The city, as it was intended, was a place where the people of one side were gathered to guard the land and look at each other; The god is a ditch with water in ancient times, which is extended to a moat, and the city god is connected together to be a city where the gate is closed to resist foreign enemies. There is a magistrate who guards the city in the world, and in another world, the one who takes this responsibility is the city god, or the city god. So who is Chenghuang? Is there one in every place? Who is bigger, he or the father-in-law of the land?
In ancient times, wars were frequent, the people of a certain place relied on a city to bless their homes, every time the enemy came to attack, in addition to defending the city with the association, it was to go to the city god temple to burn incense, ask for the city god, if the city was victorious, then the incense of the city god temple will be blazing again. The beginning of the City God Temple was much later than the construction of the ancient city, and the earliest record of the City God in the history books was about the Western Han Dynasty.
However, unlike the gods enshrined in most temples in China, the City God in the City God Temple is not a single person, but a lot of people, and the City God is basically different in each place, and not every place has a City God Temple, why is this?
Although all gods are created by people, the city god is no exception, but this point is particularly prominent in his old man's house, over the years, according to the different grades of Fuzhou County, the local city god temple level is also different, correspondingly, the city god inside the grade is also different; The size of his government, the regulations of the government and the subordinate officials below all correspond to the world one by one, and therefore, because of the different times when the city god temple was built, the official titles of the city god are also different, and the titles of the subordinate officials are also different, such as the names of the Ming Dynasty and the Qing Dynasty.
The person who was named the city god must be a deceased person, and this person is either a parent official who has made meritorious contributions in the local area, such as the city god in the city god temple under Wolong Mountain in the southwest of Shaoxing is called Pang Yu, he is a general in the early Tang Dynasty, and once served as the governor of Yuezhou (now Shaoxing), the king of Wu Qian Biao who shot the tide, once wrote a stele of the city god temple in Shaoxing; Or the local upright and brave folk righteous people, such as the city god of Jieyang City God Temple, who was a local upright and brave scholar in the Song Dynasty, and became a city god after his death. Danish peneing children, in this sense, are also local city gods, so it is easier to understand.
The City God Temple is only available above the county, because there is a city above the county, that is, to the Qipin Official, all dynasties and generations, the City God Temple in the capital is the largest, and the City God Lord is also the largest, with the title of the king, and then the Fu City God Temple, then the State City God Temple, and then the County Town God Temple, and it will end in the county, so we can't see the City God Temple in the township.
Chenghuang is the closest to the world, and the relationship is quite complicated, for example, there is a stele in Jinyun County, which is written by Li Yangbing, the county commander of the Tang Dynasty, and his seal calligraphy is skinny, chasing Li Si, the meaning of the stele is to warn the city god, hurry up and rain, no more rain, burn your temple, demolish your nest, sure enough, five days later, the rain falls, so the stele is engraved to remember. But in terms of being close to the people of the world, which god is not as good as the land father, so who is bigger than the land father or the city god?
Land, people are familiar with the little old man in Journey to the West, in fact, the land god can be said to be the most ancient god in China, he is the descendant of Gonggong, after Gonggong dominates the world Kyushu, one of his descendants is in charge of the land of the world, that is, Houtu, that is, the land god of later generations, people are familiar with the land father-in-law. There is a word in the Chinese character, she, the original meaning of this word is to grow crops on the soil, referring to the god of the land, because of the worship of the god of the land, so, she, is also extended to sacrifice, such as the fire of the community, people gather together because of the land, forming a village, therefore, the community also refers to the village of the household, so later there was the word society.
Because the land father-in-law is in charge of the world's cultivated land, as the people of the farming society, there is no more intimate god than the land father-in-law, and therefore, the land father-in-law is almost everywhere, and the city god is only stationed in the county and above the place is different, the land temple can be seen everywhere, even if it is a small village, there will be a small temple, and even a few stones are set up for a statue, it is also the land temple, on the two pillars of incense, the land father-in-law will bless the wind and rain here, the land and people are the closest, like the old grandfather and ancestors of the family.
In essence, the land father-in-law is of course larger, because the land father-in-law is only one, a specific god, and he governs the land under heaven; There are hundreds, if not thousands, of Chenghuang, and they are different from county to county, from state to state, and from province to prefecture, but the land father-in-law and the city god are not subordinate.
In addition, according to the ancient rules, the local magistrate took office, first saw the local officials and gentry, and then worshiped the local City God Temple, in order to be with the City God in one world, one in another, everyone performed their duties, guarded the land and protected the people. The Land Temple is still everywhere in the countryside, he is everywhere, inherited for thousands of years, guarding the land dedicated to him and nourishing the people. Both of them are entrusted with the most simple wishes of the people of the land, that is, the wind and rain are smooth, and the country and the people are safe.