She is! But yes, she is also a guy, too. Once again, it's time for the wonderful world of religious borrowing!
Guanyin, as she appears in Scion and arguably her most famous form, is the Chinese goddess of compassion, harmony and peace; her name literally means "she who hears the weeping of the world", and she usually appears as a serene, beautiful woman, hands open to provide mercy and understanding to her people.
This is probably by far the most famous version of her. But, even within China itself, she also often appears as a dude - in every way the same figure, but a male bodhisattva instead of a female one, still concerned with the wellbeing of the common man and the alleviation of suffering.
Chinese mythology never addresses this bewildering genderbend; there are no stories in which Guanyin flips gender, changes form or does anything to explain why some artwork shows her as a man and some as a woman. The Chinese themselves seem unfazed by the issue, since s/he's a bodhisattva in either case and represents the same concepts of compassion and gentleness, so who cares what body parts s/he might have?
But of course, that leaves us wondering why on earth Guanyin seems to have been male at some point in Chinese mythology and is now inexplicably female. Certainly, the prevailing modern image of her is totally female, so where did the old male image come from? The answer is that it came from Avalokitasvara, the male god from India who was borrowed into Chinese Buddhism and transformed into Guanyin.
Like Guanyin, his name means "he who hears the cries of the world", and he is considered the bodhisattva of mercy, compassion and kindness. The crazy proliferation of arms is due to a myth he shares with Guanyin, in which he is so distressed by all the people in the world who need help that he grows a thousand arms to be able to reach out to them all simultaneously. There's been a lot of scholarly discussion on why the Chinese should have recast Guanyin as female, and honestly the answer is that we really don't know; the best guess we have is that, as a culture, they found the idea of a deity of mercy to make more sense from a nurturing female figure than a male. The general answer for modern Buddhism is that Guanyin, having achieved nirvana, now transcends gender. Which is as good an answer as any, when it comes to deities and their unfathomable ways.
As far as Scion goes, it's an easy thing to switch gender at the drop of a hat; the Undeniable Resemblance knack over in Appearance makes that a cinch. Guanyin could easily appear as whichever sex she wishes depending on what she's doing and who she's helping. She could also appear as any one of her many forms - not just the ones above but also Kannon of Japanese Buddhism (who also appears variously as male or female!), the Korean Gwaneum, the Tibetan Arya Tara or even the Virgin Mary. As one of the most widespread deities across Asia, she's one of the most flexible goddesses when it comes to what she looks like and does.
So, male or female, Guanyin can pretty much look like whatever she needs to in your chronicles. For a deity concerned with alleviating suffering and bringing compassionate love to those who need it, she most likely turns up as whichever sex is most appropriate to the situation. Love crosses all gender lines!
I love Guanyin so much! One day I will play a Scion of her. Maybe in that far off day when the CB are overhauled and Taiyi doesn't suck as much...
ReplyDeleteAs one version of the story goes, when Avalokitesvara first incarnated as Arya Tara, a bunch of other holy muckety-mucks expressed their pity that she would never be able to achieve Nirvana in this lifetime since she had incarnated as a woman (evidently, this was a thing). Arya Tara then vowed that she would ONLY incarnate as a woman until all people achieved enlightenment, just to prove the point that gender is a characteristic of the physical world and that the enlightened spirit is above such concerns.
ReplyDeleteBecause Guanyin is hardcore!
DeleteWhat do you think the God's reactions to a god who had no stable gender? I imagine it would depend on the god in question and their culture.
ReplyDeleteThe Greeks would probably turn their noses up in disgust but the Japanese, Hindu, and Chinese(And many others I do not know of) are probably used to that since it's already in their ranks i guess.
Thoughts?
It really depends on the god in question, you're right. I mean, the African gods randomly genderswap all the time, they won't give a damn; the Yazata are epically rigid and would be like what no deal eww what. And individual gods are probably variable, too - Greeks in general think man is better than woman, but I imagine Hermaphroditus probably doesn't care much one way or the other.
DeleteI thought the hermaphrodites were giants with two bodies and crazy stuff like that, not a single deified figure?
DeleteNope, it was a myth dealing with the son of Hermes and Aphrodite, and a nymph who effectively raped him and never wanted to be separated or something like that. Anne probably has the whole myth of the top of her head to recount
DeleteYeah, Glenn's right - I was referring to the Hermaphroditus who's the son of Hermes and Aphrodite. He was originally male, but when a nymph fell in love with him and refused to be parted from him, the gods permanently combined the two in one body, making him both male and female henceforth.
DeleteThe hermaphrodites from Plato's Symposium are one of those probably-made-up-by-Plato-for-philosophy things (though of course you can use them in Scion if you want to). And yeah, they're definitely more like conjoined twins than true hermaphrodites.
Does Guanyin/Arya Tara have anything to do with the Hindu deity Tara? I know in Bengal at least Tara is often seen as the more 'approachable' aspect of Kali, so I was wondering if this was the Hindu spin on the Guanyin figure.
ReplyDeleteNot directly, I don't think, but there's definitely been some bleedover over the years (just because of the similar names, if nothing else). I'm pretty sure that Arya Tara's wrathful aspects are later imports of Kali/Tara that were attached to the Avalokitesvara figure to form a really odd synthesis. So many religions feeding off one another in that area!
DeleteA better Tibetan analogue for Kali is probably Palden Lhamo, who is not only the consort of Mahakali (i.e., Shiva) but who also sometimes has the title "Kalideva" appended to the end of her name. She's much closer to the classic Kali figure - wrathful, warlike, destroying the pantheon's enemies, dancing in a sea of blood, all that stuff.