Guan Yin, The Merciful and Bestower of Children, and the Bodhisattva of Compassion and Sympathy, commonly known to foreigners as “The Goddess of Mercy” is by far the most popular of the deities on Chinese altars, trusted and loved by both men and women, though primarily worshipped by women. She is one of the most important salvationary figures of Chinese [Mahayana] Buddhism, the symbol of personal salvation that can only be achieved by renouncing the world, and would appear to have developed as the Chinese Madonna figure, a major cult to fill a need for a focus for feminine worship. She also averts natural disasters such as typhoons, floods and droughts, as well as plagues of insects and locusts.

Originally a male Indian bodhisattva of mercy she was gradually transformed by the Chinese into a beautiful, compassionate woman. She succoured the weak and protected those in danger, and as a Buddhist deity became the giver of sons, venerated by all Chinese faiths alike.

Originally a major Buddhist deity, Guan Yin has now become interdenominational, revered by both Buddhists and folk religion devotees and is easily the most popular deity in all Chinese communities. Because of her immense popularity Guan Yin has long since been transformed from a purely Buddhist deity to a radiant folk religion goddess, the giver of male children to the childless and a loving source of help in times of need, particularly domestic worries usually connected with children. The cult of Guan Yin is a common factor in all Chinese religious sects and schools, introduced possibly as early as the 3rd Century AD when the relevant sutras were believed to have first arrived in China. Throughout the centuries Daoism, folk religion and Buddhism have borrowed deities from each other until the majority of unsophisticated and non-discriminating devotees made no distinction between the original religion of the various cults. By the 10th century worship of Guan Yin was widespread. It is, however, noticeable that images of Guan Yin are to be seen in much greater numbers in southern China than in the north.

Guan Yin is not a Buddha but a bodhisattva, a Buddha-to-be, one who voluntarily refuses to become a Buddha preferring to remain on Earth to help mankind, with her full title referring to her as the ‘Bodhisattva who watches and Listens [for the cries of those in need]’. In contrast to the Buddhas who, at the end of their life time, entered Nirvana, Guan Yin and the other bodhisattvas continued to participate in the world’s sorrows and renounced for themselves eternal release in order to remain on earth helping humans reach Nirvana. She is the personification of the Merciful who hears those who call upon her, and helps them even to leading them to the peace and happiness of the Western Heaven of Emituo Fo. The twenty-fifth chapter of the Lotus Sutra extols the virtues of the bodhisattva Guan Yin and amongst her many and varied tasks Guan Yin has one very important rôle, caring for the souls of the dead in the Underworld. In this chapter Guan Yin vows to rescue those threatened by specific dangers such as murder, fire, robbery, poisonous creatures and shipwreck. Daoists also invoke her during the rituals performed after burial to free the soul from the Ten Courts of Judgement in the Underworld, and the function of Dizang Wang as the friend and protector of souls is also attributed to Guan Yin who additionally has all the attributes of Ti-tsang, and is just as familiar a visitor to the Underworld to comfort and save, as he is.

Guan Yin is a saviour with boundless compassion, a comforter in times of strife, doubt and trouble; a comforter of the sick, lost, senile, frightened and unfortunate. A deity consulted about family problems, marriages and sickness, a healer to whom women turn to help them conceive, to bring them through the dangers of childbirth, and for their children during their illnesses. She also protects seafarers, saves sailors from shipwreck, farmers from pests and travellers from attack. Her blessings are relied on for prosperity in business, for health and happiness, and her images are much in evidence everywhere being, without doubt, the most commonly seen both on altars in temples and in homes and also within virtually every living room of houses. Mahayana Buddhists appeal to Guan Yin in her many manifestations for protection from evil, for assistance in times of stress and trouble, for guidance when in doubt and for comfort in times of sorrow.

Guan Yin, seated on a lion, against a background of waves and small celestial beings, she presides over th side hall[s]. Or protected by two large and very-lively guardians, and sitting on a large rock, she is wearing a five-leaf crown with a dragon at her feet and holds court to a myriad of small images of humans. Murals beside her image may have rugged mountains with craggy peaks, and small new born souls on clouds.

The Tantric form of Guan Yin with her Thousand Arms and Thousand Eyes, again sitting on a rock with two attendants standing before and flanking her.

Many Sinologues have attempted a description of Guan Yin. Her origins are very confused and now lost in a welter of contradictory legends. Whilst the basic facts emerge the overall picture is still far from clear. Under the Tang and even before [i.e. pre-6th Century AD], as in India, Guan Yin was male; however, since the Song dynasty [ca. 9th Century AD] she has gradually been transformed into and been represented as a woman though not invariably so. Both native and foreign scholars have long puzzled over her strange sexual metamorphosis. Some believe that she might be an old Chinese deity worshipped long before the introduction of Buddhism and that Buddhism adopted her as the incarnation of Avalokitesvara. Most however, accept that originally she was an Indian male deity, Avalokitesvara, whose rôle it was, amongst others, to protect mariners and who was the protector of the faithful in time of danger. The change from the male into the female form was gradual and took centuries, from about the seventh century, during which period ‘she’ so caught Chinese imagination that despite her foreign, Indian [and ‘black-skinned”] origins, not only did she gradually become a female deity but also was adopted into the Daoist pantheon. A sutra ‘The Lotus of the God Law’ incorporated a sentence which laid down that Guan Yin would appear in female form when the time was appropriate. According to popular belief in some areas, The Buddha manifested himself in the form of a woman to inspire that sex with the Buddhist faith. Another theory is that a now old and long lost Chinese deity known as Guan Yin and worshipped before the arrival of Buddhism in China was adopted by Buddhists as the incarnation of Avalokitesvara. The concept of the fusing of several if not numerous cults within the Indian Buddhist cult of Avalokitesvara in China is now accepted by many, and although the fusion has not been condoned by Buddhist scholar-monks, all others accept the joint ownership as a fact of life and his/her Indian origins have now been lost in time. The original Indian form of Avalokitesvara portrayed a slim, graceful and typical Indian youth, with high-combed and uncovered hair. This, we can assume, was so feminine to the Chinese that for this reason alone it is understandable why the sex change occurred. Before about the 11th Century many images of Guan Yin had a moustache and occasionally a beard, though the status of Guan Yin as we know her now appears to date back pre-Song and probably to the Tang. Another popular story describes how a monk in a dream was approached by Avalokitesvara who explained that he was about to adopt feminine sex in order to be a deity with whom woman could feel at ease during prayer and reverence.

The majority of Buddhist deities had Indian and even Hindu origins, and Guan Yin is no exception. The earlier images of him, as he was then, represented him in a dhoti and billowing stole. .Her history as a bodhisattva goes back to Buddhism in India and beyond, where she was a male deity with the original Indian title of Avalokitesvara meaning ‘The Lord who looks in every direction”: Guan Yin, however, literally means ‘Hearing the Cry” [of anguish of humans in distress].

She has many roles, expressed in different forms. She could be portrayed both on household and temple altars as a slender, compassionate figure, a mother holding a small child, a beautiful deity sitting on a rock flanked by pillars of rock on which are two of her attributes, the bird and flask. In temples her large image may represent her sitting side saddle on an animal, sitting on a rock overlooking the sea, and many more as described below.

However, in Chinese Buddhist establishments she is much more than a mere goddess as claimed by foreigners, or merely one of the bodhisattvas, she is one of the five celestial bodhisattvas and is one of the four great bodhisattvas of Mahayana [Northern Buddhism]. There are some who regard Guan Yin as an incarnation of the Buddha who has, they claim, appeared on Earth no less than thirty-two times, and each time in a different form. All Buddhas and bodhisattvas are asexual supernatural beings appearing in different forms depending on circumstances. Guan Yin is sometimes male, more often female; sometimes bearded, other times with a thousand arms and eyes. Her popular image changed during the Tang-Song dynasties from the rather rigid early pose, influenced by its Indian origins, to the Sinicised flowing, compassionate figure we know today. Even by the Southern Song [1127-1279] she was portrayed as an attractive female with sparkling eyes, smiling face and scarlet lips. Individual cults of Guan Yin emerged in different places normally where a miracle had taken place or where a manifestation of Guan Yin in a specific and unique guise had been observed, such as with her fish basket or dressed in a white robe.

In Chinese legend, Miao-shan, a princess whose father had her killed when she refused to marry was deified as Guan Yin. As one who was not only unfilial in refusing to obey her father but also as one who died a violent death it is not usual for such to be revered by Chinese devotees.

According to a number of Buddhist teachers, Guan Yin has six major forms:

The Thousand-arm Guan Yin.
The Saintly Guan Yin [the most commonly seen form]
The Horse’s Head Guan Yin [not seen in Hong Kong or Macau]
The multi-faced Guan Yin
Zhunti Guan Yin [Zhunti ]
The Ruyi Guan Yin of the Wheel of Fate

An elderly experienced Hokkien carver in Singapore claimed that Guan Yin has some eighty-one different forms ranging from the simple standing figure to the multi-arm, multi-head image. Despite this assertion there is some controversy over the number of manifestations, with confusion arising out of the multitude of her attributes, with her image carved in some places with two or more attributes, and in others they have been carved with the same attributes but each has been counted separately. Claims by different temple keepers, god carvers and devotees have varied from 30, 32, 33, 48 etc. up to 84. Although she has these many manifestations, each with its own rôle, few only are popular. No other figure in the Chinese Buddhist pantheon has a greater range of forms than Guan Yin, one of the most popular being that of the Indo-Tibetan Tantric Thousand-arm Thousand-eye Guan Yin which depicts her with six, eight, ten, sixteen, thirty-two, one hundred and eight, five hundred or one thousand arms, each hand either revealing an eye in the palm or grasping an object, symbols of Buddhism. She may also have three faces to her head and up to half a dozen ever-smaller heads one upon another. The six-arm version, for example, which presides over the highest of the six levels of existence, that of the Devas, is portrayed holding four emblems or attributes - the flaming jewel, the lotus flower, a rosary and the wheel of the law. The other two hands are in poses of significance, the mudra. This, and the great majority of poses and attributes, are taken straight from Indian Buddhism. The earliest forms included the Royal Ease and the standing male .

A booklet printed in about the 10th century AD from Tunhuang portrays Guan Yin, the man, in Indian style, seated on a lotus, bare to the waist with his hands palms together in prayer. Some of the paintings of Guan Yin on silk and paper in the Aurel Stein Collection in the BM dated from the late Tang to Song, portray her in the transitional form with a bare bosomless chest and large bare feet, obviously female but with these male attributes.

A sketch of a thousand-arm and thousand-eye Guan Yin on the opening double page spread of a Buddhist prayer book printed in Shanghai in 1948 shows her with forty pairs of arms and three heads, the main one in the centre with an urna and hair drawn up into a top knot. She is sitting in a lotus position on a triple lotus, the whole surrounded by a backdrop of flames. Part of the book’s title explains that Guan Yin has a total of 84 forms and several of the sketches of her forms within the prayer book are unusual. The picture of the Baiyi Pusa, the White Robe Bodhisattva, portrays her standing holding a ruyi [sceptre] in her right hand and what looks like an argumentative, irritable child being pushed out to play in her left hand. Other forms include her standing beside a peacock; standing on a cloud holding a shield, a long-bow and arrow and also a cross bow in her four hands; another shows her standing with her arms outstretched and surrounded by flying symbols - castanets, a drum, flute, treasure boxes, guitars, etc. Another series of sketches of her in her standard form, sitting cross-legged on a lotus, the difference in each is the position and pose of her hands. Other similar standard forms again only have slight differences, in the objects in her hands: some hold tangible objects whilst others shows snake-like wraiths containing fabulous or symbolic objects.

Her image in large temples is often back to back with the main deity, such as Sakyamuni, with a partition between them. Her image, facing away from the front entrance is faces the doorway at the rear of the hall, is large, often as tall and as impressive as the main deity.

Whereas all Buddhas are perfect and therefore all are identical, bodhisattvas have individual attributes by which they can be identified. Guan Yin, either as the youthful and lithesome woman or as a dowager, for example, is quite frequently portrayed holding a blue vase of ambrosia, and in a number of instances holds a sceptre [ruyi ] in the crook of her right arm. Guan Yin’s most common attributes include the blue vase and a sprig of greenery [willow leaves], a bird and rosary, bare feet, flat bosom and a five-leaf bodhisattva crown. The vase or bottle contains her sacred life-giving water [Sweet dew ] which she sprinkles over mankind with her willow branch, a symbol of purity. Such drops of water can cure all physical and spiritual illnesses. The willow, usually connected with life-giving when Guan Yin is known as the Prolonger of Life, Yanshou Guan Yin , is also used by her to put demons to flight or, according to others, for miracle cures. The bird, usually said to be a dove, the symbol of fecundity, though it has also been identified elsewhere as a parrot or a white cockatoo , Bai Yingwu •’ ∆x ƒM. The dove, which occasionally bears the rosary, the Indian symbol of prayer’s unbroken chain which binds mankind to eternity, has been identified by several Christian missionaries as the Nestorian Christian white dove [the pure spirit] which Guan Yin has adopted and now sends down to supplicants. In another form, as the One who Shows the Way, Yinlu Guan Yin , she is portrayed holding a banner. Guan Yin is not only identifiable by her attributes but also by her location and aides; for instance, she is the main deity in all temples with the title Water Moon, Shuiyue Gong .

Other iconographical attributes noted on images of Guan Yin [which may on occasions be also seen on other, unconnected deities], include:

urna in the centre of her forehead
the likeness of Emituo Fu on the front leaf of Guan Yin’s tiara
strands of hair falling across her shoulders
standing or sitting on an open lotus flower

holding a string of beads or pearls [ a short rosary]

holding a vase and willow wand, originally symbolising the spreading of the Dharma over the whole world. Later, in some areas of North China, they came to be regarded as talismans with which she controlled the weather, with devotees praying for rain before her during a drought.

holding a stalk or two of rice [as a producer of this staple for the starving]
holding a prayer wheel, prayer scroll or sutra
holding a fly whisk
holding a basket containing a fish [a carp saved from being eaten]
bare hands resting on her lap, palms upward, one on top of the other
a cowl which extends above her head
a low dress over her flat chest [very unfeminine]
bare arms and hands in a posture of deep meditation

sitting on a recumbent lion [Guan Yin Singhanada ]

sitting on a recumbent elephant

sitting side-saddle on an elephant

sitting beside or riding a mythical animal symbolising her supremacy over the forces of nature
sitting at “royal ease” [also known as ‘the Carefree Guan Yin: with one knee bent and the leg resting horizontal, and the other leg pendant]

Guan Yin’s image being so commonplace it appears in no way unusual to Chinese laymen until they have pointed out to them Guan Yin’s bare feet, her low cut dress, flat chest and bare neck, and they recall that feet and neck are erogenous zones and never bared. Their response is usually to point out that she is, of course, a deity; and again when it is explained that Guan Yin’s original images were masculine the majority of Chinese are sceptical but intrigued now they have observed these obvious but never before considered male characteristics.

Images of Guan Yin are to be seen on temple and private altars everywhere within Chinese communities either standing alone or in the centre of a group, as a secondary deity in a trinity and even, in rare instances can be the only deity but portrayed by several scores of images ranging from twice life-size down to miniatures the size of a hand. Although more frequently she shares the main altar in one of several triads of Buddhas and bodhisattvas, her image stands alone as the main deity in a number of temples. The most common grouping in which her image is to be seen is the trinity of the Amidist Sect, commonly known as the Pure Land Sect and colloquially as the Three Saints of the West, Xifang San Sheng composed of Emituo Fu [Amitabha ] the Buddha of the Western Paradise in the centre, Da Shi Zhi holding a lotus flower, on his left hand and Guan Yin on his right. This trinity is widely revered as deities who can save people after death by bringing them to the Western Heaven. She has been prayed to over the centuries by those left behind by death to save the deceased from rebirth as an animal, a hungry ghost or a demon in the Underworld. Guan Yin’s popularity is also partially reflected by the number and variety of prayer books, tracts and other hand outs devoted entirely to her work, life, manifestations, etc. Many a crowded, cluttered folk religion altar contains images of Guan Yin in some half a dozen of her many forms, often side by side in a row. These images, nearly all mass made porcelain, have been donated by a number of devotees and are therefore unconnected with each other; nor indeed were they procured as part of a planned altar. To give some idea of her popularity we need only look at the total of over 570 temples in Taiwan which are dedicated to her out of a total of some five thousand, and this does not include the thousand or so temples in which her image is the main deity in a secondary hall or on a secondary altar in the main hall.

As the main deity in many hundreds of temples, such as the Longshan Si in Taipei, Guan Yin is portrayed in one of her many forms, usually either the seated or standing version of the demure but sexless lady. The only major image of Guan Yin in a position of ‘royal ease’ in Hong Kong is in a temple in North Point where the widow of the temple’s founder, a man who had spent many years in western China and Tibet, explained that it was a typical Chengdu version carved locally in Hong Kong. The image portrays Guan Yin with a bare bosom, and holding a rose to her nose with her left hand whilst her right hand is making a mystical sign. The large bare bosom leaves visiting local Chinese agasp in amazement.

Images of Guan Yin have been created out of all the usual materials such as mud, stone, gold, jade, various woods, ivory, bronze, bronze gilt, enamelled copper, semi-precious stones, soapstone etc. They also vary in size from some hundred or so feet in height carved in living rock to the size of a postage stamp carved in wood or hardstone for personal use, with some of the most popular are the blanc-de-chine small images from Fuzhou. Many recent ivory carvings, lightly and delicately polychromed, look very similar to the images from north China of earlier manufacture as do some of the images carved from sections of telegraph poles made to look antique, created in the early years of this century from posts stolen from the roadside and carved mainly for the tourist trade. Northern carvings in general are much plainer than southern images which tend to be somewhat ornate.

Coloured prints of Guan Yin, again a very familiar sight in both temples and private houses, range from the simple and basic to the large, gaudy and complicated. They vary from the Thousand-arm form in all her glory surrounded by her acolytes, together with other Buddhas and bodhisattvas ranged around the top of the print to a two-tone print of her standing in her standard form, alone.

Comparatively modern and stylised images of Guan Yin should be reasonably easy to identify. Difficulties arise with pre-16th century Chinese Buddhist images of bodhisattvas in general. Chinese Buddhist illustrated prayed books, even twentieth century printings, contain sketches of what obviously should be manifestations of Guan Yin each with a title naming it as a separate and unconnected bodhisattva. Some, like the Horse-cry Bodhisattvaare identical in every detail with the sketch of Guan Yin within the same work apart from the former having a horse standing beside him/her.

Pictures of Avalokitesvara from the ninth century on often depicted the barefoot Buddhist figure carrying a pennant over his shoulder as the guide of souls through Purgatory. This same depiction developed over the centuries into first, Guan Yin in her asexual form and then later as the green-faced demonic featured Da Shi , who is Guan Yin in disguise compassionately seeking the remission of sins for those in Purgatory. She assumes this guise to avoid tempting souls or appearing to invite the attention of depraved spirits in the Underworld where her beauty is so out of place. This green-faced form, usually seen over the festival of the Hungry Ghosts as a paper or papier-mâché image, along with other similar images of the City God’s magistrate and the yamen runners, are there to maintain order amongst the ghosts and demons. Da Shi may also be seen all the year round in illustrated prints in the Tablet Hall of monasteries. Papier-mâché images of Ta Shih are most frequently to be seen during the rites of universal salvation [Pudu] held during the seventh lunar month.

In several temples in Hong Kong, Singapore and in Taiwan, local innovations include Guan Yin in her standard form as a standing tall lady but looking extraordinarily incongruous wearing a black beard. In this form she is prayed to specifically for the protection of lives, and one temple keeper, a Ch’aochou emigrant in Hong Kong, related the following story. Several centuries ago a deal was reached between the people of Luyang near Chaozhou and the Dragon King [Hai Long Wang] over the difficult task of bridging the very fast flowing tidal river which separated the city from its suburbs. The people of Luyang were to have several days of calm weather with the sea rolled back whilst the workmen bridged the river. The day came, the sea was opened up and the workmen set to, but time was not on their side. To make matters worse, they ate the bemused fish lying around on the now dry river bed which so infuriated the Dragon King that he was determined to let the sea roll back exactly at the appointed time even though the workmen who were racing to complete the job had not finished. At that moment Guan Yin arrived dressed as a goddess but with a black beard which so intrigued the workmen that they left the river bed and returned to the bank to see her. Just in time as it turned out, because the waves broke and the river flowed again but not a workman was lost. Since then Luyang workmen have always prayed to a black-bearded Guan Yin for protection.

In the Ming dynasty novel, Fengshen Yanyi [The Deification of the Gods], three immortals who overcame the lion, the elephant and the man-eating wolf mounted these animals and rode off to the Western Heavens where they became Buddhists. They were Wen Shu [q.v.], Pu Xian] and Guan Yin, and whereas Wen Shu and Pu Xian are nowadays nearly always portrayed with their lion and elephant, I have never seen a single image of Guan Yin with a wolf though Geil , an American traveller, described an image of Guan Yin in a temple at Suifu in Sichuan, where she was depicted astride a huge tiger “which had a horn protruding from its forehead”.

The main manifestations of Guan Yin include:

a Baiyi Guan Yin The White Robe Guan Yin. A common form often accompanied by a youth or maiden with his or her hands joined in prayer similar to Shan Cai but said not to be the same deity. One version identifies him/her as the Heavenly Nymph [Pituo ]. This is the version made popular at the cult centre on Putuo Shan, the sacred island off the coast of Zhejiang province.

b Cizhu Guan Yin Guan Yin of the Purple Bamboo. named thus from a scene in a famous painting of Guan Yin meditating amongst the bamboos on the foreshore of Putuo Island. Particularly popular with the Boat People of south China, and prayed to for protection at sea. She is portrayed sitting cross-legged on a lotus, holding a book on her lap with both hands, under a mandala, with her two acolytes, the male Shan Cai and the female, Long Nü in attendance.

c Jiuku Guan Yin Guan Yin who saves from Misery. More often than not she too is represented as a bodhisattva sitting cross-legged, but holding a vase.

d Kuohai Guan Yin Guan Yin crossing the seas. She is usually portrayed standing on the head of a sea creature known as an Ao Yu , which is just emerging from the waves; however, in a number of temples she is either sitting on a large leaf amongst waves and is known as the Yiye Guan Yin , or in the Shuanglin Si in Pingyao, in Shanxi province, she is sitting on a lotus flower which rests on the back of a large four-legged mythical creature which is wading through the waves. She is frequently accompanied by Shan Cai Tongzi and Longnü, or by Honghai Er whose small image stands beside hers.

e Songzi Guan Yin Guan Yin, the Giver of children [sons]. She depicted seated or standing with a child in her arms, or one or two on her knees; both versions can be with or without her acolytes.

f Qianshou Qianyan Guan Yin Guan Yin with many arms. Her images have varying numbers of arms, heads and eyes. Literally the title is ‘Guan Yin with One Thousand Hands and One Thousand Eyes. A Tantric image originally from Hinduism, often referred to as her Maritchi or Chun-ti form.

g Nanhai Guan Yin Guan Yin of the Southern Seas. In this manifestation she appears in a number of poses: seated on a rock or in a grotto, with a vase on one side and a bird sitting on the other. She has been noted standing, dressed in a flowing white robe holding a vase and a willow branch, and is sometimes sitting on a pink lotus throne, wearing blue robes or sitting somewhat indecorously in ‘royal repose.' She is also sometimes portrayed as we have noted earlier, standing on the head of a fish or on the waves themselves.

h Yulan Guan Yin The Fish Basket Guan Yin. Here she is
depicted as a lone figure carrying a wicker basket containing a fish.

i Wo Guan Yin The Sleeping Guan Yin.

j Singhanoda Guan Yin Guan Yin and the Lion. A form of
Avalokitesvara, representing her as seated side-saddle on a recumbent lion .

k Putuo Guan Yin Guan Yin of Putuo Shan Island. Her image in her principal shrine had been brought from Tibet and placed in the temple her cult centre, beside the image of Padpani [the female Guan Yin’s male counterpart]. She is portrayed sitting cross-legged with thirty-two images along the side walls representing her various metamorphoses.

Having been transformed into a female her cult was then merged with that of the legendary Princess Miao-shan. In her form as the Princess Miao-shan Guan Yin is depicted standing or sitting on a lotus, holding either her vase, a lotus flower or a pearl, or with her hands held together in prayer or blessing. The tale of Princess Miao-shan, the Third daughter of King Miao Zhuang, a ruler of a Zhou dynasty kingdom [ca. 3rd Century BC], explains how she refused to marry and eventually was permitted by her father to enter a nunnery. Although this story has become inextricably entwined with the much later Buddhist stories of her blessed life, in general it continues with her being given the most degrading duties in the nunnery, imposed at the behest of her father. As these failed to break her resolution to become a nun, her father ordered her execution rather than continue to allow her to sully the family honour. However, the sword broke into a thousand pieces against her neck and her father ordered that she be strangled, whereupon her soul fled to the Underworld. She passed through Purgatory in a flash due to her essential goodness and on reaching Paradise she chose to return to life to help others. This story with its numerous diversities and local innovations has been told in many temples but never in full. There is always some aspect which is stressed more than others and, without exception, the story, as told, is always basic. The variations include her being borne off to the Underworld on a large tiger, the servant of the Earth God; on her arrival in the Underworld it immediately changed into a brilliantly illuminated paradise where flowers bloomed and punishments ceased, and Yan Luo, the ruler of the Underworld, so feared for his job that she was promptly returned to Earth for disorganising the Underworld, and lived in Ningbo for nine years. There she rescued those in danger on the seas. One day she heard that her father was incurably ill and so sent him a potion compounded of her eyes and flesh. He was immediately cured and so grateful that he accepted the doctrine of Buddha and ordered a statue to be made of his daughter ‘to be perfect in every detail’ [quanshou quanyan: ‘complete with arms and eyes’ (having had hers removed to prepare the medicine)]. The sculptor having misheard, made her image with ‘a thousand arms and a thousand eyes’ [Qianshou Qianyan]. In some versions she removed only strips of flesh from her arm and plucked out just one of her eyes. Also, it is said that an old monk seeing the state the old father was in, blind and covered in suppurating sores, advised him to obtain an eye and some flesh from a relative as a medicine which would cure him. [Another account claims that she came to her blind father, disguised as a mendicant. She told him that the only cure lay in swallowing the eye of one of his children.] His elder two daughters offered but were prevented by their husbands from making the sacrifice. His youngest daughter whom he had had executed, returned and anonymously left an arm and an eye on the altar which was made into medicine and the king cured. He was overwhelmed by his daughter’s filial love that he prayed that she might be reincarnated at a Buddha, and gave himself over to a religious life.

Guan Yin in her Miao-shan form is the patron deity of female marriage-resistance cults in 19th century Guangdong province.

Guan Yin portrayed as a lone, seated bodhisattva or in her trinity of bodhisattvas, very rarely is attended by her acolytes, whereas in her ‘Princess Miao-shan” slim and youthful form she is usually accompanied by two attendants. The main attendants whose images are to be seen flanking the image of Guan Yin on altars are a youth and maiden, though there may well be several others, unnamed handmaidens who carry fans and banners. Occasionally a unique attendant has been noted such as the additional youth on a Guan Yin altar in a Fujian community temple in Singapore who was portrayed as his title describes him, The Yellow-eyebrowed Youth, Huangmei Tongzi . The customary youth, is commonly called the Golden Youth, Jintong ™˜ µ£ and the maiden, the Jade Girl, Yunü, when attending Guan Yin in her spiritual form; however, when they attend her in her human form they are known as the Clever Youth, Shan Cai [q.v.] and the Dragon Maid or Princess, Longnü or the Good Girl, Liangnü ®} §k. The maiden in a small Singapore folk religion temple was only known by one title, The Heavenly Immortal Maiden, [Tianxian Niangniang ]. In the novel The Journey to the West a youth, given by his father, the Bull Monster King, to Guan Yin as her page after she had defeated him was called by her the Red Youth [Hong Haizi]. A number of temple keepers have suggested that Shan Cai and Hong Haizi are one and the same though there is no evidence for this.

The two orthodox acolytes do her bidding as she dispenses her blessings with her willow branch. The boy is responsible for holding her bowl of ‘holy dew’ whilst the girl is Guan Yin’s personal maid. At the end of the sixth week after death the souls of humans in Purgatory reach the bridge over the River of Inevitability. Snakes try to catch the unwary; the good, however, are led by the Gifted Youth across this bridge as well as across two other bridges, the Bridges of Gold and Silver. The Boat People of South China have a version sufficiently small to be placed on the shrines within their junks. It portrays her sitting cross-legged on a lotus, her hands together on her lap holding an open book. In some instances her two standard acolytes are mounted each on a spring one on either side of her base. As the junks roll so the two acolytes bob back and forth.

The legends surrounding certain of the folk religion deities have to a greater or lesser extent been incorporated into the overall legends of Guan Yin. For example, she has strong similarities in one of her rôles to the Daoist folk religion goddess of the Seas, Tianhou Shengmu whose origins are also clouded in mystery. Both are beneficent, compassionate and save men from peril on sea and on land; both are protectors of mothers and ‘bringers of sons’. Tianhou was also found on Putuo Island, Guan Yin’s cult centre off the Zhejiang coast. But whereas Tianhou is unambiguously female, Guan Yin still retains her male bare feet and chest.

Legends and stories about Guan Yin are myriad and varied: the more popular tales, inseparable from the Guan Yin cult, claim that she originally was:

the Indo-Tibetan male deity, Avalokitesvara , one of the two assistants of Emituo Fo [the Buddha Amitabha, Lord of the Pure Land of the West]

the Princess Miao-shan, and
.
the Hindu Goddess of the Dawn, Maritchi [ Chinese: Zhunti ]

Many of the legends and folk tales told at grandmothers’ knees involve Guan Yin in sagas unconnected with her primary rôles. She can be an avenging goddess who stops an enemy, usually a demon and transform him into an impotent creature. She administers well-deserved lessons to bullies, blackguards and those who prey on the weak. Scores of such stories also describe Guan Yin’s love and compassion . In one such tale Guan Yin in her compassion decided to give rice to mankind. She squeezed her nipples until drops of milk flowed and changed into the ears on rice stalks, and thus she continued until she had drained her breasts and the excess pressure to produce the last drop caused blood to flow giving the rice a pink tinge. Consequently, today there are two kinds of rice in China - white and ruddy. She is also credited with providing fish for fishermen and various fruits and wild creatures. However, she herself, being a vegetarian, should under no circumstances be offered meat nor should flesh of any kind be brought into her presence.

Collections of miracle tales testifying to Guan Yin’s powers abound and were very popular during the Ming. Berkowitz relates how a smuggler seeing a police launch approaching him in Xianggang waters, was afraid and prayed to Guan Yin for protection. To his amazement the launch passed by without incident and the villager [smuggler] kept his promise, made as the launch approached, to install a shrine dedicated to Guan Yin and worship her forever. Gray tells us of a jadestone ornament in Guangzhou presented to a Guan Yin temple in acknowledgement of a victory which the goddess was said to have given to Chinese troops over the British barbarians in 1841. Another story told by an English missionary described an incident which was supposed to have taken place two years before the capture of Guangzhou by the English. Ye Mingchen, the Governor of Guangdong province was engaged in exterminating large bands of roving plunderers who were disturbing the peace. He reported to the emperor in Peking that at a critical juncture in the fighting a large figure of Guan Yin dressed in white robes had been seen beckoning to the Imperial forces. The soldiers, inspired with courage, won an easy victory over the enemy, and again during the 1860s, during the Taiping Rebellion, reports were received in Guangzhou of Guan Yin again seen dressed in white and holding a yak-tail switch, perambulating the city walls protecting the city from the rebels. Yet another story comes from Dali in Yunnan province where an image of Guan Yin in the Da Shi Zhi temple was dedicated after she had gained a ‘victory’ for the local forces over those of the Imperial forces. According to the legend Imperial troops from north China en route to lay siege to Dali met an old lady carrying an enormous rock. The invading soldiers were surprised and asked how she was able to cope with such a weight. She told them that her strength was nothing compared with the local young men, whereupon the invaders withdrew in mild panic. The old lady as everyone knows was Guan Yin in disguise.

Other stories, miracle tales, reflecting a Buddhist text, include the story of her descending to Earth to save the wicked villagers of a small fishing hamlet in Fujian province. Unfortunately, the village headman fell in love with her beauty and asked her to marry him. She agreed conditional to him and the whole of his village becoming Buddhists. All did and lived out good lives but only after Guan Yin had died on her wedding day, unsullied by the village headman. This story is one of a number in which she uses her sexual attraction to induce men to become Buddhists. Another local legend tells how, whilst the Quanzhou bridge was under construction, funds ran out. Guan Yin turned herself into a beautiful women and sailing backwards and forwards up the Luoyang river she dared men throw coins at her. If one hit her she would marry the thrower. The funds for the bridge poured in and not one coin touched her until Lü Dongbin [one of the Eight Immortals], passing by, thought he would play a trick on her and caused a coin thrown by a poor man to hit her. The thrower, beside himself with excitement suddenly saw the ship and the woman vanish.

Offerings to Guan Yin usually consist of tea, fruit and money. In many places it is said that it would be inappropriate to offer her meat of any kind as a sacrificial offering, though in other communities this taboo is limited to pork. However, even in these areas there are some who say that they do offer her pork on her birthday claiming that “she enjoys a bit of pork as much as anyone”. Tiny cloth or paper shoes are placed on her altars in two temples in Xianggang as thank offerings for the safe delivery of a son, and tiny squares of beaten gold are also donated and hung round the neck of Guan Yin images, again as thank offerings. Rarely are these squares stolen though a spate of such robberies on one island in the Xin Jie took place in the 1970s. Similar squares of hammered gold have been carefully mounted in groups of 108, into large frames and hung around the Guan Yin altar in a small temple in Macau. In three temples in Xianggang and Aomen, Guan Yin’s statues are frequently arrayed with small sachets containing the name of the babe to be looked after by her. These small, red cloth packages are to be seen slung around the neck of the statues or from the ceiling of the temple, often by the score. The child’s parents are supposed to return and remove the sachet once the child has reached the age of seven, and donate a sum of money for the protection received: but, sighed the temple keeper, this rarely seemed to happen nowadays!

One of Guan Yin’s tasks is to command and sail the Boat of Salvation, ferrying the souls of men across the seas of life to death and their final rest in the Pure Land. This boat is occasionally to be seen made of paper at the mass said for the dead on he 49th day after death, and in Macau such a boat has been seen, in miniature made of wood, on altars of three folk religion temples dedicated to Guan Yin. One of these models is an early carving of a flower boat, vessels so popular on the Pearl River at Guangzhou in the early 19th century.

An image of Guan Yin, some 30-40 feet high, stands on the hillside in the grounds of a nunnery overlooking Stanley, in southern Xianggang. Excitement reigned for a day or so in 1977 when, according to a devotee. the image was seen to move and lights were observed coming from it!

Two images of Guan Yin stand in her temple in Taipingshan in Xianggang Central. The older, said to date from about 1840, the time of the acquisition of Xianggang by Britain, was, according to local legend, carved from a block of wood found floating in the sea, giving off mysterious golden rays. The second, a smaller image, was carved especially for carrying in processions and is said to have been made at the time of the plague in 1894 when it was carried through the streets to inspect and appreciate the extent of the ravages caused by the disease.

An undated stone stele in the writer’s collection of images portrays Guan Yin sitting ‘at royal ease’, with a bird and vase beside her on pedestals. There are a further four figures carved into the group: flanking Guan Yin are two soldiers or armed male attendants, and in front of them are two seated officials or scholars. The identities of the four are unknown, and in the experience of the writer the group is unique. The presence of the bird suggests that Guan Yin is in her female form despite the slight outline of a moustache. A very interesting feature of the stele is the perspective. Guan Yin, the main deity, is large and takes up much of what is obviously the main hall of a temple, the roof and walls of which are the top and sides of the stele. The forecourt of the temple and the surrounding walls, however, are minute. The question remains: who are the officials and the soldiers?

A photograph, said to be of Guan Yin, to be seen on the altars of many temples throughout South-east Asia, Xianggang and Taiwan, looks for all the world like the propaganda photographs of Japanese kamikaze pilots, but the story behind it tells otherwise. A devotee took a photograph of a holy site in China in about 1937 and after the film had been developed instead of the site was the picture on an unknown young woman who, the devotee learned in a dream, was Guan Yin. He had several dozen enlargements of the photograph made and distributed them amongst his friends who then found it to be a very efficacious icon. It caught on and up to the 1960s prints could still be purchased in most religious-paper shops.

The Empress Dowager, Ci Xi, possibly best remembered by foreigners for the part she is supposed to have played during the Boxer Rebellion at the turn of the century, felt a special affinity with Guan Yin as she, the goddess and a woman, too had reached the pinnacle, in her case of the Buddhist pantheon. In private Ci Xi performed in masques, dressing up as Guan Yin, her favourite rôle, with her most powerful eunuch, Li Lianying, as the goddess’s attendant, Shan Cai.

An extraordinary sighting of an image on an altar in a folk religion temple on the outskirts of Manila incorporates three separate religious symbols. It is a blanc-de-chine statue of Guan Yin standing on a recumbent tiger with the character for King [wang §˝ ] on its forehead. She has a child in her arms and a rosary in her hand with a crucifix hanging from a chain around her neck. The temple keeper was quite adamant that it was Guan Yin and not the Virgin Mary.


As she is of Mahayanist origin it is therefore very rare for her image to be seen on Chinese temple altars in Cambodia and Laos where local Buddhists are Hinayanist.
A number of scholars believe that the Lotus Sutra was first compiled in China and then carried to India where it was translated into Sanskrit.
Wood sculptures of the male version of Guan Yin are typical of works done during the early period of Buddhist imagery. They usually show her in meditative pose with hands held out in a gesture of blessing and with a finely painted moustache and hair gathered in a top knot.
The term Guan Yin or one of its many variants was used in early Chinese texts as a translation of the Sanskrit Avalokitesvara. Chinese believe this to have been the response of Guan Yin when, as she was about to enter Buddhahood, she paused, heard a cry of misery from the world and promptly retraced her steps to continue to serve suffering mankind. The Chinese title Guan Yin is a poor translation from the Sanskrit due to the confusion between the words ‘isvara’ meaning Lord and ‘svara’ meaning Sound.

In Chinese Buddhism, according to Grootærs in Xuanhua in north China, Ma Wang, the God of Horses with six arms was considered to be one of the six incarnations of Guan Yin, the one which is specifically entrusted with living beings passing through the stages of animal life.
There is still widespread confusion over the identity of Zhunti. Doré near Shanghai some eighty years ago described an altar on which images of both Zhunti [identified as Maritchi] and Guan Yin stand side by side. This is not uncommon, though there are an equal number of temples in which Zhunti is identified simply as Guan Yin.
This trinity, the Three Precious Ones, is most commonly connected with the Pure Land and Tiantai Sects. The image of Guan Yin can easily be mistaken for Da Shi Zhi [q.v.], the difference usually being that she holds her blue vase whilst Da Shi Zhi holds a long-stemmed lotus leaf by the stalk.
Da Shi is also known as Pudu Gong [q.v.]
Geil, Wm Edgar : A Yankee on the Yangtze : Hodder & Stoughton : London : 1904
Baiyi literally means White Clothing : it does however refer to the garments of the laity in contradistinction to those of the Buddhist clergy who never wear undyed garments.
A Protestant missionary claimed that since the penetration of Roman Catholicism into China in the Ming dynasty, the Youth, Guan Yin’s aide, has been placed on her lap thus completing her similarity to the Virgin Mary, although the significance of Guan Yin’s boy, representing the blessing of sons, is quite different.
'indecorously' for a Chinese, that is.
This is possibly better translated as the Reclining Guan Yin. Rather like the Sleeping Buddha being a misnomer for the depiction of Buddha entering Nirvana she is portrayed lying on her side resting her head on a hand. However, Guan Yin has voluntarily remained a bodhisattva and has therefore not entered Nirvana.
A similar form represents her sitting on an elephant or, in one instance, side-saddle on a buffalo.
Putuo Shan remains a pilgrimage site for both Guan Yin and Tian Hou to this day : see also Note 14 below.
Topley, M : Marriage Resistance in Rural Guangtung : 1975
These two titles, the Gifted Youth and the Jade Maiden, are also borne by the attendants to the Jade Emperor, Nuwo Niangniang and a number of other major deities.
Putuo island has been a pilgrimage site since the Tang dynasty and has been connected with the cult of Guan Yin certainly since the 13th Century. Putuo is the corruption of the name of the Buddhist sacred mountain in Srilanka and also the name of the home of the Dalai Lama in Xizang, the Potala.
Avalokitesvara, the Hindu-Buddhist male deity is the national deity of the Tibetans, incarnated in the body of each successive Dalai Lama who formerly reigned in the Potala in Xizang.
Berkowitz, Brandauer and Reed : Folk Religion in an Urban Setting : Hong Kong : 1969
Gray J H : the Archdeacon of Hong Kong : China : London : 1878
See also the story of Guan Yin with a beard, also attracting men.
see Linshui Furen for another legend about the bridge over the Luoyang.
Guan Yin’s oracles transmitted to devotees and to priests in dreams has been a comparatively common occurence.
Lewisohn Wm and Arlington L C : In Search of Old Peking : 1935