Wen Shen () is a deity or group of deities responsible for illness, plague, and disease in
Chinese folk religion
Chinese folk religion, also known as Chinese popular religion comprehends a range of traditional religious practices of Han Chinese, including the Chinese diaspora. Vivienne Wee described it as "an empty bowl, which can variously be filled ...
. In some belief systems, Wen Shen is identified as a single entity who commands ''wen'' spirits; in others, the term is used for a grouping of several distinct deities.
Description
The earliest mention of a group of pestilence gods in Chinese mythology is from the ''Li wei xi ming zheng'' , an apocryphal Confucian commentary dating from the
Han dynasty
The Han dynasty (, ; ) was an imperial dynasty of China (202 BC – 9 AD, 25–220 AD), established by Liu Bang (Emperor Gao) and ruled by the House of Liu. The dynasty was preceded by the short-lived Qin dynasty (221–207 BC) and a warr ...
. This describes three sons of the Emperor
Zhuanxu
Zhuanxu ( Chinese: trad. , simp. , pinyin ''Zhuānxū''), also known as Gaoyang ( t , s , p ''Gāoyáng''), was a mythological emperor of ancient China.
In the traditional account recorded by Sima Qian, ...
, all three of whom died at birth and became spirits of disease. Over time, these spirits became conflated with the "five wet ghosts" of the ''Longyu hetu'' and formed the basis for later groupings of pestilence gods.
The term Wen Shen is used to refer to the Five Commissioners of Pestilence . The Five Commissioners, who governed Heaven's Ministry of Epidemics,
were Zhang Yuanbo , Liu Yuanda ,
Zhao Gongming
Zhao Gongming (), also known as Zhao Gong Yuanshuai (), is the martial god of wealth in Chinese folk religion. Zhao Gongming is the most notable among various forms of Caishen, and his birthday is commemorated on the fifth day of the first lunar ...
, Zhong Shigui , and Shi Wenye . The first four were associated with the four seasons (spring, summer, autumn, and winter respectively) while Shi Wenye was associated with the center and was the superior god of pestilence. In the ''Zhengyi wensi bi dushen dengyi'' , which dates from the
Tang dynasty
The Tang dynasty (, ; zh, t= ), or Tang Empire, was an imperial dynasty of China that ruled from 618 to 907 AD, with an interregnum between 690 and 705. It was preceded by the Sui dynasty and followed by the Five Dynasties and Ten Kingdom ...
, the five gods are associated with the points of the compass.
In traditional Chinese folk beliefs, Wen Shen was believed to release plagues and pestilence upon the world in punishment for the misdeeds of humanity and prayers or offerings were necessary to placate them. Sometimes the placatory rituals would be performed by an entire community.
An alternative to offerings was to use a model boat to symbolically carry the pestilence away; this was a tradition of the Wen Shen cult 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 nort ...
.
As another alternative, the
Taoist
Taoism (, ) or Daoism () refers to either a school of philosophical thought (道家; ''daojia'') or to a religion (道教; ''daojiao''), both of which share ideas and concepts of Chinese origin and emphasize living in harmony with the '' Tao ...
exorcist
Lu Shizhong claimed that the deities could be exorcised by simply calling their name three times.
Many temples were established to honor and propitiate these deities. In 1960, there were over such 730 temples recorded in Taiwan alone.
were regarded as talismans against Wen Shen.
References
{{Reflist, 30em
Chinese gods
Plague gods
Evil deities