepts from Tibetan Buddhism, and the adoption of Tantric traditions from India. In the early 20th Century, Marco Polo was revered in many temples, and students were known to pray to "the god of the machine" before using complex machinery.

## General Beliefs

According to Jameson, the following are fairly common elements of Chinese folklore and, whilst not all will be present in the folklore of each particular time and place, one is likely to encounter the majority of them:

* The universe is ruled by Shangdi, as the Supreme Ruler of Heaven, or by the Jade Emperor, as the highest off all spiritual or physical things. This ruler oversees an elaborate bureaucracy of spirits and other beings who report to the ruler and carry out their mandates. Some regions have Jade Emperor, as Yü Huang, identified with Indra, which some say is due to the rivalry between Taoists and Buddhists during early periods of Buddhist popularity.
* The bureaucracy has three groups that appear in most times and places: city gods who control life in settlements, place gods who control rural life, and the Kitchen God who controls life at home. City gods, known as Ch'eng Huang, report to Shangdi on problems and troublemakers in the place they control. Place gods, known as T'u Di, are considered the peasants' direct channel to Heaven, being prayed to in times of crisis, fear, hope, and gratification. The Kitchen God, known as Tsao Chün of Tsao Wang, reports once a year on the behaviour of each family.
* The nether world has 10 courts, each ruled by a king, made up of 16 wards each. The fifth court, ruled by Yen Lo, is the most important. The temples of the city gods depict these courts, their wards, and the punishments they inflict on people. Lei Kung, the thunder god, is used by heaven to punish people - he has a bird's head and claws, and wields a drum and chisel. Some versions have Lei Kung as the only Thunder God, and say that punishments sometime arrive late because he can't be in multiple places at once, whilst others say he is the President of the Ministry of Thunder, and he sends emissaries out to do his bidding. If a person Lei Kung has to kill dies before he can kill them, he destroys their tomb, and his victims, people guilty of great crimes, can be protected by people of great virtue.
* The moment of death of every thing is decreed by Heaven. Yen Lo, Prince of the Fifth Court of Hell, is the judge of the recently deceased, and sends his minions to collect the soul. He judges them using the *Book of Destiny*, which contains a record of their acts in this life and their previous lives. These elements are often heavily influenced by Buddhist thought - the Buddhist 128 hot hells, 8 cold hells, 8 dark hells, and 84,000 other hells are often modified to fit into Chinese worldviews. The Confucian tradition tends to have little to do with this, and the Taoist tradition has tried to simplify it. The judges of Hell treat their human counterparts with respect, and are given instruction by them. All the powers of Hell, Heaven, and Earth are derived from Shangdi.
* When a person dies, *at least* one officer from Hell displays their warrant and arrests them, before taking them to Hell. Entrances to Hell are said to be in a cave in western Sichuan, and a blinding dust cloud. The journey is said to be both painless and wondrous. People who don't die by natural means or who, for one reason or another, don't end up going to Hell become demons. The ghosts of those who commit suicide are said to haunt the place they died and try to get others to commit suicide, being reincarnated in the suicide's body if they succeed. The ghosts of murder victims also haunt the place of their murder and try to punish their killer.
* Demons, spirits, and ghosts, are all the result of souls of the deceased not making it to Hell. Other supernatural creatures include gods and *xian*. The character for "xian" combines those of "man" and "mountain". *Xian* is often translated into English as spirit, demon, or fairy. They serve as informant spirits, and can become invisible at will, as well as taking the forms of people known to the one they are speaking to. There are stories of them replacing individuals, such as a man's wife, making him suspicious through strange behaviour. Those who take on human form are often considered to be malicious at the very least.
* The *hun* and *p'o* are very similar in nature to the demons, ghosts, and spirits, and they are often difficult to distinguish from each other. Once a person dies, what happens to their *hun* is up to debate: in the Confucian tradition it ceases to exist, some Taoist traditions say it resides in Hell, and in the Buddhist tradition it is reincarnated. Alternatively, it finds a recently deceased human or animal corpse to possess. This can include their own body, as long as it has not decomposed or been possessed by something else. These possessions are generally considered hard to identify, with the exception of the person's unusual behaviour. The *p'o*, once the *hun* has left the body, keeps the body functioning until it gives out, at which point the body starts to decompose. Powerful ones occasionally use the corpse to commit heinous crimes of a material nature, and particularly strong ones have been said to animate even just the corpse's skeleton once the rest has rotted away. In addition to the *hun* and *p'o*, each part of the body has its own spirit(s).
* When a person sleeps, their *hun* leaves their body and does its own things, which contribute to dreams. While it is doing this, it can occasionally become lost (often by being frightened) or captured, preventing it from finding its way back to the body. Sometimes, the *p'o* can be rational, making it act as though it was a second *hun*. A person with a rational *p'o* whose *hun* is not in their body can appear to be in two places at once, and a person with a rational *p'o* are believed to be able, with training, to be able to direct their *hun* to specific places to communicate with others.
* Souls and spirits enjoy the same pleasures and vices as humans. Hu Hsien, fox spirits, are reputed to be lustful drunkards, for example. Some spirits aid humans to repay them for kindness the humans have shown them, such as helping them hide from Lei Kung, whilst others try to use humans in an attempt to become more powerful.
* Geomancy, divination, fortune telling, and astrology are complex sciences, not just magic. Their purpose is to discover fortunate and unfortunate influences. For example, buildings where people (alive or dead) reside in should face south and be near veins of strength, so they may boost their Yang influence to produce strength. Earthen mounds or trees should be placed behind to shield the structure from Yin influences. Pagodas attract wayward spirits, preventing them from causing harm to people living nearby. In haunted houses, a shrine should be built to the haunting spirit in the proper place and food offerings placed on it to keep the spirit pacified. Divination and fortune telling can be done through many methods, often the same ones used in other places. Diviners and fortune tellers work with astrologers to study destiny to maintain the balance of forces, and feasts of birth, marriage, and burial, as well as sowing and harvesting, eating of certain foods, and even when to have sex are determined by these individuals in order to work to maintain universal balance.

## Chinese Calendar

The Chinese calendar is a combination solar-lunar calendar, with the monthly divisions being solar, and divisions within a month being lunar. Months are referred to as "moons". The year is made of 12 moons, and each moon is made of 28 days, with extra days added as necessary to make it work. Years are cyclical in groups of 12, with each year in the cycle named after a particular animal, similar to the animals of the Greek and middle-eastern zodiacs. Each of the 28 days in a moon has a particular name, and each is considered either auspicious or inauspicious for action. Instead of the calendar being divided into 52 weeks, as in the Gregorian calendar, it is instead divided into 24 two-weeks made of 15 days. The year also has joints and breaths, which serve to separate the seasons. Days are separated into 12 periods, each 2 hours long. Each of these periods is named after an animal, and each associated with yin or yang. What this means is, when one wants to do something, they should know the influences that govern the hour, day, and year.

### Festivals

The First Moon is the month at the start of spring. For the first few days, all work is halted and people are expected to spend time with their family, and friends, remember their ancestors, and take precautions for what the new year will bring. During this festival, household gods and spirits return to the home and are given offerings of food and drink. On the third day, a sacrifice is made to Caishen, the god of wealth. Houses are purified by the mistress of the house by carrying a pan filled with boiling vinegar into each room. If a family was particularly unlucky the previous year, exorcists will be called in to break any spells of bad luck they are under. The first ten days of this moon are their own holidays: the first is the Birthday of Fowls, followed by that of Dogs, Pigs, Ducks, and other animals. The Birthday of Ducks is when bathhouses are reopened. The Birthday of Horses (day 6) is when one is expected to visit relatives, and the Birthday of Mankind (day 7) is when people should stay home and eat red beans, with men eating 7 and women 14. The eating of the red beans on this day is meant to protect the people from sickness.

The Li Ch'un festival, celebrating the beginning of spring, also takes place within these first 10 days, typically between days 7 and 10. In the past, it involved a procession and a sacrifice of an ox or buffalo.

The Feast of Lanterns takes place on the 15th day of the moon and is associated with prosperity and long life.

The 18th day involves making offerings to the stars, and on the 19th, the Rats' Wedding Night, all members of the household are expected to sleep early. Also on the 19th, the gods visit Shangdi, and married daughters are expected to visit their parents. Near the end of the moon, fairs open in large towns.

The Second Moon, as a whole, is considered a festival for celebrating the Sun god and Earth gods. The 19th day is the birthday of the goddess Guanyin, known in the Buddhist tradition as Avalokitesvara, the goddess of love and compassion, said to have been born from the Buddha's tears of pity for the world's suffering. It is thought by scholars that she is a relatively recent addition to the Chinese pantheon, having usurped the place of similar deities whose myths are now applied to her.

The Second Moon also contains the celebrations of the birthdays of Confucius and Laozi.

The Ch'ing Ming festival occurs 106 days after the Winter Solstice, typically towards the beginning of the Third Moon. According to Marcel Granet, it was originally a fertility celebration involving ritualistic orgies. In the modern day, it is used for paying respects to the ancestors and promising them that the family line will continue.

Another festival in the Third Moon is the Birthday of Xiwangmu, the Mother Goddess of the Western Heavens. Furthermore, this moon is host to a number of major pilgrimages, and festivals honouring important authors.

The eighth day of the Fourth Moon (also known as Summer Moon) is the celebration of the birthday of Siddhartha Gautama, the Buddha.

The Fourth Moon is also when festivals are held in honour of the eight immortals of Taoism, who were originally humans who gained immortality through different routes discovered by Taoists. They are a fun-loving group of whom many myths tell the antics, including riding clouds, setting fire to oceans, getting abominably drunk, and dancing from China to Heaven.

In the Fifth Moon is the Dragon Boat Festival, which is ultimately done in the honour of water spirits. Furthermore, sacrifices are performed for the Gods of Medicine and Exorcism.

The 13th Day of the Fifth Moon is the festival of Guandi, a god of war.

The Sixth Moon, when the rainy season starts, has celebrations in the honour of Lung Wang, the dragon king. A paper/cloth effigy of him is carried through the streets by at least a dozen bearers. If the rains are late, rites are performed to hasted them, such as the ringing of the Great Bell near Beijing for an entire day, and the transport of the image of Lung Wang from his temples to dry fields in other regions.

Also in the Sixth Moon are celebrations honouring Ma Wang, the guardian of cattle, and Lu Ban, the god of carpenters.

The Seventh Moon, also known as the Moon of Hungry Ghosts and the Autumn Moon, contains a festival lasting from day 15 through to 30 (going into two of the year's extra days). Food is prepared on the 15th day for the ghosts who no longer have living descendants and are thus always hungry. Lotus-flower lamps are carried through the streets in some places, and in other places candles are placed on tiny boats at dusk and sent down stream.

The Eighth Moon is dominated by harvest, which is celebrated through theatre and travelling entertainers. The Harvest Festival itself is on the 15th day of the moon, and is also the moon goddess' birthday. It is believed that, on this day, people can steal a melon from a friendly neighbour. If the neighbour is unaware of the theft, the thief can dress it in baby clothes and give it to the neighbouring couple, and all involved will then have a feast. The seeds of this melon are associated with potency. On this night, women's chamber pots were traditionally left unemptied, and the thief who stole the melon can then steal this to be blessed with children in the near future.

The 9th day of the Ninth Moon is the day of a festival wherein people go up hills and fly kites.

The 25th day of the Ninth Moon is the birthday of the city god Cheng Huang.

The Tenth Moon, also known as the Kindly Moon, has a festival of the dead at its beginning.

The Eleventh Moon, also known as the White Moon, is the month of the Winter Solstice, on which day people make sacrifices to their ancestors, and is considered a particularly auspicious date for weddings.

The Twelfth Moon, also known as the Bitter Moon, is dominated by preparations for First Moon, such as a festival of cleaning houses on the 20th day, and the mandate that all debts must be paid by midnight on the final night of the Moon. Furthermore, on this final night, images of the Gate Gods who protect the house are placed on the doors to ward off evil spirits.

The 23rd day of Twelfth Moon has a festival where each family takes their effigy of the Kitchen God, smears his mouth with honey so he won't speak any evil, and burns him so he can ascend to Heaven and give his annual report on the family.

#### Festivals of Life

These are festivals held when a person transitions from one state of life to another. These celebrations are both superstitious and social, designed to relieve emotional stress and reassure people in their social security. Posters are put on walls with statements on them that act both as expressions of hopes and as prayers, in much the same way as people putting things saying "God Bless our Home" in Christian nations. These celebrations are also used to reinforce the idea that a person doesn't know what will happen next, as they are taken from the life state they are used to and placed into a different one.

## Birth

### Male Offspring

In China, a family line is continued through the male descendants, with the head of a family acting as the family's priest for ceremonies relating to the ancestors. This leads to the desire for male offspring, as they are viewed as necessary to keep the ancestral spirits happy, and there is also an idea that ancestral spirits in Heaven have political intrigues in motion, which can require their family continuing. Powerful ancestors are thought to help their descendants on Earth, meaning that having male offspring makes it more likely for a descendant of a person's to get ancestral help in the future.

There is a belief that, if expectant parents put a gift of baby shoes before an image of Guanyin in one of her temples, their child will be male. A similar belief involves stealing a shoe from one of her temples while promising to return a better one if the child is male, and then giving a better one if the child is so. In other places, pictures of male babies are stolen and placed in the expectant mother's bed for her to sleep with. In other places, Bixia Yuanjun and her attendants, the Lady of Posterity, the Lady of Fecundity, the Lady who Activates Birth, and the Lady who Brings the Child are all invoked to get a male child. Another tradition has Kui Xing, a literature god, be prayed to for a male child, possibly due to the association between scholarship and success, but also potentially due to other roles associated with him in the past. Images of unicorns and other benevolent forces are also prayed to for a male child. Some parents would go on pilgrimages to shrines of local deities associated with phallic imagery to try to get a male child. In some places, the act of having sex is ritualised in an attempt to ensure male offspring, such as the Taoist method of using divinations to determine the hour of a particular day of a particular moon of a particular year and which position to have sex in at that time to guarantee a male child, based on the exact time the parents were born at.

There is a belief that a household can be cursed to only produce female children, and that this curse can be broken by giving the next child a masculine name, or by having the pregnant woman wear a golden knife at her chest to scare away female spirits that would otherwise make her child female. The knife is also said to keep demons at bay, keeping the pregnant woman safe from them. In a similar vein, a small mirror can be carried to scare away demons who are afraid of their own faces.

Attempts to divine whether the child will be male or female are said to be similar to those practiced in other parts of the world, implying that most other forms of divination work for this.

A talisman can be created to hasten delivery, and these can either be pasted on the pregnant woman's body, or burned, mixed with tea, and then swallowed.

If a number of male children die in infancy, the belief is that, by giving the next one a feminine name and making him wear girl's clothes, the evil spirits responsible for the babies dying will be tricked and leave the "girl" alone.

### Delivery

Before delivery, a red candle should be lit in the room to drive away disembodied ghosts who may try to possess the body of the unborn child. To avoid offending the Lady who Brings the Child, dirty water should be removed from the room, emptied into a pit, and buried. Evil people should be kept away during the delivery.

Once the child is born, on the third day a cockerel should be brought into the room where the baby is. Cockerel's are believed to frighten devils and ghosts. The mother (or the midwife if the mother is too weak to do so) should then pray to the cockerel before sacrificing it. The baby should then be ceremonially bathed, then thanks given to the Lady who Brings Children, and a horoscope divination done for the child. For the first month after the child is born, the mother is forbidden from entering the homes of neighbours, and at the end of the month the child's head is shaved and they are carried in a ceremonial procession through the settlement, both to grant them a blessing against fear, and to show them off to the other people. The child is given a cap covered in amulets. In some regions, the child is given earrings, with one ear being pierced for boys, and two for girls, and in others they are given a nose ring to tie them to life. In other places, a circle of cinnabar is painted on the child's face to deter evil spirits.

In some parts of China, there is a belief that, if a child is keeping their parents awake all night, a notice is put on the front door asking passers-by to read it, with the act of reading it helping to pacify the child. There is also a custom called "calling back the soul": when a child dies, the mother wanders the streets while holding the child's clothes, calling for their child to return to them.

## Marriage

Marriage is arranged by a marriage broker, who makes initial arrangements between the families of the bride and groom. After these arrangements are made, the families exchange pieces of paper containing eight characters: two for the year, two for the month, two for the day, and two for the hour of birth. A fortune teller is then consulted to determine whether such a marriage is possible. A common belief is that women born under the sign of the Tiger are dangerous, and that men born under that sign have special abilities. Gifts are then exchanged and, if no inauspicious events take place within the next 3 days, the contract is sealed and the ceremony continues.

Wedding gifts are important: fruits with many seeds are considered propitious. A few days before the wedding, the wedding outfits are purified by being passed over flames (considered the male element), and then they cannot be touched by women until the wedding, especially by a pregnant woman or one in mourning, as these are said to increase the female influence. The wedding date is determined by skilled diviners, but will always be during the waxing moon, never the waning moon. If the bride dies before the wedding, the groom is given a pair of her slippers, which he burns incense before due to their phallic imagery. The bride is given many amulets, including a lotus-shaped purse which is meant to protect her from slander from her mother-in-law. The bride is carried from her father's home to her groom's home in a sealed sedan chair, and during this journey she is imbued with strong yin (female) influence, and must be protected from any yang (male) influence on this journey. The bride is then carried across the threshold and a number of ceremonies performed, many of which are only regarded as social customs in the modern day. The bride and groom then prostrate themselves before the tablets of the groom's ancestors, and then enter the nuptial chamber, wherein the bride remains for the rest of the day. Male members of the family and close friends are then allowed to come into the chamber to discuss indecent topics with her, with her reactions noted by the groom, his mother, and his friends.

## Death and Burial

When a person is dying, they are put on a bed that is not their usual one, and carried outside. This is done to prevent their spirit from haunting their normal bed. Their pillow is taken from them and they are dressed in a burial outfit; the most formal, ceremonial outfit the family can afford.

Once the person is dead, their family takes a lantern, papier-mâché sedan chair, symbolic money, and symbolic food, and goes to the shrine of the local place god, T'u Di. Over the course of the next three days, the family performs a number of ceremonies, after which the family and T'u Di accompany the soul of the deceased to the shrine of the District God, who then accompanies the soul to the shrine of the City God, who introduces it to a Judge of Hell. Gifts are offered by the family to each of these gods to get the soul in their good graces, gifts known in English as "bribes". A tablet of the deceased is then set up in the ancestral temple, and diviners decide the date of burial, while geomancers choose the location.

Before burial, a number of priests and professional mourners come to make lots of noise, before an elaborate funeral procession designed to keep the *p'o* and body together while simultaneously helping send the *hun* on its way takes the corpse to its burial place. Paper concubines, servants, money, food, and sedan chairs are buried with the deceased to give them comfort in the afterlife, though in modern times paper cars and planes replace the sedan chairs. A white rooster rides the catafalque. Once buried, gifts are left for the deceased, surrounded by chalk circles to protect them from thieving spirits. Ceremonies are then performed to put the *p'o* to rest, which can be incredibly elaborate and take years depending on the family and person. The family priest (head of the family) must regularly perform rites before the ancestral tablets.

## Specific Folktales

There is a Tang Dynasty story by Duan Chengshi which is a Cinderella-style story, published in the *Youyang Zazu* 700 years before the first European version was published.

The most common story of the shape-shifting fox is about a student who goes to an isolated temple to study for his exams, when a beautiful girl seduces him and has sex with him until he is on death's door. In some versions she leaves because she cares about him enough to not want to kill him, and in others her identity is revealed and she is driven away from him. Most often, she only leaves because he has no more vital essence to give her.

Another story of the shape-shifting fox is about a farmer who returns from the fields to find his house cleaned and food made. One day, instead of going to the fields, he hid to see who was doing this, and saw a fox enter his house, shed her skin, and transform into a woman. He then stole the fox skin and married her. Years later she finds the fox skin, returns to her fox form, and abandons him.

## Further Reading

* Doré, H. (1911-19). *Recherches sur les Superstitions en Chine, Vol.1-14*. Shanghai
* Doré, H. (1926). *Manuel des Superstitions Chinoises*. Shanghai
* Werner, E. T. C. (1932). *A Dictionary of Chinese Mythology*. Shanghai
* Werner, E. T. C. (1922). *Myths and Legends of China*. London
* de Groot, J. J. M. (1892-1910). *The Religious System of China, Vol.1-6.* Leyden
* Bredon, J. & Mitrophanov, I. (1927). *The Moon Year*. Shanghai
* Bredon, J. (1931). *Peking*. Shanghai
* Wieger, L. (1909). *Folk-lore Chinois Moderne*. Xiangxiang
* Jameson, R. D. (1932). *Three Lectures on Chinese Folklore*. Beijing
* Eberhard, W. (1941). *Volksmarchen aus Sudost China*.
* Eberhard, W. (1937). *Typen Chinesischer Volksmarchen*.
* Eberhard, W. (1937). *Chinese Fairy Tales and Folk Tales*.

## References

1. ↑ 1.00 1.01 1.02 1.03 1.04 1.05 1.06 1.07 1.08 1.09 1.10 1.11 1.12 1.13 1.14 1.15 1.16 1.17 1.18 1.19 1.20 1.21 1.22 1.23 1.24 1.25 1.26 1.27 1.28 1.29 1.30 1.31 1.32 1.33 1.34 1.35 1.36 1.37 1.38 1.39 1.40 1.41 1.42 1.43 1.44 1.45 1.46 1.47 1.48 1.49 1.50 1.51 1.52 1.53 1.54 1.55 1.56 1.57 1.58 1.59 1.60 1.61 1.62 1.63 1.64 1.65 1.66 1.67 1.68 1.69 1.70 1.71 1.72 1.73 1.74 1.75 1.76 1.77 1.78 1.79 1.80 1.81 Jameson, R.D. (1972). "Chinese folklore", in Leach, M. (ed) *Funk & Wagnalls Standard Dictionary of Folklore, Mythology and Legend*. 3rd ed. pp.220-227
2. ↑ 2.0 2.1 2.2 2.3 Jameson, R.D. (1972). "Chinese folktales", in Leach, M. (ed) *Funk & Wagnalls Standard Dictionary of Folklore, Mythology and Legend*. 3rd ed. pp.228