In Homage to T'ien-fei

Bibliographic Data

ID3967798
AuthorsJudith Magee Boltz (corresponding author)
Year1986
Volume106
Issue1
Pages211
Publication date1986-01-01
Peer ReviewedYes
Open AccessNo
TypeARTICLE
VenueJournal of the American Oriental Society (JOURNAL)
Journal identifiersISSN: 0003-0279 • E-ISSN: 2169-2289
PublisherJSTOR (PUBLISHER)
DOI10.2307/602373
OpenAlexW2335378359
LanguageEN
Citations received11

NEARLY A MILLENNIUM AGO, Chinese communities in the Fukien coastal region began worshipping the spirit of a young woman who came to be called W2 (Celestial Consort). This is the goddess more commonly known as If.' Over the centuries shrines were established in her honor up and down the coast of China, as well as along the banks of rivers and streams reaching inland. To is attributed a vast range of divine power, but overall her reputation rests on her ability to rescue those who suffer hazards at sea. As the special guardian of seafaring populations, she remains unsurpassed. How much, if any, faith in is retained on the Chinese mainland in this age is open to question.2 Of the thousands of shrines once dedicated to her memory, only the remnants of two are officially maintained now, one north in Tientsin X* and one south in Ch'Uan-chouXl. Both are designated as T'ien-hou Kung ir (Palace of the Celestial Empress), in recognition of the honorary title bestowed upon by imperial decree in 1683.3 Outside the continent new shrines continue to be built and old ones restored and enlarged, especially in Taiwan. Many of the currently active sites of worship on this island were in fact established by emigrants from Fukien cities such as Ch'Uan-chou. One late count finds altogether 510 shrines under Taiwan's jurisdiction. The vast majority are ' The title T'ien-fei was granted in 1281 to a folk deity traditionally identified as a daughter of the Lin i lineage of P'u-tien District *FJ in Hsing-hua Prefecture RftRe on the Fukien coast. Although variant sources from the Sung to Ming give conflicting dates for her birth and death, most writers by the early Ch'ing appear to have settled on those of 960-987. As Wolfram Eberhard, The Local Cultures of South and East China (Leiden, 1968), 403, and Ch'iu Te-tsai {hike , Taiwan mniao-shen chuan fXI*NW (Chia-i, 1980), 101, have stated, natives of three Fukien locales, P'ut'ien, T'ung-an Am, and Ch'iuan-chou AMI1, claim their birthplace to be that of a Ma-tsu, distinguished as Mei-chou Ma fi+Hi, Yin-t'ung Ma IRR , and Wen-ling Ma ilff, respectively. Ma-tsu is a shortened form of Matsu-p'o[-p'o] OFTR O] or Ma-ts6-p6, a Fukien dialect word for Grandmother. Precisely when and why a goddess whose mortal life ended at the age of 28 came to be called Grandmother has not been determined to my knowledge. One of the earliest texts to record this name is Yu Yung-he 45*PT (fl. 1691-97), T~v 'i-liu jih-chi 45REnk 8 02(TS CC ed.), 14, in a description of theatrical performances observed at a Kung OFTIR on the southwest coast of Taiwan. Liu Wen-san I'II _-, Taiwan tsung-chiao i-shu E X Ad; # gif (Taipei, 1979), 25, claims the full-faced representation of common in temples today reflects the vision of a gradually aging goddess. The earliest such image to survive in Taiwan is a 1 7th-century wood figure now housed in the K'aichi T'ien-hou Kung N XEg of Lu-erh-men ATr (Tainan). It is said to have been brought ashore in 1661 by Cheng Ch'eng-kung 4131b upon his liberation of Taiwan from the Dutch and is featured in Tao-c hiao wen-hua Af{tr 17 (1979), 37-42. 2 One of the earliest statements to be made on the decline of interest in on the continent is Chu Ch'ieh-chin Gi~b , ;Fu-chien shui-shen k'ao jM4I**T, V; , Nan-lang hsiieh-pao X X 6.1 (1950), 56-63. The author, writing from the National University of Yunnan, claims the cult reflects a general susceptibility to hallucinations. It is Chu's position that faith in flourished in the past because of a backward economy and primitive means of transportation

Chinese history and philosophy · History · Philosophy

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