A comparative study of belief in Mazu and Guanyin in China

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.