The Chinese Door Guardians

The Men Shen are, like Janus, gods of the threshold. They protect households from the evil forces outside, as well as marking "safe space." They are found pasted to the front doors of the humblest homes and apartments; their grander relatives can be seen outside of temple gates all over the east, and they even show up as the lions in front of banks and hotels.

In popular belief, they were Qin Shubao and Hu Jingde, two generals from the Tang Dynasty. Although the practice of painting door guardians is much older, the identification of the guardians with Qin Shubao and Hu Jingde is more recent--perhaps 600-700 years old. The association results from a story in the Comprehensive Collection of Investigations into the Divinities of the Three Doctrines since their Origin. This says that the Tang emperor Taizong was beset by demons howling outside of his bedroom at night. Two of his soldiers, Qin Shubao (also called Qin Qiong) and Hu Jingde (or Weichi Jingde), rewuested permission to guard the door to the emperor's chamber. It worked. There after the emperor ordered pictures of the two to be drawn and posted on the palace gates, and there was no more trouble. Thus these two came to be associated with the ancient threshold guardians.