A brushIncenseCakesRice wineTeaThe first page of an essayA name written and offered
Invocation Approach
Tone
Precise courteous scholarly
Address
WenchangWenchang DijunLord of LiteratureLord of the Examinations
Relationship
A candidate before the god who reads the script and the life
Warning
The hidden virtue counts and the cramming does not
Resonance
Students candidates teachers writers those who sit an examination
Symbols
The brushThe sealThe bookThe star of lettersThe zitong mountainThe carp at the dragon gate
Mythology Summary
Wenchang is the god of literature and of the imperial examinations, and his name is first an asterism — the six stars of the Wenchang constellation in the bowl of the Dipper — personified from the Tang and Song. The god of Zitong in Sichuan, a local deity with his own mountain and a snake-quelling legend, was identified with the Wenchang star god by imperial decree in 1316 under the Yuan, and that identification is the basis of the later cult. The moral tract attributed to him, the Wenchang dijun yinzhi wen (Treatise on Secret Merit and Retribution), whose extant form is usually dated to the Song or Ming, teaches that success in the examination is the reward of hidden virtue, and it was one of the most widely printed books of late imperial China.
Modern Practice
The practice is the brush and the honest study: incense, cakes, wine and tea at his shrine, a name written and offered before an examination, and the moral accounting the Yinzhi wen actually asks for — merit done where no one sees it. Spirit-writing groups take him as a patron, and the brush is offered rather than merely displayed.