Tianfei Niangniang, also known as “Tianhou Niangniang”, abbreviated as “Tianfei”, commonly known as “Mazu”. Regarding the origin and background of Tianfei, according to historical records, there are six different versions of her birth and death years, with only slight differences. The more consistent version is that from the first year of Jianlong (960-963) of Song Taizu (960) to Song Taizong Yongxi (984-988) four years (987), that is, the Yuan Dynasty Wang Zhigong “Si Ming Xu Zhi” volume nine, which says “she died before the age of 30” and reigned for only 27 years.
Tianfei's given name was Lin Mo, and her family name was Tianfei. She was born in Meizhou Island, Putian, Fujian, and lived there all her life. She was named Mo because she did not cry for more than a month after birth. Her father, Lin Yuan, was a former Song dynasty official. Lin Mo was the youngest in the family, with clear eyebrows and eyes, and was smart and loved by everyone. According to the Putian County Gazetteer in Volume 28 of the Collection of Books Ancient and Modern: The Divine and the Strange, 
was born, “the ground turned purple, and there was auspicious light and a strange fragrance.” Volume 4 of “San Cai Sou Shen Daquan” says: Lin Mo's mother, Chen, once dreamed of a Cihang in the South China Sea, with which she exchanged flowers, swallowed it, and became pregnant. She gave birth to a daughter 14 months later. On the day of the birth, a strange fragrance could be smelled for miles, and it did not dissipate for a week. When Lin Mo was one year old, he saw the statues of the gods in his swaddling clothes and crossed his hands as if he wanted to bow. At the age of five, he could recite the “Sihang Sutra”. At the age of eleven, he could dance to the music of the gods. One day when he was a teenager, he was quietly reading poetry at home when he suddenly had a revelation when he saw a strange Taoist priest pass by the door. He worshipped him as his master and obtained the “mysterious true method”. Therefore, when he grew up, he could understand secret methods and predict good and bad fortunes. If the villagers told him about a disease, he would know immediately. Lin Mo was also a witch doctor-type character, and her greatest skill was often manifested at sea.
One day, Lin Mo's four older brothers set sail for business, and Lin Mo stayed at home with her parents. During the night, Lin Mo suddenly felt as if she had lost her limbs. Her parents mistook it for dysentery and hurriedly woke her up, asking anxiously what was wrong. Lin Mo opened her eyes and said, “Why didn't you let me keep my brothers safe and well?” The parents did not understand the meaning and did not pursue the matter.
Three days later, the brothers returned and bitterly complained that a severe storm at sea had swallowed up their eldest brother's ship. They said that when the hurricane started, the waves reached up to the sky, the brothers were on different boats, and they saw a woman leading five masts and walking through the waves as if they were flat land. It was only then that his parents realized that Lin Mo had closed his eyes in death, having used his spirit to save his brothers. The eldest son's ship sank to the bottom of the sea because he had pushed his daughter awake, preventing her spirit from protecting her son. As the story spread, Lin Mo's reputation grew.
After Lin Mo grew up, she vowed never to marry and often travelled around the island in red clothes, crossing the sea by boat. With a compassionate heart and excellent swimming skills, she rescued fishermen and merchants in distress at sea, and was called the Goddess or Dragon Girl by the locals. The people of Fujian called her Mazu in her mother's family, so some people affectionately called her “Mazu”. Her deeds of saving people at sea and doing good deeds were widely spread in the Putian area of Fujian.
Lin Mo thus lived a simple life in the countryside for 27 years. One day, she sadly told her family, “I'm going on a long journey, but unfortunately I can't go with you!” After saying this, she sailed away on a small boat, never to be heard from again. Because she had done so many good deeds for the villagers during her lifetime, everyone missed her very much and couldn't bear to hear the news of her death. It was rumoured that she had ascended to the heavens on Meizhou Island. The “Yangzhou Tianfei Temple Inscription” says that when she ascended to heaven, she “heard music in the air, and a cloud of auspicious mist came riding down from the sky, on which the god (Lin Mo) rode and ascended”. So in the fourth year of the Yongxi reign (987), a temple was built on the island, and it was worshipped year after year, and it was called the Mazu Temple.
Since the Song Dynasty, Mazu has been worshipped as the goddess of maritime salvation. Over the centuries, many legends have been passed down about her miraculous deeds to help people.
According to the “Comprehensive Mirror to the Past”, during the Northern Song Dynasty's Xuanhe period (1119-1126), Lu Yundi was sent on a diplomatic mission to Goryeo (present-day North Korea). During the journey, a severe storm broke out, and all the ships were capsized, except for Lu Yundi's, on which a goddess appeared and floated on the mast for more than 2,000 li before landing on a small island. After Lu Yundi returned safely to the court, he reported to the emperor, who was very happy and bestowed the temple name “Shunji” and bestowed Mazu as “Chongfu Linghui Zhaoying Lady”. According to the “Putian County Records”, in a certain year in Shaoxing, the pirates at the estuary were rampant, but the goddess drove them away with the wind. That year there was an epidemic, and the goddess descended on Baihuhu, where the tide receded a few feet, and she dug a spring, which those who drank from it were healed. According to the Yijian Zhi Zhi by Ming Dynasty scholar Hong Mai, “In the Xinghua military region, there is a place called Haikou. There used to be a temple to Lin's wife, built in an unknown year. The temple is not very large, but it is famous for its miracles. Merchants in the region would go to the temple to pray for a safe journey before setting sail. In the Yuan Dynasty, sea transport and canal transport were developed in order to transport large quantities of grain from the south to the north. Before each voyage, the officials had to go to the Mazu Temple to divine the omens before setting sail. In the 15th year (1279) of the Zhizong period of the Yuan Dynasty (1264-1295), the Yuan Emperor decreed that the goddess of Quanzhou be called “the heavenly empress who protects the country and is renowned for her wisdom, who is benevolent and just, who celebrates good fortune and brings relief, and who is manifest in the heavens”. Temples to the heavenly empress were built everywhere and worshiped in them every year. During the Ming Dynasty, the belief in Tianfei became even more prevalent, according to the Putian County Records. It is said that Zheng He's voyages to the West, which involved crossing more than 100,000 li of sea, and the crossing of Zheng Chenggong to recover Taiwan, were both aided by the goddess of the Tianfei Temple. As a result, the belief in Tianfei spread from Quanzhou and Zhangzhou in Fujian to Taiwan, where it became widely popular. The Ming Emperor Zhuanglie (Zongzhen) specially bestowed the title “Tianxian Shengmu Qingling Puhua Bixia Yuanyun” upon her. She was also bestowed the title “Jingxian Xihua Ciyin Bixia Yuanyun”. In the 29th year of the reign of Emperor Kangxi of the Qing Dynasty (1689), she was bestowed the title “Zhaoling Xianying Rencizhenhou” for her miraculous help in the victory of the naval commander in the southern expedition.
Tianfei's birthday was on the 23rd day of the 3rd month of the 1st year of the Jianlong reign (960) of the Song Dynasty. Every year on the 23rd day of the 3rd month, the grandest temple fair is held at the Tianfei Temple, and believers from both sides of the Taiwan Strait gather at the Putian Tianhou Temple to hold a grand sacrificial ceremony.

天妃娘娘，亦称“天后娘娘”，简称“天妃”，俗称“妈祖”。关于天妃的来历和身世，据史书记载，生卒年就有六种说法，只是稍有差异而已，比较一致的说法是宋太祖建隆(960-963年)元年(960年)至宋太宗雍熙(984-988年)四年　(987年)，即元朝王之恭《四明续志》卷九中所讲的“室居未三十而卒”，仅行世二十七载。
天妃本姓林名默，世居福建莆田湄洲屿。因出生一个多月，未曾啼哭，故而得其名曰默。其父林愿，曾任宋代都巡检，林默在家最小，长得眉清目秀，聪明惹人喜爱。据《古今图书集成·神异典》卷二八按《莆田县志》云：林默 
出生时，“而地变紫，有祥光异香”。《三裁搜神大全》卷四则说：林默母陈氏，尝梦南海慈航，与之优钵花，吞之，已而孕，十四月始娩身得妃，诞之日异香闻里许，经旬不散。林默则满周岁时，在襁褓中看见诸神像，叉手作欲拜状。五岁能诵《慈航经》十一岁能婆娑按节乐神。少年时，一日在家静思熟读诗书，偶见一怪异道人从门前过，心中顿悟，拜之为师，得“玄微真法”。故长大后，能通悟秘法，预知休咎，乡民若以病告，辄意。可见林默还是个巫医式的人物，而她最大的本领则常在海上得以灵验。
一日，林默的四个哥哥乘船去经商，林默和其父母呆在家中。夜晚，林默突然手足若有所失，瞑目移时，父母误以为林默生了痢疾，赶忙将她推醒，急问其中缘故，林默睁开眼睛说道：“何不使我保全兄弟无恙乎！”父母不解其意，也就不再追问。
三天后，弟兄们归来，痛诉海上之大风暴吞噬了大哥的船。并言飓风大起时，巨浪接天，弟兄各异船，见一女子牵五条桅紊而行，渡波涛若平地。父母适才知道林默瞑目，是出元神而救哥哥们，大儿子的船沉海底，是因为自己推醒女儿而使女儿元神不能保护儿子 平安，悔恨交加。此事越传越神，林默连声名大振。
林默长大后，誓不嫁人，经常朱衣云游于岛屿问，乘船渡海，凭着一颗慈悲心肠和一身好水性拯救海上遇难的渔民和客商，被当地人呼为神女、龙女。闽人在母家称妈祖，因此又有人亲切地呼其为“妈祖”。她在海上拯难行善的事迹，广泛流传于福建莆田地区。
林默就这样在乡间生括了二十七年。一天很伤感地对家人说：“我将远游去了，可惜无法同行！”说完，驾一叶小舟，泛海而去，杳无音迹。因她生前曾为乡民们做过许多善事，大家都十分怀念她，不忍心地听到她的死迅，就传说她在湄洲屿升仙去了。《扬州天妃宫碑记》说她在登仙时，“闻空中乐声，氤氲有祥云若乘，自天而下，神(林默)乘之上升”。于是在雍熙四年(987年)在岛上建庙，逐年加以奉祀，称之为妈祖庙。
从宋代以后，妈祖就作为海上的救难神而受到人们的侍奉。几百年来，民间流传着许多关于她显灵济世助人的传说。
据《历代神仙通鉴》记载，北宋宣和(1119-1126年)年间，路允迪受命出使高丽(今朝鲜)，途中遇大风暴，诸船皆溺，只有路允迪的船上有一神女降于桅杆上，飘流了二千多里，停靠在一小岛上。路允迪平安归朝后，禀告朝廷，皇帝十分高兴，御赐“顺济”庙额，封妈祖为“崇福灵惠昭应夫人”。又据《莆田县志》记载，绍兴已某，江口海寇猖撅，神驾风一扫而去。其年疫，神降于白湖，去潮数尺许，掘饮涌泉，饮者辄愈。再据明代学者洪迈著《夷坚支志》曰：“兴化军境内，地名海口，旧有林夫人庙，莫知何年所立，室宇不甚广大，而灵异素著。境内贾客入海，必致祷祠下，求杯，祈阴护，乃敢行。”元代因要将大批粮食从南方运往北方，故而开辟了海运和漕运。每次起航前，官家都必须到妈祖庙中占卜吉祥后才能启航。至元(1264-1295年)十五年(1279年)，元世祖制封泉州神女号“护国明著灵惠协正善庆显济天妃”，各地普遍修建天妃庙，岁时祭祀。明朝时，天妃信仰更为盛行，据《莆田县志》记载。据说郑和下西洋，涉沦溟十万余里，郑成功渡海收复台湾，都曾得到田妃庙女神的佑助。由此，天妃信仰自福建泉州漳州传入台湾，并在台湾得到了广泛的传播。明庄烈帝(崇祯)特封之为“天仙圣母青灵普化碧霞元君”。又加封为“静贤昔化慈应碧霞元君”。清康熙二十九年(1689年)，因显圣助舟师南征获胜，被昭封为“昭灵显应仁慈天后”，因此天妃庙又称“天后宫”。
天妃诞辰于宋太祖建隆元年(960年)三月廿三日，每年的三月廿三日天妃庙都要举行最隆重的的庙会，适时海峡两岸的信徒均要云集莆田天后祖庙，举行声势浩大的祭典活动。