On The Worship Of The City God

The worship of the City God is an important folk belief in China which refers to people's worship towards the City Gods. The City God didn't exist in ancient china. Based on the form of Ditch God, and combined the ghosts'theories from Buddhism and Taoism, the City God with Chinese characteristics was created by Chinese ancient people. This paper consists of four major parts to probe into the worship of the City God. The first part illustrates the origin of it. It originates from nature worship, and is the results of ancient people's benefits psychology. The second part deals with its contents. The worship of the City God is abundant in content which is made up of the City God, the divinity of the City God, the City temple, sacrifice to the City God, and the City temple fair. The third part discuses the evolutions of the worship which are composed of the status of the worship and its function conversion. These evolutions have experienced a long period with their own characteristics. The last part summarizes the property, function, and status of the worship towards the City God. It is worship towards nature not ghosts. And with its functions of authority, alerting and regulating, it has impacted social life significantly. It is an important folk worship custom, and a Chinese nation's superior cultural heritage. From the perspective of Folk history, this study intends to probe into the origin, contents, property, function, and status of the worship of the City God, and expects a scientific and complete understanding of it.