page_title: Longnü
section_title: The Precious Scrolls
hierarchical_section_title: Longnü / In folk tales / The Precious Scrolls
caption_attribution_description: English: Naga maiden from the Lotus Sutra, called "Long Nu" in Chinese.
context_page_description: Longnü, translated as Dragon Girl, along with Sudhana are considered acolytes of the bodhisattva Avalokiteśvara in Chinese Buddhism. However, there are no scriptural sources connecting both Sudhana and Longnü to Avalokiteśvara at the same time. It is suggested that the acolytes are representations of the two major Mahāyāna texts, the Lotus Sūtra and the Avataṃsaka Sūtra, in which Longnü and Sudhana appear, respectively.
  The depiction of Longnü and Sudhana with Avalokiteśvara may have been influenced by the Jade Maiden and Golden Youth who both appear in the iconography of the Jade Emperor. She is described as being the eight-year-old daughter of the Dragon King of the East Sea.
context_section_description: Unlike the Complete Tale of Avalokiteśvara and the Southern Seas which only briefly mentions Longnü, the Precious Scroll of Sudhana and Longnü (Chinese: 善財龍女寶撰; pinyin: Shàncái Lóngnǚ Bǎozhuàn), an eighteenth-nineteenth century scroll consisting of 29 folios, is completely devoted to the legend of Longnü and Sudhana and seems to have a Taoist origin. The text is set during the Qianfu period of the Tang Dynasty. One day when Sudhana is walking down a mountain path to visit his father he hears a voice crying out for help. Upon investigation, it turns out to be the voice of a snake trapped in a bottle for the last eighteen years. The snake begs Sudhana to release her, upon which she turn into her true form, that of a monster, and threatens to eat him. When Sudhana protests at the snake's behavior, she makes the argument that than ēn (恩, a kind act) is repaid by a feud, and that is the way of the world. However, the snake agrees to submit the argument to three judges.
  The first judge the argument is presented to is the human incarnation of the Golden Water Buffalo Star, who agrees with the snake, given its past experience with humans. The Buffalo Star relates how it never wanted to descend to earth but was pushed out of the gates of heaven by Kṣitigarbha who took pity on the toiling masses. Kṣitigarbha vowed that if the humans did not repay a favor with a favor, his eyes would fall out and drop to the ground. Because of the Buffalo Star's fall to earth, which was face first, it lost all of its upper front teeth. It suffered greatly at the hands of humans; after years of toiling for its master, it was butchered and eaten. Because of this, Kṣitigarbha's eyes did indeed fall out, and transformed into the snails that the buffaloes now trample on when it plows the fields.
  The second judge they encounter is the Taoist priest Zhuangzi, who also agrees with the snake, citing an experience he had when he resurrected a skeleton who then immediately took Zhuangzi to court and accused him of stealing his money.
  The last judge they meet is a young girl. The girl tells the snake that it can eat her as well, if the snake could show her how it was able to fit into the bottle which Sudhana had released it from. As soon as the snake worms itself back into the bottle, it is trapped. The girl then reveals herself to be Avalokiteśvara. When the snake begs for mercy, Avalokiteśvara tells it that in order to be saved, it must engage itself in religious exercises in the Grotto of the Sounds of the Flood (present day Fayu Temple) on Mount Putuo.
  Three years later, Sudhana formally becomes an acolyte of Avalokiteśvara along with the Filial Parrot. After the snake has submitted itself to seven years of austerity, it cleanses itself of its poison and produces a pearl. It then transforms into Longnü and becomes an acolyte of Avalokiteśvara.
caption: Longnü depicted as a female bodhisattva in China.
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