Mazu, a belief in Poseidon centered on the southeast coast of China; Guanyin comes from the Normative Classic translated by Zhu Fahu and his disciples in Dunhuang Temple in Chang 'an.
Scholars at home and abroad generally believe that Mazu is not a fictional idol, but a historical figure who came out of the folk and was sanctified. Lin Mo Niang's witch status in the middle of the room is the primitive form of Mazu belief.
Mazu belief was born in a special ecological environment and is closely related to marine fishery production and its activities at sea. Fishermen hope to have a patron saint of the sea to protect their safety, because there are countless shipwrecks. Mazu's witch identity just adapted to people's wishes.
Extended data:
First, the spread of Mazu.
The scale of Mazu belief is very huge. From the Song Dynasty to the Qing Dynasty, Mazu became the national deity (Huangdi, Confucius and Mazu), with 15 Mazu palaces in China as the core and more than 100 million Mazu believers all over the world. Among the 23 million people in Taiwan Province Province, there are170,000 Mazu believers, accounting for more than 70% of the Taiwanese population.
Mazu believers in Singapore account for 70% of the total population, Chinese population in Malaysia accounts for an important proportion of the national population, and Mazu believers account for more than 80% of the overseas Chinese population. In addition, there are also a large number of Chinese in Thailand, Indonesia and the Philippines.
Mazu belief is also the main belief, and overseas Chinese in Japan also mainly believe in Mazu.
Second, the spread of Guanyin
According to Buddhist scriptures, avalokitesvara is the embodiment of Buddha in previous lives. In the boundless land, he looked for voices everywhere as a bodhisattva to save his suffering. Guanyin and Amitabha have a special relationship. He is one of the Three Sages in the West, a monk who fills his life, and a bodhisattva who inherits the status of Amitabha. It is also said that Guanyin is the incarnation of Amitabha.
Among many Buddhists, Guanyin Bodhisattva is also the most widely known and most believed by the people. In China, among overseas Chinese in Jiangsu, Zhejiang, Fujian, Guangzhou, Taiwan Province and Nanyang, the belief in Guanyin is extremely popular. As the saying goes, "Every family has Amitabha and every household has Guanyin". Zhoushan Islands in Zhejiang Province has been the Dojo of Guanyin Bodhisattva since ancient times.
Baidu encyclopedia-Guanyin
Baidu Encyclopedia-Mazu