The Queen of Heaven

In this collection of sea legends, the Queen of Heaven, also called the Holy Mother, was once a girl of Fukien named Lin. She was pure, devout and reverent, and she died when she was seventeen. Her power shows itself on the sea, and so sailors worship her. The telling describes sailors calling on her when wind and waves threaten them, believing that she hears their pleas.

Fukien has a great many seafaring people, and every year some of them are lost at sea. Probably that is why, even during her life on earth, the Queen of Heaven felt such pity for her people’s suffering. Her mind is always set on helping the drowning in their need, and so she often appears on the sea.

The ships described in the account keep a picture of the Queen of Heaven hanging in its cabin, along with three paper charms. On the first she is shown with crown and scepter, on the second as a girl in everyday clothes, and on the third with her hair loose and her feet bare, standing with a sword in her hand. When a ship is in danger, the first charm is burned, in hope of help. If that does not work, the second is burned, and then the third. And if help still does not come, then nothing more can be done.

When sailors lose their way among wind, waves and dark clouds, they pray earnestly to the Queen of Heaven. Then a red lantern appears on the surface of the water, which guides them out of danger in these legends. The Queen of Heaven can often be seen standing in the sky, splitting the wind with her sword. When she does this, the wind divides and blows away north and south, and the sea grows calm.

A wooden wand is always kept in front of her sacred picture in the cabin. The fish-dragons often play in the sea. They are two gigantic fish that spout water at each other until the sun is hidden and the sea is wrapped in deep darkness. Often a bright gap can be seen in the darkness far ahead. If the ship steers straight for that gap, it will get through and suddenly find itself floating on calm water. Looking back, the sailors can see the two fish still spouting, and they realize that the ship has passed right under their jaws.

But a storm is always close when the fish-dragons swim, so the account describes burning paper or wool to keep them from dragging the ship down to the bottom. Or the Master of the Wand may burn incense before the wand in the cabin, then take the wand and swing it in a circle over the water three times. Then the dragons pull in their tails and disappear.

If the ashes in the incense burner fly up into the air for no reason and scatter about, it is a sign that great danger is near.

One episode, placed by the old collection roughly two centuries before its telling, describes an army fitted out to conquer the island of Formosa. The commander’s banner had been consecrated with the blood of a white horse. Suddenly the Queen of Heaven appeared at the very top of the flagpole. A moment later she was gone, but the invasion succeeded.

Another time, in the reign of Kien Lung, the minister Dschou Ling was ordered to crown a new king in the Liu-Kiu Islands. As the fleet was sailing past the south of Korea, a storm blew up and drove his ship toward the Black Whirlpool. The water turned as black as ink, the sun and moon lost their light, and word went around that the ship was caught in the Black Whirlpool, from which no one had ever come back alive. Sailors and passengers wept and waited for the end.

Suddenly countless lights like red lanterns appeared on the water. The sailors were overjoyed and prayed in the cabins. “We are saved!” they cried. “The Holy Mother has come to help us!” And sure enough, a beautiful girl with golden earrings appeared. She waved her hand through the air, and the winds fell still and the waves grew smooth. It seemed as if a mighty hand were pulling the ship along. It went splashing through the waves, and all at once it was outside the Black Whirlpool.

When Dschou Ling came home, he reported what had happened and asked that temples be built in honor of the Queen of Heaven and that she be added to the official list of the gods. The emperor granted his request. The chapter closes with an account of temples and birthday celebrations, placing the festival on the eighth day of the fourth month. That date belongs to this source’s account, not a calendar for all communities.

About this story

“The Queen of Heaven” is chapter XXII of Richard Wilhelm’s The Chinese Fairy Book, translated by Frederick H. Martens (New York: Frederick A. Stokes, 1921), in the section “Legends of the Gods.” It is less a single plot than a gathering of sailors’ beliefs, an invasion episode and a rescue story. These are historical accounts of belief and legend, not instructions for navigating a storm.

Wilhelm’s note gives the goddess’s name as Tian Hou, or more exactly Tian Fe Niang Niang, a Taoist goddess of seamen worshiped in all the coast towns. He interprets the story as local legends from Fukien province combined with features of the Indian goddess Maritschi, and that since the founding of the Manchu dynasty she has been one of the officially recognized gods.

Read the original: The Chinese Fairy Book (Project Gutenberg)

Best for ages 9–12 — sea charms, fish-dragons and a goddess who rescues sailors from a black whirlpool.

Reading the story closely

The account first describes repeated practices, then gives named episodes that appear to illustrate the goddess’s aid. Images of light connect them: a bright opening between the fish, a lantern on the water and many lanterns at the whirlpool. The movement from darkness to visibility expresses the sailors’ hope for a way through uncertainty.

Mark each paragraph as a described practice, a supernatural sign or a particular narrated event. Which passages explain what people do, and which ask the reader to enter a legend? For a contemporary account of living traditions, compare UNESCO’s Mazu belief and customs; this old collection should not stand for every worshipper or community.

Questions to ask

• What are the three paper charms in this account, and in what order are they used?
• How can sailors tell that the Queen of Heaven has come to help them?
• Why do you think Dschou Ling asked the emperor to build temples to her?

Related stories

• The Fire-God — another of Wilhelm’s Legends of the Gods
• The Girl with the Horse’s Head or the Silkworm Goddess — a girl who became a goddess, from the chapter just before
• The Spirits of the Yellow River — water spirits that sailors and boatmen respect