Wenchang Wang — Wénchāng Wáng (文昌王), the God of Literature and Examinations — is the great deity of scholarship, literature, culture, and success in the imperial examinations in Chinese religion: the god to whom every scholar and examination-candidate prayed for success, the patron of writing, learning, and the literary arts. The god of literature, Wenchang Wang is the patron of scholars and students.
The God of Literature and the Examinations
Wenchang Wang (“the Glorious-Literature Lord/King,” also Wenchang Dijun) is the Chinese god of literature, culture, scholarship, and above all the imperial examinations — the great civil-service examinations through which, for over a thousand years, men rose to office, status, and fortune in imperial China. Because success in these fiercely competitive examinations determined a man’s entire career and his family’s fortune, the god who governed examination success was of immense importance, and every scholar, student, and examination-candidate prayed and made offerings to Wenchang Wang for success in their studies and their examinations. He is the patron of writing, literature, the literary arts, scholarship, and learning — the divine champion of the educated, the literati, and the aspiring official.
The Star and the God
Wenchang is associated with a particular group of stars — the Wenchang constellation (six stars near the Big Dipper), the celestial “Administrator of Glorious Literature,” which was believed to govern the fortunes of scholars and the outcome of the examinations. This star-god was, over time, merged with and identified as the deified spirit of a virtuous historical or legendary figure — Zhang Yazi (Zhang the Asia-Son), a man of Sichuan honoured for his filial piety, loyalty, and learning, who after death was deified and identified with the Wenchang star — becoming the personal god Wenchang Wang, the keeper of the registers of scholars’ merits and the determiner of examination success.
The Patron of Scholars
Wenchang Wang keeps, in the celestial bureaucracy, the registers of the deeds, merits, and destinies of scholars — recording each scholar’s conduct and learning, and determining (with Heaven) who shall pass the examinations and rise to office. He is attended by two famous assistants: Kuixing (the demon-faced star-god of the examinations, who holds a brush and a peck-measure and points to the successful candidate’s name) and Zhuyi (the “Red-Robed One”). Temples to Wenchang stood in every town, and students thronged them before the examinations, praying for success, offering incense, and seeking the god’s favour. He embodies the supreme Chinese reverence for scholarship, literature, and education as the path to honour and success. God of literature and the examinations, keeper of the registers of scholars, patron of writing and learning, the deity to whom every student prayed — Wenchang Wang is the great god of scholarship in Chinese mythology, the champion of the educated.
