Wenchang

God of Literature

Deity of examinations and literary fortune, evolved from the Zitong god Zhang Yazi.

Wenchang Dijun, the God of Literature, began as Zhang Yazi, a local deity of Zitong in Sichuan. By the Yuan and Ming dynasties he had merged with the star Wenchang and the cult of the deity of examinations, gaining charge of literary fortune and official rank. Students prayed to him before the imperial exams, and his temples became schools of a sort — shrines to merit earned by ink.