gradually acquired the habit of saying that they owed their success
to the Spirit of Tzu T'ung, which they falsely represented as being an
incarnation of the star Wên Ch'ang. This is how Chang Ya came to have
the honorific title of Wên Ch'ang, but, as a Chinese author points
out, Chang belonged properly to Ssuch'uan, and his worship should
be confined to that province. The _literati_ there venerated him as
their master, and as a mark of affection and gratitude built a temple
to him; but in doing so they had no intention of making him the God of
Literature. "There being no real connexion between Chang Ya and K'uei,
the worship should be stopped." The device of combining the personality
of the patron of literature enthroned among the stars with that of the
deified mortal canonized as the Spirit of Tzu T'ung was essentially a
Taoist trick. "The thaumaturgic reputation assigned to the Spirit of
Chang Ya Tzu was confined for centuries to the valleys of Ssuch'uan,
until at some period antecedent to the reign Yen Yu, in A.D. 1314,
a combination was arranged between the functions of the local god
and those of the stellar patron of literature. Imperial sanction
was obtained for this stroke of priestly cunning; and notwithstanding
protests continually repeated by orthodox sticklers for accuracy in the
religious canon, the composite deity has maintained his claims intact,
and an inseparable connexion between the God of Literature created by
imperial patent and the spirit lodged among the stars of Ursa Major is
fully recognized in the State ceremonial of the present day." A temple
dedicated to this divinity by the State exists in every city of China,
besides others erected as private benefactions or speculations.

Wherever Wên Ch'ang is worshipped there will also be found a separate
representation of K'uei Hsing, showing that while the official deity
has been allowed to 'borrow glory' from the popular god, and even
to assume his personality, the independent existence of the stellar