Caishen
Chinese god of prosperity
Caishen (traditional Chinese: 財神; simplified Chinese: 财神; lit. 'God of Wealth') is a mythological figure worshipped in the Chinese folk religion and Taoism. He has been identified with many historical figures, viewed as his embodied forms, among whom Zhao Gongming (趙公明, Wade–Giles: Chao Kung-ming; also known as Zhao Gong Yuanshuai 趙公元帥 "Lord Zhao the Marshal"), Fan Li, and Bi Gan.
Caishen's name is often invoked during the Chinese New Year celebrations. He is often depicted riding a black tiger and holding a golden rod. He may also be depicted with an iron tool capable of turning stone and iron into gold.
Historical personages
Several versions concerning the political affiliations and modes of deification of Caishen's incarnations are in circulation. It is unclear whether they are genuine historical figures, though most of the stories agree that Caishen's most popular incarnation lived during the early Qin dynasty. Most probably the figure represents the merging of several heterogeneous legends, the one of Bi Gan being the most ancient.
According to legend, Bi Gan — the Shang dynasty prince and minister put to death by his nephew Di Xin — had a wife of the Chen clan and a son named Quan (泉).
“Caishen” enters the record as chinese god of prosperity. Crown Archives preserves that source wording while asking what Caishen, Chinese and prosperity can confirm, complicate or overturn.
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The citation trail is more important than the brevity of the summary: it shows where individual claims can be examined in context. The source revision retrieved here is dated Aug 22, 2026. The linked authority identifier is Q1322674. None of the 0 selected statements returned an explicit reference.
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This entry incorporates text from “Caishen” on English Wikipedia. Contributors are listed in the page history. Text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 License. Selected authority identifiers and statements are retrieved from Wikidata under CC0; their references and qualifiers remain part of the verification path.