Rushou, God of Autumn

Rushou served as Shaohao’s chief assistant and the Metal Director, named Gai, and is recorded in both the Guoyu (Discourses of the States) and the Shanhai Jing (Classic of Mountains and Seas) as the Western God of Autumn. His iconography features a serpent entwined around his left ear, two dragons as his mount, and a massive battle-axe in hand. As autumn embodies austerity and decline, Rushou also governs heavenly punishment. The Guoyu recounts how Duke Xian of Guo dreamed of Rushou delivering a celestial mandate from the ancestral temple, instructing Jin to punish Guo—an episode underscoring Rushou’s fundamental role as a god of retribution. Simultaneously, autumn being the season of harvest, ancient emperors performed rites welcoming autumn at the western suburbs, sacrificing to Rushou on the day marking the Start of Autumn; white banners were raised to celebrate abundant grain while reaffirming the authority of military and judicial decrees—making Rushou one of the most august and ceremonially significant seasonal deities in early Chinese classical texts.