The Xia Dynasty of China

  (1) Tutelary deity

  The household god, usually the ancestral spirit, must be enfeoffed by the land god and does not belong to the orthodox gods, but is a reserve class of the orthodox gods. Its function is to protect the safety of this family and refuse the invasion of evil spirits.

  (2) Land god

  Also known as "Tudi Gong", one of the most common folk beliefs, every town and village has a temple dedicated to this god, and the area controlled by a land god is not uniform.

  Prevailing in the Huaxia ethnic region and some areas influenced by Huaxia culture.

  The scope of Asian land gods is very large, and there are also a large number of land gods in the Americas, with Europe having the least.

  The land god belongs to the local protective god, wherever there are Huaxia ethnic groups living, there is a land god. Sacrificing the land god is equivalent to sacrificing the earth, and in modern times it often means praying for good fortune, peace, and harvest.

  In this world, the land god is held by those with merits or cultivators who have passed away. Every month on the 2nd and 16th days, people must offer sacrifices to the land god.

  The duties of the Land God: The Land God is a basic deity, under the City God, in charge of the household registration of the dead in the countryside, and is an administrative god of the underworld.

  At the same time, the land god has a certain power to regulate land production

  The Huaxia people have a custom that when each person is born, they go to the local land god to register - that is, the temple of the land they belong to, similar to each persons hometown; after death, during the super-degree ceremony, they will go to their affiliated land temple for sacrificial activities, and the family members of the newly deceased will go to the land god temple to report the name, birthday and other information of the deceased, in order to ask the land god to guide the way for the deceased.

  The land god can bless agricultural harvests, also bless business people to do business smoothly, travelers to travel safely, and even protect tombs from being disturbed by evil spirits. The land god is a highly functional deity, serving as the god of a village or town.

  Land temple, a place where the "God of Land" is worshipped by the people, is one of the most widely distributed sacrificial buildings, and can be found in every village. The area is not large, and on the first day of the month and the 15th day of the month, people go to the land temple to burn incense.

  In the past, when burying the dead and building tombs, a temple for the land god was also established in the tomb area. Nowadays, many build spirit towers. If someone dies at home, they must report the death to the land temple. The village elder holds a white lantern and leads the deceaseds male descendants, who wear mourning clothes, to report the death to the land god temple. After cremation, the ashes are returned to the spirit tower.

  City God

  Cheng Huang, also a local guardian deity, is the guardian deity of the city, who judges the good and evil of the people and brings disaster or fortune to them, so that neither the living nor the dead can escape. The Cheng Huang god has a yin realm inspection system, with the duty of eliminating evil and governing the spirits of the dead.

  As early as the Zhou Dynasty, after the harvest, on New Years Eve, people would offer sacrifices to the eight gods, among which the seventh god was the Water and City God, also known as the City God.

  Since the Three Kingdoms, there have been city god temples among the people. The earliest recorded city god temple was established by Sun Quan in Wuhu, Anhui. By the Sui Dynasty, there was already a custom of sacrificing animals to the city god.

  During the Tang Dynasty, the belief in Cheng Huang was quite widespread, and many literati wrote poems and essays to sacrifice to Cheng Huang.

  Cheng Huang is a natural god, wherever there are city walls and moats, a Cheng Huang temple will be built.

  The City God is generally the superior of the Land God, and since the city is an economic hub, the City God can bless businessmen with smooth business and travelers with safe journeys. It has the ability of a wealth god.

  (4) Hou Tu

  The female god who dominates the mountains and rivers, the mother of the earth in Chinese mythology, is the mother of all life on earth, the highest god of all land gods, with an imperial level of divine existence.

  In ancient times, after all things died, their souls dispersed. Hou Tu saw this and pitied them, so she transformed into the Six Paths to protect the souls. This is the origin of the underworld, and she has always been revered as the first goddess of mercy, the supreme god in charge of land and the underworld.