Chenghuang Miao
The worship of city gods began during the Southern and Northern Dynasties (420-581) and became popular in the Tang (618-907) and Song (960-1279) dynasties. In ancient legends, people who had lived upright lives would become gods after their death. Some of them were heavenly gods and others city gods to bless and protect a particular region.
Shanghai's Chenghuang Miao (城隍庙City God Temple) was originally called Golden Hill Temple. It was used for offering sacrifices to Huo Guang, a senior general in the Han Dynasty, and so it was also called Huo Guang Memorial Temple. During the Ming Dynasty’s Yongle reign period (1403-24), it was rebuilt as City God Temple by the then county magistrate Zhang Shouyue for offering sacrifices to the city god Qin Yubo.
Qin Yubo was a seventh-generation descendant of Qin Shaoyou, an academician of the Song Dynasty. Qin Yubo was born in approximately 1295, the first year of the Yuan Dynasty’s Chengzong reign period. He was remarkably wise and became a jinshi (进士, a successful candidate in the highest-level civil service examination). Later, he achieved significant results in bringing the sea under control. After his death, Ming Emperor Taizu conferred on Qin the title of Shanghai City God.
Daoists (Taoists) of the Zhengyi (Orthodox Oneness) tradition have always been in charge of Shanghai’s City God Temple. During the Ming and Qing dynasties, the major Daoist religious festivals in the temple were the “three inspection tours,” the birthday of the City God on the 21st day of the second lunar month, and the birthday of the City God’s wife on the 28th day of the third lunar month. It is said that the City God’s three inspection tours began during Ming Emperor Taizu’s reign (1368-98). In anger one time, Emperor Taizu killed a Shanghai man called Qian Hegao. Qian’s blood became white and the corpse seemed to be still alive. The emperor was afraid that Qian would become a ferocious ghost. As preventive measures, he ordered the whole country’s town and city gods to help any ferocious ghosts, and conferred on Qian Hegao the title of Head of Ghosts. Since Qian was from Shanghai, the Shanghai City God in particular had to obey the order scrupulously. The Shanghai City God’s three inspection tours are on the Qingming (Pure Brightness) Festival on April 5, on the 15th day of the seventh lunar month, and on the first day of the 10th lunar month. On the Shanghai City God’s birthday and on that of his wife, the usual practice of the temple’s Daoists is to chant scriptures for the day.
Shanghai’s City God Temple has far-reaching influence both in China and abroad. Many Shanghaiese who have lived abroad for a long time have a strong desire to visit the City God Temple to recapture childhood memories: young women shoulder to shoulder in the crowd, row upon row of shops, the twisting and turning small bridges, gentle and melodious songs, a great variety of snacks, and incense smoke curling up from the temple halls.
