A comparative study of belief in Mazu and Guanyin in China
Journal Title: The Journal of Humanities and Social Sciences - Year 2021, Vol 29, Issue 1
Abstract
Mazu and Guanyin are two well-known deities in China each Chinese family considers them as the protectors and rescuers when disasters happening. With the influence of social development, these gods gradually are ascended into two almighty goddesses with perfect, divine power, supreme clergy and infinite cohesion. Based on the analysis and collation of a large number of documents, this paper points out that the similarities and differences of between Mazu belief and Guanyin belief by comparing their development in Chinese society. The similarities are mainly manifested in the diverse duties of being a deity, and the range of this belief enlarging from several local regions to the whole world, and the development of deities’ duties from single to multiple. The differences are mainly reflected in three aspects: the pagination way of the two goodness, Guanyin is a Buddha derived from Indian god, Mazu is a China's native goddess who went to the overseas later; In terms of the transformation mode, Guanyin is transformed from an official deity to a folk deity, and Mazu is a folk deity at beginning and then gradually authenticated by the government as an official deity; the various development trajectories of their duties, Guanyin's duty was first centered on salvation, and then gradually expanded to the deity of the sea, while Mazu's duty was just opposite.
Authors and Affiliations
1Tian Chong 2Huang Yungang
BRI: China’s role in global peace and development
Belt and Road is an international trade interconnectivity Initiative that intersects countries through seaports, roads, corridors, railways, bridges, gas, and oil pipelines etc. In view of U.S., Japan and India, China’s...
Impact of organizational structure on management innovation in public sector universities of Pakistan
The paper analyses the effect of two components of organizational structure (formalization and centralization) on management innovation. The research uses the theoretical framework of dual-core theory of innovation. Fo...
Portrayal of China in the national Urdu-language press of Pakistan
Public discourse on China is widespread in Pakistan. How China is depicted in the national press of Pakistan remains to be examined academically. The current study aims to dwell on the images of China in the editorial...
Rise by sin or fall by virtue: A Marxist study of class consciousness in The white tiger, and How to get filthy rich in rising Asia
The present research aims to investigate and describe the phenomenon of class consciousness by keeping in its center the lines of social stratification. The core of this study is to probe the nature of class consciousn...
Relationship between teachers’ non-verbal immediacy behaviors and students’ motivation: An evidence from Pakistani ESL classrooms
This study focused on finding the relationship, which might exist, between non-verbal immediacy behaviors of teachers and students‟ motivation in Pakistani ESL classrooms. The study adopted a quantitative survey design...