The God of Wealth is one of the most popular gods in Taiwanese folk religion. Worshiped for his ability to protect and improve the fortune and success of devotees, he is especially honored by economic enterprises with regular offerings of spirit money, burning incense sticks, a table of food, and prayers to “please come in”.
Although the honorific title God of Wealth is used to describe or refer to an individual, in fact, the word “god” has to be taken in the plural. Among his many embodied animal and human forms are the earth god, the tiger spirit, and the god of war. Sometimes also presented as a group, the wealth-summoning gods typically consist of five immortals with supernatural powers of material prosperity.
In addition to images of deities that evoke wealth, other traditional representations symbolizing riches include money trees, treasure bowls, and red lanterns displayed in large numbers inside temples. These distinctive objects stand in sharp contrast to the austere paragons of Confucian virtue, and attest to the ambitions of ordinary people in imperial China to further their own economic interests against the ethical and moral standards of the ruling elite.