Princess Miao Shan was the third daughter of King Miao Chung towards the end of the Chou Dynasty in the Kingdom of Hsing Lin. King Miao Chung had three daughters and they were Miao Ching, Miao Yin and Miao Shan. The Queen, Po Ta, had a strange dream before the birth of Miao Shan. She saw a heavenly pearl transforming into a fiery sun which then tumbled down and settled at her feet. The King in his wisdom considered the vision of such heavenly sign to be a great omen and he looked forward to having a son to his throne. When a girl was born, he was very disappointed and this was on the 19th day of the 2nd moon and she was named Miao Shan.

Miao Shan grew up to be of extreme beauty, very religious and virtuous girl unaffected by the attractions of the worldly matters. She just yearned to have a quiet retreat in the mountains where she could practise the perfections of her virtues. She longed to bring relief to all the miserable beings on earth.

The King started to find suitable husbands for his daughters when they were of marriageable age. Her two sisters accepted their marriages but Miao Shan steadfastly refused to marry and this angered her father. Then she left the palace to retire to a nunnery called The White Sparrow. In there she continued to practise her cultivation of Tao to achieve perfection.

Her father purposely made life difficult and unbearable to his fragile daughter so as to persuade her to return to her palace. However, all his attempts failed and in his deep anger he ordered the nunnery be set on fire for such an unfilial daughter deserved to be put to death. Miraculously the fire was instantly put out by an inundating shower which saved the lives of Miao Shan and the few hundred nuns. The enraged King then decreed that Miao Shan be executed but the executioners sword upon contacting her neck broke into pieces. This made the King even more angry that he next ordered Miao Shan be strangled to death with a silken cord. As she was being strangled, the guardian god appeared in the form of a great tiger, dispersed the crowd, and carried her body into the forest.

Miao Shans spirit descended into hell, but her great compassion and the purity of her prayers soon transported her soul back to her body which was lying under a pine tree. Upon returning to life, Amitabha Buddha appeared and directed the princess to continue her practice of the perfections in a cave called Hsuan Ai, in the island of Po-to.

After nine years of devotion in performing acts of merits and meditation, she attained Buddhahood. In the meantime, King Miao Chung, by his heinous crimes of burning a nunnery which nearly caused the loss of so many lives and the killing of virtuous maiden as Miao Shan, was punished with an incurable disease. The only cure being an ointment made from the two hands and eyes of someone who is never angry. Aware of her fathers plight due to her acquired spiritual powers and out of compassion, Miao Shan sacrificed her both eyes by digging them out with her fingers and chopping her two hands for her father. She had them dispatched to him and effected the recovery immediately. In gratitude the King then sent a delegation with his ministers to thank the kind donor and only to find, to his great shock, those precious gifts came from none other than the daughter that he had killed. He was so overcome with remorse that he renounced his throne and accepted the Taoist faith.

Miao Shan acquired Tao on the 19th day of the 6th Moon and returned to Heaven on the 19th day of the 9th Moon. She was conferred the Heavenly title Goddess of Mercy or Kuan Shih Yin Pusa (Kuan Yin) in Chinese. Her latest Heavenly title conferred by God is Nan Hai Ku Fo, and Fo means Buddha. She very often will descend from Heaven to teach devotees of Tao of Heaven and she said that the Tao that she acquired thousands of years ago is the same Tao that we received today in the temple of Tao of Heaven.

Goddess of Mercy asked us why she was always depicted in the portrait holding a vase and willow leaves and this is what she said, The willow leaves represented our eyebrows and the vase our nose. For the willow leaves to be inserted into the vase, the cover of the vase had to be opened. It was to indicate to human the spot or dot of our divine nature is in that position. When you are initiated with Tao, the divine third eye shall be opened and this is indirectly indicated by a red dot on her forehead.

Author: T.A Chew