There once was a mighty lord who loved to eat, and who had grown very fat. Although his palace was kept stocked with good things to eat, sometimes he went out to find new flavors.
One day he came to the house of a simple peasant woman and begged to taste her food. She gave him some sugar cakes (tángbǐng 糖饼), but soon he had eaten them all. Because he wanted more, he begged and threatened the woman to induce her to move to his palace to bake for him.
In a fit of pique, the woman slapped the mighty lord across the face, with a slap so hard that it sent him falling hard against the wall, where he stuck. The woman, who had magical powers that he had never anticipated, placed a curse upon him, forcing him to stay on the wall watching other people eat while he himself could only look on.
He is there to this day, for the Jade Emperor (Yùhuáng Shàngdì 玉皇上帝) appointed him to be the kitchen god (zàoshén 灶神), whose altar was to be found somewhere near every family’s kitchen stove. As kitchen god, he was charged to report to Heaven each year on the family’s doings.
Fearing a bad report, people naturally took precautions. For one thing, they made a new picture of him each year. For another, on the 23rd day of the 12th lunar month each year, just before he goes to report to the Jade Emperor, he is offered small sticky, melon-shaped candies, called “candy melons” (tángguā 糖瓜), also eaten by children. Because of this, his mouth becomes filled with sweetness so that he can report only good things, although many people say it is also glued shut, so that he cannot report much of anything.