The Changing Functions of the Door Gods in China

Abstract

This article illuminates the evolving functions of the door gods in Chinese culture, detailing China's medieval, premodern, and modern periods in relation to how these door gods were viewed, which changed from exorcism to prayer and then to political propaganda. Mary Douglass grid and group theory is applied to examine the type of the society and the symbol systme poduced. This article points out the significant transformation of the door god paintings during the Great Cultural Revolution period and proposes a hypothesis about changes of possible subjects on the paintings. All of the evidence of the metamorphosis underscores the dynamism and distinctiveness of local beliefs in China.