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to have a soft cloth crown either with or without a top knot, usually coloured blue. Again, a carver in Taipei put this and the other differences down to the whim of individual carvers. According to legend in Singapore, one of the Pestilence Wang Yeh, after he had received his deification authority from Heaven saw a plague demon scattering plague pellets over the Earth. The Pestilence Wang Yeh, Yeh Wang Yeh according to the raconteur, gathered them all up and swallowed the lot to save mankind from being inflicted. At once his hair stood on end and his eyes protruded in their sockets, and this is how his image is portrayed. However, when we examined the image the only characteristic noted were his round protruding eyes.
All Pestilence Wang Yeh are portrayed seated, rarely with anything in their hands though the occasional one has a drawn sword held at waist height, but this is rare. Most have their feet resting on small animals, usually stylised lions. A god carver explained, in relation to the Pestilence Wang Yeh, that it is important that the feet of senior or powerful deities do not rest directly on the ground, it is just not done!
From the earliest pioneering days of the colonization of southern China by northern Chinese epidemics have ravaged southern populations. Devastating epidemics of plague and parasites, fevers and contagious diseases linked with lowered resistance in the hotter and humid south left the settlers in dread of smallpox, paratyphoid, cholera, dengue and malaria. Contemporary medical expertise was completely out of its depth and unable to be of much help, leaving the immigrants only their gods to turn to for protection and a cure. The settlers brought south with them the concept, already well known to the colonizers from north and central China that sickness was caused by the forces of evil. These forces, invisible armies of demons led by demonic generals had to be repelled and, if possible, destroyed. As these forces were from the other world the best, and possibly the only counter would be to use the righteous and virtuous spiritual forces in the other world,
Eventually, within the Chinese pantheon a Ministry of Epidemics was conceptualised incorporating the various sickness-countering deities, each bearing not only its personal name and title but also local colloquial titles the best known of which is probably the Sickness Spirits (or gods) (Wen Shen). These are known amongst Fukienese communities as the Pestilence Spirits, the Wang Yeh.
36
to have a soft cloth crown either with or without a top knot, usually coloured blue. Again, a carver in Taipei put this and the other differences down to the whim of individual carvers. According to legend in Singapore, one of the Pestilence Wang Yeh, after he had received his deification authority from Heaven saw a plague demon scattering plague pellets over the Earth. The Pestilence Wang Yeh, Yeh Wang Yeh according to the raconteur, gathered them all up and swallowed the lot to save mankind from being inflicted. At once his hair stood on end and his eyes protruded in their sockets, and this is how his image is portrayed. However, when we examined the image the only characteristic noted were his round protruding eyes.
All Pestilence Wang Yeh are portrayed seated, rarely with anything in their hands though the occasional one has a drawn sword held at waist height, but this is rare. Most have their feet resting on small animals, usually stylised lions. A god carver explained, in relation to the Pestilence Wang Yeh, that it is important that the feet of senior or powerful deities do not rest directly on the ground, it is just not done!
From the earliest pioneering days of the colonization of southern China by northern Chinese epidemics have ravaged southern populations, Devastating epidemics of plague and parasites, fevers and contagious diseases linked with lowered resistance in the hotter and humid south left the settlers in dread of smallpox, paratyphoid, cholera, dengue and malaria. Contemporary medical expertise was completely out of its depth and unable to be of much help, leaving the immigrants only their gods to turn to for protection and a cure. The settlers brought south with them the concept, already well known to the colonizers from north and central China that sickness was caused by the forces of evil. These forces, invisible armies of demons led by demonic generals had to be repelled and, if possible, destroyed. As these forces were from the other world the best, and possibly the only counter would be to use the righteous and virtuous spiritual forces in the other world,
Eventually, within the Chinese pantheon a Ministry of Epidemics was conceptualised incorporating the various sickness-countering deities, each bearing not only its personal name and title but also local colloquial titles the best known of which is probably the Sickness Spirits (or gods) (Wen Shen). These are known amongst Fukienese communities as the Pestilence Spirits, the Wang Yeh.
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