Family
Independent Chinese families are classified accordingly to the stove they possess. Because circumstances of a divided household, kitchens are shared but never the stove. In the case of a fathers death, The sons divide their fathers household. The eldest son inherits the stove and the younger brothers transfer the coals from the old stove to their own new stoves. This invites the Stove god to join their newly formed households ( Ahern, Martin, Wolf 1978). This process is called "pun chu" or dividing the stove. This indicates the "soul" of the family and it signifies fate of the family.
A Chinese story says," When a shaman informed one family that there were ants and other things in their stove, they destroyed the stove and threw the bricks and coals into the river". A neighbor explained, " There was nothing else they could do. A family will never have peace if they dont have a good stove". (Ahern, Martin, Wolf 1978, 131-133).
Ahern, Martin, Wolf, 1978 state that "The association of Stove God and God is thus an association of God and family. The Character of the relationship is essentially bureaucratic; the family is the smallest corporate unit in society, and the Stove God is the lowest ranking member of a supernatural bureaucracy". This relates a correlation of the Stove god and the importance of this deity is to the family unit (pg.133).
The domestic deity is seen as being in charge of watching over the home life. It has been expressed that his presence is more like that of a policeman sent from above to observe the family. This practice is known as a bureaucratization of religion in Chinese society. The Jade Emperor is in charge of an administration divided into bureaus, and each bureaucrat-god takes responsibility for a clearly defined domain or discrete function. The Kitchen God would thus serve the role of the home domain as he would overlook the daily dynamics of a family, the members and their behaviour (Ting, 2002, pg.326).
Ting, 2002, also states that there are 3 levels of Cosmology containing an organization of heaven is like that of the organization on earth. With a supreme deity- an Emperor (Jade Emperor or Heavenly God) — Local Officials (City gods) — Commoners (gods of the hearth)(pg.326). This confirms the organization of the heavens and how the Kitchen god reports to higher level God, the Jade Emperor.
According to Mann 1997, There is another god that shares the realm of the household. "Pollution, sickness, and death were everyday concerns for women in the household as well as the focal points of their spiritual and ritual lives. Within their households they worshiped the deities who oversaw these homely concerns. The goddess of the household were territorial deities who shared the domain with the Kitchen God, worshiped by men. This God is known as the Purple Goddess/ or Privy Goddess/". The Privy goddess was worshipped only by woman and no temples have been erected in her honor and has no relation or interaction with the Kitchen god (pg.,186).
Read more about this topic: The Kitchen God
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