3.2 Goddesses of China
Goddesses of China
Most Popular Gods & Goddesses of Ancient China
by Emily Mark
There were over 200 gods and goddesses worshipped throughout ancient China, but if one were to count every deity or spirit, the number would be over 1,000. Each town, village, city, field, farm, and sometimes even separate plot in a graveyard, had its own Tudi Gong, an elemental earth spirit, who was recognized and honored.
There were also spirits known as Kuei-Shen, nature spirits, who might inhabit a tree or live by a stream or preside over a garden. These were eternal spirits who had never been mortal but others, known as guei (or kuei, gui, kui), had once been human beings who had died and passed on to the afterlife. The guei could return to haunt the living for various reasons, and rituals, spells, and religious practices developed to appease them.
There were also deities who had once been mortal and now lived with the gods, such as the Baxian (Pa Hsien), the Eight Immortals of holy Taoists who were rewarded by the goddess Queen Mother of the West with immortality. The Baxian were prayed to like any of the other gods, as were one’s ancestors who had passed over the bridge between the land of the living and the realm of the dead to live among the gods and watch over the living.
The gods were believed to have created the world and human beings, and they kept the world and surrounding universe functioning. Each deity had his or her own special area of power and influence, and the most important were given their own shrines and temples, although shrines were also erected to local spirits and to noble men and women who became deified after death.
These deities lived in palaces and castles high above human beings in places like the Kunlun Mountains, Mount Tai, the Jade Mountain, and Mount Penglai which was the mystical island of the afterlife somewhere far out at sea. Even though they were far away, they were still connected to human life on a daily basis, watching over and keeping account of the good and bad deeds people did. Each of the deities had their own part to play in the lives of people and the operation of the world from the most intimate moments to events of national importance such as a dynasty’s collapse.
All of the gods, goddesses, and spirits were important to the people of ancient China, and remain so today, and selecting a certain small group leaves out many, many others who remain just as significant. However, one can single out those deities who had national prominence, are among the oldest, or are without question the most popular as shown through ancient writings and evidence from archaeological excavations.
The goddesses listed below are given in the order they appear in Chinese writings. Most likely, deities like Nuwa, Fuxi, and P’an Ku were recognized much earlier than written records indicate, and the same is probably true of most of the gods and goddesses on the list. These deities are selected because they were all very important to the people of ancient China even though some were more prominent at certain times in history than at others.
Queen Mother of the West
She was the queen of the immortal gods and spirits, especially female spirits who lived in the mystical land of Xihua (“West Flower”), and goddess of immortality. She is also known as Xiwangmu or Xi-Wang-Mu and lived in a castle of gold in the Kunlun Mountains, surrounded by a moat which was so sensitive that even a hair dropped on the waters would sink. This moat served as protection for her Imperial Peach Orchard where the juices of the fruit of the trees gave immortality. Xiwangmu is shown as a beautiful woman with sharp teeth and a leopard’s tail, or as an old, unattractive woman with a hunched back, tiger’s teeth and a leopard’s tail, depending on her mood. She rewarded her followers with eternal life but punished those who angered her. During the Han Dynasty (202 BCE-220 CE) her cult was very popular and shrines were built for her by the government. She is the wife of Mugong, Lord of the Spirits, who watches over male spirits in the land of Donghua (“East Flower”) but is sometimes seen as the wife of Shangti.
Guanyin
Guanyin was the goddess of mercy and compassion who became the patron of sailors and fishermen. She was originally a deity in India known as Tara who was born of the tears of the bodhisattva Avalokitesvara (whose name means “One Who Gazes Down Upon the World and Hears the Cries of the People”) and was seen as his female counterpart and a goddess of compassion, wisdom, and liberation. She came to China from India through trade via the Silk Road during the Han Dynasty. She was so compassionate that she incarnated as the maiden Miaoshan in order to experience life as a human being and offer service to others. Miaoshan’s father wanted her to marry a wealthy priest. Miaoshan refused to marry unless the marriage could end the sufferings caused by illness, aging, and death. When her father told her no marriage could end such things, she replied that a doctor could, but her father did not want her marrying someone of such a lowly occupation.
She was allowed to enter a temple instead of marrying, but her father made sure that she was given all of the worst work, which she accomplished with the help of the nearby animals who responded to her goodness. Her father then tried to burn the temple down but Miaoshan put the fire out with her bare hands. He then had her executed, but when she went to hell, she released all of the goodness she held inside and turned it into paradise. The king of the dead, Lord Yama, sent her back to earth before she ruined his realm, and she lived afterwards on Fragrant Mountain where she watched over human beings. From her mountain home, she would often notice people in trouble on their boats at sea and rescued them, which is how she became patron goddess of sailors and fishermen. She was one of the most popular deities in all of China, and both men and women adored her.
Nuwa & Fuxi
Nuwa and Fuxi were the mother and father deities of human beings. Nuwa was born at the beginning of creation and fixed the mistakes made at first so that everything was perfect. She built a palace for herself, which became the model for Chinese architecture, and lived there with her friend and brother Fuxi, both depicted as human-dragons with human heads and dragon bodies or human bodies to the waist and dragon legs and tails.
Nuwa became lonely and created human beings for company from the mud of the Yellow River. She breathed life into them and they moved and lived. She continued to make more and more human beings but it was tiring work and so she created marriage so that they could reproduce themselves. The humans were alive but had no knowledge of anything and so Fuxi gave them the gifts of fire, writing, how to get food from the sea, and all the other skills they would need to live. He also gave them the gifts of music, culture, and divination so they could make good decisions by knowing what the future held.
Chang’e
Chang’e, the goddess of the moon, was another of the most popular deities in ancient China and is the most often mentioned deity in Chinese poetry and literature. She was the consort of the archer god Hou Yi who saved her during a lunar eclipse and brought her back safely. Chang’e betrayed him by stealing from him the elixir of immortality, which the gods had given him, and ran across the night sky with it, pursued by Hou Yi. She reached the moon where she transformed herself into a toad to hide from him until his rage passed. Hou Yi had been stopped in his pursuit by a hare who would not let him pass until he calmed down and promised he would not harm her. When Hou Yi reached the moon, Chang’e had remained in her toad form too long to change back and so, when one looks at the moon, one sees the outline of a toad on its surface. The story of Chang’e and Hou Yi was celebrated at the Mid-Autumn Festival in ancient China which is known today as the Moon Festival when people go outside at night to appreciate the moon, eat moon cakes, and give gifts to friends and family.
Niu Lang & Zhi Nu
This pair are the god and goddess of love. Zhi Nu was the goddess of weaving for the gods and daughter of Shangti. Every day she wove the beautiful robes the gods wore and looked down on earth from her place among the stars and wished she could visit. She was finally granted permission by her father and went to earth where she left her clothes by the banks of a stream and went swimming. A cowherd named Niu Lang saw her and fell in love with her so he stole her clothes so she could not run away from him. When Zhi Nu came out of the water she was outraged that her clothes were gone but when Niu Lang explained himself she fell in love with him. She forgot all about her home in the heavens and her duties as divine weaver and stayed on earth with Niu Lang.
They were very happy together, every day they were more in love, and they had many children. Shangti was not pleased, though, and neither were the other gods and so soldiers were sent to bring Zhi Nu back home. Niu Lang tried to follow but Shangti threw a wall of stars across his path and stopped him; these stars are known on earth as the Milky Way. Once a year, magpies fly from earth to the Milky Way and form a bridge the two can cross to be with each other on the evening known as the Seventh Night of the Seventh Moon.
This became a very popular story referenced by writers and poets in many different eras of China’s history. The Lady in the famous poem Song of Everlasting Sorrow references this story toward the end when she is on the island in the afterlife. The myth was the basis for the Festival of the Seventh Night of the Seventh Moon which officially was dedicated to women’s art in sewing and weaving but unofficially was a night for romance. Zhi Nu is the star Vega in the constellation of Lyra, and Niu Lang is the star Altair in the constellation of Aquila, separated by the Milky Way except for once a year.
Other Gods & Goddesses
These goddesses and many gods as well were worshipped by the Chinese people for centuries. Some developed later than others but all were important to the people. Although worship of these gods was outlawed as “superstition” when the communist party took control of the Chinese government in 1949 CE, they continued to be worshipped privately by the people and are still honored in many homes all over the world today.
To cite this reading, use the following format:
Mark, Emily. “Most Popular Gods & Goddesses of Ancient China.” World History Encyclopedia, 25 April 2016, www.worldhistory.org/article/894/most-popular-gods–goddesses-of-ancient-china/. Accessed 1 Dec. 2022.
