Earticle

How can Chinese goddess' characters be described and identified? In the present paper, I have examined them differentiating from Greek or Roman goddesses from the point of view based on comparative mythology. It was found that there are three distinctive characters of Chinese goddess, which are primitivity, transition, and ambiguity. In an ancient China, goddesses were worshipped as holy beings with whom a man can hardly intercourse. They were considered to be in a higher position and to have a dignity. Also a number of ancient Chinese goddesses have hybrid images, meaning that their appearances are mixtures of animals and human beings. These mysterious appearances demonstrate their first character of primitivity. Then, the authorities of Chinese goddesses gradually declined and their roles depicted in the Chinese myths reduced. Therefore, goddesses couldn't take roles as male god's spouses any more. Moreover, some goddesses had to accept their tragic fate of being transformed into male gods. However, the situation suddenly changed when Taoism became a popular religion in the Chinese society. Taoism provided an opportunity to goddesses to become worshipped again and even more prosperous ever. Images of goddesses were strongly influenced by Taoism and they had a variety of experiences and underwent transformations. First of all, their hybrid images were changed into a beautiful female Taoist, and their dignities regained. Now, the second character of the Chinese goddesses is ambiguity. In other words, their roles were not clearly specified and rather ambiguous, in contrast with Greek or Roman goddesses. Perhaps, it is because, unlike Greek or Roman goddesses, Chinese goddesses were humanized fairly late in time. They were thought to be important in maintaining harmonious relationships between human being and nature. In these days, both “sensibility" and “imagination" have been emphasized greatly than ever before. Therefore, there is no doubt that studies of Chinese goddesses and their roles can evoke potentiality of women and east Asian mythology.