Welcoming Caishen, the Chinese God of Wealth

Caishen (財神), the God of Wealth, is among the most widely worshipped deities in Chinese popular religion. His image sits in shops, restaurants and homes across China and the diaspora, and on the fifth day of the lunar New Year, when businesses traditionally reopen, families and shopkeepers "welcome the God of Wealth" (jie Caishen) with firecrackers, incense and offerings. The custom below follows common household practice; temple and regional forms vary considerably.

How to do it§

1. Prepare the place. Before New Year, clean the house or shop thoroughly; the cleaning should be finished before the first day so that good fortune is not swept out. Set Caishen's image on a clean table or shelf. Many shops seat him facing the door, so he can "see" customers come in; others follow a feng shui master's advice.
2. Set out the offerings. On the evening of the fourth day, or at dawn on the fifth, arrange tangerines or oranges (in Cantonese, gam, sounding like gold), sweets for a sweet year, niangao (whose name puns on "higher every year") and three cups of tea in front of the image.
3. Open the door. At daybreak, open the main door and windows. In the old custom the household waits at the threshold to receive the god, and shopkeepers set off firecrackers to announce the opening and drive off ill luck.
4. Light candles and incense. Light the two red candles, then three incense sticks from them. Holding the incense with both hands, bow three times, then plant the sticks upright in the holder.
5. Address the god. In your own words, welcome Caishen, thank him for the past year and ask for honest profit, steady customers and peace in the household. A traditional greeting is Gongxi facai, "congratulations and prosper". Some write a wish on red paper and leave it under the oranges.
6. Open for business. Shops make their first sale of the year after the offering. Families may eat dumplings, whose shape recalls old silver ingots.
7. Close. Let the incense burn down under watch. Once it has finished, the household shares the oranges and sweets; food offered to the gods is eaten, not thrown away.

Origins and history§

"Caishen" is a title rather than a single god, and several figures hold it. The best known is Zhao Gongming (also Zhao Xuantan), a martial deity riding a black tiger and holding an iron whip, whose role as lord of wealth was fixed in popular imagination by the sixteenth-century novel Fengshen yanyi (Investiture of the Gods). Civil gods of wealth include the loyal minister Bi Gan and the statesman-merchant Fan Li; Guan Yu, the deified general, is honoured by many businesses as a martial god of wealth; and groups of "Five Gods of Wealth" are worshipped in eastern China.

Historians link the rise of these cults to the commercial expansion of the Song, Ming and Qing dynasties. Richard von Glahn's The Sinister Way (2004) traces how the ambiguous Wutong spirits of Jiangnan, feared as capricious bringers of sudden riches and harm, were partly transformed into respectable gods of wealth in the late imperial period. By the Qing, colourful woodblock New Year prints (nianhua) of Caishen were sold everywhere, and at New Year poor boys and vendors went from door to door offering paper images of the god in return for small coins, a custom described in late Qing accounts of Beijing life.

The fifth day of the first month, called Powu ("breaking the fifth"), marks the end of several New Year taboos and the reopening of shops; in many regions it is also called the god's birthday. Taoist temples hold rites for the gods of wealth, and the cult is today one of the most visible features of Chinese religion in commercial life, from Hong Kong restaurants to Malaysian shophouses.

Variations§

Some households "receive the God of Wealth" at midnight on New Year's Eve instead. In southern China and Southeast Asia, offerings to Caishen and to the earth god Tudigong are made on the second and sixteenth of every lunar month. Many burn gold-coloured spirit paper as an offering; where this is done it should be in a proper metal burner outdoors.

Safety and good sense§

Keep candles and incense on a stable, non-flammable surface, away from curtains and stock, with ventilation, and never leave them unattended. Follow local laws on firecrackers; many cities ban them, and recorded sounds or drums are used instead. Prayers for prosperity accompany good business practice; they do not replace it, and financial difficulties call for qualified advice.

Sources and further reading§

• The Sinister Way: The Divine and the Demonic in Chinese Religious Culture — Richard von Glahn, 2004
• Popular Religion in China: The Imperial Metaphor — Stephan Feuchtwang, 2001
• Chinese Religion: An Introduction — Laurence G. Thompson, 1969
• Daoism and Chinese Culture — Livia Kohn, 2001
• Annual Customs and Festivals in Peking — Tun Li-ch'en, Derk Bodde (trans.), 1936