The lore of city God worship

City God worship had been observed since Medieval Chinese history when towns and cities and dykes were built. This was more so in the later Song dynasty with development in astral naval shipping , water astronomal clocks and engineering and the agricultural reforms of Minister Wang An shi . Then there is the strange story of Dee gong Ann or strange cases of Famous Tang dynasty Dee gong or Judge dee who sought an oracle from the city God temple . As a Chinese legalist scholar , I know that the city God is one of the Chinese legalist gods besides Guan gong and Shang di the astral great bear for militant power because Chinese legalism is about determining the rule of law and the preveledges of the political elite in power and control . What I love about the city god lore is that the city god as a link to the astral world is has a police jurisdictive and legal authority to watch over the people and report to the Jade emperor by deceiding on rewards and punishment and human welfare and protection of the population. So this necessitates the making and offering of all sorts of scarifical food offerings and exotic festival auspicious pastries to appease the heavens for luck and grace . It is also a very good opportunity to eat some exotic tasty treats . China since its civilisation always had been confronted with problems in relation to power and population control and industrialisation and this problem has only become more exacabated in our post modern times with numerous human rights issues and consumerism on the rise . Singapore is only but a micro minizarise world dominated by a semi-behanine benevolent autocacry of a one party dominated mad rat race society . It was under such prevalent circumstances where our mainland forebears resorted to their own devices of city God worship to voice for some justice and peace and protection from upstairs ! http://chinesetemples.blogspot.com.au/2006/07/23-seng-wong-beo.html Chinese Temples: 23. Seng Wong Beo 都城隍古庙 chinesetemples.blogspot.com Any tips for male/ female on prayer in this temple? I'm quite confused when some say male should pray anti clockwise before reching back to the

Veneration of Leizu in Suzhou folklore in relation to silk and shipping

The thunder god was one of the principle gods worshipped in association with magic where the taosit monks came with gongs and drums to perform its rites and this practise is still going on in Taiwan today. The chinese Lei gong is actually the Indain transplanted Rain god Varapni just as the greeks had Zeus. Nordic myths had Thor all with same features of a demi-god with wings and a hammer . The Chinese minister of Thunder Wen Chung is the agent of Lei zu, wife of the yellow emperor . She was the goddess of horticulture and silk-weaving as she taught the people agriculture, rearing animals and making clothes . Thus in Suzhou, local folklore and religion is the worship of Lei zu relates to shipping and silk textile industries and farming. The thunder queen's thunder commands the changes in weather patterns determines food and supply for shipping and bales of silk transported across the grand canal into Jiang su where the silk textile is regionally produced . This was a custom observed during late Min g and Qing times when by prominent families of Shipping pursers were court purveyors of silk clothings for the imperial royal family. This was illustrated in the dream of the red chamber where Xue Pan was the son of a wealthy imperial court purvoyer of the Illustrious Ning mansion. Lei zu the thunder queen had many children with the Yellow emperor who was the original acclaimed mythical ancester emperor of the chinese race associated with the royal astral equatorial realm . Chang yi was the eldest of many who settled in henan which denotes the settlement of the Chinese civilisation at the Yang zi. This is the evidence that original chinese native religion is thunder worship in association with river dragon empeor worship due to its locomotive settlement at the river deltas. It is not the result of a helio-centric society which contributed to monotheism unlike the Jews and the middle east races which crated the Shang dim lore that came much later post warring states literature .

Of vietnamese Taosit dieties

During the time of our family early migration into Melbourne, Chinese and asian food was scarce and costly . The only available places to eat were the various Vietnamese resturants and Vietnamese chinese supermarkets run by the local communities. One incident was when my fatyher and I ate Vietnamese satay beef kuay tiow and I saw the Vietnamese chinese local owner offer a sacrificial food offering of a bowl of yellow egg noodles or mee pok soup at to his earth god shrine . The Vietnamese and khmers also had their own earth god or god of fertility and fortune known as the om khar . It is an indian figurine wearing a turban and fanning himself laughing . He is prayed to by bakers , confectioners and butchers alike . Another incident occurred humorously when the Nanyang Asian supermarket ran out of the Chinese wife biscuits which I loved due to my sweet tooth and I asked the shop assistance when it will be available . He told me there and then I had to wait for 2 weeks for them to replenish the stock as they were imported by ship so I suggested to them to pray and ask some diety to hasten the shipping delivery! Upon inquring which god would they resort to in supplication, his answer was none other than the river goddess Mahzu or Empress of heaven known amongst the seafaring communities and my interest in Vietnamese taoist dieties and customs developed from then onwards . However, being male, I had no interest in the empress of heaven being a mere river goddess so I did my own research and found out that Shang di or Di Gong which is the male Hokkien seafarers god alongside Dou Mu the astral queen and the nine princes . It was transplanted into Phuket in Thailand and the Vietnamese Mekong delta since the later Ming dynasty by migrants refugees. In Ming dynasty China , Emperor Yong le raised the north pole star-god or beiji gong as the absolute divine ruler during the building of the forbidden city in line with feng shui astrology taosit architecture . On the Vietnamese side , it was the fourth Nugyen Emperor Thu Duc who built the famous memorial garden palace . Emperor Thuc Duc was the last independent emperor to rule Vietnam before French colonial rule was established . http://home.earthlink.net/~vieticons/taoistdeities.html