[ **up: [[Chinese deities]]** ] --- # Chenghuang Ye 城隍神 (City God) [[2024-0728. Every major city had a City God ('Lord of the Wall and Moat') appointed by the imperial government.|Every major city had a City God ('Lord of the Wall and Moat') appointed by the imperial government.]][^1] [[2024-0728. Popularly considered the human magistrate’s supernatural or divine counterpart, the City God was as an important religious link between state and society.|'Popularly considered the human magistrate’s supernatural or divine counterpart, the City God was as an important religious link between state and society.']][^2] [[2024-0728. 'The state encouraged the belief of most people that the City God occupied an important position in a pantheon of gods organized in a supernatural hierarchy paralleling that of the imperial government.'|'The state encouraged the belief of most people that the City God occupied an important position in a pantheon of gods organized in a supernatural hierarchy paralleling that of the imperial government.']][^3] [[2024-0728. Both magistrate and god 'held sway over the same administrative area — the magistrate attending to this-worldly affairs and the City God to the supernatural.'|Both magistrate and god 'held sway over the same administrative area — the magistrate attending to this-worldly affairs and the City God to the supernatural.']][^4] [[2024-0728. 'A City God was usually considered to be the reincarnation of a human being who had been an official in earlier times.'|'A City God was usually considered to be the reincarnation of a human being who had been an official in earlier times.']][^1] [[2024-0728. 'The City God was thought to change every three years, just as a living magistrate would change office every three years.'|'The City God was thought to change every three years, just as a living magistrate would change office every three years.']][^5] [^1]: ‘The Kitchen God & Other Gods of the Earthly Domain’, *[[Cohan & Teiser. 'Living in the Chinese Cosmos', 2025.|Living in the Chinese Cosmos: Understanding Religion in Late-Imperial China (1644–1911)]]*, retrieved 24 December 2022, http://afe.easia.columbia.edu/cosmos/prb/earthly.htm. [^2]: ‘The Kitchen God & Other Gods of the Earthly Domain’, *[[Cohan & Teiser. 'Living in the Chinese Cosmos', 2025.|Living in the Chinese Cosmos: Understanding Religion in Late-Imperial China (1644–1911)]]*, retrieved 24 December 2022, http://afe.easia.columbia.edu/cosmos/prb/earthly.htm. [^3]: ‘The Kitchen God & Other Gods of the Earthly Domain’, *[[Cohan & Teiser. 'Living in the Chinese Cosmos', 2025.|Living in the Chinese Cosmos: Understanding Religion in Late-Imperial China (1644–1911)]]*, retrieved 24 December 2022, http://afe.easia.columbia.edu/cosmos/prb/earthly.htm. [^4]: ‘The Kitchen God & Other Gods of the Earthly Domain’, *[[Cohan & Teiser. 'Living in the Chinese Cosmos', 2025.|Living in the Chinese Cosmos: Understanding Religion in Late-Imperial China (1644–1911)]]*, retrieved 24 December 2022, http://afe.easia.columbia.edu/cosmos/prb/earthly.htm. [^5]: ‘The Kitchen God & Other Gods of the Earthly Domain’, *[[Cohan & Teiser. 'Living in the Chinese Cosmos', 2025.|Living in the Chinese Cosmos: Understanding Religion in Late-Imperial China (1644–1911)]]*, retrieved 24 December 2022, http://afe.easia.columbia.edu/cosmos/prb/earthly.htm.