This month we’re offering copies of Jonathan Chamberlain’s Chinese Gods to the first three correct answers to our challenge question below. First, here’s the book blurb:

Chinese folk religion is the underlying belief system of more than a billion Chinese people. Go into any Chinese home, office or restaurant and you will see altars, statues or paper ‘good luck’ images. And wherever there is a Chinese community there are temples and Earth God shrines. But what is the religion that makes sense of all these expressions of belief? How do these beliefs connect to Taoism, Confucianism and Buddhism?

Chinese Gods helps us understand the building blocks of this religion for which even the Chinese have no name — because the beliefs are so intertwined with language and culture they have no independent existence — and provides an in-depth analysis of 19 of the major gods of the Chinese pantheon.

Here’s what the Bangkok Post has to say about the book: “Chamberlain explains, in engaging, flowing prose, just who these immortals are. And as a result, the scope of this book is amazing — millennia of dynasties, the complex psyche of the world’s most populous nation, the supernatural, anthropology, mythology, numerology, feng shui and all the other underpinnings of Greater China’s disparate — but today, remarkably integrated — belief systems, including Taoism, Confucianism, Buddhism, nature cults and ancestor worship. For the Sinologist, this offering is akin to some imperial feast where one can gorge on anything within reach. And even for the casual reader, this is a hugely satisfying book.”

So here’s our question: By which Chinese name is the red-faced god of war better known? Answers to mail(at)blacksmithbooks.com, Hong Kong and China postal addresses only.