Any person who approaches the literatures of the minorities of the south of China, will discover numerous works where the role protagonist redeems it a goddess or feminine deity. It is already dedicated to the creation of the world (alone or in company of a masculine deity), to that of the human race, or to the instruction of a humanity or his ancestors in the basic notions of the neolithic culture (fighter, agriculture, cattle), the feminine deities play a central role in the origin and development of the humanity.

In the last times there have been published numerous works that defend the matriarchal character of the majority of the societies established formerly in the territory of Europe and the Near East, characterized by the cult to the goddess in his diverse declarations: as creator of the cosmos and of the humanity, like initiator in the secrets of the existence and like renovator of the world in an alternation of the life and the death that allows the continuity of everything all that exists. This is a topic in which of no form it has gone over to the unanimity between the academic community, but it remains in the center of a sour debate with clear political connotations.

Precisely for being a matter in permanent debate, and for the consequences that it can have for the present life, I have thought necessary to contribute some facts related to the peoples of China.
My interest in the cultures of the minorities of China, it led me to knowing the societies existence, that of the Moso, where the heredity is transmitted by feminine line and the social life is organized concerning families matrilineales; that of the Jino, which had chiefs even does few generations; that of the Yi, the same way with numerous feminine authorities; or that of the Lahu with his clear genre equality. This series of facts led me to wondering if it might establish a cultural, at least hypothetical relation, between the matriarchal societies of the ancient Occident, and those of the present, or of the nearby past documented in historical sources, of the Far East, in which the women were redeeming the predominant role.

Studying in depth a little more the culture of these peoples indigenous of China I found numerous myths, legends, historical, ritual news and customs that they suggest that in a more or less distant past, the women were occupying an outstanding social position. Between his myths they paid particularly the attention to me the numerous histories that emphasize the creative or civilizing role of the woman, as well as those that describe of detailed form how the woman lost this domineering role in his societies.
As it was discovering new myths that were reinforcing the role of the woman in the societies indigenous to China, there was increasing my desire to find other fellow men in different peoples. The result of this somewhat obsessive investigation was that I finished with assembling an interesting stories treasure that, including peoples who inhabit different regions of China, they turn the woman into protagonist of the history. Thus what in the beginning was only a part of an effort to document the feminine presence in the life of the minorities, which had to include also rituals, customs and historical descriptions, was taking such volume that seemed opportune to me to translate and to present these myths, with an enormous interest in himself, while I keep on investigating the lines of these matriarchal societies of the ancient China in the culture of the minorities of the modern China.

On having left of temporary form the investigative work and her having substituted for that of translation, I understood that the interest of these stories is polyvalent: first because they present to the reader a series of myths, the majority never translated for no western language; second because they allow to know some of the most common motives in the mythologies of the peoples of China (creation of the world, deluge, marriage of the brothers, appearance of the numerous suns, etc); third because they include geographical regions so distant that they allow to suggest a validity at least regional, for the East of Asia, of his subject-matter; quarter, for his homogeneity in the positive treatment of the feminine deities that contrasts with other mythical stories where they play a role permanently negatively, and fifthly because in a society who still raises on a tremendously hostile framework towards the women, with tragic results in numerous occasions, any work directed to claim his importance, it is possible to turn into a water drop of the big tide destined to revertir the current situation.

This work is not extensive, the stories here presented scarcely can be considered to be a small sample of the vast feminine mythology of the peoples of China. There are many myths that have been left out: well be for being too long, or for being excessively similar to some of the included myths, for his complex symbolic language difficult to understand for the average reader, or for not being translated into the Chinese, or without having found any version in spite of having seen them said or read in summaries, or because the intervention of the feminine personages, still excellent, occupies a relatively scarce section of the work, and we did not want to abuse the inclusion of fragments and incomplete stories.
We hope nevertheless that this work should help to cover a lagoon in our knowledge of China, of his indigenous peoples, and of the existence of matriarchal societies in the past.