A deity watches over every field. In ancient times this deity was called a she (god of the soil). In our modern times, people affectionately call him Tudi Gong (Earth God) or Fude Zhengshen (the Righteous God Fude). He is in charge of the land in each locality. One of his tasks is to make sure that crops and livestock are productive. He is also involved in matters of human life and death. While the lowest-­ranking of divinities, he is the closest to the people, and within the pantheon is likened to a sort of “borough chief.”

Li Fengmao, a research fellow at Academia Sinica, points out that in the agricultural society of years past, farmers relied on the earth for survival. Their reverence toward nature gave rise to an animistic earth worship, with rituals in spring and autumn. On the second day of the second lunar month each year, spring returns and farmers pray for good crops. This is the season of “spring prayers.” At mid-autumn, after the harvest, farmers again worship the earth, this time to express gratitude. This is the season of “autumn thanksgiving.” Taiwan’s belief in the Earth God originated in the Ming Dynasty, and the rituals made their way to Taiwan along with Han Chinese immigrants.

Spring prayers, autumn thanksgiving

The custom of soil god rituals in spring and autumn is recorded in old local gazetteers. In Taiwan, a distinction is made between the spring and autumn rituals, for the second day of the second lunar month is said to be the Earth God’s birthday, while the Mid-Autumn Festival is when the Earth God ascended to Heaven and attained enlightenment. Or, in some places, these dates are reversed.

Li Fengmao says the belief that the Earth God went through the process of birth and eventually attained enlightenment is probably just a mnemonic device that people have worked out over the centuries.

According to popular lore, the Earth God was in life a tax official named Zhang Fude, who cared deeply about the people. After his death a poor person set up a memorial tablet in his honor, worshipped before the tablet, and grew rich. King Mu of Zhou then declared Zhang Fude the “Earth God,” which is why the Earth God is also known as the Righteous God Fude. This is also why he is generally depicted as an old man holding an imperial staff topped by a dragon head.

Farmers Liu Tiancheng (right) and Mr. Wang teach local residents how to make an Earth God staff.

A limited remit

The “jurisdiction” of most divinities is unlimited, but the Earth God limits himself to protecting the land of each locality. Earth God temples always bustled with activity on the second day of the second lunar month and at the Mid-Autumn Festival. Big rituals were conducted, and copious offerings were proffered. On temple plazas the people would throw theatrical performances to give thanks, and farmers used to make “Earth God staffs” and drive them into the soil at the edges of fields. They split open the tips of the staffs and jammed “Earth God money” into the split. But rituals to craft such staffs are seldom seen nowadays.

In Shuangfu Village in Chiayi’s Minxiong Township, cultural historians in recent years have spearheaded an effort to revive the mid-autumn ritual of making Earth God staffs at Bao’an Temple and Fengfu Temple. While this ritual in the old days was carried out by farming families individually, it is now becoming a communal expression of thanksgiving at the. We went along to take part.

To make Earth God staffs, local residents select bamboo poles and chop them down.

A gift that shows we care

When we arrive at Shuangfu’s Fengfu Temple, people of all ages are already gathered in the temple plaza, including youths who have never witnessed the making of an Earth God staff. A pair of old farmers, Liu Tiancheng and a Mr. Wang, arrive on motorcycles and lead village chief Huang Fuyuan and ten or 20 local residents out into the fields to cut down some bamboo.

Liu explains how to pick out the right kind of bamboo: “You don’t want anything too green or too old.” He taps on the bamboo to determine its quality, and explains that if it’s too green it won’t be strong enough, and if it’s too old it will be too brittle. “You have to choose with care.”

After hacking down some poles of bamboo, we all carry them back to the temple plaza, where billhooks are used to cut them into sections about 1.5 meters long. Each section is then split open lengthwise at the tip. ­After that, a wad of spirit money and three sticks of incense are jammed into the split, and the tip of the pole is bound up with red thread, thus completing an Earth God staff.

Led by the two old farmers, the villagers take the staffs out to the fields, where they set out an array of offerings, pray to the earth with incense sticks in hand, and give thanks for a bountiful harvest. Everyone then makes their way to paddy embankments, where they drive the Earth God staffs into the soil, thus concluding the ritual. A student named Liao, who has never taken part in the crafting of such staffs, says he has come away feeling more closely in touch with the land.

Villagers pray before driving an Earth God staff into the soil.

Spirit money and incense

According to Liu Tiancheng, because crops in the old days were often harmed by diseases, insects, and animals, farmers would pray to the Earth God for bountiful harvests, supplicating him to go out into the fields to provide divine protection and impose his dominion. Since the Earth God is always thought of as a bearded old fellow holding a staff, the farmers would make a symbolic staff that the Earth God would recognize as his own and use to get around more easily while patrolling the fields. Because the countryside in the old days had little public lighting, three incense sticks were jammed into the tip of a staff to symbolically light the Earth God’s way. Meanwhile, the spirit money served to compensate him for a year of hard work.

Professor Yang Yu-jun of the Department of Chinese Literature at National Chung Cheng University has noticed in the course of field research that people erect Earth God staffs in the fields at different times. In Northern Taiwan it is ­generally done in the second lunar month, while in Central and ­Southern Taiwan it happens mainly at Mid-Autumn Festival, or occasionally at the time of the Dragon Boat Festival, after the year’s first rice harvest. Yang says it is only natural that folk customs should vary from place to place, because they arise naturally from local circumstances, and not from any legal requirements. However, Earth God staff rituals take place on important festivals that are related to agriculture, so it is clearly a custom that has to do with the earth.

She adds that Earth God staffs in different areas may differ in appearance or appellation, but they’re all the same thing, regardless. An early Qing-Dynasty local gazetteer from China’s Jiangnan region refers to the Earth God not as Tudi Gong but as Ji Tian Gong or Bao Tian Po, while it’s possible that the term “Earth God staff” was coined in Taiwan. She feels that this thoughtful practice of preparing a walking stick for the Earth God makes for a fun story and has a simple charm that reflects the warmth of the Taiwanese people.

Li Fengmao notes that in open-air worship of the Earth God, and in the ritual of driving an Earth God staff into the ground beside an open field, there is a more primitive significance than can be found in the building of a temple for indoor worship.

Local residents head into the fields to drive Earth God staffs into the soil.

Earth god morphs into god of wealth

An old saying goes, “with land comes wealth.” As our society has transformed, so too has the Earth God. In earlier times the Earth God was an agricultural deity, but he has now become a god of wealth to whom people pray in hopes of becoming rich. On the second and sixteenth days of ­every lunar month, businesspeople pray to the Earth God. It is said that they do so because on the day after the traditional settlement day for transactions, they want to thank the Earth God for enabling their businesses to prosper.

The Earth God’s association with wealth has come to influence what he is portrayed as holding in his hands. Li says that the Earth God in times past generally carried a staff or a ruyi scepter, but in modern times he more often holds a gold ingot.

Some Earth God temples have become famous nationwide for the multitudes who go there to pray for riches. Especially well known is Nanshan Fude Temple in New Taipei City’s Zhonghe District. Businesspeople have long gone there in large numbers to pray for wealth, and in 1996 the temple built a giant statue of the Earth God standing over 100 feet tall, which is now a noted landmark.

At Zinan Temple in Nantou County, visitors can ask the Earth God for a small loan. A loan seeker throws a pair of divining blocks, and if they come to rest with one block face up and the other face down, the temple will lend the person NT$600, to be repaid later.

At Fu’an Temple in Checheng, Pingtung County, which towers six stories high and is the largest Earth God temple in Taiwan, visitors can also ask for a small loan, and this temple has become a big tourist destination.

Mr. Wang, a farmer, uses a hammer to drive an Earth God staff into the soil.

Earth God festival in Taoyuan

There is an average of over seven Earth God temples per square kilometer in Taoyuan City’s Tao­yuan District, the densest such concentration in Taiwan. With this in mind, the city government each year holds the International Folklore Festival of Tudigong, inviting Earth Gods from around Taiwan to take part and putting on a big procession. The city government has also built the Tudigong Culture Museum. Earth god statues are displayed there, and the museum even publishes Tu Bao, a periodical focusing on all things pertaining to the Earth God.

Various Earth God celebrations take place regularly around Taiwan. Examples in Taipei include night processions at Lantern Festival with the Earth Gods from Xiantou Fude Temple in Neihu and Zhen An Temple on Shilin’s Shezidao peninsula. On that evening, the Earth Gods are carried on palanquins through the streets, while shopkeepers and residents throw firecrackers and pray for wealth. These night processions are now so famous they’ve become tourist attractions.

To throw a birthday party for the Earth God, village residents first take the statue from its niche and dress up the god in a new set of finery.

Village residents put a new set of clothes on the Earth God.

A god for each place

“A high place in the hierarchy of divinities isn’t what makes a god important; what matters is a god’s significance to the people,” says Li Fengmao, who notes that belief in the Earth God was once a family matter, but has now evolved into a community matter. In today’s new residential developments, the Earth God still promotes cohesion, but at the community level. Li feels that even though the Earth God is at the bottom rung of the celestial hierarchy, changing times and a tide of community development have not put an end to the Earth God, who has simply found a place for himself amid today’s concrete canyons. The Earth God, he says, is the most resilient of divinities.

A researcher of Taoist culture, Li says with a chuckle: “I really should put in a good word on the Earth God’s behalf. The Earth God’s significance to our contemporary world explains why he hasn’t been left behind over time, but in fact has only further cemented the relationship between mankind and the soil. Among Taiwan’s various folk beliefs, faith in the Earth God is the most meaningful.”