ABSTRACT
On the Double Ninth Festival — the ninth day of the ninth month on the lunar calendar, or 17 October 1580 — an extraordinary story unfolds in Zhitang 直塘 village, Taicang 太倉 district, near the prosperous city of Suzhou in the Jiangnan, or Yangzi delta region. Over a hundred thousand people have gathered to witness how a twenty-one-year-old woman from an elite family ascends to heaven, undergoes transformation into a goddess and attains immortality. She is the ‘faithful maiden’ zhen nil 貞女 or virgin widow Wang Daozhen 王燾真 (1558–80) — better known under her religious name Tanyangzi 曇陽子 or Master Tanyang — the daughter of Hanlin 翰林 Academician, President of the Board of Rites, Minister of Personnel and Grand Secretary Wang Xijue 王錫爵 (1534–1611, jin shi 1562), one of the highest ranking officials in the civil service of the Wanli emperor.
