In Chinese mythology, Long Mu, or Dragon's Mother (龍母; modified Wade-Giles: Lung Mo) is a Chinese woman deified after raising dragons which had strong bond with her, a strong filial piety and parental love commanded by many.

The legend

She was born Wen-shi (溫氏) in 290 BC (during the Qin Dynasty) by the Xi River in the Guangdong province of southern China, with an ancestry in Teng District (藤縣), Guangxi. She was born as the middle of three daughters of Wen Tianrui (溫天瑞) and Liang-shi (梁氏).

Her family became quite poor by the time Wen-shi grew up. She often went to fish and wash clothes by the Xi River. One day, she found a big slippery beautiful stone beside the river. She took it home and found that it was actually an egg, which hatched 5 small animals. (Another version says one.) Wen-shi saved the best food for these critters and fed them by hand. They became dexterous snakes very adept at helping Wen-shi catching fish. Quickly these animals grew up to be five impressive and powerful dragons. Wen-shi asked her dragon children to summon rain for her village when there was drought, and the villagers thanked her for it and called her Dragon's Mother or Divine Human (神人).

The First Qin Emperor heard about Wen-shi and her dragons, so he gave her gold and jade to ask her to meet him in the capital. As an old woman who never travelled away from her village, she was very afraid to go so far. Realizing this, the dragons hid under the boat that was carrying Wen-shi to the capital and dragged the boat backward so it never sailed beyond Guilin. Frustrated, the officials eventually gave up and allowed Long Mu to stay home.

After Dragon's Mother died, the dragons were overwhelmed with sadness and took the forms of five scholars (五秀才) and buried her in the northern side of Zhu Mountain (珠山).

Memory

People were touched by the filial piety of the dragons, and in the early Han Dynasty, established a temple there named Xiaotong Temple (孝通廟), later Longmu Ancestral Temple (龍母祖廟) in Yuecheng Town , Deqing County (德慶縣悅城鎮), Guangdong. The temple contains a calligraphy written by Hongwu Emperor of the Ming Dynasty dedicated to the goddess. It was renovated 13 times. The last ones were in 1905-1912 and 1985.

Its festival (birthday of the goddess) is between May 1 to 8 of the Chinese calendar and the temple is still filled with worshippers after a thousand years.

There is another temple dedicated to Long Mu: the 28-m² Baisha Longmu Temple in Ruizhou District , Zhaoqing, south of the Xi River, established in 1587. It is not well-preserved, however. It was protected as a cultural site in 1982 by the city.