Leizu
Leizu ( 嫘 祖 , Léizǔ ) or Cangu ( 蠶 姑 / 蚕 姑 , Cángū ) is the wife or concubine of Huangdis , the Yellow Emperor , in Chinese mythology . She is also considered a great inventor.
She is venerated as the “Cangu goddess” or “silkworm goddess” ( 蚕 姑 圣母 , Cángū shèngmǔ ). The usefulness of the originally wild silkworm was initially unknown to humans. Leizu taught them to breed the silkworm, to unreel silk thread from the cocoons, and to weave silk. From then on, the silk culture emerged in China .
The cult of the mother silkworm can still be found today in the Baoding area of Hebei Province . The "Cangu-nainai Temple" (Cangu ta 蚕 姑 坨 or Cangu nainai miao 蚕 姑奶奶 庙 ) in Yi County was built in the time of the Northern Wei Dynasty . It is located on the north side of Langya Shan ( 狼牙山 ).
See also
Web links
- Fan Lizhu: The Cult of the Silkworm Mother as a Core of Local Community Religion in a North China Village: Field Study in Zhiwuying, Boading [sic!]. Hebei - English ( limited preview in Google Book search)
- Zhongguo daojiao (Chinese)
- Huangdi fights Chiyou
- Alan L. Miller: Woman Who Married a Horse: Five Ways of Looking at a Chinese Folktale Journal. In: Asian Folklore Studies. Volume 54, 1995, (English) (PDF file; 446 kB)
Footnotes
- ^ Daniel L. Overmyer: Religion in China Today. Cambridge University Press, 2003, ISBN 978-0-521-53823-7 , p. 54 ( limited preview in Google Book Search).
- ↑ 中国 道教 - 国家 兴亡 匹夫 有 责 —— 记 河北 易县 狼牙山 道 观 石 海 中 、 、 李 圆 忠 道 长. In: chinataoism.org. Retrieved January 10, 2015 .