Lady Linshui Chen Jinggu

Chen Jinggu was a native of Fuzhou during the Tang dynasty. Legend holds that she married Liu Qi of Gutian and studied esoteric Daoist rites on Lüshan Mountain, vowing to rescue women from life-threatening childbirth. When a severe drought struck Fuzhou, she performed a perilous ritual—temporarily removing her own fetus—to pray for rain and save the people; she died at the age of twenty-four. With her last breath, she vowed to devote herself eternally to relieving obstetric suffering. Locals erected a temple in her honour—the Linshui Palace in Gutian—and successive imperial courts conferred upon her ever-higher titles, culminating in 'Shuntian Shengmu' and 'Linshui Furen'. In Fujian and Taiwan, women routinely pray to her during pregnancy and labour, and children remain under her protection until age sixteen; the 'Sixteen-Year-Old Rite' held on the Qixi Festival expresses gratitude both to her and to the attendant 'Pojie' (midwife goddesses). Temples dedicated to Linshui Furen are widespread across Taiwan, maintaining spiritual ties and shared incense offerings with the ancestral Linshui Palace in Gutian—making her the most trusted goddess among women and children in both regions.