Fish Basket Guanyin, also known as Fish Basket Master, Ma Lang Woman Guanyin, is one of the thirty-three incarnations of the thousand-armed and thousand-eyed Guanyin Bodhisattva in Chinese Buddhism. There is a well-known legend about the origin of Guanyin in the fish basket.
Legend has it that during the Tang Dynasty, there was a young fisherman named Ma Lang, who was industrious and kind, but never got a wife. One day, he caught a golden fish, this fish can actually speak human language, it told Ma Lang that he is the incarnation of Guanyin Bodhisattva in Putuo Mountain in the South China Sea, because he saw Ma Lang's kind heart, so he came to save him. The goldfish asked Ma Lang to release it and told him that in three days a beautiful woman would come to his village, an incarnation of Avalokiteshvara, to help him become a Buddha.
Although Ma Lang was a little confused, he still released it according to the goldfish's words. Sure enough, three days later, a beautiful woman came to Malang's village, carrying a basket of fish on her back and selling fish everywhere. This woman is the fish basket Guanyin incarnated by Guanyin Bodhisattva. When Ma Lang saw this beautiful woman, he fell in love with her and decided to propose to her.
Guanyin told Ma Lang that if he could fill her fish basket with money within three days, she would promise to marry him. Ma Lang was ecstatic and borrowed money everywhere, only to find that he could not fill the fish basket anyway. In the end, Ma Lang returned home exhausted and found that the money in the fish basket had turned into a lotus flower. At this time, Guanyin told Ma Lang that this was the compassionate embodiment of Guanyin Bodhisattva, to transform him into a Buddha.
After this experience, Ma Lang suddenly understood that the glory and wealth of the world are illusory, and he decided to follow Guanyin Bodhisattva to practice, and eventually became an enlightened monk. Since then, the story of Guanyin in the fish basket has spread all over the world and has become a famous legend in Chinese Buddhism.
The image of the fish basket Guanyin is usually a beautiful woman wearing a flower crown on her head, dressed in ornate clothes, and carrying a basket full of live fish. She symbolizes Avalokiteshvara's compassion and desire to save all beings. This story also conveys a truth: all the glory and wealth in the world are short-lived, and only by cultivating the mind and cultivating one's nature can one achieve true happiness and liberation.
