God of Fire and the South
Zhurong began as a deified office: the Fire Regulator of high antiquity. The Zuozhuan lists him among the officers of the five elements — 'the Regulator of Fire is called Zhurong' — and the Guoyu explains the title conferred on Chong Li, Fire Regulator under Emperor Ku, whose 'pure radiance, generous and great, lit heaven and earth to the four seas'; the name itself means something close to 'great brightness'. Masters of fire who died in office were worshipped with the fire god, and Zhurong became fire itself.
In the mythological system he governs the south and the summer. The Shanhaijing pictures him in the southern quarter with a beast's body and a human face, riding a pair of dragons, and elsewhere makes him father of the water god Gonggong — fire begetting water in the divine genealogy. In the Han scheme of the Five Directional Powers he assists the Red Emperor of the south, matched with the color red and the element fire, standing opposite the dark water god of the north.
Legend buries him on the southern slope of Mount Heng, whose highest point, Zhurong Peak, rises above 1,300 meters with an iron-tiled shrine at the summit, in continuous use since the Sui and Tang. House fires were long referred to politely as 'Zhurong's calamity', smiths and kiln-workers sacrificed to him, and China's first Mars rover, which landed on Mars in 2021, was named Zhurong.
