Erlang History Of Prototypes

Erlang God is one of the most famous common gods in China, and it had appeared since the Tang dynasty. Due to the Daoism and the imperial court of Song, the worship of Erlang God had experienced a huge development. The worship of Erlang once had been focused on how to eliminate flood in Sichuan area, however, after its development during the Song dynasty, people became seen it as a common god which would protect them from both flood and anything evil. Also, its influence expanded to the whole nation.The image of Erlang God varied during the development and enlargement of its worship. Besides the claim of Libin and his second-born son as this god, Zhaoyu and Yangjian also have their places in Erlang God belief. The shaping and developing of diversified Erlang God is different in both space and time. The belief of Libin and his son typically exists in Sichuan, while the belief of Zhaoyu as Erlang God belongs to celestial being system of Daoism, and Yangjian became the most famous and well-known figure and Erlang God because the spread of God evil spirit novel in Ming and Qing Dynasty such as Journey to the West and the Legend of Deification.On the question of the prototype of Erlang God, scholars talked a lot. This article, on the base of literature review, add the oral resources such as myth and legend of Erlang God as Supplementary card, is about to find which is the origin of this famous common god. By the way of conclusion, this article pointed that Erlang God originated the combination of worship of Duyv and Kaiming in Sichuan area.This thesis also discusses the beginning of Chuan-Zhu belief in Sichuan area in a historical perspective, and focus on its relation to Tu-Zhu belief.