early buddhism in china: daoist reactions 207
who could bestow upon them immortality. She was thus some sort of
ruler over life and death, could provide the elixir of immortality^21 and
lead the souls of the deceased to her paradise.
In her earliest known image, on the mural paintings of Bu Qian-
qiu’s tomb in Luoyang, Henan (dated to the rst half of the
rst century BC), she is depicted as sitting on wave-like clouds in a
three-quarters pose, wearing her hair in the same way as her typical
sheng headdress^22 in later representations and expecting the arrival
of the occupant of this tomb standing on a snake and his wife riding
a three-headed phoenix.^23 Not only the departed souls were cared for
by her, she also protected the living. Cui Zhuan’s (the contempo-
rary of the usurper Wang Mang , r. 9–23) Yi lin (Forest of
Changes) therefore recommends:
[In case you are] pierced through the nose and bound to a tree [when
you are] cornered by a tiger, [only if to Xi] Wang Mu you pray, this
misfortune will not turn into a catastrophe [but] suddenly [you will be
able to] return on your own.^24Most impressive is the description of a mass movement of her adher-
ents who, exhausted due to a severe drought, hurried to the capital
where they expected an imminent cataclysm and the appearance of
the goddess as sort of a Messiah to save those who believed in her.
Of this incident three accounts are to be found at different places in
Ban Gu’s (32–92) Hanshu (History of the Han Dynasty).^25
Its original form, however, is preserved in Xun Yue’s (148–209)
Qian Han ji (Records of the Former Han Dynasty) of 200.^26
The reconstructed passage reads:
During the rst, second and third month of the fourth year of Emperor
Ai’s jianping era (3 BC) there was a great drought. People east of the
[Hangu] pass were disturbing each other, roared and were running
around in panic. They held stalks of straw or hemp, passed them on
to one another, saying: “[We] are transporting the Queen Mother of
the West’s tally.” The numbers of [those persons who thus] met on the(^21) The earliest reference is Huainanzi 7.10a, this text being compiled sometime before
139 BC, cf. Le Blanc 1993. 22
An object made of jade, mentioned in Huainanzi 6.13a.
(^23) Segment 5 in the upper register, g. 43a, and, enlarged, g. 43b in Wu Hung
1989, p. 113. Sun Zuoyun 1977, p. 62, g. 17.
(^24) Yi lin B, 1.33a and B 3.8a.
(^25) Hanshu 11.342, 26.1311, 27C.1476.
(^26) Qian Han ji 29.