Songzi

During the Ming Dynasty, the cult of Songzi Guanyin became one of the most popular religious movements in all Chinese regions and classes with images of her appearing in temples, clan and community shrines and on a home altar. Songzi holds a child in her lap symbolizing many aspects of granting and raising children: as the “dispenser of fecundity” she bestows children with perfections of mind and body.” As the “protector of women” she watches over them during pregnancy and childbirth and prevents premature death of mother or child; and as “guardian of children” she shields them from illness. Yu states the baby in her arms is not her own, but a “symbolic portrayal of all children that come under her protection” while Hart claims the infant playing in her lap symbolizes “a newborn, spiritual life, and Mother Nature whose mysterious powers continually produce, sustain, destroy, and renew life throughout the universe.” The Lotus Sutra states that a woman who wishes a male child just needs pray to Avalokitesvara (Guanyin) and her wish will be granted with a son of “happiness, excellence and wisdom.” (Weidner) She always holds a male child, reflecting the Confucian belief that woman’s’ most important role is to produce male heirs. Prior to the Ming dynasty, Guanyin rarely held a child but after Christian missionaries arrived in China during the 15 to 17th centuries and commissioned Fujianese artisans to carve images of the Virgin and Child, images of Songzi holding a baby boy became very similar to the Virgin Mary holding the baby Jesus. (Kim). According to buddahanet, Guanyin became a female deity based on Confucianist influence which “discouraged the female population from seeking comfort and solace from male deities especially in their requests for off-spring.”
Sources
John Blofeld, Bodhisattva of Compassion: The Mystical Tradition of Kuan Yin, Denver, Shambala Publications, 1978.
Buddha Dharma Education Association, Popular Deities in Chinese Buddhism, buddhanet
Lee Irwin, “Divinity and Salvation: The Great Goddesses of China,” in Asian Folklore Studies, Indiana University, Vol. 49, 1990, pp 53-68.
Eloise Hart, “Kuan Yin: Goddess of Mercy, Friend of Mankind,” Sunrise Magazine, December, 1984/January, 1985.
Jeong-Eun Kim, “White-robed Guanyin: The Sinicization of Buddhism in China Seen in the Chinese Transformation of Avalokitesvara in Gender, Iconography, and Role”
Chun-Fang Yu, Kuan-yin: The Chinese Transformation of Avalokitesvara, New York, Columbia University Press, 2001.
The Lotus Sutra, Translated by Burton Watson, SGI-USA.org
Marsha Weidner, “Beyond the Monastery Walls: Professional Painters and Popular Themes, in Latter Days of the Law: Images of Chinese Buddhism 850-1850, Honolulu, University of Hawaii Press, 1994