Thunder and Lightning

(Leigong yu Dianmu)

Once upon the time. There was a widow named “Wu Niang”.Young Wu Niang, lost her husband and lived only with her mother-in-law.Many people persuaded her to remarry, but Wu Niang refused.

She said “If I remarry, who will take care of mother-in-law?” Wu Niang worked in the field everyday. When she returned home, she had to do the laundry and take care of her mother-in-law. Life was very difficult.

One year, because of drought. There was no food, everyone was very hungry.

Wu Niang saw that there was not much rice left and it was getting lesser and lesser everyday.

If they ate all the rice they had, her mother-in-law would have nothing to eat. Therefore Wu Niang only cooked rice for her mother-in-law and made some vegetable soup for herself.

Her mother-in-law was very old and blind, she had never gone outside her house. Therefore she didn’t know about the drought in the country.

One day her mother-in-law was hungry but Wu Niang had not returned from the field. So her mother-in-law went into the kitchen and looked for some food. She only found a bowl of rice and a bowl of soup.

In shock, she exclaimed ”Why is there only a bowl of rice? What about Wu Niang? This means she only drinks soup everyday!”

The mother-in-law purposely drank the bowl of soup and left the rice for Wu Niang.

When Wu Niang came home to prepare lunch for her mother-in-law, she only found a bowl of rice.

“I have eaten, I drank the soup.” said her mother-in-law.“But that was my soup!” said Wu Niang.“Are we out of food, Wu Niang?” asked her mother-in-law.

Wu Niang hugged her mother-in-law and cried “Because of drought, therefore we have little to eat, but when rain comes, everythingwill be better.”“If that is the case, then I shall drink only the soup with you.”mother-in-law replied.“No, you are old and soup cannot let you stay healthy.” continued Wu Niang. “And you need lots of energy to work in the field. So you need the rice!” Mother-in-law and Wu Niang started their argument.

Finally, Wu Naing promised her mother-in-law that she will be sharing the rice with her. But there was not enough rice for two people.

Therefore, Wu Niang continued to drink only the soup and leave all the rice for her mother-in-law.

One afternoon, while Wu Niang was drinking her soup, her mother-in-law came into the kitchen. Wu Niang was afraid that her mother-in-law would know about her drinking only soup, so in a hurry, she poured the soup out of the window.

Thunder God was passing by, “What an evil woman, with this drought she still waste the food!” Thunder God had not checked the actual reason, he raised his powerful axe and killed Wu Niang.

Wu Naing was such a good woman but killed by the unreasonable Thunder God. Jade Emperor knew about the incident so he punished the Thunder God. Then he decided to honour Wu Niang as the Lightning Goddess and made her the wife of the Thunder God.

Her job was to carry a mirror and shine the light onto the earth, so Thunder God could see more clearly and not to kill innocent people again. From then on, whenever the Thunder God leaves his house, he always needs to bring along the Lightning Goddess.