Wu Gang

HIS PUNISHMENT BECAME A METAPHOR FOR SUCCESS. The man condemned to cut a tree that heals itself supplies the idiom for passing the examinations — and the corpus already held Chang'e, who lives on the same moon, without him.

Domains

• the lunar osmanthus
• endless labour
• the examinations metaphor

Relations

• punished by: Jade Emperor
• shares the moon with: Chang'e

Sources

• Reference treatment of Lu Ban, Wu Gang, Kui Xing, Houtu and Tai Sui: Lu Ban is the god of carpentry and furniture and the patron saint of builders and contractors, an innovator and engineer credited with inventions such as the saw and the shovel. Wu Gang is associated with the phrase 'pluck osmanthus in the Toad Palace', a chengyu connecting the lunar tree with passing the imperial examinations; the tree is now known in Chinese as the yuegui, the Moon gui. Kui Xing is a brilliant but ugly dwarf who, as the god of examinations, became the deity of scholars who took the imperial examinations; he is often depicted holding a writing brush to check off the most outstanding candidate, an official seal in the other hand, and balancing a bushel basket to measure the talents of examinees. Houtu, also Houtu Niangniang, the Earth Queen Lady, otherwise Dimu or Dimu Niangniang, Lady Mother Earth, is the deity of all land and earth in Chinese religion. In Chinese astrology Tai Sui means the Guardian God of the Year and governs all the fortunes of a particular year; there are a total of sixty Tai Sui, each personified as a celestial general in service of the Jade Emperor.