Doumu

Dǒumǔ (), also known as Dǒumǔ Yuánjūn ( "Lady Mother of the Chariot"), Dòulǎo Yuánjūn ( "Lady Ancestress of the Chariot") and Tàiyī Yuánjūn ( "Lady of the Great One"), is a goddess in Chinese religion and Taoism. She is also named through the honorific Tiānhòu ( "Queen of Heaven"), shared with other Chinese goddesses, especially Mazu, who are perhaps conceived as her aspects. Other names of her are Dàomǔ ( "Mother of the Way") and Tiānmǔ ( "Mother of Heaven").

She is the feminine aspect of the cosmic God of Heaven. The seven stars of the Big Dipper, in addition to two not visible to the naked eye, are conceived as her sons, the ''Jiǔhuángshén'' ( "Nine God-Kings"), themselves regarded as the ninefold manifestation of ''Jiǔhuángdàdì'' (, "Great Deity of the Nine Kings") or ''Dòufù'' ( "Father of the Great Chariot"), another name of the God of Heaven. She is therefore both wife and mother of the God of Heaven. 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 Jiutian Xuannü ( "Mysterious Lady of the Nine Heavens") and Xiwangmu ( "Queen Mother of the West"), representing the mother of the immortal "red infant" ( ''chìzǐ'') Dao enshrined at the centre of the human body. This links her directly to the myths about the birth and initiation of Laozi and the Yellow Emperor (whose mother Fubao became pregnant of him after she was aroused after she saw a lightning from, or turning around, the Big Dipper), as attested, among others, by Ge Hong (283-343).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

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 dragged by seven pigs. Ironically, 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

File:Hall of Goddess Doumu.jpg, Hall of Doumu at the Green Ram Temple in Chengdu, Sichuan, China
File:Doumu altar and statue at the Doumugong of Butterworth, Penang.jpg, Doumu altar at a temple in Butterworth, Penang, Malaysia
File:Goddess Doumu.jpg, Statue of Doumu at the Green Ram Temple
File:B-Doumou.JPG, Song dynasty statue of Doumu
File:Kunming Oct 2007 138.jpg, Statue of Doumu in Kunming, China
File:华阳观 斗姆元君.jpg, Doumu behind another god at Huayang Taoist Temple in Jieyang, Guangdong, China
File:斗姆元君.JPG, Statue of Doumu in Taiwan
File:Tou Mu, Goddess of the North Star.jpg, Illustration of Doumu (1922)

See also

* Tai Sui
* Nine Emperor Gods Festival
* Chinese theology
* Big Dipper

;Other goddesses identified with the Great Chariot
* Ungnyeo
* Ninlil
* Ninhursag

References

Citations

Sources

*
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
'.
*
* Two volumes: 1) A-L; 2) L-Z.
*

{{Chinese mythology

Chinese goddesses
Solar goddesses
Deities in Taoism