Caishen- Chinese GodDeity"God of Wealth"

Zhao Gongming

In the Soushen ji and other Six Dynasties texts, Zhao Gongming appears as a plague spirit, a figure to fear rather than petition. By the Ming dynasty, his story had changed entirely. The Fengshen Yanyi tells it this way: Zhao Gongming was a hermit cultivating immortality on Mount Emei when the cosmic war between the Shang and Zhou dynasties pulled him from his mountain. He rode a black tiger into battle and wielded an iron whip, fighting for the doomed Shang cause against King Wu and the sage Jiang Ziya. He was nearly invincible. It took a Daoist counter-ritual to bring him down.

After his death, Jiang Ziya deified him during the great investiture of gods. Zhao Gongming became Marshal of the Altar of Wealth, commanding four subordinate spirits tasked with drawing treasure in and keeping markets fair. The plague spirit had become a patron of commerce.

Bi Gan

Bi Gan was a prince and minister of the Shang dynasty, uncle to the tyrannical King Zhou. He admonished the king for his cruelties again and again, and the king endured it until the fox spirit Daji whispered a question: did a sage truly have a heart with seven apertures, as the old stories claimed? King Zhou ordered Bi Gan's chest cut open to find out.

The heartless prince became a god of wealth. Without a heart, he could not be swayed by favoritism or bribery. He is the Wen Caishen, the Civil Wealth God.

Fan Li

Fan Li served the King of Yue during the Spring and Autumn period, engineering Yue's victory over the kingdom of Wu after years of patient scheming. Sima Qian's Shiji records what happened next. Fan Li looked at the king he had restored to power and understood that a ruler who shared hardship would not tolerate a minister who shared glory. He left court, took the name Tao Zhu Gong, and became a merchant.

He made a fortune and gave it away. He made a second fortune and gave that away too. Then he made a third. His philosophy held that wealth moves like water: it must circulate to grow, and hoarding invites drought. He taught merchants to buy when prices were low and treat commerce as service. The saying "wealth like Tao Zhu" became shorthand for success earned through skill rather than luck.

Guan Yu Among the Merchants

Guan Yu, already venerated as a god of war and brotherhood, was adopted as Wu Caishen by the merchants of Shanxi province. They saw in his celebrated integrity a model for trustworthy partnerships. His temple at Jiezhou became a guild hall as much as a shrine, and his cult as a wealth god spread through Chinese commercial networks into Southeast Asia.

The Fifth Day

Caishen's worship peaks on the fifth day of the first lunar month, Po Wu, the day of welcoming wealth. At midnight, firecrackers shatter the silence to announce the Wealth God's arrival. Offerings of incense and paper money crowd his altar. This is the day merchants reopen their shops, settle their last debts, and present clean account books as proof of honest dealing. Red envelopes pass from hand to hand. At the Zhao Gongming Temple in Zhouzhi, Shaanxi, near his legendary birthplace, the crowds press shoulder to shoulder.