The Smallpox Goddess (Doushen)

The Smallpox Goddess (Doushen 痘神) is part of a group of goddesses whose primary role was the protection of children. In the final years of the imperial era, they operated under the authority of Bixia Yuanjun, the daughter of the Emperor of Mount Tai (Taishan). Since Mount Tai was traditionally the place where the souls of the dead were judged and where the infernal registers containing each person’s date of birth and death were kept, it is not surprising that a deity emerged who managed the more benevolent aspects of those records: a divine mother to whom real mothers prayed throughout the year for their children’s health.

The Smallpox Goddess was both feared and revered, as she was believed capable of both inflicting the disease on children and protecting them from it. Prayers were offered to her to prevent children from catching smallpox and, if they had already contracted it, to ensure the illness ran a mild course and that they recovered quickly. “The resulting pockmarks were considered so unsightly that Chinese children would wear ugly paper masks to bed on the last night of the year, hoping to trick the Smallpox Goddess into passing them over. Others hung an empty gourd near their beds, into which the goddess could ‘empty’ the smallpox. Smallpox pustules, and the disease itself, were usually referred to euphemistically as ‘heavenly flowers’ or by other names, to avoid offending the goddess” (Smith 1899).

She was sometimes worshipped at home on small red altars erected in her honor, where mainly cold food offerings were presented. At other times she had her own temples or dedicated chapels within village and town temples. In some regions a strict prayer protocol was followed: offerings were made to the goddess on the 3rd, 5th, 7th, and 9th days after the disease appeared, with a grand tribute on the 14th day, when the child was considered out of danger. The ceremony concluded, in some places one month after the onset of the illness once the patient was cured, by taking the goddess’s image to a paper boat and setting it adrift on a river or canal. A small boat made of paper or straw, called the Smallpox Boat, was built; the used offerings, the red paper from the altar, and sometimes a paper figure representing the goddess were placed inside. The boat was then carried in procession and either burned or launched into a river, symbolizing that the goddess was departing, taking the disease with her.

There were also other goddesses responsible for specific aspects of the illness, such as:

– the Goddess of Spots/Pockmarks (痘疹娘娘, Douzhen Niangniang),

– the “Five Ladies of Smallpox” (五痘娘娘, Wudou Niangniang), who represented the different types or stages of the disease,

– Mashen (麻神), who dealt with the scars left by smallpox,

– and the spirit Banshen (瘢神), regarded as the son of the Smallpox Goddess, who specialized in curing the disease in its most dangerous phases, when the pustules turned gray.

For further reading:

– Doolittle, Justus. Social Life of the Chinese, with some accounts of their religious, governmental, educational and business customs and opinions with special but not exclusive reference to Fuhchau, Volume I. Harper & Brothers, New York, 1865.

– Dore, Henri. Researches into Chinese Superstitions. Vol. X. Shanghai, 1933.

– Smith, Arthur H. Village Life in China: a study in sociology. Fleming H. Revell, New York, 1899.

If you are interested in these topics, you might enjoy the following books by the same author (in Spanish):

Leyendas de la diosa madre: y otros mitos de diosas y mujeres de los pueblos de China

El matriarcado en China. Madres, diosas, reinas y chamanes