Doumu
Template:Chinese folk religion Dǒumǔ (Template:Zh), also known as Template:Zhp, Template:Zhp and Template:Zhp,Template:Sfnb is a goddess in Chinese religion and Taoism. She is also named through the honorific Tiānhòu (Script error: No such module "Lang". "Queen of Heaven"), shared with other Chinese goddesses, especially Mazu, who are perhaps conceived as her aspects. Other names are Template:Zhp and Template:Zhp.Template:Sfnb
She is the feminine aspect of the cosmic God of Heaven.Template:Sfnb The seven stars of the Big Dipper, in addition to two not visible to the naked eye, are conceived as her sons, the Template:Zhp, themselves regarded as the ninefold manifestation of Template:Zhp or Template:Zhp, another name of the God of Heaven. She is therefore both wife and mother of the God of Heaven.[1][2] In certain Taoist accounts she is identified as the ambiguous goddess of life and death Xiwangmu.
In religious doctrines
Taoist esotericism
In the esoteric teachings of Taoism she is identified as the same as Jinling Shengmu, Template:Zhp and Template:Zhp, representing the mother of the immortal "red infant" (Template:Zhi) Dao enshrined at the centre of the human body.Template:Sfnb This links her directly to the myths about the birth and initiation of LaoziTemplate:Sfnb and the Yellow Emperor (whose mother Fubao became pregnant with him after she was aroused by seeing lightning emanating from, or turning around, the Big Dipper[3]), as attested, among others, by Ge Hong (283-343).[4]
Buddhist interpretation
In Vajrayana traditions of Chinese Buddhism (Tangmi), Doumu was conflated with Bodhisattva Marici at least by the Tang dynasty. Marici too is described as the mother of the Way and the Dipper, at the centre of Brahma's Heaven of primal energy. Marici's chariot is pulled by seven boars.Template:Sfnb Furthermore she has also been associated and linked with Cundi. The incantation used in the Taoist scripture dedicated to Doumu is the same as one of the longer Buddhist dharanis used for Marici, but with eight verses in Han Chinese added in the beginning to praise her.
Artistic depictions
- Doumu in art
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Doumu altar at a temple in Butterworth, Penang, Malaysia
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Statue of Doumu at the Green Ram Temple
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Song dynasty statue of Doumu
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Statue of Doumu in Kunming, China
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Statue of Doumu in Taiwan
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Illustration of Doumu (1922)
See also
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- Other goddesses identified with the Great Chariot
References
Citations
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- ↑ Script error: No such module "citation/CS1". pp. 241, 246.
- ↑ Script error: No such module "Lang".ctext.org. See translation in "Humans, Spirits, and Sages in Chinese Late Antiquity: Ge Hong's Master Who Embraces Simplicity (Baopuzi)", in Extrême-Orient, Extrême-Occident, 2007, N°29, pp. 95-119. Academia.edu.
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Sources
- Script error: No such module "Citation/CS1". Volume I: The Ancient Eurasian World and the Celestial Pivot, Volume II: Representations and Identities of High Powers in Neolithic and Bronze China, Volume III: Terrestrial and Celestial Transformations in Zhou and Early-Imperial China.
- Script error: No such module "citation/CS1".Script error: No such module "Unsubst".
- Script error: No such module "citation/CS1". Two volumes: 1) A-L; 2) L-Z.
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