Performers and Female Taoist Adepts: Hsi Wang Mu as the Patron Deity of Women in

Medieval China
Author(s): Suzanne Cahill
Source: Journal of the American Oriental Society , Jan. - Mar., 1986, Vol. 106, No. 1,
Sinological Studies Dedicated to Edward H. Schafer (Jan. - Mar., 1986), pp. 155-168
Published by: American Oriental Society

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 PERFORMERS AND FEMALE TAOIST ADEPTS:
HSI WANG MU AS THE PATRON DEITY OF WOMEN IN MEDIEVAL CHINA

SUZANNE CAHILL

UNIVERSITY OF CALIFORNIA, SAN DIEGO

THE GODDESS CALLED Hsi WANG MuMMY*, the or adept combines features of both. Both models
Queen Mother of the West, was the highest female derive from the goddess's major functions as a deity:
deity in the pantheon of the Taoist religion during the her control of immortality and her power to mediate
T'ang dynasty (A.D. 618-907).' Both women and men between the divine and human realms. Hsi Wang Mu
worshipped her, but here I will focus on her special acted as patron deity for all women in Taoism, but she
relation to women. I will use religious and poetic texts was the special guardian of singing girls, dead women,
from the Tang dynasty to show the relationship of the novices, nuns, adepts, and priestesses. These people
goddess to women in general and to outside groups in stand outside the roles prescribed for women in the
particular. traditional Chinese family-the dutiful daughter, obedi-
The Queen Mother of the West provided two models ent wife, and self-sacrificing mother. Women under the
for women: the celestial attendant and the goddess goddess's special protection acted outside the context
herself. Performers imitated the celestial attendant; of the family.
Taoist adepts patterned themselves on the Queen
Mother. The single figure of the female Taoist priestess
SOURCES

With rare exceptions, men wrote the texts which

I began the research which led to this article in 1978 as partprovide information about Hsi Wang Mu and women.
of my dissertation under the direction of Professor Edward This affects our picture profoundly; the authors were
Schafer. His methods and his work provided the inspiration not concerned with the questions we ask today. We
which brought me into sinology and kept me there; his advice must take the information we need from unwilling or
and criticism have been essential to me in carrying out and unobservant sources; this is how we retrieve women's
improving my own work. history. But men of the T'ang dynasty wrote during the
' The first version of this article appeared as part of a panel period when Chinese women experienced more freedom
entitled "Special Woman in Old China" at the national and opportunity, limited and partial as these may have
meeting of the Association for Asian Studies in Washington, been, than any other past age from which we have
D.C. in March of 1984. The aim of the panel was to records. In the absence of prayers and other writings
investigate previously unexamined roles for women in tra- by women worshippers of the goddess, and in the
ditional China and to shed some light on familiar ones. absence of accounts in the histories of her worship by
Chinese women have usually been portrayed in a limited women, we can use religious and poetic texts to
number of positive and negative roles. Good models include determine contemporary assumptions about her relation-
the dutiful daughter, obedient wife, and self-sacrificing ship to mortal women.
mother. Negative examples include the state-toppling beauty Taoist religious texts, collected in the Taoist canon
and the conniving matchmaker. The more we find out about (the Tao isang I A), define the Queen Mother's
women's history in China, the more these models prove appearance, nature, functions, and associations. They
inadequate to cover the range of women's interests and characterize her relations with mortal women. Within
activities. Along with the evil empress and chaste widow, we the Tao tsang, I will rely here principally on the
must also take into account the singing girl, mystic, priestess, standard hagiographical account of the goddess, written
and prostitute. The papers on the panel used a variety of by the T'ang dynasty Taoist thinker and historian Tu
sources to identify and evaluate female roles. Creative use of Kuang-t'ing th ) (850-933). Tu was an adherent
sources that are inattentive to or uninterested in questions of Mao shan L 11 Taoism, a school named for a
about women is one way to begin to recover women's history. mountain near Nanking where its founders had lived.
The aim of the panel was to investigate a variety of roles and The aim of the Mao shan Taoist adherent was to
speculate on the social implications of those roles. achieve transcendence hv creatina nnd nirturina insidie
155

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156 Journal of the American Oriental Society 106.1 (1986)

herself or himself an immortal embryo which would twenty (in earlier texts thirty): a mature woman in
ascend to heaven in broad daylight when the believer's medieval China. Tu does not portray her as a male
mortal body died. T'ang dynasty royalty and elite projection of female desirability or a child's vision of
favored the Mao shan school and accepted its picture maternal authority. Nor does he depict her as a half-
of Hsi Wang Mu. human, half-animal creature. Instead of presenting any
The T'ang dynasty poetic texts, collected in the one of these three models of female divinity, which
"Complete T'ang Poetry" anthology, the Ch 'uan Tang appeared frequently in Taoist texts, Tu portrays the

shih it , reflect the image of the Queen Mother Queen Mother in human form, in a guise that
held by the literate elite and that group's conception of emphasizes both her beauty and her power.
how the goddess interacted with mortal women. The At the very beginning of his account, Tu Kuang-t'ing
image of the goddess in the poems amplifies and depicts the basic nature of Hsi Wang Mu:
embodies her image in the religious texts.
She is, in fact, the perfected marvel of the Western

TAOIST DEFINITIONS Florescence, and the ultimate worthy of the grotto

in. . .Produced by transformation from the breath

Tu Kuang-t'ing describes the Queen Mother's physi- of the perfected mystery of the Western Florescence,

cal appearance in careful detail, on the occasion of her she governs the breaths of the Yin numina and takes
most important epiphany: her visit to the palace of the her internal structure from the western quadrant ... In

Martial Thearch of the Han (Han Wu-ti AA V): all respects she derives her substance from the great
non-existent; she nurtures her spirit with the mysterious

The Queen Mother rode an imperial carriage of purple enigma. In the midst of the nebula incognita of the

clouds, harnessed with nine-colored dappled ch'i-Iin western quadrant, the unmixed seminal breaths of the

9 9 . Tied around her waist, she wore the whip of the great Tao were divided, and the breaths were bound

Celestial Realized Ones; as a belt pendant she had a together to make her shape.... She embodies the

diamond numinous seal. On her clothing, fashioned of basis of the pliant and yielding, functions as the origin

multicolored damask with a yellow background, the of the Ultimate Yin.3

patterns and variegated colors were bright and fresh.

The radiance of metal made a shimmering gleam. At Worship of the Queen Mother as the ultimate gin
her waist was a double-bladed sword for dividing appears in historical records going back to the Han
phosphors, and knotted flying clouds made a great dynasty.4
cord. On top of her head was a great floriate chignon. As the ultimate 'in, the goddess has certain associa-
She wore the crown of the Grand Realized Ones with tions in medieval Taoist texts. The texts associate her
hanging beaded strings of daybreak. She stepped forth with the color white, the western direction, death,
on squared-off, phoenix-patterned shoes, soled with immortality, the afterlife, and the realm of the spirits.
rose-gem. Her age might have been around twenty. From these associations develop the notion of her
Her celestial appearance eclipsed and put in the shade paradise in the west, on Mount K'un-lun '4. Her
all others. Her numinous complexion was unique in paradise is a microcosm of the macrocosm, and Mount
the world. Truly, she was a Realized Numinous Being.2 K'un-lun an axis mundi or cosmic pillar, where heaven
and earth connect. Her paradise also contains the
The cloud carriage pulled by mythical beasts signifies a Turquoise Pond, a magic pool beside which divine and
high divinity. The details of Tu's description identify human beings can meet. The goddess is also associated
the goddess iconographically for the adept's meditation with her vehicle and alter-ego, the white tiger of the
and at the same time place her in the hierarchy of gods.
Her whip, seal, and sword are the special insignia of a
3 YCCHL; Image, 71-72.
high Taoist deity. The Queen Mother looks about
4 Chao Yeh X 0, in Wu Yueh ch'un ch'iu A g k.
(Springs and Autumns of Wu and Yueh) (Ts'ung-shu chi-
2 Tu Kuang-t'ing, Yung (h 'eng (hi hsien /u ?Ie fJ L ed.), gives an account of the struggles between the
ch'eng
(Register of the Collected Transcendents of the Fortified states of Wu and Yueh. As part of his plan to conquer Wu, the
Walled City) (hereafter YCCHL), HY 782; translated in king of Yueh sets up altars to the "Ultimate Yin" which he
Suzanne Cahill, "The Image of the Goddess Hsi Wang Mu in worships under the name of Hsi Wang Mu. Since this is a Han
Medieval Chinese Literature," Ph.D. diss., University of account, we can use it as a source for Han if not earlier
California, Berkeley, 1982 (hereafter Image), 79. practice.

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 CAHILL: Hsi Wang Mu as the Patron Deity of Women in Medieval China 157

west, a fierce embodiment of elemental Main forces. One to Mao shan doctrine, transmission of teachings from
aspect of the Queen Mother, in which she has a the divine to the human worlds must take place
leopard's tail and tiger's teeth, represents the bad or between members of the opposite sex. Transmission
dangerous mother. The peach, her constant attribute, often occurs in the context of a divine marriage
represents the good or nurturing mother. The peach is between a mortal and a divinity. Written by men, the
a fertility symbol par excellence, simultaneously stand- Mao shan texts recount many stories of male adepts'
ing for the vulva, the breast, and a baby's round attempts to marry divine spouses in order to acquire
bottom. The peaches of immortality grow in the Queen instruction leading to enlightenment. Tales of human
Mother's garden on Mount K'un-lun, ripening only women finding divine husbands are rare.7
once every thousand years. Their fruit is the elixir The Taoist texts show that while the Queen Mother
of immortality. The life-giving peach and the life- does not teach her disciples directly, she remains the
threatening tiger represent the positive and negative ultimate source of their knowledge. Knowledge reaches
sides of the goddess's vin nature. the disciples indirectly, through her messengers such as
Texts in the Taoist canon spell out the Queen the blue bird. Her dependents achieve enlightenment
Mother's functions as a cosmic force and a Taoist by reading texts concerning Taoist techniques and arts
deity. In common with the other high gods of Taoism, which the goddess has transmitted through the Mao
she shares in the cyclic creation of the world and the shan lineage, and by putting their reading into practice.
transient creatures such as humans who inhabit it. She Enlightenment comes through correct practice, made
also has her own special functions. She controls accessible through literacy or apprenticeship.
immortality and the means for attaining it. She The Queen Mother appears in Taoist texts, as in art,
authenticates and legitimizes divine and worldly power. surrounded by a flock of beautiful young women called
She transmits the word of the sacred Taoist texts; the "jade maidens." The jade maidens are celestial atten-
word in turn reveals the way from the human to the dants, minor goddesses who carry the Queen Mother's
celestial realms. Along with texts, she passes on talis- messages, serve the peaches of immortality at tran-
mans, arts, and practices associated with the Mao shan scendent feasts, and entertain guests with performances
Taoist project of achieving transcendence. She acts as of sacred dance, song, and instrumental music. They
intermediary in Taoist divine marriages. She sanctions also write out charms and teachings to transmit to
all ascents to transcendence, then registers the new humans, guard the texts of holy works, witness oaths,
immortals. and act as altar girls in celestial rites. Tu Kuang-t'ing
Some of Hsi Wang Mu's functions relate specifically names the goddesses and their instruments when they
to women. She governs women in Taoism at all stages perform following the peach feast in the palace of the
of the process of becoming transcendents. In addition Martial Thearch of the Han dynasty:
to being worshipped as Woman (min), she is worshipped
by women. One entry in the "Book of Han" states that Thereupon the Queen Mother commanded the serving
"Hsi Wang Mu is for women to praise; liu-po d1 ti is girl Wang Tzu-teng # - I to play the eight-lobed
for men to play. " The statement suggests that while chimes, Tung Shuang-ch'eng I I A to blow the
men engage in a ceremonial game of chance, women Cloud Harmony mouth organ, Shih Kung-tzu E a
should involve themselves in the complementary activ- - to strike the jade sounding stone from the K'un IT-,
ity appropriate to their sex: paying homage to the courtyard, Hsu Fei-ch'iung I to sound the
Queen Mother. While ordinary women worship the Thunder Numen flute, Wang Ling-hua E A V to hit
goddess, women on the path to transcendence fall
under her special protection. As the final item in his
enumeration of the goddess's functions, Tu Kuang- 7 One famous example is Lung Yu A X, whose transcendent

t'ing writes: "In heaven, beneath heaven, in the three husband Hsiao Shih *5t taught her the art of calling
phoenixes with music; together they ascended to heaven in
worlds and ten directions, all women who ascend to
transcendence and obtain the Tao are her dependents."6 broad daylight. Another well-known story, this one con-

The Mao shan Taoist texts also reveal a barrier in cerning the moon goddess Ch'ang 0 Em, involves indirect

the Queen Mother's relations with women. According transmission of the means to immortality from the Queen
Mother to her dependent through a husband-intermediary.
Ch'ang O's husband, the legendary Archer Yi i f#, who
5 Pan Ku JEI[I, Han vshu *t, 26.95a; I am grateful to requested and received the elixir of immortality from Hsi
Theresa June Li for bringing this reference to my attention. Wang Mu. Ch'ang 0 obtained the elixir by stealing it from
6 YCCHL; Image, 72.
her husband.

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 158 Journal of the American Oriental Society 106.1 (1986)

the musical stone of Wu-ling H X, Fan Ch'eng-chunArriving with the Queen Mother's cortege, they attend
M A -9 to knock the lithophone of the grotto win,the ceremonies in the Han palace, where they "offer up
Tuan An-hsiang & * to make "The Harmony of golden writs,"9 and give performances of ritual dance,
the Nine Heavens," and An Fa-ying V i X to singmusic, and song. They perform after the feast. Li Ch'i
"The Tune of the Mysterious Numen." The whole 4R, in his "Song of the Queen Mother," writes:
ensemble of sounds was exciting and distinct; the
numinous timbres startled empty space." Turning her head back, she told the serving girl, Tung
Shuang-ch'eng,
These jade girls are celestial musicians similar to the "The wine is finished; you may perform on the Cloud
Indian apsaras, glorifying the deity in whose entourage Harmony mouth organ."'0
they appear and performing supporting roles in the
rituals. Their instruments are of divine origin, their Their song signifies the conclusion of the evening
liturgical performances divinely inspired. Other jade celebration.
girls possess the arts of the bedchamber and of war, Wei Ying-wu *St stresses the immortality and
still others the secrets of immortality. They can instruct other-worldly beauty of the celestial attendants in his
the worthy adept. With their beauty, talents, and "Jade Girls' Song":
service, the jade girls provide one role model for
medieval Chinese women. Flocks of transcendents wing up to the Queen Mother;
The jade girls provide one role model; the Queen With feathered canopies they arise, following the
Mother herself provides another. The jade girls set an clouds.
example of submission and skillful service for pros- Above, they wander to the mysterious extremes of the
titutes and performers, while the Queen Mother sets an obscure stygian realms;
example of attainment and power for Taoist priestesses Below, they view the Eastern Sea as a single cup of
and adepts. Both models stood outside women's normal water.
roles in the household. A woman unwilling or unable
By the banks of the sea, how many times has she
to follow either of these examples in her present life
planted peach trees?
might hope to go to the Queen Mother's paradise after
Every thousand years they open their flowers, every
her death. Now let us see how T'ang dynasty poets
thousand years form seeds.
transformed these role models.
Jade complexions so subtle and otherworldly, where
can they be found?
POETIC TRANSFORMATIONS
While in this world, without limit, people automatically
die."
T'ang poets recognized that Hsi Wang Mu, as the
highest Taoist goddess and patronness of all women
who ascend to transcendence, enjoyed a special relation- Some poets present those immortal beauties engaging
ship with women. Writers allude to her in poems in love affairs with mortal painters or writers.' Hsu
concerning outstanding women. They relate mortal Hsuan *t writes of "Wandering in a Dream" with a
jade maiden:
women to the Queen Mother indirectly by comparing
them to her lovely and talented attendants, the jade
girls who provide a model of feminine beauty, sexuality, A lovely woman from the southern nations, her
courtesy name is Little Jade.
and skill. Attendance on the Queen Mother also
figures in Tang poetry as a metaphor for death. The Lotus flowers for her pair of cheeks, far distant
mountains for eyebrows.
Queen Mother herself appears as the Taoist model of
an enlightened and powerful woman in poems about
Taoist novices, nuns, holy women, hermits, and
priestesses. Sometimes poets combine the models of 9 Liu Pi #1 X , "Lines on the Realm of Jade Clarity,"
the jade girl and the Queen Mother in their descriptions Chtuan T'ang shih k*A (Taipei, 1967) (hereafter CTS),
han 8, is e 4, ch. 3, 5b (3039).
of eminent women in Taoism.
The jade girls Tu Kuang-t'ing enumerates appear in '? CTS, han 2, isar 9, ch. 5, 2b-3a (750).
T'ang poetry the same way they do in the Taoist texts. " CTS, han 3, ts'e 7, ch. 9, 5b (1090), where the preferred
title is given as "Song of the Queen Mother."
12 Ku K'uang Vi5R, "Song of a Flower Painting by Liang
8 YCCHL; Image, 80. Kuang," CTS, han 4, Ws'e 9, ch. 4, 2a/b (1547).

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 CAHILL: Hsi Wang Mu as the Patron Deity of Women in Medieval China 159

She's made a pact with her transcendent lover, each Kuang, Wei, and P'ou are three sisters who were
long to remember the other. orphaned when young. Moreover, they were accom-
How could the Amah suspect? She won't get to find plished from the beginning. Now they have written
out. I 3 these poems. The poems are essential and pure; they
Would be hard to match. How could even the linked
verses on snowflakes of the Hsieh household add to
The attendants' intimacy with the goddess allow them
them? There was a stranger who came from the capital
to address her as "Amah" PT* or "Nanny." Hsu
city and showed them to me. Consequently, I put in
portrays the Queen Mother as the duenna of the jade
order these rhymes.
girls.
Sometimes poets describe the Queen Mother's atten- Formerly I heard that in the southern nations, flowery
dants irreverently, even humorously. They may behave faces were few;
in a disorderly or undisciplined fashion. One steals a But today my eastern neighbors are three sisters.
branch of flowers from a Taoist temple.'4 Ssu-k'ung In their dressing room, looking at one another; "The
T'u 71 IiW shows young transcendents at play after Rhapsody of the Parrot."
their lessons: At the cyan window, they must be embroidering
phoenix slips.
Pink fragrant plants fill the courtyard, ragged and
Moth eyebrows newly painted, they sense their own
jaggedly broken off.
beauty and grace.
Green strained wine overflows the cups; one after
They compete to go take flowers to the Amah's side.
another we put them to our mouths.
Lessons in transcendent tunes completed, they seem
I suspect that they once acted as girl attendants at the
sluggish and disorganized.
Turquoise Pond;
Jostling each other on the jade staircase, they hit at
Coming in exile to this dusty world, they did not
gold coins.'
become males.

To the appearance possessed by Wen Chi, I might

"Hitting gold coins" was a children's game. These finally venture to compare them;
transcendents enjoy the free and easy leisure of im- Little Hsi would be speechless before them-I am still
mortals who have all the time in the world. At the same more mortified.
time, they remind us of schoolgirls or beginners in A single tune of ravishing song-the zither seems far
the imperial harem, caught between childhood and away and distinct;
experience. While the four strings are lightly strummed, they talk,
In T'ang poetry, the Queen Mother's attendants set murmuring
a unclearly.
standard of female beauty, sexuality, and talent. Yu Facing the mirror stand, they compete equally with
Hsuan-chi . I A, a prostitute who became a Taoist their blue-glinting silk-thread hair;
nun, wrote many poems in her short and violent life. Opposite the moon, they vie in showing off their white
One poem celebrates three orphaned sisters of refined jade hair pins.
literary and musical accomplishments with whom she In the midst of the Lesser Existence Grotto, pine dew
once spent the night in a guest house. She praises their drops;
startling loveliness and apparently supernatural skills, Above the Great Brahma Heavens, willow mist is
comparing the sisters to the Queen Mother's serving contained.
girls. Here is the poem, together with its prose preface: If only they were able to plan a prolonged stay on
account of the rain,
They need not fear that matters of "blowing the
syrinx" are not yet understood.
3 CTS, han I1l, ts'e 5, ch. 8, 6b-7a (4448). How many times has the Amah scolded them for
14 Chang Chi, "Together with Supervisor of Affairs Yen, I talking beneath the flowers?
heard that a Transcendent Passed Close by the Jade Stamens Lord Pan once consulted them in a meeting in a
at the T'ang Prosperity Belvedere; Accordingly I Composed d ream .
Two Regulated Quatrains," CTS, han 6, ts'e 6, ch. 5, i0a For a short time I have grasped their pure sentences;
(2299). it's as if my cloud-soul were severed.
1' "Wandering Transcendents: Two Pieces," CTS, han 10, If I were looking at their pink faces, even dying would
ts'e 1, ch. 4, la (3795). also be sweet.

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160 Journal of the American Oriental Society 106.1 (1986)

Despondently I look from afar at these delightful ritual nature of the dance along with the technical skill
people-where are they? and exertion of the dancers. At the end of their
Traversing the clouds I go home to the north, while strenuous performance, the dancers depart like god-
they return home to the south.'6 desses following the Queen Mother back to Mount
K'un-lun.
This poem is clearly a love song. Perhaps Yu speaks Sun Ch'i g 2 depicts the sensual beauty and
here with a male narrative voice. The love poems flirtatious behavior of the singing girl Wang Fu-niang
available to her as models, written by men, used a male
narrator. But her self-deprecating comparison ("I
would be still more mortified") suggests a woman Variegated kingfisher transcendent dress and pink jade
narrator. Probably Yu expresses here feelings of lesbian skin;

love. Details of the sisters' clothing, hair, and jewelry She makes light of her full years of residing here, since
stand for the women, symbolizing their attitudes and she first smashed the gourd.
states of mind. Little Hsi, whom Yu implies was not as With auroral cloud cups, she drunkenly urges Squire
lovely as the three, is Hsi Shih N X, a famous Liu to gamble;

southern femme fatale of the type known as a "state- Her cloud chignons indolently invite the Amah's comb.
toppler"; historical legend credits her with the downfall
She does not fear the bitter cold invading the precious
of a Warring States kingdom. "Matters of 'blowing the
ornaments at her hem and belt;
syrinx"' refer to the techniques of ascending to
From time to time, worrying lest the wind lift it, she
transcendence by means of music, as Hsiao Shih and
dimples as she grasps her jacket.
Lung Yu did in legend. Yu suggests an intimate
Indolently picturing little Hsi, she does her make-up
relation between the three orphans and the Queen
the same way,
Mother. First she identifies the sisters with the girl
But little Hsi never did obtain her likeness.'
attendants at the Turquoise Pond. Then she calls the
Queen Mother their nanny, and shows the goddess
Sun suggests that Wang needs the Queen Mother's
scolding them.
discipline. Her hair, as well as her deportment, has
The Queen Mother's attendants set a standard of
become disordered with drink. "Smashing the gourd"
skill in dancing in such poems as Liu Yu-hsi's '1 A I
refers to her first experience of sexual intercourse, or
"To Harmonize with Lo-t'ien's 'Cudrania Branch"'
alternatively to her first menstrual period. Wang is a
(Lo-t'ien E is Po Chfi-yi 3 g A).
brothel singer, a profession protected by the Queen
Mother.
"Cudrania Branch" originally came from the Prince of
Hsueh Neng 0* R4, moved by the piercing beauty of a
Ch'u's household:
Wei girl's song, associates her talent with the Queen
Jade faces abundantly sensuous, dancing comportment
Mother in a novel comparison:
showy.
Loosing sidelocks, they change hair styles-simurgh
Sounds of tubes and strings congeal; the singing she
and phoenix chignons.
produces is so lofty.
New slips separately woven-a fighting cock gauze.
How many people, in the region of the heart, conceal a
Drums urge them forward with fragmented striking- wounding knife?
waists and bodies supple. I think and measure again: what would bear com-
Perspiration enhances their netted-gauze cloaks with parison?
rain-dot flowers. Just a single tree, newly opened, of the Queen Mother's
By painted mats, the tune finished, they bid farewell peaches.'9
and depart homeward.
Once again following the Queen Mother to ascend into Her astonishing voice, sharp and penetrating as a knife
the misty auroral clouds.' to the heart, he likens to a tree of the peaches of
immortality, symbols of female sexuality and fertility.
Hair and etothing again stand for the women, revealing
their physical and mental states. Liu emphasizes the
8 "Given to the Singing Girl, Wang Fu-niang," CTS, han
I1, is5' 3, ch-. 4, 3b-4a (4324).
6 TS, han I ", We iOchk 8, 9a/b. '9 "Given to the Singing Girl of the Wei Can:. Two Pieces,"
z CT&, han 6, tse 1, ch. 2, 8b (2148). CIS, han 9, ts'e 2, ch. 7, 9a (3414).

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 CAHILL: Hsi Wang Mu as the Patron Deity of Women in Medieval China 161

Music, like the elixir peaches, transports the adept to who had departed from this world, people naturally
transcendent realms. saw her as queen of the land of the dead.
Hsueh l-liao a , taking forlorn leave of a A song by Li Ch'in-yti GI eulogizes a dead
singing girl with whom he has passed a happy year, sheng ' pipes player:
likens his farewell dinner with his mistress to a feast in
the Queen Mother's paradise: Her beautiful substance and transcendent bearing has
followed the wind like smoke;
The Amah's peach flowers seem just like multicolored Phoenix sounds severed, the platform where she blew
damask; now stands empty.
Paris grass looks exactly like smoke. The multitude of passions seems like grasses: they
In an instant I'll be facing the vastness of the Glaucous resent the returning green.
Sea again, gazing off into the far distance; Without being ruled, apricot flowers in spring turn
Depressed and despondent: delighting in passions, we pink of their own accord.
were well matched for a single year.20
The earring she dropped still remains, beneath a
fragrant tree;
Soon the peach garden to which her company has
The scent she left behind gradually becomes extin-
transported him will become just a distant memory.
guished within the jade halls.
Li Shun-hsien 4 A, consort of Wang Chien
She must have departed only just now, embracing the
IeiT, king of the state of Former Han in Shu during
Cloud Harmony pipes;
the tenth century, writes a poem commemorating an
From here it's a lengthy return to the Amah's palace.22
imperial visit to the Taoist master Tu Kuang-t'ing in a
monastery on Blue Walled-city Mountain in Szechwan
The poet celebrates her talents at the same time as he
Province. She compares the royal outing to a quest of
mourns her death when he compares the musician to
the goddess culminating in a transcendent feast:
the jade girl Tung Shuang-ch'eng, who played the
Cloud Harmony pipes in the Queen Mother's troupe,
Following behind eight horses, I ascend the tran-
and likens her long and final journey to the attendants'
scendent mountain;
return trip to Mount K'un-lun.
Abruptly departed from dust and dirt, the semblances
of phenomena locked up inside.
Liu Chang-ch'ing V'KN uses the Queen Mother's
household as a metaphor for the land of the dead in a
I only fear that once we've gone west and sought the
poem about the mother of the T'ang emperor Te Tsung
Queen Mother's feast,
In the end we'll grieve that it is hard to manage to go
back among humans.2'
People of the Extended Happiness Palace have swept
up the fallen flowers.
Here the woman poet has identified with the tran-
The ruling king just now awaits her, with five-colored
scendents in the Queen Mother's following. She finds
cloud chariots.
the company of the goddess on her cosmic mountain so
In a myriad directions his vassals and handmaidens
attractive that she does not care to return to everyday
have inspected and looked afar,
life at court.
But probably she is in the Amah's household with its
Some T'ang dynasty women who visited the Queen
layered city walls.23
Mother did not return. Attendance on the goddess
provided a poetic euphemism for death. This figure of
The empress dowager had disappeared during the An
speech still appears today. Banners in funerary proces-
Lu-shan rebellion. After the revolution, in 756, officials
sions in San Francisco's Chinatown read "See you
specially appointed by the emperor searched high and
again at the Turquoise Pond" , that is, "See
low for her but never found her. An imposter,
you again in Hsi Wang Mu's Paradise." Since she
presided over a Taoist paradise inhabited by immortals

22 "To Harmonize with the Middle Deputy's 'Sighing over

the Sheng Artiste,'" CTS, han 9, ts e 3, ch. 8, 12b (3454).
20 "Parting with the Ching-chou Singing Girl, Tuan
23 ''I Tung-
Hear the Emissary for Receiving and Welcoming the
mei," CTS, han 8, ts'e 10, ch. 5, 2b-3a (3315-16). Illustrious Grand Dowager, Shen from the Judicial Office,
21 "Following the Riders, Rambling to the Blue Walledhas Arrived; thus I Have Fashioned this," CTS, han 3, ts'e 1,
City," CTS. han I1 I.ts e 10 ch. 1 2b (4629). h. 4, 13a (854).

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 162 Journal of the American Oriental Society 106.1 (1986)

apparently a former palace wet nurse, took her place The Queen Mother appears in these poems as the high-
for a while before the masquerade was discovered. est official concerned. She witnesses the vow of the
Finally they gave her up for dead. Liu dedicates his novice and certifies her readiness to enter the Way.
discouraging poem to one of the officials in charge of Tai Shu-lun C-PZI fai portrays an elderly novice,
the woman-hunt. whose dreams have already prefigured her retirement
Now let us move from singing girls and dead to the cloister. She leaves her husband, the emperor,
empresses to Taoist adepts. One set of poems within behind, as:
the general category depicting Hsi Wang Mu's relations
with female adepts has for its subject a lady of the Wind whispering and whistling through her white hair,
imperial palace taking religious vows. Women might she exits the palace gates.
take holy orders for various reasons: as a means of Feathered clothes and starry crown-her intentions
refuge or retreat at the death of a husband, as a toward the Way remain fixed in her mind.
purifying intermission between husbands (two famous By the nine tiers of the Empyrean Han, she parts from
cases of this strategy involve the Tang empress Wu the phoenix watchtowers;

Ts'e-t'ien A pJi and the emperor Hsuan Tsung's In the cloudy mountains, where will she go in search of

At beloved consort Yang Kuei-fei * t# , as a the peachtree spring?

survival tactic for members of the imperial harem
Under the drunken moon by the Turquoise Pond, she's
dismissed during anti-luxury campaigns who found
wearied by dreams of transcendence.
themselves at loose ends, as a means of escaping palace
Her jade carriage riding upon the spring, she declines
intrigue and danger, as a method of avoiding marriage
the thearch's mercy.
and living an independent life outside the family, and
Turning back her head, she blows the syrinx to her
as a way of obtaining an education. These motives
companions above the heavens;
occur in addition, of course, to genuine religious
At the Supreme Yang Palace, when flowers fall, with
vocation, which is hard to measure. Pursuit of an
whom will he discuss it?25
education probably provided a major motivation for
women entering the Taoist convent. This was clearly
Wang Chien i A shows a lady setting aside colorful
true in the parallel case of the Buddhist monastic
makeup and dancing clothes to put on the ceremonial
orders for women.24 Monastic life, since it allowed
crown of a Taoist nun as she leaves the imperial
some women to acquire literacy in the interests of
palace.
reading the scriptures, provided one way for women to
gain an education and access to information and
She leaves aside combing her thicket of sidelocks,
techniques that allowed independence and power.
washes off her red make-up;
The scenario of the poems involving a novice entering
On her head she wears a lotus blossom as she emerges
a religious order regularly includes departure from the
from the Never Ending Palace.
imperial palace, evidence of the new nun's calling, rites
As other disciples fetch and take the verses and
and signs of her change in status, entry into the new
repetitives she sang,
community, and description of her feelings. The poems
Other palace women separate and distribute her
include sensitive depictions of the novice's emotions as
dancing cloaks and chemises.
she has her long hair shorn, gives up her court finery
for convent garb, and changes her secular name for a Enquiring of the master, first she obtains a graph from
religious one. A note of joy sounds in music as she the classics;
joins her new community. The joy mingles with her Entering quietude, she still burns incense from inside
resignation and the regrets of those she leaves behind. the palace interior.
Such poems emphasize the vocation and studiousness She professes a vow to have an audience at P'eng-lai
of the new nun. Many of them have the title "Sending with the Queen Mother,
off a Palace Person to Enter the Way" A Then return to the human world and bestow tran-
scendent recipes.26

24 See, for example, Kathryn Tsai, "The Chinese Buddhist

Monastic Order for Women: the First Two Centuries," in 25 "A Person from the Han Palace Enters the Way," CTS,
Women in China, ed. Guisso and Johanesson (Philo Press, han 5, ise 1, ch. 2, 26a (1647).
1981), and Diana Paul, Women in Buddhism (Berkeley, 26 "Sending off a Person from the Han Palace to Enter the
1980). Way," CTS, han 5, is e 5, ch. 4 (1802).

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 CAHILL: Hsi Wang Mu as the Patron Deity of Women in Medieval China 163

This novice swears to attend the goddess's court at one Pacing the void, she still makes the sound of a
of the islands of the immortals in the Eastern Sea. repressed song.28

After learning the secrets of transcendence, she will

return to teach them to humans. Her vow resembles Still humming ceremonial tunes, she performs her
the bodhisattva vow in Mahayana Buddhism. Attend- night meditations in which she visualizes herself walk-
ing the Queen Mother's court is a required step on the ing from star to star in the heavens.
ascent to transcendence; the novice has set forth on the Li Shang-yin 3Pi captures the despondency of a
transcendent path. Mr. Han whose beloved has taken holy orders. Li
Yin Yao-fan God portrays another aristocratic paints for him the scene of her initiation.
lady leaving behind the strife and competition of life in
the imperial harem. Her vocation foretold in a dream, The star emissary is dispatched and returns-not of his
she begins to study with a lady scholar. own accord.

Paired lads hold it up with both hands: her green and

She removes and discards her palace make-up, her rose-gem chariot.
embroidered robes of multicolored damask, Beneath a nine-branched lamp, she attends court at the
And dons a golden crown and plain white garments, Metal Basilica;
cut to suit her. Amidst clouds of the Three Simplicities, she serves at
Given a name, she has recently offered up her the Jade Storied Building.
resignation to the lord her king's decree;
With Phoenix Girl, wild and unrestrained, she com-
Register hanging at her belt, she newly consults her
pletes a long-term separation;
master-an aged lady scholar.
With the moon goddess, widowed and alone, she wants
At white daybreak, she passes over the jade staircase; to wander together.
In the pure empyrean, she dreams of pacing the At that time it seemed she loved the Worthy Han;
Turquoise Pond. Buried bones may become ash, but regrets will never
Her girl companions with their green-glinting topknots cease.29
repress sorrow at separation;

Her release is now complete from those years of envy Again, attending court at the Queen Mother's paradise
over favors and private affairs." signifies gaining official recognition of having achieved
transcendence. In poems related to the scenario of the
The novice in a poem by Hsiang Szu 3*X&j takes annovice entering the convent, the Queen Mother of the
oath to imitate the example of a celestial attendant of West acts as the ruler of women at all stages of the path
the Queen Mother and become a transcendent. She to transcendence. She appears in dreams and visions
participates in Taoist ceremonies as a musician. to attract them to religious life, protects them as
they progress, and registers them when they achieve
"I vow to follow the transcendent woman, Tung transcendence.
Shuang-ch'eng, Most of the ladies we know about who became nuns
Before the Queen Mother, to act as her companion and were members of the elite: ladies of the imperial harem
make progress." or aristocratic clans. Some Taoist nuns in the T'ang
Just beginning to wear the jade crown, it often impedes dynasty were members of the royal family. Three
her salutations. poems in the "Complete T'ang Poetry" honor Princess
As she departs the Metal Basilica, she takes a separate Jade Verity T a D , granddaughter of the emperor
name. Kao Tsung -`f, a (r. 650-684), daughter of the emperor

Picking up a baton, she strikes the lithophone used for

Jui Tsung 4tr (r. 684-690 and 710-712), and sister
of the emperor Hsuan Tsung (r. 712-756), all devotees
the new fast at the cyan drop-off,
Then approaches the zither given in former times at the
Shimmering Yang Basilica.
From dawn to dusk, burning incense circles the altar-
28 "Sending off a Person from the Palace to Enter the Way,"
top;
CTS, han 9, ts'e 1, ch. 6, 14a (3370).
29 "In Response to Han, the Recorder of Affairs' 'Sending
27 "A Person from the Palace Enters the Way," CTS, han 8,off a Person from the Palace to Enter the Way,"' CTS, han 3,
tse 2, ch. 5, lOa (2956). ts e 1, c/h. 4, 13a (3260).

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 164 Journal of the American Oriental Society 106.1 (1986)

of Taoism. Jade Verity became a nun in 711, along A second poem by Kao Shih, also entitled "Song of
with her sister Princess Golden Transcendent Afdd the Princess Jade Verity," shows the princess as the
a* . Jade Verity's father, the emperor Jui Tsung, female transcendent guardian of the Taoist archives, in
built a lavish temple for her in the northwest of the possession of its treasures and secrets, esoterica she
capital city of Ch'ang-an, next to the imperial harem. refuses to disclose to the poet.
This is just one example of the T'ang royal family's
committed and generous patronage of Taoism. In the transcendent archives of the transcendent palace

Li Po 4Eb writes of the princess as an advanced there is a realized transcendent.

adept, flying through the clouds to the sacred moun- But celestial treasures and celestial transcendence are
tains of the west and beyond. secrets which must never be transmitted.

Even if one inquires about Hsuan the Illustrious One's

The transcendent person Jade Verity, three hundred years,

Oftentimes goes to the peaks of grand Mount Hua. How can that compare to a thousand years of the great
At pure dawn she sounds the Celestial Drum; Way'?32

A whirlwind arising, she soars up on paired dragons.

Poems addressed to other female religious feature
She plays with lightning, without resting her hands,
Hsi Wang Mu in the role of model, superior, and
Traverses the clouds, never leaving a trace.
guardian. Poets often compare especially lofty or
Whenever she enters the Minor Apartment Peak,
talented priestesses and adepts to the Queen Mother or
The Queen Mother will certainly be there to meet
her attendants. The poems might assume a playful
her.)0
tone. For instance, Shih Chien-wu X f admonishes
the Taoist master, Jade Flower Cheng
There was a shrine to the Queen Mother at Mount Hua
VLL.. as we know from other poems. The princess In the middle of Bright Mirror Lake, don't pick lotus
worshipped the goddess there and at her shrine on
flowers;
Mount Sung ,LLJ. Li Po emphasizes the successful
Instead take the Amah as master and study the divine
results of Jade Verity's practice. Not only does she
transcendents.
have divine powers, but her virtue is attractive enough
A vermilion thread, inadvertently fallen from your
to ensure that the Queen Mother will greet her in
blue bag:
person, confirming her legitimacy and status.
Now which string from your harp is it?33
According to another poet, Kao Shih m it is only
natural that a T'ang princess enter a convent, for the
Shih assumes an easy familiarity between adept and
charisma of the imperial Li 4 clan derives from goddess
its which allows the mortal woman to refer to the
Taoist primal ancestor Lao tzu. In a poem he calls the
Queen Mother as "Amah." His use of this term shows
"Song of the Princess Jade Verity," Kao suggests that
that Shih regards master Cheng as one of the jade
the clan will benefit from the princess's merit and last
maiden musicians in the Queen Mother's entourage.
forever.
He explicitly refers to the Queen Mother as her master,
against the usual Mao shan practice of transmission of
It's often said that the dragon's virtue was originally
religious teachings only between members of the
that of a heavenly transcendent;
opposite sex, and to the female transcendents as
And who claims transcendent people have all studied
examples for her to imitate.
transcendence?

I'd rather say, as the Mysterious Primordial points out,

Li K'ang-ch'eng 2PL addresses a poem to the
same master, praising her beauty and comparing her to
that the days of the Li clan,
other divine women, such as the Han dynasty tran-
Are more numerous than the years of the peach tree
scendents who collected dew to make the elixir of
planted by the Queen Mother.3"
immortality, the goddess of the Lo River, the moon
goddess, the celestial attendant Rose-gem Hsti, and the
The dragon is Hsuan Tsung, Jade Verity's brother and
Lady of the Supreme Primordial. Each of these god-
the reigning emperor when Kao wrote his song. Jade
desses had contact with mortal men in legend, and had
Verity bears witness to her family's divine connections.

32 Ibid.
3( "Song of the Transcendent Person, Jade Verity," CTS,
han 3, ts e 4, ch. 7, 6a (948). 3 "Given to the Female Taoist Master, Jade Flower Cheng:
31 CTS, han 3, tse 10, ch. 4, 17a (1213). Two Pieces," CTS, han 8, ts e 2, ch. 7, 15a (2969).

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 CAHILL: Hsi Wang Mu as the Patron Deity of Women in Medieval China 165

the capacity to aid them in their pursuit of immortality. Prolonged without limit,
Jade Flower Cheng teaches the narrator the arts of We will eternally follow one another.
transcendence and flies with him to the Turquoise Reaching the empyrean, we pass the Golden Watch-
Pond in the Queen Mother's paradise. towers;

Playing with images, we descend to the Turquoise

The Little Purple Yang Transcendent, her given name
Pond.
is Jade Flower.
In the evening we spend the night by the cloud mother
At the pearl basin she receives dew, then makes cakes
(mica) curtains of the Purple Archives;
of powdered cinnabar.
In the morning we eat K'un-lun fungus from the
Of variable attitude and congealed passions, within the
Mysterious Orchard.
five-colored clouds,
I did not study orchid incense-the middle way is cut
Her delicately beautiful countenance lasts thousands
off;
of years: a lotus blossom.
But she instructs the blue bird to report our mutual
Among the Select Women in the Purple Yang Palace,
thoughts .334
the conceited are uncountable;
But when even in the far distance one sees Jade
Li celebrates a divine marriage between a human
Flower, they all seem to hide their beauty.
shaman-king and a goddess: the poem includes astral
The first-emerging sun at the lofty audience hall does
travel, ascent to transcendence, eating magic mush-
not have her perfected allure.
rooms of immortality from the Queen Mother's
Flowing wind from the Lo River islands, in her wake
paradise, registering with the Queen Mother, and a
are spontaneously moved.
final separation. After separating, the couple sends
By the Jade Template Staircase-rainbow white
messages via the blue bird, the goddess's envoy, which
damask apartments.
Jade Flower is on close enough terms with Hsi Wang
By the Cyan-inscribed Gates-frosty netted gauze
Mu to borrow.
curtains.
As we see from the foregoing, Hsi Wang Mu
Transcendent Ch'ang 0 and the cinnamon tree prolong
governed romantic encounters between Taoist priest-
their own springs;
esses and laymen. In her capacity as divine match-
The Queen Mother's peach flowers have never yet
maker, she arranged liaisons between mortal couples
fallen.
that reflect the divine marriage of the goddesses with
The Lady of the Supreme Primordial visits as a guest
Mao shan Taoist adepts. Li Shang-yin invites the Sung
the realm of Supreme Clarity.
sisters, two Taoist nuns, to steal Hsi Wang Mu's elixir
Inside the deep palace, passing time in isolation and
drugs while he steals her peaches from Mount K'un-
quiet,
lun. Then they can all join forces and ascend to
She is annoyed with the many-layered city walls.
transcendence in ecstatic union.
She undoes her belt pendants; in vain is she moved by
Ch'eng Chiao-tu.
Stealing peaches and snatching drugs: these things are
Blowing the syrinx, she does not follow Rose-gem
hard to do simultaneously.
Hsu.
In the middle of the twelve-layered city walls. locked
Relaxed and easy-going, she paces the purple court-
up-the multicolored toad.
yard.
We should taste them together with "thrice blossoming"
Subtle and difficult to perceive, on the Ying Platform
one the same night.
Road.
Then the jade storied buildings will become nothing
With the noble scholar of the Orchid Tumulus, she
but these rock crystal curtains.35
declines a mutual encounter.
But toward the young notary from north of the Ch'i,
she turns back and looks.
The rock crystal (literally "water germ" *er )}curtains
of their bedroom will become a microcosmic heaven on
A proud emissary from the Glaucous Isle-land loves
earth.
gold and cinnabar;
He purifies his heart and returns a far-off gaze to the
tip of the clouds. S4 "ong of the Little Jade Floriate Transcendent," CTS,
Feathered umbrella and rainbow gown: each recognizes han 3, ts" i9eh a . 3, 9b- [a ( t I 56-57)
the other. 3 "On a Moonlit Night- Again I Send a Message to Sung
Transmitting passions, we describe our thoughts to Hua-yang and her Younger Sister," CTS, han 8, ts'e 9, h. 2,
one another-prolonged without limit. 22b (3264).

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 166 Journal of the American Oriental Society 106.1 (1986)

Li Shang-yin wrote another poem to a Taoist nun This calligrapher also witnessed the planting of Hsi
known as Precious Lamp We, reminiscing about a Wang Mu's peach trees. She takes the material for her
past meeting on the Turquoise Tower in the Queen craft from another of the Queen Mother's creatures:
Mother's paradise. the moon rabbit. Contact with the goddess confers
credibility as a transcendent upon the woman.
The transcendent person of the Purple Archives, her
Chang Chi 3x, impressed with a young Taoist
courtesy name is Precious Lamp.
recluse he calls "The Maiden Who Does not Eat"
Her cloud broth, not yet swallowed, sets and freezes.
T~t, addresses a poem to her which describes her
What would it be like, on a night with snow and moon eccentricities and austerities:
mingling their radiance.
To be once again on the twelve stories of the Turquoise How many years have you dwelt in the mountains?
Tower?36
You've already created a green-downed body.
Guarding your pneuma, you regularly thin out your
Precious Lamp, distracted from her elixir brew, broods speech;
over a magic winter's night in the Queen Mother's
Concentrating your thoughts, you yourself see divin-
paradise.
ities.
The aim of the practices the Queen Mother trans-
mitted to her dependents was immortality. Sometimes You nourish the tortoise and at the same time do not
she granted immortality to her women followers. Shih eat;

Chien-wu writes of an old Taoist recluse, the Tran- Even herbal drugs you reject, so that they grow dust.

scendent Crone Who Skims the Heavens itfWig: I must ask the Queen Mother,
What is your rank among the immortals?9
How long has it been since the Amah descended from
the heavens? This maiden lives in the mountains, practicing aus-
In previous dynasties, only the Illustrious One of the terities such as breathing exercises, silence, meditation,
Han knew her. visualization, and rejection of normal food. She has
Transcendent peaches have ripened no less than three already sprouted green down, in preparation for
times. growing the feathers of a fully fledged transcendent.
Look! He's full-Tung-fang, that one little kid!37 She protects the immortal embryo growing within her.
The closing question assumes the Queen Mother's role
Shih compares the aged recluse to the Queen Mother as registrar of female transcendents who keeps the roll
herself-she also lived through three peach cycles of a books of the immortals.
thousand years each, saw the emperor Han Wu-ti, and Perhaps the most compelling poems relating the
watched the trickster Tung-fang Shuo ; t eat his Queen Mother to mortal women are those presented
fill of peaches stolen from her garden. by lay admirers to the high-ranking Taoist priestesses
The same poet wrote a quatrain admiring a skilled known as Refined Masters (lien shih I#OiV ). The
Taoist calligrapher. Shih highlights her age, eminence, Refined Master (or Refined Mistress) held the highest
and talents: title in a female Taoist cloistered community. Refined
Masters had no administrative duties; they brought
Among the flocks of transcendent women, her name isblessings and prestige to a temple through their prac-
the highest.
tice. The Refined Master had already achieved en-
She once saw the Queen Mother of the West plant lightenment through her religious attainments and was
transcendent peaches.
guaranteed ascent to immortality. Poems on the subject
The metal slips she takes up in her hand are made with form a set with certain fixed features. Her achievements
no ordinary brush;
derive from and are licensed by the Queen Mother. The
They say hers is made from fur of the jade rabbit by Queen Mother arrives in a vision or in corporeal form
heaven's side.38
to bear witness to the priestess's lineage and virtues.
She registers and certifies her as a transcendent. The
36 "Without a Title," CTS, han 8, is e 9, ch. 1, 21b (3245). poet compares the priestess to the Queen Mother or to
37 Given to the Transcendent Crone who Skims the her attendant. The poem concludes with a request for
Heavens," CTS, han 8, is 'e 2, ch. 7. instruction. Poems by Wang Wei, Li Po, and Li Ch'i
38 "Canto of the Transcendent Woman," CTS, han 8, is e 2,
ch. 7, 20a/b (2071). 39 CTS, han 6, ts e 6, ch. 3, 3b-4a (2277).

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 CAHILL: Hsi Wang Mu as the Patron Deity of Women in Medieval China 167

address a Refined Mistress Chiao who lived at Mount Leading me to suspect she is a member of the house-
Sung, the holy mountain of the center.40 hold of the Amah of Tortoise Mountain.42
A number of poems addressed to Refined Masters
show their intimacy with the goddess. In a quatrain The music immediately identifies this amorous creature
addressed to the Refined Master Hsiao N, Po Chu-yi as a member of the Queen Mother's celestial family.
suggests that lady's reliance on the Queen Mother Liu Yen-shih 'J , 1 . praises the Refined Master
when he first submits his poems to the goddess for Ch'eng O; by identifying her with a jade girl who
approval and then borrows one of her jade girls to attended the rites in the palace of the emperor Han
carry the scroll to Ms. Hsiao: Wu-ti:

Flowered paper, turquoise wrappers, pine-black Once you followed the Amah to the Han palace feast:
graphs: Phoenix-harnessed dragon coaches arrayed on the
Taking them up above the heavens, with whom can I jade staircase.
open them? Just at this time, the white swallows have disappeared
I tried submitting them to the Queen Mother-it without a trace.
seemed they might bear chanting. But your cloud hair-coils today display jade hairpins.43
41

Now I dispatch Shuang-ch'eng, to bring still more.

Ch'eng wears jade hairpins from the time of the feast a
The goddess, protector of female adepts, here plays the millennium before. Once again the poet likens the
role of divine censor. The Refined Master Hsiao shares Refined Master to a jade girl. We have come full circle
servants with the goddess, and she too receives tribute back to the Queen Mother's attendants when the poets
in the form of poems from Po Chu-yi. These indications compare the Refined Master to a jade maiden.
of partial equality with the Queen Mother imply that The Queen Mother was a mediator, a master, and an
Hsiao's status is very high. ideal. According to T'ang dynasty beliefs, she mediated
These short poems on Refined Masters often have a between heaven and earth, living on the cosmic moun-
light, humorous tone. They may refer to the goddess as tain K'un-lun where deities could descend and humans
"Amah": "wetnurse" or "nanny." Hsi Wang Mu is the ascend. She ruled the path between the two worlds.
nursemaid or godmother of the priestesses who, like She herself transmitted the word of the sacred texts to
the singing girls, are frequently identified as her the human world from the divine. Although rarely
attendants. The informal tone emphasizes their easy teaching her women followers directly, she was the
intimacy. Sometimes it also indicates a prurient interestultimate source of all wisdom, skill, and art. As
in the life of the female religious on the part of the mistress of the other goddesses, she controlled their
poets. In a four line poem, "Playfully Given to Chang, gifts and skills as well, such as the arts of weaving,
the Refined Master" I ffga , by Ch'uan Te-yii music, and healing. She controlled the arts of im-
4 j. W , the priestess reveals herself to the narrator as mortality: meditation, prayer, visualization, breathing
a transcendent when she dances, beckons him from a exercises, dietary regimens, sexual techniques, medi-
grotto heaven, and offers him an elixir drink: cines, elixirs, and alchemy. She was godmother, nurse-
maid, and nanny to women in the Tao. As patroness
Moon cape whirling and twirling, she plucks apricot and official in charge of women in Taoism, she was
flowers. responsible for registering, ranking, and assigning
Beckoning me to the mouth of the grotto, she urges me duties to female immortals. The Queen Mother pro-
to drink flowing auroral clouds. vided two models for women outside traditional roles.
When I'm half intoxicated, suddenly she performs the Women performers could imitate the model of the
"Cloud Harmony Tune." celestial attendant. A few extraordinary women able or
willing to rise above social constraints and become
Taoist nuns or adepts could imitate the Queen Mother
4" These poems are admirably translated and explicated in
herself. Women who remained within the family system
Paul W. Kroll, "Notes on Three Taoist Figures of the T'ang
Dynasty," Societi' for the Study of Chinese Religions Bulletin
9 (1981), 22-30. 42 "Playfully Given to Chang, the Refined Master," CTS,
4' "After Sending the Refined Master Hsiao Ten Poems han
on 5, is'e 8, ch. 3, 9b (1913).
Pacing the Void, I Continue Them at the End of the Scroll 42 "Given to Ch'eng, the Refined Master: Four Pieces,"
with Two Quatrains," CTS, han 7, ts'e 4, (h. 2, 13a (2616). CTS, han 7, Is e 9, ch. 6, 9b (2828).

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168 Journal of the American Oriental Society 106.1 (1986)

might find support for a measure of independence and culture. Goddesses are often male fantasies: sexual or
self-realization in the model of the goddess. Poets maternal. This is clearly not the case with Hsi Wang
found in her an image of female talent, beauty, wisdom, Mu. A goddess can also provide social role models
dignity, and power. which have the effect of keeping women in line. Hsi
Women protected by Hsi Wang Mu, in both the Wang Mu does not support the dominant social norms
religious and poetic texts, share certain characteristics. for women in medieval Chinese society. Instead, she
They stand outside the traditional family system, fol- legitimizes alternative paths. She embodies a model of
lowing alternative paths of life to the mainstream roles women as dynamic and creative, independent forces.
of daughter, wife, and mother. They may be above or For people of the T'ang dynasty, she represented the
below the social norm. A Tang princess was a member essential importance of the in side of humanity.
of the elite; a T'ang prostitute nearly an outcast. They
were all special women: divine, transcendent, dead,
royal,femnrnes fatales, musically talented, or devoted to 44 One medieval medical text, for example, which describes
a religious life. Perhaps the Queen Mother's patronage the Queen Mother's ability to remain young and healthy by
of women outside the traditional norms made her seem absorbing lang energy from her sexual partners, can only be
appealing to unorthodox millenarian sects in later called gynophobic:
centuries, and helped make her worship seem sub-
versive to government authorities.
Master Ch'ung-ho said: "It is not only the male
What did medieval Chinese women want from Hsi
potency that can be nurtured, but the same applies to
Wang Mu? Since we have no prayers to the goddess
the female potency. Hsi Wang Mu is an example of a
written by women, we have no direct answer. But
women who obtained the Way (of obtaining immor-
women compared to the goddess or her attendants seek
tality) by nurturing her yin essence. Every time she had
something outside the householder's life: immortality
had intercourse with a man, he would immediately fall
as a perfected transcendent or economic independence
ill, but her own face was smooth and transparent, so
as a performer. Significantly, the goddess is never
that she had no need of rouge or face powder. She
mentioned as a granter of children. Nor does she
always fed on milk and played the five-stringed lute, so
support family-oriented virtues for women, such as
that her heart was always harmonious and her thoughts
obedience and self-sacrifice. Some men found her
composed and she had no other desires. Also: the
sexuality, ungoverned by traditional Chinese family
Queen of the Western Paradise had no husband but
restrictions and taboos, threatening." Many of the
she liked to copulate with young boys. This secret,
goddess's female worshippers were single or single
however, should not be divulged, lest other women
again, by choice or by biographical accident. They
should try to imitate the Queen Mother's methods.
wanted Taoist and professional techniques, legitima-
tion, prestige, and power from the goddess.
The relationship between "real" women and god- (The translation is by Robert Hans Van Gulik, Sexual Life in
desses varies greatly, even within medieval Chinese Ancieni China [Leiden, 1961], 158.)

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