About this episode
This episode explores the story and significance of Zigu, a Chinese toilet goddess, and her paradoxical association with both humility and royal integrity.
In this final episode of Chthonia, we look at a Chinese toilet goddess called Zigu. Her backstory makes her an abused concubine murdered in the toilet, though toilet gods and goddesses exist throughout China and Japan. She is consulted in divination for the silk harvest, and in later dynasties she was connected to creating works of literature through automatic writing. We look at the attributes of Zigu, including her epithet of "Purple Maiden", and what these might tell us about the paradox of an exalted goddess of royal integrity being associated with the most humble of places, the latrine.
Topics covered
- Chinese mythology
- goddesses
- divination
- literature
- cultural symbolism
Keywords
- Zigu
- Purple Maiden
- toilet goddess
- China
- Japan
- automatic writing
Mentioned in this episode
Books & works: Chthonia
Places: China, Japan
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