Mazu Belief妈祖信仰（附）

Also known as

Cult of Tianhou (Mazu), Cult of Tianfei (Mazu), Mazu of Meizhou, Lin Mo, Sea Goddess

Type

Folk Daoist Ritual Traditions

Period

Song dynasty to the present

Founded

In the Northern Song, a shrine was established after the death of Lin Mo of Meizhou (traditionally dated 960–987); the temple was granted the name plaque "Shunji" (Fortunate Crossing) in the fifth year of the Xuanhe era (1123)

Region

Coastal Fujian, Taiwan, Guangdong and Zhejiang, widespread throughout Hong Kong, Macau, Southeast Asia, Japan, and Chinese communities in Europe and the Americas

Ancestral seat

Meizhou Mazu Ancestral Temple (appendix)

Status

Extant — The Mazu ancestral temple at Meizhou is a Major Historical and Cultural Site Protected at the National Level, and 'Mazu belief and customs' was inscribed on the UNESCO Representative List of the Intangible Cultural Heritage of Humanity in 2009; Mazu temples are numerous in Taiwan, Hong Kong and Macau, Southeast Asia, and Chinese communities in Europe and the Americas, with annual pilgrimage events of enormous scale, and cross-strait exchange between Mazu temples also serves as an important channel of grassroots contact between mainland China and Taiwan.

Overview

Mazu worship is the most important cult of a seafarers' protective deity around the China seas; its relationship to Daoism is close but not fully coextensive, and this site therefore lists it as an 'appendix' entry. Mazu's given name was Lin Mo (also given as Lin Moniang); tradition holds that she was born on Meizhou Island in Putian, Fujian, in the first year of the Jianlong reign of the Northern Song (960), and underwent her transformation-departure in the fourth year of the Yongxi reign (987); in life she was known for shamanic ritual, medicine, and rescuing people from shipwreck, and after her death the local people built a shrine to worship her. In the fifth year of the Xuanhe reign of the Northern Song (1123), the court bestowed on her shrine the plaque title 'Shunji' ('Favorable Crossing'), marking the beginning of state recognition; thereafter, through the Song, Yuan, Ming, and Qing, she received repeated honorific investitures, her title rising from 'Lady' to 'Celestial Consort' (Tianfei, in the Yuan) to 'Empress of Heaven' (Tianhou, in the twenty-third year of the Kangxi reign of the Qing, 1684), with her full honorific title eventually accumulating to several dozen characters, making her an important deity in the state sacrificial canon. Mazu worship spread along with maritime trade and migration: in the Yuan, temples were built at Tianjin, Taicang, and elsewhere because of the sea route used for grain transport; in the Ming it spread far into the Nanyang region along with Zheng He's voyages to the Western Ocean; and in the Qing it crossed to Taiwan with Hokkien and Cantonese immigrants, so that Taiwan today has well over a thousand Mazu temples, and the pilgrimage processions of temples such as Chaotian Temple in Beigang, Zhenlan Temple in Dajia, and the Grand Mazu Temple in Tainan are religious events of world renown. The Chinese temples of Nagasaki and Yokohama in Japan, and the Tianhou temples of San Francisco, Los Angeles, Honolulu, and other cities, likewise bear witness to the history of Chinese emigration. In terms of doctrine and ritual, Mazu has been incorporated into the Daoist pantheon (under titles such as 'Empress of Heaven' and various longer honorific forms), and her temples often engage Zhengyi Daoist priests or ritual masters to preside over rites of offering; but in organizational form she belongs to local temples and their networks of worship rather than to any Daoist religious order. In 2009, 'Mazu belief and customs' was inscribed on the UNESCO Representative List of the Intangible Cultural Heritage of Humanity.

Core Doctrine

Mazu is held to be a compassionate goddess who rescues people from shipwreck, protects seafaring, and blesses fishermen and merchants, while also presiding over rain-making, the dispelling of epidemics, and the granting of children; within Daoism she is venerated as the 'Empress of Heaven,' incorporated into the divine system of Doumu and the Northern Dipper and into the state theology of protecting the nation and sheltering the people. Among the common people, the order of belief is built on efficacy, the division of incense, and the authority of the ancestral temple, with emphasis placed on the network of temples maintained through the 'division of the sacred fire and spirit' and pilgrimage to the ancestral temple.

Practice & Ritual

Rites on her birthday, the twenty-third day of the third lunar month, and on the anniversary of her ascension, the ninth day of the ninth lunar month; pilgrimage, boundary-patrol processions, circuit tours, and the division of the sacred fire and spirit; shipboard worship and prayers for safety before putting out to sea; rites of pure offering, offering for peace, and the construction of offering altars presided over by Daoist priests; the sacrificial rites at the Meizhou ancestral temple (included in the National List of Intangible Cultural Heritage), and the pilgrimages of Dajia and Baishatun in Taiwan. Temples frequently maintain affiliated charitable, educational, and disaster-relief organizations.

Transmission

Lin Mo of Meizhou in the Northern Song → the plaque title 'Shunji' bestowed in the fifth year of the Xuanhe reign (1123) → investiture as Celestial Consort (Tianfei) in the Yuan and the establishment of temple worship along the sea grain-transport route → wide diffusion into the Nanyang region during the Ming along with the voyages to the Western Ocean → investiture as Empress of Heaven (Tianhou) in the twenty-third year of the Kangxi reign of the Qing (1684), spreading to Taiwan and Nanyang with Hokkien and Cantonese immigrants → diffusion throughout Chinese communities worldwide in the modern era. There is no sectarian generation-name lineage; relationships among temples are maintained through the genealogy of incense transmission linking 'division of the spirit' to pilgrimage to the ancestral temple.

Principal Temples