Chinese Legends about the Construction Sacrifice in the 8<sup>th</sup> — 9<sup>th</sup> Centuries and Worship of the Smithing Goddesses

Abstract

Legends of women who threw themselves into a smelting furnace and became patron goddesses of blacksmiths and founders (so-called tou lu shen) have existed in China since the 8th century. Cults for such goddesses have been common in many regions for more than a thousand years, but their origins remain unknown. Two Tang stories about the construction of city walls in Balkh and Fenzhou, respectively, must be considered as parallels to the first surviving record of the legend of a goddess of the furnace. Identifying the motifs that make up these stories in turn allows us to establish their affinity with a group of Indian and Eastern European tales of walled-up wives.