Chiyang Daoren, Eastern Taoism

Mazu, born in the Song dynasty, is a goddess widely worshipped along China's southeast coast, in Hong Kong, Macau, and Taiwan, and across Southeast Asia. Yet as early as the Tang dynasty another goddess had already appeared in southeast China, and her cult is still widespread along the southeast coast and in Southeast Asia today. She is Lady Chen Shisi.

Among China's many local deities, Lady Chen Shisi, goddess of the southeast, stands out as a protector of women and children with a special appeal.

1. From Human Being to Goddess: How the Cult Took Shape

According to research, Chen Shisi “was originally from Xiadu in Min County,” and her ancestors had been spirit mediums for generations. She was born at midnight on the fourteenth day of the first lunar month in the second year of the Dali era of the Tang dynasty (767), hence her name “Chen Shisi” (Chen Fourteen). She died in the sixth year of the Zhenyuan era (790), at the age of 24.

Legend has it that she was bright and gifted with the uncanny from childhood. At 14 she went to Lüshan to study magic arts, mastering astronomy, geography, martial arts, and medicine. After completing her studies she came down the mountain and traveled throughout Fujian, Zhejiang, and Jiangxi, slaying demons and removing evil, driving out plagues, praying for rain and averting calamity, and expelling evil spirits and malign forces, winning the love and respect of the people. When she was 24, a great drought struck Fujian and the crops withered. To rescue the people from their plight, she disregarded her pregnancy and resolved to perform a ritual of pacing the stars, aborting her fetus to pray for rain. In the end she died from loss of blood and cold invading her organs. On her deathbed she vowed: “After I die I will surely become a goddess and save people from the perils of childbirth.” The people, who had received her kindness and were moved by her grace, built a temple to worship her.

In the Chunyou era of the Song dynasty the court conferred on her the title “Lady of Exalted Blessing, Radiant Grace, and Compassionate Aid” and bestowed the temple name plaque “Shunyi” (Compliant Virtue). In the Yanyou era of the Yuan she was granted the title “Shujing” (Virtuous Serenity). In the seventh year of the Yongzheng reign of the Qing she was titled “Holy Mother of the Heavenly Immortals”; in the Xianfeng reign she was further titled “Holy Mother Who Follows Heaven”; in the Daoguang reign the emperor called her “Empress Dowager Chen of Linshui”; and later she received further titles such as “Holy Mother Who Reaches Heaven” and “Primordial Sovereign of the Azure Clouds.” Recognized and honored by the court, Chen Shisi rose from a local deity to a state deity included in the official register of sacrifices. With repeated titles over the dynasties, her divine rank rose steadily, and her standing and influence among the people grew enormously.

2. A Heart of Great Compassion, a Host of Honorific Names

As her cult spread to different regions, Chen Shisi came to be addressed in many ways. Besides court titles such as the Lady of Linshui, Lady Shunyi, Lady Ciji, Holy Mother of the Heavenly Immortals, Holy Mother Who Follows Heaven, Holy Mother Who Reaches Heaven, and Primordial Sovereign of the Azure Clouds, she has personal names such as Chen Jinggu, and among the people she is also called Goddess Chen Shisi, Nainiang (Wet-Nurse Mother), Lady Danai, and the Goddess Who Registers Births. Because of her numinous responses—radiant grace and compassionate aid, rescuing from danger and relieving hardship, granting children, protecting infants and helping the young, driving out plagues, averting disaster and praying for blessings, protecting the country and securing the land and its people—Chen Shisi has been revered and worshipped by countless people. Since the mid-Tang her temples have flourished with incense, especially in Fujian, Zhejiang, Jiangxi, and Guangdong along the southeast coast, predating the cult of Mazu, who was born in the Song. Later the cult of Chen Shisi followed Chinese emigrants across the seas to Hong Kong, Macau, Taiwan, Southeast Asia, and the Chinese communities of Europe and America. The Linshui Palace in Gutian, Fujian, is the ancestral temple of Lady Chen Shisi, with more than 4,000 branch temples around the world and over 100 million devotees.

3. A Rich Variety of Expressions of Faith

As a deity embodying Confucianism, Buddhism, Taoism, and shamanic practice all at once, Chen Shisi answers a wide range of popular needs—health and safety, children and livelihood, seeking good fortune and avoiding misfortune, subduing demons—and has profoundly shaped local customs, regional culture, and many other fields. In customs, this is seen in practices concerning praying for children, protecting pregnancy, childbirth, birth, child-rearing, and marriage. Folk literature created through the dynasties greatly advanced the spread of this cult, and the many and varied forms of folk performance in different regions have made the Chen Shisi cult one of the most widespread folk-cultural phenomena in southeast China.

Folk culture centered on Chen Shisi as a deity is rich in meaning, and the myths and art forms that present the stories of her divine world are colorful and varied, including oral folk literature, mythological romances, local opera and storytelling, She and Han folk songs and shamanic dances, sculpture and murals, and temple architecture.

Oral and written literature: Literary forms that take the miraculous deeds of Chen Shisi as their main thread include vernacular fiction, literary and historical essays, and local gazetteers—for example Unofficial Records of the Min Capital, Tale of Pacifying Demons at Linshui, Journey Across the Sea, Great Biography of the Numinous Scripture, Legend of Chen Shisi, and Precious Scroll of Chen Shisi. She also appears in local and prefectural gazetteers such as the Gazetteer of the Min Capital, Gazetteer of Fuzhou Prefecture, Gazetteer of Changle County, and Gazetteer of Taiwan County. In the Unofficial Records of the Min Capital, Chen Shisi is a goddess who unites several religions, localized, multifunctional, and practical, and the myths about her are intricate, strange, and colorful. The Chen Shisi cult has been passed down mainly by oral tradition, and its transmission through the ages has formed a powerful circle of faith that has accompanied and shaped the lives of generation after generation.

Folk performance and artistic performance: The customs of the Chen Shisi cult are a distinctive item of national intangible cultural heritage, and over the ages they have entered the realm of art along with the culture of the faith. Folk performance is the main form of expression of these customs; typical examples are the “singing of the Great Scroll of the Numinous Scripture” in Wenzhou and the “Singing of the Lady” in Lishui. These are classic altar hymns of the Ou River basin; their lyrics follow the stories of Chen Shisi's divine world and blend the art of drum-song with religious ritual, leaving a powerful impression on the soul. Besides these customary performances, many kinds of artworks have been created based on the story of Chen Shisi. Representative works include the She ethnic narrative song Luoyang Bridge, with 224 lines, and Tale of Nainiang, with 1,260 lines. The most common form is opera, such as the Songyang high-tune opera Nine-Dragon Horn, also called The Lady's Play; the Puxian opera Chen Jinggu and Capturing the Red Snake Spirit; the great-tune puppet play Journey Across the Sea; and the Siping puppet play Tale of Nainiang. Other genres—Min opera, Xiang opera, Gaojia opera, Ciming opera, and more—have also created many plays on Chen Shisi, her study of magic and capture of demons, her praying for rain and slaying of the snake. There is also the shamanic dance Nainiang Pacing the Stars, whose strange steps and postures carry much of a primitive and mysterious character.

4. A Faith Whose Value Transcends Time and Space

The Chen Shisi cult has its centers in Gutian and Fuzhou in Fujian. With rivers as its links, history and geography as its warp and weft, and literati and officials as its promoters, it has spread outward layer by layer to the provinces of southern China, Hong Kong, Macau, Taiwan, and Southeast Asia, gradually forming a circle of faith radiating in all directions. It has become a bond of national consciousness linking cultural, ethnic, and national identity, displaying a charm and a contemporary value that transcend time and space.

First, she shines with the nobility of humanity and the radiance of divinity. She loved her country and protected her people, was charitable and helped others, and sacrificed herself to save others; this spirit of giving up the small self to fulfill the greater self highlights her personal charm. She eliminated the violent and brought peace to the good, upheld justice, and was upright, selfless, brave, and wise; her pursuit of great goodness and great love fully displays the goodness and nobility of her humanity. After her death she returned to Lüshan to learn the arts of “protecting the fetus and safeguarding childbirth, protecting infants and helping the young,” and hurried east and west to protect the lives of women and children, showing her great maternal love and the radiance of her divinity. As a culture, the Chen Shisi cult carries a specific historical sediment built up across time and space. Its spirit—“delighting in giving, benevolent and loving, righteous and fearless, filial and fraternal and composed”—contains this protector's belief that life comes first, as well as a spirit of humanitarianism, of healing the wounded and saving the dying, and of protecting the country and its people.

Her spiritual qualities strike an endless chord in people's hearts and promote their physical and mental health; they carry a unique spiritual value.