Qiaodou Village is a

village A village is a clustered human settlement or community, larger than a hamlet but smaller than a town (although the word is often used to describe both hamlets and smaller towns), with a population typically ranging from a few hundred to ...

under the administration of

Huangshi Huangshi (), alternatively romanized as Hwangshih, is a prefecture-level city in southeastern Hubei province, People's Republic of China. Its population was 2,469,079 inhabitants at the 2020 census; 1,567,108 of whom lived in the built-up (''or ...

Putian Putian or Putien (, Putian dialect: ''Pó-chéng''), also known as Puyang (莆阳) and Puxian (莆仙), historically known as Xinghua or Hing Hwa (), is a prefecture-level city in eastern Fujian province, China. It borders Fuzhou City to the nor ...

Licheng District Licheng may refer to the following locations: *Licheng County (), of Changzhi, Shanxi *Licheng District, Jinan (), Shandong *Licheng District, Putian (), Fujian *Licheng District, Quanzhou (), Fujian *Licheng Subdistrict, Xianyou County (), Fujian * ...

on the central coast of

Fujian Fujian (; alternately romanized as Fukien or Hokkien) is a province on the southeastern coast of China. Fujian is bordered by Zhejiang to the north, Jiangxi to the west, Guangdong to the south, and the Taiwan Strait to the east. Its capi ...

Province A province is almost always an administrative division within a country or sovereign state, state. The term derives from the ancient Roman ''Roman province, provincia'', which was the major territorial and administrative unit of the Roman Empire ...

China China, officially the People's Republic of China (PRC), is a country in East Asia. It is the world's most populous country, with a population exceeding 1.4 billion, slightly ahead of India. China spans the equivalent of five time zones and ...

. It had about 1,000 people during the 2010 census.

Geography

Qiaodou lies on the southern Putian Plain northwest of the

Houhai Houhai ( 'Rear Lake') is a lake and its surrounding neighborhood in Xicheng District of central Beijing, China. Houhai is the largest of the three lakes, along with Qianhai 'Front Lake' and Xihai 'Western Lake', that comprise Shichahai, the co ...

bay or lake.

History

Qiaodou was known as Ninghai during the

Song A song is a musical composition intended to be performed by the human voice. This is often done at distinct and fixed pitches (melodies) using patterns of sound and silence. Songs contain various forms, such as those including the repetitio ...

and

Ming The Ming dynasty (), officially the Great Ming, was an Dynasties in Chinese history, imperial dynasty of China, ruling from 1368 to 1644 following the collapse of the Mongol Empire, Mongol-led Yuan dynasty. The Ming dynasty was the last ort ...

.. It is still home to the ancient stone Ninghai Bridge over a branch of the

Mulan Hua Mulan () is a legendary folk heroine from the Northern and Southern dynasties era (4th to 6th century CE) of Chinese history. According to legend, Mulan took her aged father's place in the conscription for the army by disguising herself as ...

Religion

Qiaodou is the site of the earliest-attested

temple A temple (from the Latin ) is a building reserved for spiritual rituals and activities such as prayer and sacrifice. Religions which erect temples include Christianity (whose temples are typically called churches), Hinduism (whose temples ...

to the

Chinese Chinese can refer to: * Something related to China * Chinese people, people of Chinese nationality, citizenship, and/or ethnicity **''Zhonghua minzu'', the supra-ethnic concept of the Chinese nation ** List of ethnic groups in China, people of ...

sea goddess A water deity is a deity in mythology associated with water or various bodies of water. Water deities are common in mythology and were usually more important among civilizations in which the sea or ocean, or a great river was more important. Ano ...

Mazu Mazu or Matsu is a Chinese sea goddess also known by several other names and titles. She is the deified form of the legendary figure Lin Mo or Lin Moniang, a Fujianese shamaness whose life span is traditionally dated from 960 to 987. Re ...

, the

deified Apotheosis (, ), also called divinization or deification (), is the glorification of a subject to divine levels and, commonly, the treatment of a human being, any other living thing, or an abstract idea in the likeness of a deity. The term has ...

form of the 10th-century

shamaness Shamanism is a religious practice that involves a practitioner (shaman) interacting with what they believe to be a spirit world through altered states of consciousness, such as trance. The goal of this is usually to direct spirits or spiri ...

Lin Moniang.. Supposedly, Lin was born on nearby

Meizhou Island Meizhou Island (; Pu-Xian Min: ''Mî-ciu-doh''), Meichow; Meichou, is a small island close to the coast of China. Meizhou Town () is an administrative unit of Xiuyu District, Putian, Fujian, China. It is known for being the birthplace of the go ...

, usually regarded as the cradle of her cult, but she probably spent her adult life on the mainland.. In 1086, she joined the deities venerated at the town's "Holy Mound" (, ''Shengdun'') after appearing to the villagers in their dreams following a series of mysterious lights at the mound. The main temple in the Qiaodou area today is the Jiucha Temple () honoring the Great God of Jiucha (). Its religious processions occur on the second and third days of the second lunar month.

References

Citations

Bibliography

* . * . * . * . * . {{Fujian-geo-stub Populated places in Fujian Mazu temples Villages in China Putian