Tu'er Shen (, The Leveret Spirit) or Tu Shen (, The Rabbit God), is a Chinese deity who manages love and sex between men. His name literally means "
rabbit
Rabbits, also known as bunnies or bunny rabbits, are small mammals in the family Leporidae (which also contains the hares) of the order Lagomorpha (which also contains the pikas). ''Oryctolagus cuniculus'' includes the European rabbit sp ...
deity". His adherents refer to him as Ta Yeh (, The Master).
In a folk tale from 17th century
Fujian
Fujian (; alternately romanized as Fukien or Hokkien) is a province on the southeastern coast of China. Fujian is bordered by Zhejiang to the north, Jiangxi to the west, Guangdong to the south, and the Taiwan Strait to the east. Its ...
, a soldier is in love with a provincial official, and spies on him to see him naked. The official has the soldier tortured and killed, but he returns from the dead in the form of a leveret (a rabbit in its first year) in the dream of a village elder. The leveret demands that local men build a temple to him where they can burn incense in the interest of "affairs of men". The story ends:
Legends
According to ''
What the Master Would Not Discuss
''What the Master Would Not Discuss'' (, alternatively known as Xin Qixie ) is a collection of supernatural stories compiled by Qing Dynasty scholar and writer Yuan Mei.
The work has also been called ''What the Master Does not Speak of'' and o ...
'', written by
Yuan Mei
Yuan Mei (; 1716–1797) was a Chinese painter and poet of the Qing Dynasty. He was often mentioned with Ji Yun as the "Nan Yuan Bei Ji" ().
Biography
Early life
Yuan Mei was born in Qiantang (, in modern Hangzhou), Zhejiang province, to a cu ...
during the
Qing dynasty
The Qing dynasty ( ), officially the Great Qing,, was a Manchu-led imperial dynasty of China and the last orthodox dynasty in Chinese history. It emerged from the Later Jin dynasty founded by the Jianzhou Jurchens, a Tungusic-speak ...
, Tu'er Shen was a man named Hu Tianbao () who fell in love with a very handsome imperial inspector of Fujian Province. One day he was caught peeping on the inspector through a bathroom wall, at which point he confessed his reluctant affections for the other man. The imperial inspector had Hu Tianbao sentenced to death by beating. One month after Hu Tianbao's death, he appeared to a man from his hometown in a dream, claiming that since his crime was one of love, the underworld officials decided to right the injustice by appointing him the god and safeguarder of homosexual affections.
After his dream the man erected a shrine to Hu Tianbao, which became very popular in Fujian, so much so that in late Qing times, the cult of Hu Tianbao was targeted for extermination by the Qing government.
The deity can be seen as an alternative to
Yue Lao
Yue Lao () is a god of marriage and love in Chinese mythology. He appears as an old man under the moon.
Yue Lao appears at night and "unites with a silken cord all predestined couples, after which nothing can prevent their union."Tu'er Ye, the rabbit on the moon.
Government suppression
Images of Hu Tianbao show him in an embrace with another man. The sense that the villagers must keep the reason for the temple secret in the story may relate to pressure from the central Chinese authorities to abandon the practice.
Qing dynasty
The Qing dynasty ( ), officially the Great Qing,, was a Manchu-led imperial dynasty of China and the last orthodox dynasty in Chinese history. It emerged from the Later Jin dynasty founded by the Jianzhou Jurchens, a Tungusic-speak ...
official Zhu Gui (1731-1807), a grain tax circuit intendant of Fujian in 1765, strove to standardize the morality of the people with a "Prohibition of Licentious Cults". One cult which he found particularly troublesome was the cult of Hu Tianbao. As he reports,
Modern interpretations
Although Tu'er Shen is popularly revered by some temples, some Taoist schools may have considered homosexuality as sexual misconduct through history, probably deeming it is outside marriage. However, many Taoism scriptures do not mention anything against same-gender relations, mostly maintaining neutrality.
The story may be an attempt to mythologize a system of male marriages in Fujian attested to by the scholar-bureaucrat Shen Defu and the 17th century writer Li Yu. The older man in the union would play the masculine role as a ''qixiong'' or "adoptive older brother", paying a "bride price" to the family of the younger man- it was said virgins fetched higher prices- who became the ''qidi'', or "adoptive younger brother". Li Yu described the ceremony, "They do not skip the three cups of tea or the six wedding rituals- it is just like a proper marriage with a formal wedding." The ''qidi'' then moved into the household of the ''qixiong'', where he would be completely dependent on him, be treated as a son-in-law by the ''qixiong''s parents, and possibly even help raise children adopted by the ''qixiong''. These marriages could last as long as 20 years before both men were expected to marry women in order to procreate.
Keith Stevens reports seeing images like these in
Hokkien
The Hokkien () variety of Chinese is a Southern Min language native to and originating from the Minnan region, where it is widely spoken in the south-eastern part of Fujian in southeastern mainland China. It is one of the national languages ...
-speaking communities in Taiwan, Malaysia, Thailand and Singapore. Stevens refers to these images as 'brothers' or 'princes' and calls them Taibao (), which is probably a perversion of Tianbao. Stevens was usually told that the two figures in an embrace were brothers, and only in one temple in Fujian was he told that they were homosexuals.
The history of Hu Tianbao has been largely forgotten even by the temple keepers. However, there is a temple in Yonghe District,
Taiwan
Taiwan, officially the Republic of China (ROC), is a country in East Asia, at the junction of the East and South China Seas in the northwestern Pacific Ocean, with the People's Republic of China (PRC) to the northwest, Japan to the no ...
that venerates Hu Tianbao in his traditional guise. The temple is known as the Hall of Martial Brilliance ().
Revival
In 2006, a Taoist priest by the name of Lu Wei-ming founded a temple for Tu'er Shen in Yonghe District in the
New Taipei City
New Taipei City is a special municipality located in northern Taiwan. The city is home to an estimated population of 3,974,683 as of 2022, making it the most populous city of Taiwan, and also the second largest special municipality by area, b ...
in
Taiwan
Taiwan, officially the Republic of China (ROC), is a country in East Asia, at the junction of the East and South China Seas in the northwestern Pacific Ocean, with the People's Republic of China (PRC) to the northwest, Japan to the no ...
. Roughly 9,000 gay pilgrims visit the temple each year praying to find a suitable partner. The temple also performs a love ceremony for gay couples at the world's only religious shrine for homosexuals. As of 2020, the temple remains the only extant shrine to the deity.
Depiction in media works
* He is the main character of a 2010 Taiwanese drama ''The Rabbit God's Matchmaking''.
* In
Andrew Thomas Huang
Andrew Thomas Huang is a Chinese-American visual artist and film director known for his music videos for artists Björk, FKA twigs and Atoms for Peace. In 2019, Huang was nominated for a Grammy for his music video for FKA twigs - "Cellophane."
...
's short film ''Kiss of the Rabbit God'', Tu'er Shen seduces a restaurant worker.Kiss of the Rabbit God - NOWNESS Vimeo
* Tu'er Shen appears in the ''
American Gods
''American Gods'' (2001) is a fantasy novel by British author Neil Gaiman. The novel is a blend of Americana, fantasy, and various strands of ancient and modern mythology, all centering on the mysterious and taciturn Shadow.
The book was pu ...
'' episode "The Rapture of Burning". He is portrayed by Daniel Jun.
Homosexuality in China
Homosexuality has been documented in China since ancient times. According to one study by Bret Hinsch, for some time after the fall of the Han Dynasty, homosexuality was widely accepted in China but this has been disputed. Several early Chinese ...