Ri Ye Youshen
Ri Ye Youshen (Chinese: 日夜遊神; lit. 'the Day and Night Wandering Deities') are a pair of deities in Chinese folk religion and Taoism. They consist of the Day Wandering Deity (日遊神) and the Night Wandering Deity (夜遊神). In early traditions, they were described as malevolent spirits that wandered the human world. Later traditions describe them as subordinates of underworld deities such as Dongyue Dadi, Yanluo Wang, and the City God.[1]
The Day and Night Wandering Deities are responsible for observing the conduct of people during the day and night, respectively. They record people's good and bad deeds and report them to higher-ranking underworld deities.[2]
Legends
In early folklore, the Day Wandering Deity was regarded as an ominous spirit, and people avoided encountering it. The Yuan dynasty play The Story of the Peach Blossom Girl (桃花女) includes a warning that a person who encountered the Day Wandering Deity might return injured or die.[3] The Classic of Mountains and Seas (山海經), in the Classic of the Regions Beyond the South (海外南經), mentions sixteen divine beings who serve the Emperor by overseeing the night in the wilderness. This passage has been associated with an early form of the Night Wandering Deity. Folk legends also describe encountering the Night Wandering Deity as an ominous sign. In the Qing dynasty work Strange Tales from the Tea-Drinking Studio (Zuicha Zhiguai) by Li Qingchen, a man named Wang encounters a giant figure who identifies himself as the Night Wandering Deity. Wang dies several days later without an apparent illness.[3]