S/HE: An International Journal of Goddess Studies V5 N2, 2026

Is Magu a Chinese Female Immortal? Exploring the Magoist Root in Early Daoist Records

Helen Hye-Sook Hwang

Abstract This paper showcases the trajectory of how the pre-patriarchally originated consciousness of Mago, the Cosmic Mother, has been suppressed and appropriated simultaneously under patriarchal history and patriarchal religion. I introduce and investigate a major portion of the Magu Text, Chinese primary sources concerning Magu, as an extension of the plethora of primary sources on Mago primarily from Korea. Magu 麻姑 is a variant epithet of Mago, the Cosmic Mother and the Creatrix. In the Magu Text, Magu manifests as a subsidiary deity, divest of the cosmological attire. The Magu text under scrutiny in this paper includes the Shan Hai Ching, the Chuang Tzu, the Lieh Tzu, Ge Hong’s Magu account, and various Daoist records. Magu is shadowed but indisposable. Like a nanny of a household, she is visible but not spoken of. Magu is left obscure and vacuous in identity. On the one hand, she is at best negotiated as a female immortal on a par with her male counterpart, Wang Fangping, as highlighted in the early Daoist text, Ge Hong’s hagiography of Magu. Ironically, her identity as a female immortal is a necessary Daoist stopgap to gratify the collective patriarchal mind that was in need of admitting the maternal origin of China. Her image of a young and beautiful girl is put on a pedestal for male sexuality under the guise of Daoist piety. English translations and secondary sources seal the patriarchal and sexualized image of Magu. On the other hand, the name “Magu” itself is an embodiment of the supreme female divine, the Cosmic Mother, and the history of pre-Chinese Magoism, which manifests throughout East Asian territories and beyond. “Magu” is a collective reference to the pre-Chinese Magoists of Old Korea/East Asia (the One People of the Planet). She awakens the memory of the paradisiacal history ruled by female shaman sovereigns, having been forbidden to know. Legends and folktales remember her. Women who were called Magu in pre-Daoist times are not forgotten. Such placenames as Mt. Guye (Mt. Goya in Korean, Magoist Sovereign), Magu Cave, Magu Lake, Magu Grave, Magu Bridge, and Magu Rock testify to the indelible legacy bequeathed by the pre-Chinese Magoist ancestors of Old Korea/East Asia. In brief, the Magu text shows the process of Sinicization (imperialist and patriarchal enforcement) in the name of Daoism, which appropriates the pre-Chinese matristic legacies of Old Koreans/East Asians.

Keywords Magu, Mago, Magoism, Ceto-Magoism, Sinicization, Daoism, China, Old Korea, East Asia, Budoji, Mt. Guye, Mt. Goya, Immortal, pre-patriarchy, Chuang Tzu (Zhuangzi), Ge Hong (Ko Hung)

Read the whole article below: