The first time, he takes shelter in a temple while evading soldiers trying to arrest him, and encounters the deity, who presents him a set of three divine books to aid him in his quest to "deliver justice on Heaven's behalf".

One day, overcome by curiosity, he opens a secret box and brings Heaven's Teachings to earth, leading to a series of disasters that culminate in Wang Ze's rebellion in the 1040s.

Heaven dispatched the Mysterious Woman down to earth to deliver military messages and sacred talismans to the Yellow Emperor, enabling him to subjugate Chiyou.

[10] A set of Daoist texts, produced after the Tang dynasty, associates the goddess with magical capabilities, such as the skill of invisibility (隱身) and the method of mobilizing the stars of the Northern Dipper to protect the state.

[10] Achieving invisibility is seen as a military strategy to defeat enemies and protect the state, as the text claims that practitioners must first learn to conceal their bodies if they hope to expel evil and return to righteousness.

[10] The Micang Tongxuan Bianhua Liuyin Dongwei Dunjia Zhenjing (秘藏通玄變化六陰洞微遁甲真經[g]), written in the early Northern Song period, gives an incantation associated with Jiutian Xuannü.

283), the paces of Yu are described as elements of the divinatory system of dunjia (遁甲, translated "Hidden Stem") from which the immediate position in the space-time structure of the six ding could be calculated.

[10] The irregular gate must be approached by performing the paces of Yu and serves as the entrance to the emptiness of the otherworld in which invisibility to evil influences is achieved.

[10] The Beidou Zhifa Wuwei Jing (北斗治法武威經[i]) states that Jiutian Xuannü taught the method to mobilize the stars of the Northern Dipper to Yuan Qing (遠清), an official during the transition from the Sui to the Tang dynasty.

[14] These texts locate Jiutian Xuannü along the central median of the body and associate her with the circulation of breath, which nourishes the vital spirit and provides longevity.

[15] Jiutian Xuannü appears at least three times in the Huangting Jing (黃庭經[l]), where the adept is instructed to send down his breath to enter the goddess' mouth.

[15] The Taishang Laojun Zhongjing (太上老君中經[m]), probably dating to the 5th century, mentions that she is "located between the kidneys, dressed only in the white of Venus and the brilliant stars.

[17] On the other side, during the Han dynasty, Wang Chong had criticized the sexual arts as "not only harming the body but infringing upon the nature of man and woman.

[17] The Dongxuanzi Fangzhong Shu (洞玄子房中術[q]), which was likely written by the 7th-century poet Liu Zongyuan, contains explicit descriptions of the sexual arts that was supposedly transmitted from Jiutian Xuannü.

[17] In Ge Hong's Baopuzi, there's a passage in which Jiutian Xuannü tells Huangdi that sexual techniques are "like the intermingling of water and fire—it can kill or bring new life depending upon whether or not one uses the correct methods.

[17] In this period, the rise of Daoism gave way to a new imagery of a high goddess of war who won by magical and intellectual means, and who transmitted the arts of immortality.

[13] Furthermore, it granted her the expanded official title Jiutian Zhanxie Huzheng Xuannü (九天斬邪護正玄女, translated "Dark Lady of the Nine Heavens who Slays Evil and Protects Righteousness").

[13] In contemporary times, she has also been considered a patron of marriage and fertility, and is regarded by believers to have been responsible for the customs in Chinese culture by which people with the same surnames have been forbidden to marry.

[18] In the Taishang Laojun Zhongjing, Jiutian Xuannü is described as being dressed only in the white of Venus and the brilliant stars, with her pearl of Great Brilliance shining in illumination.

[15] When Jiutian Xuannü appeared before Huangdi as narrated in the Yongcheng Jixian Lu, she wore variegated kingfisher-feather garments of nine colors and rode a cinnabar phoenix with phosphors and clouds as reins.

The physical appearance of Jiutian Xuannü has been described in a poem that appears in the Rongyu Tang (容與堂) edition of the novel Water Margin (published in the Ming dynasty): "On her head, she has a nine-dragon and flying phoenix topknot, and on her body she wears a red silken gown decorated with golden thread; blue jade-like strips run down the long gown and a white jade ritual object rises above her colored sleeves.