The Lady of Linshui Pacifies Demons

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The Lady of Linshui Pacifies Demons is a seventeenth-century novelistic account of the founding myth of the cult of the Lady of Linshui, the goddess of women, childbirth, and childhood, still venerated in Fujian, Taiwan, and Southeast Asia. The goddess's narrative evolved from the life of Chen Jinggu in Ming dynasty Hunan, manifesting in vernacular short fiction, legends, plays, sutras, and temple inscriptions. This "novel" was translated with the assistance of Brigitte Baptandier, whose anthropological study of the goddess's popularity was published in French and later in English by Stanford University Press in 2008. Among late imperial Chinese goddess accounts, this work uniquely emphasizes the physical aspects of womanhood, particularly the perils of childbirth. It dramatizes the contradictory nature of divinities in China by narrating the intertwined lives of Chen Jinggu and her spirit double/rival, the White Snake demon, who battles her for her husband, ultimately leading to tragic consequences. This unabridged, annotated translation offers insights into late imperial Chinese religion, the experiences of women during the period, and the broader structure of families and local society.