Sanshengmu
Chinese goddess of Mount Hua; mother of Chen Xiang by the mortal scholar Liu Yanchang. Registry treats her as deity (consistent with the older Bao Lian Deng stratum where she is the established Mount Hua goddess descending to a mortal — the same descent-to-mortal pattern Yáojī enacts in the Erlang cycle). The later Erlang's-sister identification (which would make her a ½ demigod with same parentage as Erlang Shen) is recorded in variants as secondary — adopting it as primary would privilege late conflation over earlier independent-goddess attestation. Imprisoned beneath Mount Hua by her brother Erlang (in the conflated tradition) or by celestial decree (in the older tradition); freed when Chen Xiang cleaves the mountain with the Heaven-Splitting Axe — the narrative template inherited from the Erlang precedent within Chinese popular religion.
Children
Domains
- mount hua patronage
- mortal love protection
Powers
- Wield the magic lotus lantern
Epithets
- 三聖母
- 華岳三娘
Relations
- lover: Liu Yanchang
- sibling: Erlang Shen
Sources
- Bao Lian Deng (Magic Lotus Lantern) — Tang folk-cycle, Yuan and Ming dramatic literature; modern adaptations including the 1959 film Bao Lian Deng and 1999 Shanghai Animation Film Studio adaptation; Erlang Baojuan (Ming precious-scroll)
- Bao Lian Deng older stratum (independent Mount Hua goddess descending to mortal)
- Bao Lian Deng later stratum / Erlang Baojuan