-Renee Bjork

The Chinese Goddesses

Ba (Daughter of heaven, her symbol is drought) This goddess appears in various tales as an ally to the
Yellow Emperor, to help him dry up a great storm that his enemy Chiyou brought against Huang Di’s
army.

Bixia Yuanjin: (Taoist goddess of dawn, destiny and rebirth) As the goddess of the dawn, Bixia Yuanjin
attends the birth of every day from her abode in the high clouds. She attends the birth of children, fixing
their destiny and bringing good fortune. She was worshipped in the Temple of the Purple Dawn at the
summit of the holy mountain, Tai Shan. She is also known as the Mother of this mountain. Her story is
one of the oldest in China, and it has been suggested that she had once been a real maiden who was
later sanctified in the Tai Shan temple. Her father is Tai Shan Wang, who is the God of the mountain and
judge of the underworld. She is often depicted with a head decoration made of three birds with
outstretched wings as she sits on the red throne.

Dha-shi-zhi (Bodhisattva of Chinese Buddhism. Broke the cycle of rebirth through the power of her love)
Bodhisattva is a person or being who follows the path of Buddha, to help oneself and also those around
you. Their goal is to attain the highest level of being- that of a Buddha. Her name means “the Strongest”.
In the heavenly paradise, souls appear before her as flowers.

Dou-mu (Supervisor of all recorded deaths and births. Worshipped by those that want long life and look
for compassion) A goddess of light and the sun. Her name means “Mother of the Great Wagon”. She has
been portrayed sitting on a lotus throne and has four heads, with three eyes in each and eight arms, four
on each side. In Taoist temples, there is often a hall dedicated to her, and she is also venerated by
Buddhists.

Feng Po-po (Goddess of the wind) She works with helpers, such as dragons. It is said that if you listen to
the wind, Feng-Po-Po will bring messages of renewal and cleansing. The winds of change will blow
through your life if she comes to your aid. She is known to help clear negative energy patterns, and bring
freshness and joy to life. On the flip side, if she is called upon and not embraced with love and faith, she
may send a hurricane through your life to destroy old outdated ways.

Gond De (Taoist goddess of luck. Holds a pearl in left hand) The pearl signifies wish fulfillment. With her
right hand she makes a gesture of great boldness. She has shares similar traits with the Hindu goddess
Lakshmi..

He Xian-gu (The only female member of the Ba Xian, eight immortals who represent the human
conditions of youth, old age, poverty, wealth, populace, nobility, masculine and feminine) She lived
through the Tang Dynasty and spent her life as a hermit in the mountains. It is said that a spirit appeared
to her in a dream when she was fourteen. She was told to grind a stone known as “the Mother of the
Clouds” into a powder and eat it. She would then become as light a feather and attain immortality. She
followed the instructions and vowed never to marry. Soon after she was able to fly from one mountain
peak to the next, gathering fruit and berries for her mother. She herself no longer had need of any
nourishment. One day she was summoned to the court of the Emperor, but she disappeared along the
way and became an immortal. Another story says that she lost her way in the mountains while gathering
tea. There she met a scholar, (Lu Dong-bin) who gave her a peach, after which she ate of it, never felt
hunger again. She has been portrayed as a girl wearing a lotus on her shoulder.

Heng O (Lunar goddess and symbol of Yin.) Yin, being the cold and dark principle. She tried to stael the
draught of immortality from her husband, the celestial archer Shen Yi, but he caught her before she could
drink it all. The drink gave her the power to ascend to heaven, but since she hadn’t had the full drink, she
only got halfway up and had to settle on the moon. She is depicted wearing beautiful robes with a lunar
disc in her right hand, sometimes sitting on a three legged toad. She is the younger sister of the river god,
He Bo.

Ji Nu (Goddess of the stars) All I can find is that she is a stellar goddess, which fascinates me, especially
since I can’t seem to find much else about her.

Kwan Yin/ Quan yin/Guan Yin (Patron of mercy and childless women) In Sanskrit, her name is Padma-
pani, which means “Born of the Lotus”. Quan Yin is a shortened version of a name that means “One Who
Sees and Hears the Cry from the Human World”. Her Chinese title signifies “She who always observes
and pays attention to sounds”. (Prayers) Alone among the Buddhist Gods, Quan Yin is loved, rather than
feared, and is the model of Chinese beauty. Apparently, she was originally a male deity {Until the 12th
century) called Avalokiteshvara, “the merciful lord of utter enlightenment”, an Indian Bodhisattva who
chose to remain on Earth to bring relief to the suffering rather than enjoy the ecstasies of Nirvana. She is
one of the San Ta Shih, (The Three Great Beings) who were renowned for their power over the animal
kingdom and the forces of nature. The three Bodhisattvas or P’u Sa as they are known in China, are:
Manjusri, (Wen Shu) Samantabhadra (P’u Hsien) and Avalokitesvara. (Quan Yin)
There are several stories surrounding this goddess. One is that she was a Buddhist who through great
love and sacrifice during life, she earned the right to enter Nirvana after death. However, like her male
counterpart, while standing before the gates of Paradise, she heard a cry of anguish from the Earth
below. Turning back to Earth, she renounced her reward of eternal bliss, but in its place found immortality
in the hearts of the suffering. She has many names in China, and is also known as: “Great Mercy, Great
Pity, Salvation From Misery, Salvation From Woe, Self Existent, and Thousand Arms and Thousand
Eyes. She is also referred to as the Goddess of the Southern Sea or Indian Archipelago, and has been
also been compared to the Virgin Mary. She is associated with *Sung-Tzu Niang-Niang, the ”lady who
brings children”. This is because she was a goddess of fertility as well. Quan Yin comforts the troubled,
the sick, the lost, the senile and the unfortunate. Her popularity as a goddess of mercy and caring, she
has also become the protector of sea farers, farmers and travelers. She cares for the souls in the
underworld and is invoked to free the souls of the deceased from the torments of purgatory. She has
many temples all over China, although she is worshipped more in the South than the North. Observed
worship days are on the 19th day of the 2nd, 6th and 9th moons. Her main temple is on the on the island of
Putuoshan, and is major pilgrimage site, sacred to the Buddhists. She was said to have resided at this
temple for nine years, reigning over the Southern Seas. Apparently, no other figure in the Chinese
Pantheon appears in a greater variety of images, of which there were said to be thousands of
incarnations or manifestations. She is usually depicted as a barefoot, gracious woman dressed in white
flowing robes with a white hood draped over her head, carrying a small vase of holy dew.

Lei-zi (Thunder goddess. Said to have taught the Chinese how to breed silkworms) The wife of Lei Gong,
“Duke of Thunder) she was also known as the “Mother of Lightning”. She is also known as Dian Mu, Tian-
mu. She is said to have used mirrors to send bolts of lightning across the sky. It is said that she
discovered the secret of making silk after finding a silkworm, a cocoon, and a Mulberry bush in a
“compromising position”.

Pan Jin-Lian (Goddess of sex and prostitutes) This woman was highly renowned for her absolute beauty,
but she ended up marrying a short ugly man called Wu Dalang, and they moved frequently to avoid
gossip. It is said that a neighbor once told Pan Jin-Lian that she “was like a flower planted in a pile of
dung” because of the couples mismatched looks. They moved to a place called Yanggu, where they met
up with Wu Dalang’s brother, Wu Song. Pan Jin Lian became attracted to the brother, but was rejected by
him. Supposedly he left the country to transport gold, and to avoid her advances, but he later hears that
Wu Dalang had died from illness. Suspicious, Wu song returned to investigate, and learned that Pan Jin
Lian had an affair with a rich, good looking, womanizing merchant named Ximen Qing. Wu Song got Pan
Jin Lian to confess that she and her lover had caused the death of Wu Dalang, and he then murdered
her. He went on to take the life of Ximen Qang as well. Through these events, Pan Jin Lian became
immortalized as a goddess. There must be more to her story, just as there is to the story of Lilith. She
didn’t just become a goddess because she liked dick with a good looking dude attached. I feel that she
must have been wronged in some way or had some divine connection…

Qi Gu-niang (Called upon by little girls when they wanted to know who they were to marry) She is the
daughter of the Jade Emperor, Yu-huang. Also known as the “Seventh Lady”.

Tian Hou (Sky goddess and protector of fisherman) She was once a mortal named Lin Moniang, and had
four brothers, who were all sailors, each with his own ship. One day while her brothers were at sea, Tian-
Hou fell into a deep coma. Her mother did everything she could to rive her, and eventually succeeded, but
Tien-Hou protested that she had been woken up too soon. Later that day, three of her brothers returned
with stories of how there was a great storm in the sea and their ships had been destroyed. They also said
that a vision of their sister had come to them and led them to safety. The fourth brother never returned,
because she had been awakened before she could save him. She died at a young age, and the people
named her “Princess of Supernatural Favor”. She watches over all fisherman, and there are many
temples in her honor along the coastline of China. Tian Hou means “Empress of the Sky”, but she has
many other names: Tien Hou, Tin Hau, Thien Hau, Tianhou Shengmu, Tian Fei, among others.

Wang Mu niang-niang (Keeper and Guardian of the peaches of immortality) This goddess was known to
have been a plague carrying tiger spirit, who caused great trouble. But at one point, she offered the
Emperor a bowl of magic peaches and her reputation changed. She married Mu Gong otherwise known
as Mr. Yang and became Mrs. Yin, the personification of Femininity. Some believe that she was the
goddess who gave the Elixir of Life to Yi and Chango. She grows magical peaches in her Heavenly
Peach Garen, which immediately bestow long life and other benefits. They take a thousand years to
blossom and only ripen once every nine thousand years. This one reminds me of Iduna, the Norse
goddess who tends a beautiful garden in Asgard, with a magical apple tree. She is the only one who can
pick them and gives the gods one a day, so they would never grow a day older.

Xi Shi (Goddess of makeup and sellers of beauty products) This lovely lady is one of the Four Beauties of
ancient China. She was so beautiful that after looking upon her birds forgot to fly and fish forgot to swim.
Her beauty was used as a weapon by the deposed King of Yue. He’d been defeated and imprisoned by
the King of Wu. Yue had his advisors train Xi Shi and Zheng Dan, another Beauty, and sent them to the
King of Wu. The ladies distracted him so much that he neglected his kindom and was overthrown by the
deposed King Yue. The Queen of Yue then had Xi Shi drowned so that her husband wouldn’t be tempted
by her. Harsh!

Xi Wang-mu (Goddess of immortality and the element of Yin) *See Wang Mu niang niang

Zhi-ni (Goddess of weavers) She wove the robes of the gods. The Chinese goddess of weavers and
spinners.

Tian-mu (Lightening goddess) The goddess who is married to the god of thunder, she has magical
powers and is in charge of the lightning in heaven. It is believed that she would use two magic mirrors
together to catch the sun. According to the ancient legends, there was a time when there was no
lightning, only rain and thunder. But, The Jade Emperor empowered the God of Thunder to punish the evil
people of Earth. By mistake, he killed a kind hearted woman. The Jade Emperor raised her from death
and named her the Goddess of Lightning. He then dictated that from thence forward, whenever the God
of Thunder stroke the Earth, he must let the Goddess of Lightning release her light FIRST, to distinguish
the right from wrong and prevent injustice.

Son-zi-niang-niag (Fertility goddess) This goddess is closely related to Quan Yin. “She Who Brings
Children.” Her symbols are dolls. It is said that her energy not only brings fertility, but a kinder and gentler
heart. To this day, couples bring an offering of a special doll to her and pray for fertility.

Na-Gua Creator goddess, made people from yellow mud, go between for men and women, helps with
fertility) After Pan-Gu formed the Universe, the Earth was full of mud and animals. Nu-Gua was bored, so
using her own body as a guide, with black, brown and yellow mud, created new creatures on Earth. She
loved them and thought them beautiful, and delighted in their worship of her. But they weren’t enough to
populate the Earth, so she cut corners on the next batch. She dipped a vine into a particularly foul patch
of sloppy mud and swung it around her head. The mixture created new humans for miles around. Here’s
where quality is better than quantity. These new humans were crude and ugly and sour. She established
them as peasants, and started the class system. She then invented sex and marriage.