Two Black-Faced Warriors on the Door: How Qin Qiong and Yuchi Gong Became Door Gods

Around the New Year, many households paste two pictures on their front doors: one with a red face, one with a black face, each holding a weapon. They are Qin Qiong and Yuchi Gong, the door gods.

Legend has it that Emperor Taizong of Tang, Li Shimin, couldn't sleep well at night for a while. Every evening, outside his sleeping palace someone would throw bricks and tiles, and there were sounds of ghosts crying and wolves howling. He was so frightened he couldn't sleep, and his health deteriorated.

The ministers discussed it. Qin Qiong and Yuchi Gong were two great generals who had killed many people and carried a strong aura of killing; have them stand guard at the door, and the ghosts wouldn't dare come.

Sure enough, nothing happened that night, and the emperor slept well. But after a long time, he felt sorry for the two generals and ordered their likenesses to be painted and pasted on the door.

This custom spread to the common people, and every household pasted them. Later door gods changed to many others: Zhong Kui, Guan Gong, and in some places even civil officials. Before Qin Qiong and Yuchi Gong, the earlier door gods in folklore were the two brothers Shen Tu and Yu Lei; people in the Han dynasty said they stood under a peach tree, and when they caught an evil ghost they bound it with a reed rope and took it to feed to tigers.

They are generally pasted up before New Year's Eve, and the door gods stay up for a whole year until the next year when new ones are put up. The old ones are torn down; in some places they are burned, in others they are removed and placed by the door, and must not be casually thrown into the trash heap. Elders say the god images must not be stepped on or thrown about carelessly; it's a matter of respect for the door gods.

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