“She-Ji or She-Chi: Ancient Chinese compound deity of the soil and harvests. China’s earliest emperors worshiped She (earth), for they alone had responsibility for the entire earth and country. Since ordinary people had no part in this courtly worship, the came to focus their worship on the god of grain (Ji). Local shrines held two images, one of She and one of Ji, and eventually the two images were considered man and wife.”
Excerpted from: Stevens, Mark A., Ed. Merriam Webster’s Collegiate Encyclopedia. Springfield, Massachusetts: Merriam-Webster, 2000.
Mark's Text Terminal 