The goddess Magu offering wine

清朝緙絲慅姑獻壽

Magu, Goddess of Longevity
Magu ("Hemp Lady") is celebrated as the Goddess of Longevity. She is often portrayed as a young woman with claw-like fingernails, wearing an apron or shawl of leaves, and carrying either a basket of fungus or peaches, or a container of fungus wine, all foods believed to promote long life. In addition, her association with the hemp plant ma (Cannabis sativa) further enhances her ties to immortality: every part of the hemp plant has been used in medicine since ancient times, especially its seeds which were believed to firm the flesh and prevent old age.

According to her biography in an early text, Magu lived during the reign of Emperor Huan (reign 147–167) of the Han dynasty, and she was the younger sister of a Taoist adept named Wang Fangping. She appeared as a young girl of eighteen years. Her hair was tied into a topknot, and she had hands that looked like the claws of a bird. Magu herself had already become an immortal, having thrice seen the Eastern Ocean change into mulberry fields, an indication of her transcendence of time.

While Shoulao is commonly worshipped as the God of Longevity, Chinese women are more attached to Magu. Therefore, these paintings are often hung in banquet halls during celebrations of women's birthdays. Magu brewed wine from the lingzhi fungus of immortality. She is depicted here with a container of the wine, a birthday gift for the Queen Mother of the West. This motif of "Magu offering longevity" (Magu xianshou) is a popular theme for depictions of the goddess. Accompanying Magu is a phoenix and young child holding a ruyi wish-granting wand.