by Brian Griffith.
Reportedly, China’s head patriarchs have always been the central objects of their people’s devotion, at least they told us so. But who believed them? The women always had their own elders, heroes, saints and goddesses. For a time we heard that the traditions of “stupid superstitious women” had been swept aside from the path of progress, but many people now suspect that women’s culture and religion is the path of progress. Maybe their vast traditions of wisdom and leadership are due for some worldwide attention.
Most goddesses of China and Tibet have been saint-like or guru-like figures. They were “masters” who attained some sort of enlightenment, taught groups of friends, and reportedly returned in spirit after they died. To their devotees, these women were perfected beings. But since their followers could learn what the teachers taught, most goddesses were examples to be learned from, not eternally superior beings to be obeyed. The lives of most divine women were not just images of perfected womanhood, but biographies of goddesses in the making. The boundary lines between “mortal and immortal” or “human and divine” were permeable. People were all these things at once. In a sense, any person might become a deity. As Judith Simmer-Brown described the dakini goddesses of Tibet, “She may appear in humble or ordinary form as a shopkeeper, a wife or sister, or a decrepit or diseased hag. If she reveals herself, if she is recognized, she has tremendous ability to point out obstacles, reveal new dimensions, or awaken spiritual potential.” Such divine women appeared, or did not appear, seemingly at random over the course of Chinese history. The authorities tried to control their people’s loyalties. They tried to tell the villagers which leaders to follow. But nobody managed to control who the people considered holy.
In woman-friendly traditions, people commonly picture their deities as ultimate parents, teachers, or friends—not as kings, governors, or lords. Accordingly, most goddess cults have flourished among common people, not the dominant classes. They have seldom sought or gained official status as cults of state. Their goddesses are seldom pictured as high officials in a heavenly government. Female religious leaders have often been popular, but rarely controlled big organizations. Their authority has come from their personal qualities, not from any position of rank or office. Their legends commonly underline this.
In general, goddess religions grow out of women’s experience, including mothers’ experience. But the results of spiritual creativity are impossible to predict. As David Kinsley said, “Some goddesses have nothing to do with motherhood, fertility, or the earth. Others play traditional male roles and often seem to take delight in violating roles that are associated with women in the cultures where they are revered. Some goddesses … provide paradigms for female subordination to males.” So it’s true that China’s goddesses are extremely diverse. But still their cults tend to share certain values. They usually assume a reverence for life, and for the power to conceive or nurture it. They commonly take this literally female power as the greatest power of all. As the Dao De Jing (Tao Te Ching) put it, “To beget, to nourish / To beget but not to claim / To achieve but not to cherish / To be leader but not master— / This is called the Mystic Virtue” (Stanza 10).
Of course these values are not unique to Chinese goddess cults. They are common among aboriginal cultures around the world. Probably they are the values of China’s own first cultures. According to traditional myths, there was a time in the distant past when such values prevailed, and the myths predict they will prevail again. Here is a very incomplete alphabetical list of the myriad goddesses, most of whom reportedly incarnate again and again, and who could inspire a seriously alternative civilization.
Abkai Hehe. Sky Mother of the Manchu people, who gave birth to the universe and the first shamaness, then saved all creatures from the flood.
Ba (Pa). The goddess of drought.
Bana-jiermu. Earth Mother of the Manchus, who oversees many other goddesses of sun, moon, cloud, rock, hot spring, or sea soul.
Baogu (Bao Gu). A legendary healer and master of medicinal plants, who reportedly lived in the 300s CE.
Bixia Yuanjun (Pi-Hsia Yuan Chin). The goddess of dawn, childbirth, and destiny, who brings health and good fortune to the newborn, and protection to mothers.
Busangga and Yasangga. The divine couple which created the world according to Dai tradition.
Cai Xun Zhen (Ts’ai Hsün-chen). A girl who defied her parents, ran away from home, and became a deified Daoist immortal.
Can Nu (Cannü, or Cangu Nainai). The Silkworm Mother, protector of silkworm culture, mothers, families, and healing. A magic horse skin whisked her to heaven, after which she returned as a silkworm and lived in a mulberry tree. Worshiped on the third day of the third month.
Cao Wenyi. Sage-patroness of the Purity and Tranquility lineage of Quanzhen Daoism (fl. 1119 to 1125). A famous poet, who was given the title “Great Master of Literary Withdrawal into Clear Emptiness.”
Chang’e (Chang O, Heng-o). Stole the elixir of immortality and floated to the moon. In another adventure she came to earth, delivered a magic potion which killed a cruel emperor, and re-ascended to the moon.
Chang Rong. A forest immortal who ate only raspberry roots.
Chang Xi (Chang-hsi). A consort of Di Jun (Black Bird) who gave birth to the twelve moons.
Chen Jinggu (Lady Linshui). A deified shamaness from the coast of Fujien, who founded a line of female adepts for healing, exorcising spirits, calling souls, conducting seasonal rites, making rain, aiding childbirth, and fighting enemies of the people.
Chien Ti. A goddess who was impregnated by the sky god Di Jun (Di Chun, or Black Bird) when she swallowed an egg while bathing. She then gave birth to Yin Hsieh, founder of the Shang Dynasty.
Chokyidronme. A Tibetan Buddhist master of the 1400s, recognized as the embodiment of the meditation deity Vajravarahi. Also known as Samding Dorje Pagmo, she began a line of female tulkus, or reincarnate lamas, which continues to the present.
Chuang Mu (Ch’uang Mu, or Ch’ang Mu). The goddess of the bedroom and of sexual delights.
Cinnabar Mother of Highest Prime. The imperial lady who resides in the third star of the Big Dipper constellation, who governs time and the six yin powers.
Dagmema. The enlightened wife of Tibetan sage Marpa.
Dakinis. Enlightened goddesses of Tibet, whose name means “sky dancers.”
Dechen Karmo. Mother of all the Buddhas.
Dongling, Holy Mother. Daoist saint who attained great powers, but was accused of lechery and witchcraft by her jealous husband. She was jailed, but vanished to freedom, leaving only her slippers behind.
Dragon Girl. A girl who saved Xiamen Island from the Serpent King.
Ekadzati. A female wisdom protector of the Tantric teachings.
E Huang. A consort of the sky god Di Jun (Black Bird), who gave birth to the Tribe of Three-Bodied People. She was also wife of the primordial emperor Shun.
Feng Bo Bo (Feng Po-Po). A goddess of winds, storms, and moisture.
Five Shards Constellation. The unmoving spot around which the stars revolved, also called the “womb point” from which the universe was born.
Fufei. A daughter of the snake emperors Fu Xi and Nü Wa. She was lured into the water by the river’s admiring spirit, where she became the goddess of the Luo River.
Gong Detian (Gong De Tian, or Kung-Te-Tien). The goddess of Luck, who has a magic pearl that grants wishes.
Guanyin (Kuan Yin). The goddess of universal compassion, a Buddhist bodhisattva, known as “She Who Hears the Cries of the World.”
Gyen, Trompa. A Tibetan princess who became a great Buddhist teacher.
Hengshan [mountain] Goddess. The deity of Hengshan peak in Hunan, also known as the “Primal Mistress of the Purple Barrens.”
He Xiangu (He Xian Gu, He-Hsien-Ku, or Ho-Hsien-Ku). One of the eight Daoist immortals, a woman who discovered the potion of immortality. Alleged founder of the Morning Cloud (Yunxia Pai) lineage of the Complete Perfection (Quanzhen) sect of Daoism.
Hou. A lion-like creature who was the mount of the earth’s guardian queen.
Hu Tu (Hou-T’u). Female deity of the earth, like Gaia. She was the ruler of magic and fertility, to whom the Emperor offered sacrifices on a square marble altar in the Forbidden City each summer solstice. Sometimes said to be male.
Jade Maiden. The first woman, who the first man, Peng Gu, discovered wandering the cosmos. The first couple then generated the lineage of divine ancestors.
Jade Maiden of Highest Mystery. A divine representative of the sun who engages in sexual relations with selected adepts.
Jade Maiden of Profound Wonder. The first woman. Later she became Eternal Mother Wusheng Laomu, the mother of Laozi, who gave birth to the sage by immaculate conception, taught him the Dao, and ascended bodily into heaven as a realized immortal.
Jasper Lady. A woman of power who gave Emperor Yu magic help to control the great flood.
Jiang Yuan (Chiang Yuan). Recorded in Zhou-era legend as mother of Hou Ji (Hou Chi, or Lord Millet), founder of the Zhou clan, after being impregnated by stepping on the footprint of Di Chün (Black Bird).
Jiao, Refined Master (Chiao). A female Daoist master of Tang times, who initiated and loved male students.
Jiu Xian Nai (Chiu Hsian Nai). A South China shamaness with cult following.
Jun Di (Chun Ti). The Daoist goddess of light, who has three heads, one of which is a pig. Her chariot is also pulled by pigs, which are the seven stars of the Great Bear constellation.
Jin Hua, Lady (Lady Chin Hua). A divine protector of the people.
Lan Cai-He (Lan Ts’ai-Ho). One of the Eight Immortals, either an effeminate male dressed as a woman, or a very eccentric woman with a male voice, who carried a flute, a basket of fruit, and ruled over music.
Lao Jun (Lao Chün). A holy mother of creation.
Lavatory Ladies. Goddesses of the outhouse, namely Qi Gu and Zi Gu.
Li Teng Kong (Li T’eng-k’ung). A girl who defied her parents, ran away from home, and became a dealized Daoist immortal.
Lie Zu (Luozu, Lei-Zi, Lei-Tsu, Lei-Tzu, Hsi-Ling-Shih). Wife of the Yellow Emperor, who discovered silk, cultivated silkworms and mulberry trees, and invented the loom.
Lingguang Shengmu (the Holy Mother of Numinous Radiance). A goddess who appeared to the Daoist priestess Zu Shu, which led her to establish a Daoist lineage called the Way of Pure Subtlety.
Li Ye. A famous Daoist court priestess Tang dynasty (618–906 CE).
Long Mu (Lung Mu). A South Chinese holy woman who protected people from the forces of evil.
Lo Shen. Goddess of rivers and ruler of water magic.
Luo River goddess. See Fufei.
Luozu. A wife of the Yellow Emperor. She initiated silk production.
Magu. An ancient female immortal, also called “the Hemp Lady.” Revered by the Complete Perfection sect of Daoism. Portrayed wearing a tiger-head pouch, a sword, and a head dress symbolizing the freedom of heaven, with wild hair and bird-like fangs.
Ma Ku. Goddess of springtime, honored in Spring rites.
Mamo. A wrathful Tibetan dakini who eats flesh.
Ma Xian Ku (Ma Hsian Ku). A holy shamaness who protected her people.
Mat Chinoi. The serpent goddess who was mother of the Chinese people.
Mazu (Ma Tsu, or Tien Hou—the Queen of Heaven). A girl from Fujian who traveled in spirit while asleep to save sailors at sea. She protested against an arranged marriage by starving herself to death, and continued saving sailors in the spirit.
Meng Jiang Nu (Meng Jiangnü). A woman whose husband was conscripted to build the Great Wall, and journeyed there to help him in winter. She found he had died, and wept till the wall built over his body collapsed.
Meng Po Niang (Mong-Po, Lady-Meng, Meng-P’o, Meng-Po-Niang-Niang, Mi-Hung-Tang). The goddess who lives just inside hell’s exit door, who gives the potion of forgetfulness to each soul departing for a new reincarnation.
Miaoshan. And incarnation of Guanyin, who refused orders to marry, was cast out of her family, yet later gave her eyes and arms for medicine to cure her father of a disease.
Milotou. Primordial goddess in Yao tradition, who gave birth to all creatures.
Momu. An extraordinarily ugly woman with a hunched back and club-feet, who impressed the legendary Emperor Huangdi by healing a girl who was bitten by a poisonous snake. Momu was invited to oversee administration of the divine palace, and her administration was ever proficient, partly because her ugliness drove away evil spirits. To this day villagers keep pictures of her, to ward off evil.
Mulan. A legendary woman who disguised herself as a man to serve in her father’s place in the army, and helped defeat the barbarian invaders.
Nü Ji. An immortal lady who attained power through sexual practices.
Nü Wa. (Nü Kwa). Snake goddess, who with the male snake god Fu Xi, created the world. She then saved the world from flood and collapse by repairing the sky.
Pan Jinlian (P’an-Chin-Lien). The goddess of sex and prostitutes.
Prajanaparamita. The Great Mother, who is transcendent realization of emptiness—the realization which is the “mother” of Buddhahood.
Qi Gu (C’hi-Ku, or Tsi Ku). A goddess of the outhouse. When women want to know the future, they go to the outhouse and ask Qi Gu.
Qi Xiang Nai (Ch’i Hsiang Nai). A divine woman from South China who protected people from evil.
Qi Xiao Yao (Ch’i Hsiao-yao). A girl who rejected her father’s “rules for women,” left her husband, was widely suspected of being possessed by an evil spirit, but achieved her goal of becoming a Daoist immortal.
Qiu Jin (Ch’iu Chin). A fiery feminist revolutionary who was martyred by the Manchu authorities in 1907.
Sao Cing Niang (Sao-Ts’ing Niang). The goddess of clouds, whose mercy ends drought.
Shangyuan Furen. The Lady of Highest Prime, a source of revelations to the Highest Clarity sect of Daoism.
Sien Zang (Sien Tsang). Wife of the divine farmer Shennong. She wove the clouds that clothe the heavens.
Shin Mu. The mother of perfect intelligence. China’s holy virgin.
Songzi Niangniang. The Lady Who Brings Children. In charge of conception, pregnancy, delivery, child welfare.
Suiren. A primordial teacher of indeterminate sex, who invented fire-making with wooden drills.
Sun Buer (Sun Pu-erh). A Daoist master of the 1100s CE, seventh master of Complete Perfection (Quanzhen) sect of Daoism. Credited with many magical feats and wondrous teachings. Founded the Qingjing Pai sublineage (or the Lineage of Clarity and Stillness).
Sunu. A woman who helped the Yellow Emperor stimulate the crops by inventing and playing her twenty-five string qin instrument, to orchestrate the growing seasons.
Taimu, Lady. An ancestress of Fujian legend, who led her followers to open the land and became the earliest forebear of the Min people.
Taimu goddess. Primary mother of the Yue nationality, who moved to a cave on Mt. Lanshan, attained immortality, and rode to heaven on a nine-colored dragon horse.
Taishan [mountain] Goddess. The bringer of fertility and rain, patroness of Mount Tai, sister of the Jade Emperor, also called “Old Mother, ” “Old Grandmother of Tai,” “the Heavenly Immortal,” “Green Jade Mother,” or “Goddess of the Azure Clouds.”
Tara. Tibetan goddess of unconditional awareness and compassion. Best known as either Green Tara or White Tara. White Tara is also known as “Tara of the Seven Eyes”—with eyes on her hands, feet, and forehead, to symbolize her all-seeing mercy.
Tenma goddesses. Twelve spirits of Tibet’s mountain ranges, who protect the people and religion of Tibet.
Tian Mu (T’ien-Mu). The goddess of lightning. Her husband, the dragon Lei Gong, supplies the thunder.
Ti Ying. A woman who dared challenge the Han emperor (in 167 BCE) with an appeal for mercy on prisoners, and won a ban on the worst kinds of torture.
Tuoyalaha. Famous ancient shamaness of the Jurchen people, who stole fire from the fire god in a time of endless night, carried it in her mouth, and saved her people from freezing in the dark.
Tou Mou. Goddess of the polestar, who serves as the record-keeping scribe of the immortals, patroness of writing, and judge of all people.
Tru’ng Thac and Thu’ng Nhi. Two sisters who led a Vietnamese rebellion against Chinese rule in Han times, and were later deified.
Tsogyal, Yeshe. A female Buddhist saint and a co-founder of the Nyingma school of Tibetan Buddhism, (ca. 757 to 817 CE).
Vajravarahi. A Tibetan female guardian spirit who defends practitioners of meditation from distractions. Usually portrayed with a pig’s head protruding from her crown.
Wolado Mama. The cosmological star-planting goddess of the Manchu, who wears white wings and carries a bag of stars to create the constellations.
Wei Huacun (Wei Hua-ts’un). An enlightened Daoist female master. After her death, she appeared to Yang Xi (Yang Hsi), and gave him the first texts of Shang-ch’ing (mystical Daoism). She is also a mountain goddess residing on the eminence of Lojiang in Fujian.
Wu. Female shamans.
Wusheng Laomu. The Eternal Mother, the mother of Laozi.
Xi. Male shamans.
Xiang (Hsiang) River Goddesses. Two goddesses of the Xiang River, named Ehuang and Nüying, whose tears for the dead emperor Shun reportedly made the water patterns in bamboo. Evolked by southern shamenesses, and sometimes called the Maiden in the Mist of the Xiang River.
Xiang Nü (Hsiang Nü). A Buddhist female saint who overcame abuse by her in-laws and saved them all.
Xiao River Goddess. One of many river goddesses in the Yangze basin.
Xi He (Hsi Ho). Empress and wife of the Yellow Emperor, Huangdi. She reportedly gave birth to the ten suns. Later she drove the sun as a chariot, though later myths changed the sex of the chariot driver.
Xi Shi (Hsi-Shih). A goddess of cosmetics and perfumes, who was so beautiful that when the evil Prince Wu beheld her he fell into a stupor, which allowed the righteous exiled King Yue to regain the throne.
Xi Wang-mu (Hsi Wang-mu). The Queen Mother of the West, great shamaness of the world pillar, gatekeeper of death, birth, healing, and immortality; also called The Primordial Ruler.
Xie Xiran. A Tang period Shangqing Daoist adept.
Xin Qi Niang (Hsin Ch’i Niang). A sainted South Chinese mother.
Yang. The patroness of shamans, one of the ten immortal sorcerers on Wu-shan, the Mount of Sorcerers.
Yangze River Goddess. A goddess evolked by southern shamenesses, as recorded in the Nine Hymns (Chiu Ko) of early 200s BCE.
Yao Chi (the Jasper Lady). A goddess who guided emperor Yü in controlling the primordial flood. She could shape-shift to any creature’s form.
Yao Chi Jinmu (Yao-chih chin-mu). Golden Mother of the Jasper Pool, the Keeper of Paradise.
Yaoji. A patron goddess of Wushan, or Shamaness Mountain. Also, a daughter of the Queen Mother of the West, who brought women’s writing to the embroidering women of Jianyong.
Yasangga and Busangga. The divine couple which created the world according to Dai tradition.
Yin and Yang. The two primordial male and female principles by which all the universe was created.
Yinjiang. The first shamanness, created by the Sky Mother Abkai Hehe, according to the Nian Manchu people.
Youchao. A primordial teacher of unknown sex, who taught people to built tree houses.
Yu Jiang (also called Maonü).A famous “hairy lady of the forest,” who reportedly escaped her role as concubine for Prince Ying of the Qin state, and understandably fled to the wilds. They found her there hundreds of years later, living naked and free on a diet of pine needles and pure qi energy.
Yu Xuanji. A famous Daoist court priestess of the Tang dynasty.
Youying, Lady. Otherwise known as Lady Right Bloom of the Palace of Cloud Forest, a mountain goddess who was reportedly a daughter of the Queen Mother of the West.
Zhepama and Zhemima. The goddess and god who jointly created the world according to Achang tradition.
Zhi Nu (Chih Nu, Zhinü). A goddess of spinners, weavers and clouds. She wove both silk garments and clouds for the Lord of Heaven, but fell in love with a cowherd boy, who stole her clothes as she bathed. Her father, the Jade Emperor separated the lovers in constellations at opposite side of the sky. The lovers could unite only once a year, when magpies created a bridge across the Milky Way.
Zheng Wei (Cheng Wei). A Han dynasty saint who was abused by her army officer husband, feigned madness, and vanished into a new life as an independent holy woman.
Zi Gu (Tzu-Ku, Tzu-Ku-Shen). A goddess of toilets, who was murdered for jealousy while in the latrine. She haunted latrines thereafter, and became the patroness of spirit writing from beyond.
Ziwei Furen. The Lady of the Purple Tenuity, a source of Highest Clarity sect revelations to the Highest Clarity sect of Daoism.
Zu Shu. A Daoist priestess who had visionary encounters with the Holy Mother of Numinous Radiance (Lingguang Shengmu), and founded a teaching lineage called the Way of Pure Subtlety.
From “A Galaxy of Immortal Women,” by Brian Griffith (Exterminating Angel Press)