How then did it come about that scholars worshipped the K'uei in
the Great Bear as the abode of the God of Literature? (It may be
remarked in passing that a literary people could not have chosen
a more appropriate palace for this god, since the Great Bear,
the 'Chariot of Heaven,' is regarded as the centre and governor
of the whole universe.) The worship, we saw, was at first that of
the star K'uei, the apotheosized 'homely,' successful, but rejected
candidate. As time went on, there was a general demand for a sensible,
concrete representation of this star-god: a simple character did not
satisfy the popular taste. But it was no easy matter to comply with the
demand. Eventually, guided doubtless by the community of pronunciation,
they substituted for the star or group of stars K'uei (1),
venerated in ancient times, a new star or group of stars K'uei (2),
forming the square part of the Bushel, Dipper, or Great Bear. But for
this again no bodily image could be found, so the form of the written
character itself was taken, and so drawn as to represent a _kuei_
(3) (disembodied spirit, or ghost) with its foot raised, and bearing
aloft a _tou_ (4) (bushel-measure). The adoration was thus misplaced,
for the constellation K'uei (2) was mistaken for K'uei (1), the proper
object of worship. It was due to this confusion by the scholars that
the Northern Bushel came to be worshipped as the God of Literature.


Wên Ch'ang and Tzu T'ung

This worship had nothing whatever to do with the Spirit of Tzu T'ung,
but the Taoists have connected Chang Ya with the constellation in
another way by saying that Shang Ti, the Supreme Ruler, entrusted Chang
Ya's son with the management of the palace of Wên Ch'ang. And scholars