The Lady of Linshui Pacifies Demons
A Seventeenth-Century Novel
Kristin Ingrid Fryklund, Kristin Ingrid Fryklund
- 304 pages
- English
- ePUB (mobile friendly)
- Available on iOS & Android
The Lady of Linshui Pacifies Demons
A Seventeenth-Century Novel
Kristin Ingrid Fryklund, Kristin Ingrid Fryklund
About This Book
The Lady of Linshuiâthe goddess of women, childbirth, and childhoodâis still venerated in south China, Taiwan, and Southeast Asia. Her story evolved from the life of Chen Jinggu in the eighth century and blossomed in the Ming dynasty (1368â1644) into vernacular short fiction, legends, plays, sutras, and stele inscriptions at temples where she is worshipped. The full-length novel The Lady of Linshui Pacifies Demons narrates Chen Jinggu's lifelong struggle with and eventual triumph over her spirit double and rival, the White Snake demon. Among accounts of goddesses in late imperial China, this work is unique in its focus on the physical aspects of womanhood, especially the dangers of childbirth, and in its dramatization of the contradictory nature of Chinese divinities. This unabridged, annotated translation provides insights into late imperial Chinese religion, the lives of women, and the structure of families and local society.