Hou Tu (后土), known as the “Lord of the Earth” or “Goddess of the Earth,” was a significant natural deity revered through state offerings until the close of imperial China. This goddess, also identified as Dizhi (地祗), served as a counterpart to the Great Unity (taiyi, 太一), which symbolized Heaven. Seasonal offerings to the earth occurred during summer. In the later Former Han period (前漢, 206 BCE-8 CE), altars dedicated to the earth were typically constructed in the region surrounding the capital, predominantly towards the south.
In Daoist beliefs, Hou Tu plays the role of an auxiliary deity to the Yellow Emperor (黃帝), the god associated with the Celestial center, and is recognized as one of the Four Guides (四御). As an assistant, Hou Tu was armed with a rope, a tool meant for surveying the land.
The Confucian Classic Liji (禮記), particularly in its chapter Jifa (祭法), depicts Hou Tu as the son of Gong Gong (共工), who ruled over the nine provinces. Hou Tu’s role was to balance (ping, 平) the various regions of the empire, establishing him as the deity linked to the fertility of the soil. The chapter Yueling (月令) corroborates that the Yellow Emperor acted as the “emperor” or “sovereign” (di, 帝) of the world’s center while Hou Tu held the position of its spirit (shen, 神).
An excerpt from an apocryphal scripture, the Xiaojing wei (孝經緯), reveals that the expanse of the world is too extensive for the veneration of a single deity, prompting communities to build local shrines (she, 社) where soil or earth was honored with sacrifices represented through local deities (sheshen, 社神).
Moreover, the anthology Chuci (楚辭), known as “Poetry of the South,” describes how Hou Tu presides over the dark realm (youdu, 幽都) situated beneath the earth’s surface.
In a broader context, the term Hou Tu can also denote officials within local governments tasked with the management of soil and estates, referred to as tu zheng (土正) or “rectifier of the soil.”
