In the Chinese mythological system, there are many goddesses.
In our daily lives, we also call out our favorite mortal women as goddesses.
But only Guanyin Bodhisattva is the most popular goddess of Chinese.
Why?
Because she meets the standard of perfection that a goddess should have, and all this is thanks to Journey to the West.
It is precisely because of the affectionate shaping of "Journey to the West" that there is such a foreign goddess who is most popular Chinese.
In Indian Buddhist texts, Guanyin is not gendered.
After the introduction of Buddhism to China, it was not until the Southern and Northern Dynasties that Guanyin began to appear as a female figure, and after further development in the Tang Dynasty, it was not until the Song Dynasty that Guanyin was stereotyped as a dignified and beautiful goddess with kindness and kindness.
However, the image of Guanyin remained vague and monolithic until the appearance of Journey to the West.
First of all, the Guanyin in "Journey to the West" is beautiful and "has a look".
Before "Journey to the West", people only knew that Guanyin was a beautiful woman, but they did not know how beautiful she was.
In Journey to the West, Guanyin is no longer a goddess with a vague appearance, but "eyebrows like a small moon, eyes like double stars." Jade face is born happy, vermilion lips a little red", like your neighbor goddess, with a nose and eyes.
However, as a goddess, beauty alone is not enough to attract the love of the whole people.
The Guanyin Bodhisattva in Journey to the West is very human, and she is more like a flesh-and-blood human woman.
She has moods and sorrows, and when Goku yells at her, she will scold such rude words as "bold horse stream, village fool Akajiri".
When he heard that the red child had changed into her appearance to deceive the Eight Precepts, he "said angrily in his heart: 'That demon dares to change my appearance!' With a sigh of hatred, he threw the orb bottle in his hand into the heart of the sea."
In the forty-ninth episode of "Journey to the West", Guanyin fades her makeup to subdue the river monster, barefoot bare arms, holding a steel knife in her hand, and cutting bamboo baskets, distinguishing a folk labor woman, and Guanyin's amiable cuteness is vividly highlighted.
In addition, Goku scolds her for "she should be husbandless in her lifetime", the Eight Precepts call her "an uncombered bodhisattva", and Guanyin's own village dialect, all of which make Guanyin Bodhisattva exude a strong sense of humanity.
Not only does the strong human touch narrow the distance with the people of the earth, but the Guanyin in "Journey to the West" is still compassionate.
She often saves people in times of danger, and she shows the punished rolling curtain general and the marshal of the canopy the right way to atone for their sins.
She personally interceded with the Jade Emperor and rescued the son of Ao Yan, the Dragon King of the West Sea.
Sun Wukong, who was pressed under the Five Elements Mountain, also received Guanyin's guidance to abandon the path from the Buddha and follow the Tang monk Xitian to learn the scriptures.
She cherished the living beings, and when she accepted the red child, she ordered the gods of the land on the mountain: "Clean up the surroundings, and ask for three hundred miles away, and not a single creature is allowed to be on the ground." Send the small beasts in the nest and the pheasants in the cave to live on the peak."
Then, Guanyin was willing to "pour out the bottle and pour out the water." Every innocent creature was unharmed.
"When Sun Dasheng saw this, he secretly exclaimed, 'Sure enough, he is a bodhisattva of great compassion and great compassion!' If Lao Sun has this mana, he will look at the mountain and knock the bottle down, and what kind of animals, beasts, snakes, and insects!" She was responsible for the task of collecting scriptures, which can be described as a great effort, and when she learned that the goldfish in her lotus pond were harmed in the netherworld, she went into the forest to cut bamboo baskets "before she could dress", and "did not wear clothes" and went to rescue Tang Monk.
Guanyin's compassion depends on strength, Sun Wukong is already powerful enough, but in front of Guanyin's mana, it is simply a child.
In order to subdue the red child, Guanyin threw the bottle of purity into the sea and let Goku take it up, but Goku couldn't hold it.
"The walker said, 'Do not hide from the bodhisattva that you can take it on weekdays, but you can't move it today.' I think it is a loss of goblins, and the strength is weak. The Bodhisattva said, "It was always an empty bottle, but now it is a pure bottle thrown into the sea, and at this time, between the three rivers and five lakes, the eight seas and four lakes, and the xiyuan pond cave, a total of one sea water was borrowed in it." Where do you have a sea of pounds? So this can not be moved also. ’”
Sun Wukong overthrew the ginseng tree, searched for a good recipe, and finally Guanyin easily saved his life.
If it is the worship of the strong, who would not worship such a strong man who can balance everything?
However, such a strong person is not high, but approachable. This is prominently reflected in the relationship between Guanyin and Goku.
When Goku is dissatisfied, he can complain to Guanyin continuously: "This bodhisattva is also lazy!" He deserves nothing!"
In Journey to the West, Goku rarely cries to others, except for his master Tang Monk, who is probably crying at a bodhisattva.
Goku is crying at the bodhisattva to tell the grievances in his heart, and it is the child who complains to the elders.
If Guanyin is not easy and kind, Goku may not complain to her.
There are many goddesses in the Chinese mythological system, such as Nuwa, Mazu, Chang'e, Queen Mother, Luoshen, etc., but the influence of guanyin is the greatest, not that the image of the aforementioned goddess is not great enough, but they lack a humanity that can resonate with human beings in addition to great divinity, and even make people feel afraid, which also shows the strong influence of literary works such as "Journey to the West".
Some people may say that Guanyin is a "Buddha" and not a "god", Amitabha Buddha, Guanyin told me: Do not lift this bar with you.