Well God

Well water was the lifeblood of premodern villages, prompting widespread veneration of a Well God—commonly called Jingquan Tongzi (Well Spring Boy) or Jing Longwang (Well Dragon King). Folk custom dictated sealing the well with red paper on Chinese New Year’s Eve to allow the Well God to rest during the festivities; on the Third or Fifth Day of the First Lunar Month, families would burn incense, reopen the well, draw the first bucket of water as an offering to the deity, and only then begin using it for daily needs. Newly dug wells, sudden changes in water quality or flow, or incidents of people falling into wells all required special rites to appease the Well God. Adults routinely warned young children not to play near or peer into wells, lest they offend the deity. Though never among the most prominent deities, the Well God stood for millennia as one of the most intimate, everyday protectors of village life—his cult gradually fading only with the advent of piped municipal water supplies.