Different levels of city gods have different emblems, which were formed in the early Ming Dynasty and further strengthened in the Qing Dynasty. "History of the Ming Dynasty" is forty-nine, and the title of the book is in the yellow book: the second year of Hongwu (1369). The official of the ceremony said that ... (the imperial court) was knighted, and Kyoto was the king of the Ming Dynasty, Kaifeng, Lin Hao, Taiping and Hezhou.
At that time, the Essay written by Chen Ci was specially awarded to counties, and the essay "Feng Ming Xianyou Bo Jieyang City God" was published in Wenyi Yongzheng Edition, Jieyang County Records, Volume 7. Among them, weiyun: Jieyang City God is smart and upright, and his holiness is unknown. People who are above the surface of the high city and deep pools and who worship God in the world are naturally influenced by heaven, but they are also unknowable. For the sake of the rise of the imperial system at the beginning, it is appropriate for the city gods in "Turn over a New leaf" to change their lives and seal the city gods of the four people to show their help to Bo. Showing it is brave, protecting it is blessing, giving it the virtue of cultivating the gods and watching the life of the world.
Liu Yeqin's "Rebuilding the Inscription of the Town God Temple" in Volume 8 of the Qianlong Edition of Jieyang County Records also describes the fact that "Hongwu applied for the word system for two years, and the tin used the emblem and title to help the uncle".
As can be seen from the above literature, the "sealing" of the city god was implemented as a system. From then on, the local city god emblem can be "handled according to the rules" and no longer needs to be "hand-picked" by the court. Therefore, during the six hundred years of Ming and Qing Dynasties, townships were promoted to counties, and counties were promoted to prefectures. The location of the city god emblem does not need special instructions, but is determined according to the local administrative level. For example, in Puning and Huilai counties of Jieyang City (Puning is now changed to county-level cities, similar to the states of Ming Dynasty), the lords of the city god are all virtuous men, so there was no need to ask the court for a special seal at that time, and Emperor Jiajing did not specifically instruct the courtiers to write articles and issue seals, which is understandable.
Because the emblem of the city god is determined by the administrative level of the company, there is no need to wait for the special imperial seal. In a place like Jieyang, which has been upgraded from a county seat to an ancient city, its emblem should be upgraded from "Xianyou Bo" to "Wei Linggong" and completed in good faith in a folk way. In a sense, this is also a special measure to conform to public opinion and build a harmonious society.
What's more, when Zheng Chenggong's rebel army established political power in Jieyang County in the late Ming Dynasty and early Qing Dynasty to replace the original Jieyang County, this temporary political power positioned itself at the level equivalent to the government, so it built Ling Wei Temple in Jieyang and hung a plaque of "Outstanding Ling Wei". Although this is a "special case", it also shows that Jieyang City God has already reached the level of "Wei Linggong". The use of this emblem now is almost a restoration, and there is no suspicion of "exceeding authority" or "trespassing".
The basic point of folklore lies in practicality, as Mr. Zhang wrote in the Collection of Folklore Lectures: "Folk culture is a culture of practice. ..... The main purpose of folk belief is to make folk things beneficial to people and play a role in people's production and life. Therefore, it can be said that folk activities are activities that do something. Because of this realistic purpose, the agreement and inheritance of folk customs have a positive ideological foundation. " If Jieyang City God is upgraded from the original level 4 (belonging to the level of "grass-roots cadres"), it is logical to "upgrade" to "inspect the city god of the four people", and the masses feel that they can satisfy their psychological adjustment and love it. Why not put it into action? Perhaps in this way, it has become a city god with the same spiritual fulcrum, and it can also provide a newer and stronger impetus for the unity and harmony of Jieyang people.