I wonder if you have ever thought about this question: What is the gender of Guanyin Bodhisattva? When seeing this question, many people will probably blurt out: female. Whether it is "Journey to the West", "Lotus Lamp", or "The Legend of the White Snake", the Guanyin Bodhisattva

This article continues to talk about Guanyin Bodhisattva .

I have a question, I don’t know if you have ever thought about it. What is the gender of Guanyin Bodhisattva?

When seeing this question, it is estimated that many people will blurt out: female.

No wonder everyone has such an idea. For those of us who are non-Buddhists, most of the images of Guanyin Bodhisattva we come into contact with come from movies and TV series. Whether it is "Journey to the West", "Lotus Lamp", or "The Legend of the White Snake", the Guanyin Bodhisattva is a female image. However, we must also note that after Buddhism was introduced to our country, the early statues of Guanyin Bodhisattva were male.

So the question is, how did Guanyin Bodhisattva change from "male" to "female"?

Actually, this problem is not a problem in the eyes of Buddhists. Because according to Buddhism, Buddha and Bodhisattva have no gender distinction. The male or female appearance we see they present is a "appearance" that appears for the convenience of saving all living beings. The ultimate goal is to facilitate, love and save all living beings. For all living beings, Bodhisattva appears in the form most acceptable to them, and can more easily rely on him to believe in him, listen to his voice, and receive the blessing and induction of Bodhisattva through his own diligence and pious belief.

But even so, it doesn't mean the question is meaningless. The female image of Guanyin Bodhisattva has become mainstream in China, which is a matter worth studying. From it, we can see some changes after Buddhism was introduced to Han Dynasty.

Why did Guanyin Bodhisattva become "female"? Let’s start with , Southern and Northern Dynasties and . During this period, Buddhism developed rapidly in China, with an increasing number of believers, including a sharp increase in the number of nuns and lay women at home. Many upper-class women, such as the Empress Dowager Ling of the Northern Wei Dynasty, also believed in Buddhism and became devout Buddhists. This has caused the vast number of good women and believers to wonder: the Buddhas, Bodhisattvas and Arhats in the Pure Land of the Buddha are all male images. Don't women have any "door"? Since it is difficult for women to achieve enlightenment, why do female believers have to convert to Buddhism?

Relatively speaking, Buddhism's biggest rival, Taoism, , has done a relatively good job in shaping female gods. There are the Queen Mother , Lishan Old Mother , there is Grandma Taishan, and Jiutian Xuannv and a series of other gods. Although these images are also fictitious, at least they point out a path for women to become immortals and set a clear example. And this is what Buddhism lacks.

Obviously, if this problem cannot be solved, Buddhism may lose to Taoism in the competition for believers. In order to survive, Buddhism had no choice but to break the rules and make concessions to Chinese secularism. It was against this background that the image of the female Guanyin Bodhisattva was fixed.

The reason why Guanyin Bodhisattva can bear such an "important task" is because his conditions best meet the believers' requirements for a female Bodhisattva. Compared with Amitabha, Guanyin Bodhisattva appears approachable, and he "observes" the "sound" of suffering in the world and is available at any time, especially like the image of mother in the traditional Chinese cognition.

In the late Southern and Northern Dynasties, female statues of Guanyin Bodhisattva began to be circulated among the people. The popularity of the female form Guanyin came after the Tang Dynasty. Interestingly, during this period, in order to prove the legitimacy of Guanyin Bodhisattva being a woman, believers made some changes to its origins, and the theory emerged that Guanyin Bodhisattva was originally the third princess of the Han Dynasty.

This statement was popular in and in the Northern Song Dynasty. At the end of the Song Dynasty and the beginning of the Yuan Dynasty, Zhao Mengfu 's wife Duan Duosheng based on this, carefully compiled a genealogy of Avalokitesvara Bodhisattva - "A Brief Biography of Avalokitesvara Bodhisattva".

It is mentioned that King Miaozhuang had three daughters named Miaoyuan, Miaoyuan and Miaoshan. Miaoshan was the Guanyin Bodhisattva who later attained enlightenment. When the three girls reached the age of marriage, Miao Shan refused and wanted to become a nun. King Zhuang was furious and drove her out of the palace. Later, King Miaozhuang became seriously ill and was in critical condition. At this time, Miaoshan had already achieved Taoism and transformed into an old monk."King Miaozhuang only had three daughters who were close relatives, but when he mobilized his eldest and second daughters to make sacrifices, they refused. The old monk told King Miaozhuang that he could go to the Xiangshan Immortal Chief.

This Xiangshan Immortal Chief was born from Miaoshan's practice. The Immortal Chief came to the palace, cut off his hands, gouged out his eyes, and dedicated them to him. King Miaozhuang was cured by the medicine. However, when King Miaozhuang saw that the immortal had no hands and eyes, he was very sad and prayed to the gods to help the immortal grow his hands and eyes. After a while, the immortal grew out his hands and eyes, and he grew out a thousand hands and eyes. At this time, the immortal in Xiangshan revealed his origin. , chatting freely with King Miaozhuang about the love between father and daughter.

Later, some people said that this King Miaozhuang was King Zhuang of Chu in the Spring and Autumn Period. Princess Miaoshan saved her father and queen with her own hands and eyes. King Zhuang ordered to build a temple in Xiangshan to create "all hands and eyes", but the eunuch misheard and built "Thousand Hands and Thousand Eyes", thus creating the Thousand Hands and Thousand Eyes Guanyin statue.

This story is actually the product of the merger of three typical schools of Confucianism, Buddhism, and Taoism, and it is very Chinese. In fact, the Avalokitesvara with Thousand Arms and Thousand Eyes in Buddhism is one of the six Avalokitesvara in Esoteric Buddhism, and its origin is completely different from the above statement.