Hu Tianbao
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In Chinese folklore, Hu Tianbao (sometimes rendered 'Wu Tien Bao') was a god to whom men in the city of Fuzhou, Fujian province, prayed when they had fallen in love with a youth and wanted to win his affections. If their prayers were answered they would come to the god's temple, known as "The Small Official Temple", and smear pig intestines mixed with sugar on the god's mouth.
Hu Tianbao, the god of male love, was originally a man who fell in love with a handsome young official. Caught peeping, Hu Tianbao was tortured to death. Since his crime was one of love, underworld officials decided to right the injustice by appointing him a god to safeguard male love.
The practice was documented by Zhu Gui (1731-1807), grain tax circuit intendant of Fujian in 1765, in his "Prohibition of Licentious Cults". In it he describes a statue in the temple, "The image is of two men embracing one another; the face of one is somewhat hoary with age, the other tender and pale." He goes on to describe the practice: "All those debauched and shameless rascals who, on seeing youths or young men, desire to have illicit intercourse with them pray for assistance from the plaster idol. Then they make plans to entice and obtain the object of their desire. This is known as the secret assistance of Hu Tian Bao." The statue and a wooden tablet found with it were destroyed by Zhu Gui in an attempt to "improve the morals" of the locals.
[edit] References
- Szonyi, Michael "The Cult of Hu Tianbao and the Eighteenth-Century Discourse of Homosexuality." Late Imperial China - Volume 19, Number 1, June 1998, pp. 1-25, The Johns Hopkins University Press
