IncenseRice wineRiceSaltA drum beatenThe first thunder offering
Invocation Approach
Tone
Loud severe immediate
Address
LeigongLeizuDuke of ThunderMarshal of Thunder
Relationship
The officer who arrives without an appointment
Warning
He is the witness sworn by and he is not a character witness
Resonance
Farmers those who swear oaths those who need a hidden thing brought out
Symbols
Drum ringChisel and malletThe beak and clawsThe thunder axeThe lei characterThe winged cloud
Mythology Summary
Thunder has been a god in China since the Shanhaijing described the Leishen of the west as a dragon-bodied, human-headed being who drums on his own belly; by the Tang and Song he is Leigong, a beaked, clawed, winged figure with a ring of drums. The Song Daoist thunder rites (leifa), formalised in the Shenxiao movement patronised by Emperor Huizong in 1116, made him a marshal in a celestial Thunder Department that an ordained master could command, and the Leizhou peninsula in Guangdong keeps his great temple. The state cult and the thunder rites both treat him as the enforcer of oaths and the punisher of hidden crimes, which is why thunder is the sworn witness in a folk oath.
Modern Practice
The practice is the thunder rite at the temple and the small household offering: incense, wine, rice and salt, a drum beaten once, the first thunder of spring marked at Jingzhe. He is asked for the hidden thing to be brought out and for an oath to be held, and the honest version of that request is made only when the petitioner is willing to be the subject of it.