Nv Ba 女魃 - The Drought Goddess

author : Christine Welch

Ba 魃，Nv Ba 女魃，Han Ba 旱魃

Blurb on Nv Ba

• Nv Ba is the pinyin pronunciation approximation for the ancient Chinese drought goddess--nv meaning "female" and ba meaning “drought demon."
• Nv Ba wore green clothing and was purportedly bald.
• She made her home on Mt. Xikun, in the Terrace of Gong Gong (共工). 
• She was the daughter of the Yellow Emperor (黃帝). 
• She was sent down to the human realm by her father to combat Chiyou (蚩尤), god of war. 
• Wherever she went, she would bring drought with her. 
• After the Yellow Emperor defeated Chiyou with her aid, she was unable to return to her home in the heavens. 
• She wandered the Earth, casting a blight on many peoples. 
• The god of the fields, Shu Jun (叔均), asked that she be banished to the northern wilderness. 

Sources

Classic of Poetry - 詩經

• The term ba, or "drought demon" was first recorded in the Classic of Poetry, mentioned as a symbol of drought and an oppressive force, and something that could be alleviated through the right conduct of the government officials. But no personification was yet used in this source. 

<雲漢>

旱既大甚、滌滌山川。

旱魃為虐、如惔如焚。

我心憚暑、憂心如熏。

群公先正、則不我聞。

昊天上帝、寧俾我遯。

The drought is great,

parching the mountain streams.

Han Ba is oppressive,

like an inflammation or a bonfire.

My heart dreads the summer heat,

my heart heavy like it's burning.

All those great ministers above me,

they do not hear me.

Emperor of the Heavens,

please allow humble me to flee.

(translated by the blogger, Christine Welch)

＊The Shijing 《詩經》, or the Classic of Poetry, was compiled from various sources between 1000 BC to 700 BC. 

The Classic of the Mountains and Seas －《山海經》

• The later collection of mythology and geography, the Shanhaijing or Classic of the Mountains and Seas, also mentions Nv Ba (女魃), and it is here that her full mythological story can be first seen. Nv Ba could be found on Mt. Xikun (係昆), on the Terrace of Gonggong (共工). She wore green garments and was the daughter of the Yellow Emperor (黃帝), thus she lived in the heavens with him. She was employed as a combatant against the invading Chiyou 蚩尤 (god of war and weapon-making), and dried up the storms created by his fellow rebel gods, Feng Bo 風伯 (god of the wind) and Yu Shi 雨師 (god of the rain). After Chiyou was defeated, Nv Ba could not return to the heavens, so she traveled around, plaguing different lands with the drought that followed her. The field god Shu Jun (叔均) asked that she be banished from the fertile plains, so the Yellow Emperor sent her away to the north. 

《山海經：大荒北經》有係昆之山者，有共工之臺，射者不敢北鄉。有人衣青衣，名曰黄帝女魃。蚩尤作兵伐黄帝，黄帝乃令應龍攻之冀州之野。應龍畜水。蚩尤請風伯雨師，縱大風雨。黄帝乃下天女曰魃，雨止，遂殺蚩尤。魃不得復上，所居不雨。叔均言之帝，後置之赤水之北。叔均乃為田祖。魃時亡之，所欲逐之者，令曰：「神北行！」先除水道，决通溝瀆。

There was Mt. Xikun, and the Terrace of Gonggong, and archers didn't dare to face its direction to the north. There was a person there who wore green clothing, named Nv Ba, the daughter of the Yellow Emperor. Chiyou gathered an army and attacked the Yellow Emperor, so he ordered Yinglong to attack the wilderness of Yi Zhou. Yinglong gathered up all of the water. Chiyou asked Feng Bo and Yu Shi to create a great storm. Thus the Yellow Emperor sent Nv Ba down from the heavens, the rain stopped, and he executed Chiyou. But Nv Ba could not return to the heavens, and wherever she stayed it did not rain. Shu Jun complained to the Emperor, and so he placed her to the north of the Red Waters. Shu Jun then became the god of the fields. Whenever Ba was near, people would die, and those who wished to drive her away would say: Goddess, go north! But first they would clean out the canals of debris.

(translated by the blogger, Christine Welch)

*The Shanhaijing 《山海經》, or Classic of the Mountains and Seas, is a many genred classic which continually changed in form from about 400 BC until about 100 BC, when it reached the form which can be seen today. Its author(s) are unknown. 

Hou Han Shu －《後漢書》

• Yinglong was coupled as a companion to Nv Ba in the myth. They fought simultaneously against Chiyou's forces. This coupling led to the mythological romance of Nv Ba and Yinglong in later centuries.
• Yinglong (應龍) was an early winged dragon and rain god. 

《後漢書·張衡傳》：“夫女魃北而應龍翔，洪鼎聲而軍容息。” 

李賢注：“ 女魃，旱神也。” 

Nv Ba went to the north, and Yinglong flew through the sky, the sound of the flood cauldrons rang out, and the troops were allowed to rest.

Li Xian commented: Nv Ba, drought goddess.

(translated by the blogger, Christine Welch)

*Hou Han Shu 《後漢書》is a text describing Eastern Han history, written by Fan Ye (398-445) of the Southern Dynasty, one of the four early histories, along with the Shiji 《史記》。

The Yilin - 《焦氏易林》

• Since Ba was not allowed or could not to return to her home in the heavens, she continually plagues the earth with heat and drought. 

《焦氏易林: 小畜之》

61 ：魃為燔虐，風吹雲卻；欲上不得，反歸其宅。

Ba was a burning oppression, but the winds still blew and the clouds still gathered overhead. She wanted to go back to the heavens, but she could not return home. 

(translated by the blogger, Christine Welch)

*The Yilin, or 《焦氏易林》, was written by Jiao Yanshou during the Western Han Dynasty, or around 100 AD. 

Wenzi Zhigui - 《文字指歸》

• Later accounts also described Nv Ba as being bald and having no hair. 
• However, the basic archetypal drought goddess who stops the rain wherever she goes remained the same. 

郝懿行箋疏：“《玉篇》引《文字指歸》曰：女妭，禿無髮，所居之處天不雨也，同魃。” 

Nv Ba, bald with no hair, where she lives rain does not fall, same as Ba.

(translated by the blogger, Christine Welch)

*The Wenzi Zhigui or 《文字指歸》was written by Sui Dynasty Cao Xian, around 600 AD. 

Rong Tu Long Wen - 《禜土龍文》

• Even in the Tang Dynasty, Ba was still used as a simple symbol for drought in poetic writing and historical prose.  
• However, one can see a shift in the ideological paradigm used to explain the cause for the coming of Ba. While 2000 years before, the bad conduct of ministers was used to explain the presence of the goddess, during the Tang Dynasty, Du Guji uses the metaphysical Confucian theory of yinyang and their imbalance as an explanation. 

唐 獨孤及《禜土龍文》：“陽驕陰伏，女魃作孽，孟夏不雨，至於是月，后土將乾，百穀恐竭。”

Yang was prominent and Yin declined, Nv Ba has worked her evil, it didn't rain during the monsoon season, and as for this month, the fields are dry, and it is feared that the grain supply will soon run out.

(translated by the blogger, Christine Welch)

*《禜土龍文》, or the Rongtu Longwen is a historical poem written during the Tang Dynasty by Du Guji (726-777). 

Conclusion

While I personally feel sorry for Nv Ba (why couldn't she return home? how could her father just abandon her after she helped him win his battle against Chiyou?), she was still a strong female figure from early China who was imbued with much power. Unfortunately, like many other strong female figures, she was also demonized from the beginning. The character for her name ba meant "drought demon", which carried an obvious negative connotation from its very inception, as the meaning component to the character is gui, or ghost or demon. She was always a symbol of a hated phenomenon, drought, and thus seemed to garner very little pity from any authors who commented on her myth. Today, she is a little known female deity, and her usage is confined mostly to study of Chinese mythology in classical literature, especially before the Tang Dynasty, although her name might still occasionally be invoked by modern poets. Unlike many other Chinese myths, her archetype has not changed much for the past three thousand years, and her myth remains much as it was told during the Han Dynasty.