Bai Wu Chang and Hei Wu Chang

Also Known As: Bai Wuchang and Hei Wuchang, together Heibai Wuchang, “Black and White Impermanence”; the White one is Xie Bi’an and the Black one Fan Wujiu, the pair known as Generals Xie and Fan; in Taiwan Qiye and Baye, the Seventh and Eighth Lords, or the Tall Lord and the Short Lord; in Fujian and Southeast Asia Da Ye and Er Ye, the First and Second Lords; in Lu Xun’s Shaoxing the white figure is Huo Wuchang, “Living Impermanence”, and his black colleague Si You Fen, “Death Is Your Lot”
Region/Culture: East Asia
Mythos: Chinese Mythology, Taiwanese Mythology
Primary Type/Nature: Gods and Deities
Mythical Attributes: They are the underworld’s arresting officers, who come with chains and shackles to fetch the souls of the dying and to catch ghosts and evil spirits.
Role in Mythos: They serve as constables and guards for the rulers of the dead, above all the City God and King Yama, and walk at the front of their processions.
Relation to Humans: Everyone eventually meets them, since they are the ones who collect the soul at death, and in the Shaoxing opera tradition the White one’s name was a byword for the hour nobody can buy off. Yet they are also prayed to as fortune gods in City God temples, and the White one’s hat promises wealth or joy to whoever sees him.

The hat comes first. It rises above the crowd, two feet of stiff white paper over a white face, swaying as the man underneath it walks, and only then does the rest of him arrive: the long white robe, the drooping eyebrows, the fan, the chain. Beside him, a head and a half lower, walks someone in black, dark-faced, scowling, a wooden placard in one hand and iron links in the other. Firecrackers go off around their feet. People step back, and then, because these two are popular, they step forward again.

These are the Wuchang, the “Impermanences”, Bai Wuchang the White and Hei Wuchang the Black, the underworld’s two most recognisable officers. Their job is simple and has no exceptions. When a life runs out, they come for the soul, chain it, and walk it to judgement. They also catch ghosts and evil spirits who should not be loose among the living, which is why they march at the head of the City God’s procession, clearing the road before the god arrives.

Their personal names are moral slogans. The White one is Xie Bi’an, which reads roughly as “those who make amends will be at peace”. The Black one is Fan Wujiu, “for the guilty there is no salvation”. Together they make a sentence about justice, which is a lot to carry around on two names.

The story most often told about them begins with two constables escorting a prisoner, who escaped. The two men split up to search and agreed to meet afterwards under a bridge. Xie was held back by rain. Fan, who had given his word, stayed under the bridge while the water climbed, and he was still there when the river drowned him. When Xie finally came and found his friend dead, he hanged himself. The Jade Emperor, moved by a loyalty that had cost both of them everything, appointed them guardians of the underworld. In Taipei the story explains their faces: the White General is pale because he was hanged, the Black General dark because he drowned. Some statues give one or both of them a long red tongue, to frighten evil spirits.

That is not the only account. Another makes the Black one a gambler beaten to death by his own furious father, who suffered in hell, repented, and was promoted; and the White one a rich man’s son who spent his father’s errand money on the poor and killed himself from shame, to be rewarded for the good he had done. The two versions agree on almost nothing except the outcome. Two dead men, two colours, one job.

In Taiwan the pair are the Seventh and Eighth Lords, Qiye and Baye, and they walk in the flesh, so to speak. Performers carry huge hollow figures of them through the streets, the Tall Lord striding, the Short Lord rolling along beside him, as part of the god-troupes that guard the temples of underworld deities. A New Taipei district guide records that they first appear in the City God procession records of the Qing dynasty. At Bangka in Taipei, during the festival of the Qingshan King, they lead the night patrol through the Wanhua streets, with the crowd shouting and banging to frighten off whatever is lurking. The Black General’s placard reads “Good and evil clearly distinguished”. His chain or shackles are meant for real use.

The writer Lu Xun grew up with a different and much funnier Wuchang. In an essay of June 1926 he remembered the figure as he knew it in Shaoxing, both from the woodcuts of the moral tract Yuli chaozhuan and from the open-air Mulian opera. There the White one is called Living Impermanence. He wears white mourning clothes, straw sandals and a tall square hat lettered “May joy appear on seeing me”. He carries a broken palm-leaf fan, an abacus and an iron chain, with paper money hung round his neck, and his eyebrows slope down at the outer ends like the character for eight. His black colleague, “Death Is Your Lot”, gets far less affection. On stage, Living Impermanence made his entrance by sneezing one hundred and eight times, then sang his own history.

It is a short, sore story. He was sent to fetch a sick man who turned out to be his own nephew, killed by a doctor’s bad medicine. The mother’s grief got to him, and he let the boy go back for a little while. King Yama suspected a bribe and had Wuchang beaten forty strokes. After that, he sang, nobody would be let off again, whatever wall of bronze or iron they hid behind, whatever their relations at court. Lu Xun loved him for it: ghostly yet human, principled yet not without feeling. The opera even gave him a wife and a small son.

That double nature runs through every version. These are executioners of a kind, and their placard leaves no room for argument, yet temples in Taiwan, Fujian, Singapore, Malaysia and Indonesia pray to them for luck, and the White one’s hat, in some temples, promises “Become rich when you meet me”. The joke is obvious. The worshippers make it anyway.

Their power is the power of an office rather than a body. They carry warrants from the underworld court, and a soul they have chained goes where they take it; a ghost they catch is removed from the street. Their weakness is equally official. They are subordinates, sent by the City God or by Yama, and the Mulian song makes the limit plain: the one time Wuchang used his own judgement and showed mercy, his master had him flogged. They may be loved, joked with and prayed to for money, but they cannot pardon anyone. That belongs to a higher desk.

Frequently Asked Questions

Who are Bai Wu Chang and Hei Wu Chang?

Bai Wu Chang and Hei Wu Chang, the White and Black Impermanence, are a pair of Chinese underworld deities who fetch the souls of the dead and catch ghosts. The White one is usually named Xie Bi’an and the Black one Fan Wujiu. They serve the City God and King Yama and walk at the front of their processions.

What is the story of Xie Bi’an and Fan Wujiu?

In the most common legend, Xie Bi’an and Fan Wujiu were two constables who agreed to meet under a bridge after a prisoner escaped. Xie was delayed by rain, Fan waited and drowned in the rising river, and Xie hanged himself when he found him dead. The Jade Emperor, moved by their loyalty, made them guardians of the underworld.

Why is one Wu Chang white and the other black?

In Taipei tradition, the White General Xie Bi’an is pale because he died by hanging, and the Black General Fan Wujiu is dark because he drowned. The colours also mark their temperaments: the White one is usually shown taller and friendlier, the Black one shorter and stern.

What are the Seventh and Eighth Lords in Taiwan?

The Seventh and Eighth Lords, Qiye and Baye, are the Taiwanese names for the White and Black Impermanence, Xie Bi’an and Fan Wujiu. Performers carry giant figures of them in temple processions such as the City God and Qingshan King festivals, where they lead the way and drive off evil spirits.

Why do people pray to the Wu Chang for wealth?

Although they are the officers who arrest the souls of the dying, the White and Black Impermanence are also worshipped as fortune deities in City God temples. The White one’s tall hat often carries a phrase such as “Become rich when you meet me”, which turns a meeting with death’s messenger into a promise of luck.