Tzu-gu - ("purple maiden"), Ken-sangu ("third maiden of the pit"), Sangu ("third maiden"), Qi-ge ("seventh maiden" or "maiden surnamed Qi"), in late Chinese folk mythology the goddess of latrines.
Apparently, as a result of the erroneous interpretation of one of the names of Tzu-kung - Ken-sangu (not as the “third maiden of the pit”, but as the “three maidens of the pit”) in the late Middle Ages, the idea of three maids of the latrine was born: Yun-xiao, Qiong-xiao and Bi-xiao, who, using Taoist magical techniques, did evil; for this they were sentenced to death by the Supreme Lord Taishan Lao-jun and appointed after death as spirits of latrines.
One day, the wife of an important official became jealous of her servant husband, killed her in a fit of hatred, and threw her corpse into a latrine. She didn’t even think that she committed the crime on a big holiday - Lantern Day. But poor Tzu-gu - that was the name of the maid - did not go to the west, to the kingdom of the dead. The Supreme Lord felt very sorry for the girl who died on the holiday, and he decided to take Tzu-gu into the host of goddesses and spirits. He began to think about what to transfer to her jurisdiction? Everything on earth, from the great mountains to chicken coops, had its own gods or goddesses. Everything, except... that terrible and dirty place into which the official’s evil wife threw the girl.
“Everything must have its own god!” - the Supreme Lord decided and made Tzu-gu the goddess of latrines.
Translated from Russian · original on wisdomlib.ru