A mountain hermit who rode a black tiger into war and flung pearls that burst like shells, undone at last by a straw image of himself with his own name written on it — and then raised from death to become the god who fills the world's purses. This is the record's Chinese account of the god of wealth, drawn from Myths & Legends of China (published 1922). Of the several men said to hold that office, the "best known until later times" is Chao Kung-ming, who took the losing side when Chiang Tzu-ya fought for the founder of the Chou dynasty against the last Shang emperor. He could "ride a black tiger and hurl pearls" that "burst like bombshells" — a warrior not easily killed by ordinary means.

So his enemy struck him down by witchcraft. Chiang Tzu-ya "made a straw image of him, wrote his name on it," worshipped before it twenty days, and on the twenty-first shot "arrows made of peach-wood into its eyes and heart." In the far-off camp Chao Kung-ming sickened and, "uttering a cry gave up the ghost." Later, repenting, his conqueror praised his valour and raised him to be "President of the Ministry of Riches and Prosperity."

From that grim origin comes a cheerful god. He is "universally worshipped by all families in China", his image everywhere, shown "in the guise of a visitor" trailing a crowd of attendants laden with treasure. The record files gods of wealth elsewhere too — a Greek Plutos, a Hindu Kuvera, Irish and Icelandic figures — but of these only the Chinese Chao Kung-ming is wired to served text; the rest wait unread. What does it mean that the giver of riches was first a warrior undone by his own name on a scrap of straw?