Mazu or Matsu<!--Chinese in infobox--> is a sea goddess in Chinese folk religion, Chinese Buddhism, Confucianism, and Taoism. She is also known by several other names and titles. Mazu is the deified form of Lin Moniang (), a shamaness from Fujian who is said to have lived in the late 10th century. After her death, she became revered as a tutelary deity of Chinese seafarers, including fishermen and sailors.

Her worship spread throughout China's coastal regions and overseas Chinese communities throughout Southeast Asia, where some Mazu temples are affiliated with famous Taiwanese temples. Traditionally, Mazu was believed to roam the seas, safeguarding her devotees through miraculous interventions. Her modern worship has expanded beyond the sea, however, and she is considered a Queen of Heaven.

Mazu worship is popular in Taiwan because many early Chinese settlers in Taiwan were Hoklo people from Fujian. Her temple festival is a major event in Taiwan, with the largest celebrations occurring in and around her temples at Dajia and Beigang.

Names and titles

In addition to Mazu or Ma-tsu, meaning "Maternal Ancestor" "Mother", "Granny", or "Grandmother", Lin Moniang is worshipped under other names and titles:

  • Mazupo
  • Linghui Furen
  • Linghui Fei fully Huguo Mingzhu Tianfei
  • Zhaoxiao Chunzheng Fuji Ganying Shengfei During this era, Fujian was greatly sinicized by influxes of refugees fleeing invasions of northern China and it has been hypothesised that Mazu's cult represented a hybridization of Chinese and native indigenous culture. The earliest record of her cult is from two centuries later, an 1150 inscription that mentions "she could foretell a man's good and ill luck" and, "after her death, the people erected a temple for her on her home island". in AD960, the first year of the Song. The late Ming Great Collection of the Three Teachings' Origin and Development and Research into the Divine, placed her birth much earlier, in 742.

The early sources speak of her as "Miss Lin". Her given name Mo ("Silent One") She was said to have been the sixth mastering Confucius by 8 and the principal Buddhist sutras by 11. The Account of the Blessings Revealed by the Princess of Heaven () collected by her supposed descendants Lin Yaoyu (; ) and Lin Linchang (; ) claimed that, while still a girl, she was visited by a Taoist master (elsewhere a Buddhist monk) making her 27 by western reckoning and 28 by traditional Chinese dating. She was said to have died in meditation.

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Mazuism is first attested in Huang Gongdu's poem "On the Shrine of the Smooth Crossing" (), which considered her a menial and misguided shamaness whose continued influence was inexplicable. Shortly afterwards, Liao Pengfei ()'s 1150 inscription at the village of Ninghai (now Qiaodou Village) in Putian was more respectful. and experienced a vision of "the goddess of Meizhou".

As Mazuism spread, it began to absorb the cults of other local shamanesses such as the other two of Xianyou's "Three Princesses" By the 12th century, she had already become a guardian to the people of Qiaodou when they suffered drought, flood, epidemic, piracy, When US forces bombed Taiwan during World War II, Mazu was said to intercept bombs and defend the people.

Today, Mazuism is practiced in about 1,500 temples in 26 countries around the world, mostly in the Sinosphere or the overseas Chinese communities such as that of the predominantly Hokkien Philippines. Of these temples, almost 1000 are on Taiwan, representing a doubling of the 509 temples recorded in 1980 and more than a dozen times the number recorded before 1911.

Informal centers of pilgrimage for Mazu's believers include Meizhou Island, the Zhenlan Temple in Taichung on Taiwan, and Xianliang Temple in Xianliang Harbor, Putian. Together with Meizhou Island, the Xianliang Temple is considered the most sacred place to Mazu, whose supposed death happened on the seashore of Xianliang Harbor. A ceremony attended by pilgrims from different provinces of China and from Taiwan commemorates this legendary event each year in October.

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File:Mazu temple in Melbourne - Australia 2010.jpg|A statue of Mazu at the Heavenly Queen Temple in Footscray, Victoria.

File:Front view of Beitou Guangdu Temple on 6 September 2016.jpg|Guandu Temple at Beitou, Taipei, Taiwan.

File:MazuTemple.jpg|Tianhou Temple at Tianjin, China. The northernmost Mazu Temple in China.

File:三重義天宮.jpg|Sanchong Yi Tian Temple at Sanchong District, New Taipei, Taiwan.

File:Thean Hou Temple (18978458805).jpg|Thean Hou Temple in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia.

File:成山头 - altar-fountain complex with statues of various Chinese gods in Weihai, Shandong.jpg|A statue of Mazu (center), carrying a lantern and ceremonial ruyi, in Weihai.

File:Yokohama Chinatown Ma Ma Temple Halle Innen Altar 09.jpg|Yokohama Masobyō (Mazu) Temple, Inner Altar, in Japan

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Pilgrimages

The primary temple festival in Mazuism is Lin Moniang's traditional birthday on the 23rd day of the 3rd month of the Chinese lunar calendar. In Taiwan, there are two major pilgrimages made in her honor, the Dajia Mazu Pilgrimage and the Baishatun Mazu Pilgrimage. In both festivals, pilgrims walk more than 300 kilometers to carry a litter containing statues of the goddess between two temples. Another major festival is that around the Tianhou Temple in Lukang. Depending on the year, Mazu's festival day may fall as early as mid-April or as late as mid-May.

The anniversary of her death or supposed ascension into Heaven is also celebrated, usually on the Double Ninth Festival (the ninth day of the ninth month of the lunar calendar). According to academic Chang Kuei-min of National Taiwan University, the CCP has "created a narrative that it is a champion of Chinese folk religion" and Mazu has become part of that narrative. United front-linked groups have sponsored paid trips for Taiwanese to visit Mazu-related temples in Fujian.

In art

After her death, Mazu was remembered as a young lady who wore a red dress as she roamed over the seas. In religious statuary, she is usually clothed in the attire of an empress, and decorated with accessories such as a ceremonial hu tablet and a flat-topped imperial cap () with rows of beads (liu) hanging from the front and back. Her temples are usually protected by the door gods and . These vary in appearance but are frequently demons, Qianliyan red with two horns and two yellow sapphire eyes and Shunfeng'er green with one horn and two ruby eyes.

Lin Moniang (2000), a minor Fujianese TV series, was a dramatization of Mazu's life as a mortal. Mazu (, 2007) was a Taiwanese animated feature film from the Chinese Cartoon Production Co. depicting her life as a shamaness and goddess. Its production director Teng Chiao admitted the limited appeal to the domestic market: "If young people were our primary target audience, we wouldn't tell the story of Mazu in the first place since they are not necessarily interested in the ancient legend[;] neither do they have loyalty to made-in-Taiwan productions". Instead, "when you look to global markets, the question that foreign buyers always ask is what can best represent Taiwan". Mazu, with its story about "a magic girl and two cute sidekicks [Mazu's door gods Qianliyan and Shunfeng'er] spiced up with a strong local flavor", was instead designed with an intent to appeal to international markets interested in Taiwan.

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See also

  • Air pollution in Hong Kong#Joss paper and incense burning
  • List of Mazu temples around the world
  • Dragon King
  • Ngaleima
  • Tin Hau temples in Hong Kong
  • Hung Shing Ye ()
  • Qianliyan & Shunfeng'er
  • Meenakshi
  • Kumari (goddess)
  • Queen Mother of the West

Notes

References

Citations

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