The household god who reports a family’s behavior to the Jade Emperor is Zao Jun.
Zao Jun, also called Zao Shen or the Kitchen God, is a domestic deity who protects the hearth and watches over the household. According to traditional belief, he returns to Heaven near the end of the lunar year and reports the family’s conduct to the Jade Emperor, the ruler of the celestial realm. The report can influence whether the family receives reward or punishment in the coming year.
The Kitchen God’s departure is traditionally observed on the twenty-third day of the twelfth lunisolar month, shortly before Chinese New Year. Families may offer sweets or other foods, symbolically encouraging him to speak favorably—or at least sweetly—about them. After his heavenly report, he returns to the household and resumes his protective role.
Zao Jun is easy to confuse with other domestic or prosperity deities. Tudigong is the Earth God, associated with local land and community protection; Door Gods guard entrances; and Caishen concerns wealth. Those figures may appear together in popular religious practice, but Zao Jun is the specific household observer who reports to the Jade Emperor.