Chinese New Year (春节, Chūnjié) is one of the biggest, if not the biggest, date on the Chinese calendar. As such, it plays host to a variety of interesting and unique traditions, including dramatic fireworks displays and epic journeys home. One of the more unusual and lesser-known traditions, though, revolves around 财神 (cáishén), better known in English as the "god of wealth", so in this week's ChinesePod Weekly, we'll dive into one of our favorite 春节 traditions, doing our best to avoid profit/prophet puns along the way!

So There's Really a God for Money?

You better believe it! 财神 is part of one of the oldest 春节 traditions, the 开年 (kāinián), or second day of the new year. Literally meaning "open year" or "beginning of the year", 开年 is traditionally the time when married women visit their parents, as opposed to their in-laws, which whom they'd spent the previous days of the holiday. These days this sort of scheduling can become a lot more complicated, but the 开年 tradition has lived on in the appreciation given to 财神. Now, here's where it gets a bit tricky: there are actually a handful of individual wealth deities, and while 财神 is a term often used to describe all of them, 赵公明 (zhào gōng míng) tends to be considered the most important of the wealth gods, and is sometimes referred to simply as 财神. He is also more formally known as 中路财神 (zhōnglù cáishén), though that bit of nomenclature is rarely used these days.

Well Then, What's His Deal?

Legend has it that 赵公明 was born of the fifth day of the lunar year. His birthday is celebrated in China with the burning of special incense and most visibly with the displaying of festive decorations, which have become one of the most enduring cultural symbols of 开年 and even the larger 春节 holiday. It is believed that the decorations help bring wealth and prosperity to the families that hang them up, which in our office is reason enough to hang them everywhere (it's the cornerstone of our quarterly sales strategy). But how did this bit of veneration come about? Well, as the Encyclopedia Britanica explains:

The Ming-dynasty novel Fengshen Bang (封神榜, Fēngshén Bǎng) relates that when a hermit, Zhao Gongming (赵公明), employed magic to support the collapsing Shang dynasty (12th century bce), Jiang Ziya, a supporter of the subsequent Zhou-dynasty clan, made a straw effigy of Zhao and, after 20 days of incantations, shot an arrow made of peach-tree wood through the heart of the image. At that moment Zhao became ill and died. Later, during a visit to the temple of Yuan Shi, Jiang was rebuked for causing the death of a virtuous man. He carried the corpse, as ordered, into the temple, apologized for his misdeed, extolled Zhao’s virtues, and in the name of that Daoist god canonized Zhao as Cai Shen, god of wealth, and proclaimed him president of the Ministry of Wealth. (Some accounts reverse the dynastic loyalties of Zhao and Jiang.)

These days, 赵公明 is usually depicted riding a black tiger (talk about commuting in style!), and people beseech him for good financial luck in the new year, occasionally going so far as to build an altar in his honor.

Anything Else We Should Know?

Sure! There are a couple other historical and mythical figures who are often revered and referred to as "gods of wealth", including 关羽 (Guān Yǔ), a real-life general who is often held up as a symbol of wealth attained through honest means. 比干 (Bǐ Gān) is another oft-venerated wealth deity, known for dressing as a civil official and distributing money to the public. No matter which wealth god you prefer, however, the tradition is often similar: people believe the wealth god will come down from heaven to inspect them, and to prepare for this they usually cook dumplings (because they resemble gold tokens used in ancient China), followed by a burning of the pictures and figures of 财神 they had previously hung up, in order to see him off an ensure a prosperous year to come.

We hope you've enjoyed this week's look at one of the more unusual traditions of the 春节 holiday! We've got something else for you to enjoy as well: some hefty 红包 discounts (up to $100 off) on our most popular Subscriptions, Praxis Passes and Speaking Classes. Hurry though, the deals only last until the end of the holiday, January 29th!