Jiutian Xuannu (the Ninth Maiden of the Dark Heavens) is a famous goddess that is embraced by Taoists and she has great influence among people.

The Ninth Maiden of the Dark Heavens is also called Jiutian Fairy. She is the goddess in Chinese ancient mythology. In the mythology of the remote ancient time, this goddess is not a beautiful lady we describe now, but a bird with a human head.

It says that she was the primogenitor of the Shang Dynasty (17th century BC to 11th century AD). She was good at war strategies, so she was regarded as the god governing all kinds of sealed books and teaching war strategies. Later, Wangmu Niangniang (the Queen Mother of the West) became the head of the goddess and Jiutian therefore was under the leadership of the Queen Mother of the West and was completely anthropomorphized. Being altered by Taoism, this goddess was usually written into ancient novels, and there are plenty of these kinds of works.

Ordinary people built many fanes for Jiutian, which are usually called the Fanes of the Ninth Maiden of the Dark Heavens. These fanes spread all over China.