| “ | I mean, I suppose she could be considered a Mother Earth Goddess from our culture, though it'd be more appropriate to call her the Chthonic Mother Earth as her domains mainly cover matters beneath the Earth, i.e. the Underworld. | „ |
| — Matt Wright |
Địa Mẫu is the Mother Earth Goddess associated with the Dead, the Underworld, and the Cycle of Reincarnation venerated by the people of Vietnam. She is the ruler of Địa Phủ and the wife of Yanluo Wang, and serving beneath her are the Ten Infernal Kings.
Overview[]
Appearance[]
Địa Mẫu appears as a regal woman, with intricate and elegant features. However, parts of her body are disintegrated and rotten ever since she was born, creating a noxious smell that she hid using numerous kinds of perfume oils.
Personality[]
Địa Mẫu is described as a stern mother who sees all the souls within her realm as her children. She's said to be benevolent, kind, and is the only person capable of soothing her husband's wrath.
She values justice above all else and do not tolerate any sign of injustice or mistreatment within her court, and will often go out of her own domains to make sure such injustice would never happen again. Because of this, the heavenly gods seem to favor her more than her husband or any other god in Diyu or Địa Phủ.
Powers and Abilities[]
History[]
Creation of Địa Phủ[]
Địa Mẫu was the daughter of the Jade Emperor with one of his heavenly mistresses. However, despite inheriting her father's power and divinity, she was born with a body that had already been disintegrated and rotten, thus making her an outcast even within the royal household.
The cause behind her deformed appearance was because her soul was born from Pangu's blood and semen, alongside eleven other gods, thus giving her physical body attributes similar to that of the old god's disintegrating body.
Saddened because she was outcast by her own family and fellow gods, she left the Heavenly Palace and the Heavenly Bureaucracy as a whole, and descended down to Earth. Afterward, she created for herself a realm so deep beneath the earth that not even a sliver of light could peak in so that no one would have to see her hideousness anymore.
She then named it Địa Phủ, literally means "Earth Palace", and began to rule over it as its sole divinity.
Creation of Demons[]
After centuries of being alone, boredom and loneliness started to reach her, thus making her wanting companions for herself. She took the earth and pieces of her own shadow to form numerous creatures, before blowing life into them.
However, as they were created by her when she was in her depressed state, their appearances were not only not beautiful, but rather hideous, as well as lacking a shadow for themselves, as they were born from shadow themselves. Because of their ugliness, Vietnamese people have the phrase "Xấu như ma chê quỷ hờn" (So ugly that not even demons would desire).
Ruler of the Dead[]
When she first created the Earth Palace, the underworld realm of Diyu ruled by Yanluo Wang was the only afterlife in the area, and thus, became jam-packed with an amount of souls beyond the maximum amount at the time. Because of these, the souls who were unable to enter Diyu were forced to wander endless in the living world, with many vengeful ghosts coming back to torment the living.
At the scene, the Jade Emperor summoned back his daughter, Địa Mẫu, as he knew she had just created an underworldly that was then only inhabited by her and the demons she created, and gave her the duty of taking these roaming souls into her realm, making it a true realm of the dead.
Địa Mẫu accepted, as she saw how despite these souls had lost their physical bodies, their karma still lingered around so she wanted them to be treated equally. As someone who favors justice above all else, she couldn't accept the fact all souls were treated the same regardless of how different their lives were as humans, therefore, she created a judgement hall for the dead and tasked her demons as her guards.
In Vietnamese folk belief, Địa Mẫu sat on a golden chariot, a noose in her hand with which she used to capture the soul of the deceased. Whoever got captured by her noose would instantly die and have their soul taken back to the Địa Phủ for judgement.
Địa Mẫu became the grand judge to determine the fate of each soul in the afterlife. Criminals and sinners are damned to the 18 levels of hellfire to repent for their past crimes. She herself became the patron of the peaceful death, guarding over those who died of old age and sickness. She takes care of young children and mothers who died in childbirth. She also guides the souls who didn't choose the path of violence and hatred to salvation through Saṃsāra - Cycle of Reincarnation - to be reborn into another life.
Later on, she married Yanluo Wang and partially merged their realms together for better management. She also gave the duty of capturing souls of the deceased to Heibai Wuchang and created demons known as Ox-Headed and Horse-Faced to assist them in their duty.
Nine Infernal Kings[]
As human population grew, so thus the number of human died every year, to the point where Địa Mẫu couldn't deal with it on her own, and the demons she employed weren't smart enough to deal with this. After talking to her husband, she decided to pick out the souls of nine men who had performed enough graces in their lives to become her judges, known in Vietnamese folklore as the "Cửu Điện Diêm Vương" ("Nine Kings of Hell").
Nine halls were also constructed afterward, each dedicated to one of the King, and became where the souls would go to receive their judgement and punishment after they enter Địa Phủ.
Tenth King and Meng Po[]
After the Nine Kings System was established, another problem occured in the form of powerful demons and souls who used their former memory to wreak havoc both in Địa Phủ and in the living world after they had been reborn.
Just when Địa Mẫu was busy trying to find a way to deal with this certain dilemma, two souls, a man and a woman, were taken toward her to be judged together. The man Tiết (薛, "Xuē") told her the lives of all beings - from humans to animals - almost as if like he had lived all of their life, while the woman Mạnh (孟, "Mèng") couldn't remember anything, even who she truly was.
At that moment, Địa Mẫu knew that these two were destined to be sent here by her father and tasked the two with important duties within her court.
She granted Tiết the position "Chuyển Luân Vương" (轉輪王, Zhuanlunwang), guarding over the tenth, newly constructed, hall and oversees those who had finished their sentences and repented so that they can be reborn, thus partially control the cycle of reincarnation, and made him the tenth King of Hell.
She granted Mạnh godhood and made her the Goddess of Forgetfulness, tasking her with the duty of making the Five Flavored Tea of Forgetfulness so that the souls could drink in the ninth hall so that all of their past memories and identities could be erased, allowing them to be reborn as a blank space. She later on became more well-known as Meng Po (孟婆, "Old Lady Meng")
Myths and Legends[]
Quotes[]
Gallery[]
Trivia[]
- Her name, "Địa Mẫu", literally means "Mother Earth" or "Mother of Earth".
- Her festival is held on April 14th every year.
- Despite being a Goddess of the Underworld, she is also associated with life and birth.
- According to Sun Wukong, her allegiance to her husband Yanluo Wang "changes with the friggin' breeze".
- She was the Goddess of the Moon prior to her becoming the Goddess of the Underworld.
- The Moon Palace was originally built to be her personal palace.
- She is the Vietnamese counterpart of the Norse goddess Hel.