For instance, today's scholars of folk culture trace the custom of praying to Huyeh back to the rural rites of the Chou dynasty. After the harvest was completed, the Son of Heaven would report to eight kinds of spirits, of which the fifth were the cats and tigers, for they protected crops by eating the rodents and wild animals which might damage the seedlings.
今天民俗學者追溯祭祀虎爺習俗，就傳承自周朝郊祀，當田工告成，天子就合聚八神報饗之，稱作八蠟，其中第五種神是貓虎，因為它們會捕食傷害禾苗的野鼠野獸，保護農作。