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The popular cult of the Mother Queen of the West

The popular excitement in the spring and summer of 3 B.C., connected
with the worship of the Mother Queen of the West (Hsi-wang-mu), deserves
careful notice. Unfortunately we know little about it; all the
relevant passages are to be found in the text and notes under this date.
The Mother Queen of the West figures in ancient Chinese legends and
grave-sculptures before and after this date. She was then supposed to be
an immortal, dwelling in the far western K'un-lun Mountains, in a grotto
inside a metal house in a stone city, and to have three green birds who
brought her food to this desert place. She had a human body, a leopard's
tail, tiger's teeth, which latter were good for whistling, and brilliant
white tangled hair, in which she wore a peculiar high jade hair-ornament.
She was probably now represented as offering to her devotees a means of
escaping death from starvation and becoming as immortal as she was.

This incident seems to have been a soteriological religion promising
immortality, in many respects similar to the Bacchic religion of ancient
Greece. The drought brought it popularity. The present Shantung,
where it started, is still susceptible to this sort of ecstatic, revivalistic
religious agitation. It did not affect the bureaucracy or court, hence is
merely mentioned in the History as a curious incident, a portent requiring
explanation.