Door Gods

The story of the Door Gods begins with an emperor who couldn't sleep.

Legend says that Emperor Taizong of Tang, Li Shimin, after years of war and much bloodshed, was tormented after taking the throne by the ghosts of the wronged crying for his life. He could not sleep, the court physicians' medicines did nothing, and affairs of state ground nearly to a halt.

The generals Qin Shubao and Yuchi Gong volunteered: in full armor, one to each side, they stood guard outside the imperial bedchamber all night long. Strangely enough, from that night the ghosts dared not come near, and Taizong at last slept soundly. But guarding night after night wore even these iron men down.

Unwilling to see his beloved generals exhausted, Taizong hit upon a plan: he ordered court painters to depict the two in their full martial array and had the portraits pasted on the bedchamber doors. From a distance the ghosts saw the images and still dared not approach. Word spread, and commoners rushed to copy it, pasting portraits of the two generals on their own doors — a custom that has held for more than a thousand years, right down to today's Lunar New Year.

An earlier tradition of Door Gods actually comes from the Classic of Mountains and Seas: beneath the great peach tree on Mount Dushuo in the Eastern Sea, the two gods Shentu and Yulei captured ghosts and fed them to a tiger. But for sheer drama, the Qin-Yuchi pairing — real generals "standing in" as paintings — sank deepest into people's hearts and became Taiwan's most popular Door Gods.

Household Door God posters follow a fixed schedule: after the "Sending Off the Gods" day on lunar 12/24 and before New Year's Eve, the old posters are torn down and burned and new ones pasted up, symbolizing the sweeping away of the old. There is one crucial taboo in pasting them — the two Door Gods must face each other (turned inward, looking toward one another) and must never be back-to-back, or folk belief holds they lose their protective power.

A temple's hand-painted Door Gods need no special daily worship, but every few years a master craftsman is invited to restore the painting; when a large temple is renovated, an "eye-opening" rite is performed in the old manner, dotting the eyes with vermilion ink to endow the Door Gods with spirit. Folk belief also holds that if a household suffers prolonged unrest, a Taoist priest may be invited to perform a rite before new Door Gods are pasted up, to expel foul influences and settle the home.

When you enter a temple, remember not to step on or linger on the threshold as you pass through the gate where the Door Gods stand watch; some temples keep the custom of men entering on the left and women on the right, matching the positions of the two martial Door Gods — the most basic courtesy you can show them.

**Lunar New Year (Door God replacement period)**: Traditionally, Door God posters are replaced between the "Sending Off the Gods" day on the 24th of the 12th lunar month and New Year's Eve. This is one of the central rituals of the Taiwanese household year-end cleaning and decoration, alongside spring couplets, red envelopes, and the reunion dinner.

**Temple Door God Restoration Events**: In recent years, the Ministry of Culture and various municipal cultural departments have actively promoted restoration of traditional temple paintings. Some temples hold opening ceremonies after restoration, inviting the public to view newly restored Door God paintings. Notable examples include Bangka Longshan Temple, Dalongdong Baoan Temple, and Lukang Longshan Temple.

**Special Note**: Door Gods do not have a unified birthday celebration. As "functional" deities, their worship is incorporated into the broader rituals of their host temple or household — folk tradition rarely holds a celebration dedicated solely to Door Gods.