Xiongdi Gong

What it is

Xiongdi Gong are guardian spirits of people who travel by sea. They are the 108 men of Hainan, an island province of China, whose story is told at the shore and on the water. Temples near the coast keep them, usually next to Shui Wei Sheng Niang, another sea deity, and fishermen and sailors are the ones who come. A shrine for the brothers typically holds a single figure of a scholar with a red face. Veneration of these men runs deep in Hainan's spiritual life, and people from the island carry it with them when they settle elsewhere.

Where it comes from

The story is set in the years of the Xianfeng Emperor (1831 to 1861), when hardship under Qing rule pushed many people from Hainan to leave for Annam, today Vietnam, to earn money. A group of 109 men prepared to sail back. Others still in Annam handed them savings and valuables to deliver to families on the island. Pirates seized the ships, the goods and the lives of all but one man, a cook who hid below deck. The tragedy led Hainan people to raise a memorial temple, and the dead came to be honoured as protectors.

How it is done

Honouring the brothers is a matter of visiting a seaside temple, often one shared with Shui Wei Sheng Niang. Attention is given at an altar that holds a single red-faced scholar figure. Sailors about to leave for another country pray to Xiongdi Gong beforehand, and a cook comes along as witness. Once a year the community marks the day the men died, in the fifth lunar month on its twenty-seventh day, and remembers them together.

Tools and materials

The visible centre of veneration is the altar, which in the usual arrangement carries one statue of a scholar whose face is painted red rather than a group of images. Seaside temples commonly honour the brothers together with Shui Wei Sheng Niang, and the two are venerated under the same roof. Sailors who come to pray bring a cook along as witness.

What it is for

The brothers are asked to watch over those who go to sea. Fishermen and sailors turn to them for safety on the water, and people preparing to travel to another country pray before setting out. The same devotion also serves the dead: the men are remembered as victims of a crime, and honouring them keeps their story and their standing as guardians alive. For Hainan communities the cult marks who they are as much as what they hope for.

Who does it

No priesthood is described. Those who keep the cult are fishermen, sailors and ordinary families from Hainan, praying at a local temple. In the founding story two other figures appear. The king of Annam calls on a seer to read a flock of crows, and that diviner says the birds announce an unpunished crime. The lone survivor, a cook, is the witness whose account matters, and cooks keep a place in later worship, coming along when sailors pray.

Peoples and places

Hainan, an island off southern China, is where the cult began and where it shapes religious life most strongly. The men in the story were Hainan people working in Annam, present-day Vietnam, and the crime at sea happened on the voyage between the two. As Hainan families moved abroad, devotion to Xiongdi Gong travelled with them, so the brothers are now honoured far from the island. Being tied to this cult is one way Hainan people overseas recognise each other and their home.

What people believe

Behind the cult sits a plain idea: people killed unjustly can become guardians of the living. The 108 men died on a journey made for others, carrying their neighbours' savings, and their deaths went unpunished until a ring gave the thief away. Crows gathering on the king's palace are read by his seer as a sign of that unpunished wrong, and the birds leave once the king prays for the souls of the dead. The brothers' protection of seafarers follows from that prayer and from the temple built in their memory.

When it is done

Two moments shape the year. One is the anniversary of the brothers' death, kept once a year in the fifth lunar month, where the day comes round as the twenty-seventh. The other is the departure of a ship or a person going overseas, which is when sailors pray to the guardians and bring a cook as witness. Everyday fishing and coastal work sit alongside these, with temples near the sea as the fixed point.

Compare and confuse

The group is known by several names: Xiongdi Gong in Mandarin, Ya Ti Kong in Hokkien, and 108 Saints or Hainan 108 Brothers in English. At seaside temples the brothers share honour with Shui Wei Sheng Niang, a sea deity, and the two are usually named together. The devotion belongs to the wider body of Chinese folk religion rather than to a separate institution.

Today

Migration made the cult global. As Hainan people settled in other countries, they took the brothers with them, and temples to Xiongdi Gong now stand well beyond the island. Devotion has become a marker of Hainan identity, a way for scattered communities to hold on to where they came from. The memorial temple on the island and the yearly remembrance keep the story in view.

Questions people ask about Xiongdi Gong

Good reading and sources

• Xiongdi Gong on WikipediaEncyclopedia
• More photos on Wikimedia CommonsPhotos and video
• Wikidata recordOpen data