Xiwangmu

Xiwangmu 西王母, Xi Wangmu , Hsi Wang Driven , or Queen-mother of Occident , is a character of the Chinese Mythologie ancient become under the Dynastie Han a divinity taoist. She resides in a palate of Jade located on the celestial Kunlun, magic place where would push the grasses of immortality and the fishing S of long life which mature all the 3000 or 9000 years. Chief of the immortal , all the women aspiring to obtain CAD is regarded as its disciples.

Xiwangmu in the texts

One found on the oracular written of the Dynastie Shang the term ximu (1) “mother of Occident”, without one knowing however what it indicates. As there existed also a “mother of the East”, one can estimate that these two divinities formed a contrastive pair. His relationship with Xiwangmu is thus doubtful.

The character of Xiwangmu is attested as from fourth century BC. It is put in connection with king Mu of the Dynastie Zhou. This sovereign would have carried out a military forwarding in the current province of the Xinjiang with against tribes called Quanrong . With this occasion, it would have met met Xiwangmu. In the Annales testify on Bamboo ( Zhushu jinian ), official chronicles of the kingdom of Wei. They were found in 279 in the tomb of king Xiang. The period that they cover goes from the mythical reign of Huangdi up to -299. It is written there that “during the seventeenth year, the king left to the West towards Kunlun, it had an interview with Xiwangmu; then this same year, Xiwangmu came to the court to pay homage to king Mu. In autumn, during the eighth month, the king went to North, passed Moving Sands doubts it [[deserted of Taklamakan]] and the mount Jiyu, it attacked Quanrong, took five kings to them; it arrived until where the blue birds moult, then Xiwangmu retained it”. Other texts confirm this bond of Xiwangmu with the birds.

The voyage of king Mu was “fictionalized” in the Chronique of the Son of the Sky Driven (3). According to Remi Mathieu, who translated and commentaté of this French work, it would have been written between -400 and -350. Xiwangmu is described there as a beautiful woman to whom it king returns visit. They discuss on a bank the lake Yao (Jaspe). When Mu must set out again towards its kingdom located at the East, Xiwangmu requires of him to return; he promises to make it after having put his field in order.

According to the handbook of alchemy of Chonghe Master (quoted by Robert van Gulik in Sexuel life in ancient China ), Xiwangmu is “a woman who obtained the Way (the CAD ) by nourishing her clean Yin ”, i.e. by having many sexual relations. She appreciates the young boys particularly.

It is still question of Xiwangmu in a later work, the Livre of the mounts and seas (2) started under the Royaumes combatants and completed under Han. She seems there a howling creature of aspect frightening semi-human semi-animal, with the sinister functions: “In the south of the Western sea, on bank of moving sands… there is a being carrying a blazon, with teeth of tiger and a tail, it lives in a cave, it is called Xiwangmu… he is in load of the diseases and the corporal punishments”. Other passages specify that she lives on the jade Mount or the Kunlun mount, place of abundance; its tail is that of a leopard; a blue bird (or black) with three legs accompanies it.

In the Huainanzi one mentions that it holds the grasses of immortality which transformed Chang' E into fairy.

A historical fiction, the Biographie of Han Wudi (4) of Ban Gu, mentions fishings of immortality, that Sun Wukong would have concealed in the Voyage in Occident (Ming).

Its character will inspire the King-father of the East that the taoism associates sometimes with Xiwangmu. (1) 西母 (2) Shanhaijing 山海經 (3) Mutianzi zhuan 穆天子傳 (4) Hanwudi neizhuan 漢武帝內傳

Worship

In the Book of Han , annals official of the dynasty until the year 9, one learns that in year 4 of the Jianping era of the emperor Aidi (-3 or -2), a great dryness prevails in the Henan and the Shaanxi. Guided by oracles of Xiwangmu, the population of the disaster areas migrated to the capital Chang' year where one saw it dancing and singing in the honor of the goddess. Under Han its worship becomes popular and enjoys a certain official recognition.

Divinity taoist

She is associated with the King-father of the East (1) (Dongwanggong or Dongwangfu), created especially to make him during. They are each one in load of immortal of their sex. According to certain theories, they are also Masters of the breaths Yin and Yang and is generated mutually. One lends sometimes a messenger to him, his preferred disciple, the mysterious Femme of the nine skies (2), identified with qingniao (3), the bird with three legs of the Livre of the mounts and the seas , or with xuanniao (4), l'" bird somber" ancestor of the Yin.

According to the Yongcheng jixianlu (5), collection of lives of immortal composed under the Tang, it would have appeared with a body of bird and vêtue of a skin of fox with Huangdi at the time of its battle against Chiyou to give the talisman of the to him Five peaks. Its messenger, the mysterious Woman , would have manufactured the tank indicating the south which made it possible the Yellow Emperor to guide his army, this is why it is the owner of the carriage-builders.

Under the name of Queen-mother grandmother , Xiwangmu forms sometimes a couple with the Empereur of jade. Its divine birthday is the 3 from the third month or the 18 of the seventh month.

(1) 東王公 - 東王父 (2) jiutianxuannu 九天玄女 (3) 青鳥 (4) 玄鳥 (5) 墉城集仙錄

Divine names

Like all the divinities, it has many names; most frequent are:

Queen-mother (王母 wangmu) or Queen-mother grandmother (王母娘娘 wangmu niangniang), titles honorary given to the large goddesses;
Mother of gold (金母 jinmu), west being associated with metal according to the theory of the five elements; its counterpart the King-father of the East becomes the wood Father then (木公 mugong), element associated with the east.
Mother of gold of the jasper basin (瑤池金母 yaochi jinmu), according to the name of the place where it would have received king Mu;
Mother of gold of the splendid Occident residing on the Mount of the tortoise (龜山西華金母 guishan xihua jinmu);
Old woman of Occident (西姥 xilao);

Iconography

On the frescos of the temples or sometimes of the tombs, it is often represented in the orchard of immortality or is sat on a throne, sometimes flanked of Dongwanggong. It can carry a skin of leopard and be accompanied by the blue bird, of a white tiger (symbol of the West), of a fox with nine tails (another fantastic creature of the Livre of the mounts and seas ) or of a hare which point out the moon where Chang' E flew away thanks to grasses of immortality. Below it are its servants and the immortal ones. Sometimes the sun and the moon, symbols of Yin and Yang, frame the unit.

It is present on a fresco of Dunhuang in the role of the wife of Indra.

See too

Chinese Mythology

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