Dǒumǔ is a Daoist goddess. Wikidata gives her Chinese label as Doumu Yuanjun and the English form Dǒumǔ, and lists other names such as Doulao, Doumu and Doumu Yuanjun. She is the mother of the stars of the Northern Dipper. These are honorific titles and the cited sources give no personal name that can be verified, so the title stays as it is.[1]
Names and origins
The Chinese Wikipedia article says Doumu Yuanjun, also written with the variant characters for Doumu, is a Daoist goddess and the mother of the stars of the Northern Dipper. The word dou means the dipper stars, and the old form of the word mu means mother. She corresponds to King Zhouyu, called the Father of the Dipper. She appears late in Daoist belief but holds a high rank, and she was originally the Buddhist cult of the three-faced goddess Marichi. When Marichi worship reached China she was honored for prolonging life and averting disaster, and Daoists drew her into their pantheon, calling her the mother of the stars of the Northern Dipper and giving her titles such as Queen of Heaven, Mother of Heaven and Mother of the Dao. According to the Yuxia ji her birthday is the ninth day of the ninth month. In folk practice she was often confused with Mazu, the Dark Lady and Marichi.[2]
What the scriptures say
The Lingbao Lingjiao jidu jinshu says the Primordial Heavenly Worthy made the Jade Emperor from original yang breath by day and Doumu Yuanjun from original yin breath by night. The Yuqing wushang lingbao ziran Beidou benshengzhenjing says she was the consort of a king named Zhouyu in the Longhan age, with the title Lady Ziguang, who vowed to bear holy sons to help heaven and earth. One spring day she bathed in the warm jade pool among golden lotus flowers in the rear garden. Nine lotus buds opened and nine sons were born. The two eldest are the Heavenly Sovereign and the Emperor of Ziwei, and the other seven are the seven stars of the Dipper, together known as the Nine Sovereigns. Another scripture, the Taishang xuanling Doumu daisheng yuanjun benming yansheng xinjing, treats her as a moon deity with the powers of a physician and gives her a long title that merges her with the Queen Mother of the West. The Qing-era Fanyin douke by Lou Jinyuan calls her the Ancestor of Thunder of the Nine Heavens, transformed from the planet Venus. The article also notes that her image is often three-eyed, four-headed and eight-armed, that the Qingyang Temple in Chengdu has a Doumu hall, and that the Doumu temple at Hougang in Singapore is a temple of the Nine Emperor Gods that mainly worships her.[2]
In Investiture of the Gods
The article says the Ming novel Investiture of the Gods calls her Holy Mother Jinling, the teacher of Grand Preceptor Wen. Her skill is high and she alone stands against the three great ones Cihang, Manjusri and Samantabhadra to a draw, but she is killed by a surprise attack by Randeng Daoren with the Dinghai pearls. Later, when Jiang Ziya confers titles on the platform of investiture, he makes Holy Mother Jinling the spirit of the dipper mother of the Kan palace, in charge of the groups of stars and of lucky and baleful influences, as mother of the northern, southern, eastern, western and central dippers.[2]
Basic facts
- Identity: Daoist goddess, mother of the Northern Dipper stars[1][2]
- Other names: Doulao, Doumu, Doumu Yuanjun, Doulao Tianzun and others[1]
- Birthday: the ninth day of the ninth month, according to the Yuxia ji[2]
- Counterpart in the novel: Holy Mother Jinling, made the spirit of the dipper mother of the Kan palace[2]
- Appears in: Investiture of the Gods[1]