Original Text
The magistrate of Wu County, whose name is forgotten, was upright and incorruptible, earning a fine reputation for governance. In the customs of Wu County, the City God was held in the highest reverence; people carved his image from wood, adorned it in brocade robes with hidden mechanisms beneath, making it as lifelike as a living being. On the City God's birthday each year, the populace pooled funds to hold a temple fair, carrying the idol through the streets in procession, with banners of every hue, all manner of ceremonial regalia, marching in ranks to the sound of pipes and drums, bustling and lively, filling the thoroughfares with crowds. This celebration of the City God's birthday had become a long-standing custom, observed annually without fail. One day, as the magistrate went out, he encountered the procession and halted to inquire; the people told him all about it. Upon learning of the great expense involved, he grew angry, pointed at the idol, and rebuked it, saying: "The City God is truly the master of this city. If he is benighted and insensible, without any divine efficacy, then he is but a muddled ghost, unworthy of offerings; if he is indeed efficacious, then he should cherish material resources—how can he permit such a squandering of wealth, draining the people's blood and sweat?" With these words, he dragged the idol to the ground and gave it twenty strokes of the bamboo. From that day forth, this custom was abolished.
The county magistrate was incorruptible and selfless, but being young, he was fond of amusement. A year later, while climbing a ladder in the government office to fetch young birds from under the eaves, he slipped and fell to the ground, breaking his leg, and soon died. People heard the magistrate angrily shouting loudly in the City God Temple, as if quarreling with the deity, and this continued for several days without cease. The people of Wu County, not forgetting the magistrate's kindness, jointly prayed and mediated, and additionally built another temple to offer sacrifices to the magistrate, after which the clamor subsided. This newly built temple was also called the City God Temple, and sacrifices were offered there every spring and autumn, with even greater reverence than for the original City God. To this day, Wu County still has two City Gods.
Commentary
In ancient society, the City God was an orthodox and legitimate deity, included in the sacrificial rites by successive dynasties. Zheng Banqiao, in the seventeenth year of the Qianlong reign (1752), wrote a stele inscription for the reconstruction of the City God Temple in Wei County, Shandong, stating: "Every prefecture, county, and town has a city wall, like a ring without end, with teeth interlocking; outside the city there is a moat, embracing the city as it flows, gurgling and murmuring. Why must it be personified with black gauze cap and official robe? Yet across the vast seas and the multitudes of the nine provinces, none fail to worship it as a human; moreover, they grant it the power of blessing and calamity, entrust it with the authority over life and death, and flank it with solemn corridors, accompanied by the ten kings of the underworld, and further with trees of knives and swords, copper snakes and iron dogs, black winds and steaming cauldrons to inspire fear. And people, in great numbers, follow in fear. Not only do people fear it, I too fear it. Whenever I reach behind the hall, before the bedchamber, where the windows are dark and the wind sighs, my hair stands on end, as if there were ghosts, thus I know the ancient emperors' way of teaching through spiritual beings is not false." However, when this divine authority conflicted with real-world political power, the divine was overthrown. The magistrate of Wu County in "The Magistrate of Wu" was dissatisfied with celebrating the City God's birthday and struck the deity's spirit tablet, partly for economic reasons—what he called "useless expenses draining the people's fat and marrow"—and partly for political reasons, because the procession "parading through the thoroughfares" blocked his path and diminished his prestige. This becomes clear when one sees that even after his death, he continued to contend with the City God. This theme of conflict between divine and political authority appears quite novel and intriguing.