Cheng huang (城隍), the city god, which means a guardian god of city literally. However, the function of city god is judicial. The city god is in charge of judging people’s moral behavior and the disputes between people. If someone did not obey the doctrine of filial piety, the city god will dispatch some ghosts or lower level gods chasing him or her to be punished. If someone cheated, stole, robbed, or hectored, the city god will get him or her to be punished. How could the city god know people well? There are many ghosts and gods belong to the subordinate of city god. The city god is not just a representative of one god, but a bureaucratic system of gods. There are various gods in cheng huang temple (城隍廟), including the lower level judge gods, bailiffs gods and captain of ghost army etc. Their duties are organized as the police and judicial system, including inspecting, detecting, chasing, trialing, and punishing process.
Though the function of city god is clear, the origin of city god is vague. Some scholars thought that the city god originates from a natural god. The evidence is in the Book of Rite (禮記). According to this scripture, there are eight kinds of god which the emperor, the son of heaven, should enshrine. The god closed to cheng huang is the god of dike or moat. Its name is shui yong (水庸). After a long period of time, it transformed to cheng huang. However, this evidence is not direct and strong enough. Firstly, the spread area of city god is mainly around the Yangtze River basin which is different from the Yellow River basin. The Book of Rite is about the Yellow River basin. Secondly, as the direct evidence reveals, the most direct record about the city god is in the record of Tang dynasty. The closed literature evidence is about Six dynasty (六朝) and Sui (隋) dynasty which is recorded or rewritten in Tang dynasty. Above all, one thing can be sure is that the city god appeared in Tang dynasty.
Another aspect of city god is its legend. Most of the stories are related to the historical figures, such as Xiao He (蕭何, 257-193 B.C.), Chun Shen Jun (春申君, ?-238 B.C.), Gnuan Ying (灌嬰, ?-176 B.C.), or Pang Yu (龐玉, ?), a marshal in Han dynasty. The others are about some local people or a dragon king, such as Ying Zhi-xu (應智頊)in Yunzhou (筠州) , You Mao-hong (游茂洪) in Jingzhou (靖州), the dragon king in Taizhou (台州). Regarding to those stories, the city gods not only become a universal god but also localize in relation to local history.
When city god spreads to Taiwan, he developed his own stories also. According to a report in 1935, Kaohsiung City (高雄市), a father asked an artisan to carve a city god’s status for his son who drowned eighteen years ago. The reason is the son’s soul came to his father’s dream and told him that he was be promoted by Jade Emperor (玉皇大帝) to be a city god. The dead son asked his father to carve a city god’s status and held on a parade for him. Then he could be enshrined by citizens. The above is one of city god’s stories in Taiwan.
The city god became an official representative god is Ming dynasty. The Hongwu Emperor, Zhu Yuanzhang (朱元璋), who decreed that all of the subprefecture (州), county (縣) goverment should found the city god temple, then the city god will monitor citizen doing right and wrong and punish the bad person. The city god’s cult became more flourishing and popular than before.
There are about fifty to ninety city god’s temple in Taiwan, including Kingman (金門), Penghu (澎湖). There are some special religious practices about Cheng huang because of his judicial function. When there is dispute which is hard to solve, some people will come to the city god temple to ask the city god solve it. If someone’s integrity were misunderstood or in question, he or she will come to the city god temple to vow. It is said that there are times when a criminal case is hard to solve or on bottleneck, some policemen or prosecutors go to the city god temple praying for help also. The Taipei Xiahai city god temple (台北霞海城隍廟) even develops a character like a matchmaker to help people find a right person. What a fancy one is.
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