QUEST for the ARCHETYPAL IMAGE of XI WANG MU -A Mythological Study of the Mother Goddess in Ancient China

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QUEST FOR THE ARCHETYPAL IMAGE OF XI WANG MU -A Mythological Study of the Mother Goddess in Ancient China-

Masako MORI*

Introduction

The earliest mention of Xi wang mu is found among the oracle-bone texts in Period I of the Yin Dynasty of China, in which she appears in an abridged form as the "Mother in the East" (dong mu) or rather as the "Mother in the West" (xi mu). There are, hereafter, various evidences concerning Xi wang Mu and their interpretations by Chinese as well as Japanese specialists. Some surmise that Xi wang mu was a supernatural being such as a goddess or a monster, while the others argue that it was nothing but a place name. It is certain that there were two interpretations of Xi wang mu first as a goddess and second as a land or a country. This dichotomy was already recognized by Lu si mian who wrote(1) that there were two theories concerning Xi wang mu in ancient times: according to one, she was a goddess; and according to another, her name was a country. Further, the former theory can be classified as follows: 1. She appears in oracle-bone texts as a goddess who may be related to sun worship. 2. She is a monster-like goddess who dwells in mountainous districts. 3. She is a supernatural spirit who acquires immortality. 4. She is a fairy-like being who owns the elixir of immortality. 5. She is a goddess of good omen who communicates with secular emperors like Yao, Shun, Yu, Huang di, Han wu and Zhao wang of Yan. 6. She is the queen of the goddesses who ultimately becomes the empress of Dong wang gong in the Taoistic system. 7. This name signifies the westernmost area of China as one of the four cosmic wastelands (Si huang).

* Graduate Student, Keio University.

Vol. XXVI 1990 1 8. The name indicates a land west of China. 9. This is the name of a tribe which lived in the western district of China. 10. This is the name of a chieftain of such a place or district. The present situation, it must be confessed, is confusing. I believe that this confused state can be resolved definitely if we arrange the informations in accordance with successive periods. These can not be treated as contemporary. Each feature of Xi wang mu must have represented one stage in its mythological development. My point of view is that they did not exist simultaneously in ancient China but that the image of Xi wang mu changed progressively down through the ages. This position is not without its forerunners: Xuon zhu (Mao dun) noted and discussed such successive stages in the mythological development of Xi wang mu(2) and Wu han (Chen puo) postulated eight stages, classifying changing anecdotes of Xi wang mu.(3) Many other scholars in China have also treated this problem.(4) In our country, too, Profs. Takuji Ogawa, Rokuro Shiba and, recently, Ichiro Kominami have followed this line of research in one way or another. Prof. Shiba posits an argument on the subject of the evolution of the Xi wang mu myth. His theory is based upon the Chinese usage of confounding phonetical values with ideographical meanings: once, Xi wang mu was nothing but the name of a country; afterwards, however, it signified a woman, because the letter Mu (母) signifies“mother.”Ultimately, she was a woman of utmost beauty for the Chinese people.(5) About the historical development of the name, Chinese scholars mention various causes. Mao dun and Li de fang write that the process resulted more or less from Taoism and from fragmentary knowledge of the westernmost tribes in each period. Other causes may be simply misunderstandings, rumors, or hearsays, intellectual inferences, and embellishments. Further, changes of social forms and the people's minds or the influx of western ideas in modern times may have influenced interpretations. As Mr. Yukio Sawamura has already written,(6) all these theories noticed the change but they only treated it as accidental. Instead, I consider the whole history of Xi wang mu worship in ancient China as a type of evolution of the original idea of the mother goddess. The direction of the development of the worship was necessary, although this development was only realized stage by stage. Material sources concerning Xi wang mu are rather disparate

2 ORIENT QUEST FOR THE ARCHETYPAL IMAGE and do not seem to be explained by any coherent theory. Scholars have treated the evidences as if they were all of a contemporary nature; thus, they have approved some of them as acceptable and trustworthy and rejected others. In contrast with this manner of thinking, I would accept as many sources as possible, so that I could then piece them all together and try to trace the historical development of Xi wang mu worship. In the process of my work of recovering the history of Xi wang mu, I paid special attention to the supposed "missing link" that would make it possible to piece together various elements of Xi wang mu that are reflected in various sources of her worship. I believe, then, we can at last synthesize all the elements and reduce them into one image of the goddess. I think that the original idea of Xi wang mu has been concealed in the concept of the great mother. Xi wang mu's history must be seen as the process of development of this concept. I would use it, therefore, as archetypal and proceed to establish the so-called three natures of Xi wang mu. With the aid of the archetypal concept and of the three natures, we can then piece together almost all material sources which might even be considered very contradictory at first glance. I believe that Xi wang mu was one of the mother goddesses who orginally appeared in a matrimonial society during the stone age. Thus, in the subse- quent three chapters of this article, first and foremost, I discuss some Near Eastern examples of mother goddesses because these cults can be attested to in a very conspicuous manner by epigraphists, philologists, and archaeo- logists. Myth and plastic images of the mother goddess were created so richly and continued to exist through so many generations in the Near East and influenced other regions of the world. Then, I proceed to compare their main features (functions, epithets, and attributes) with those of Xi wang mu. This is because I think the latter is nothing but one of the Chinese mother goddesses. Furthermore, I would say that the above mentioned features resulted, in the case of Xi wang mu, from the historical development of the idea of the mother goddess in China. Such a development should not be viewed only as the results of external influences that might have occurred rather accidentally in the long course of ancient Chinese history. I suppose that this view of mine could be supported by the similarity of Xi wang mu with West Asiatic mother goddesses. Vol. XXVI 1990 3 In short, my method is a kind of comparative mythology. My aim is to utilize this method and restitute the lost and concealed image of Xi wang mu and, at the same time, to substantiate that she herself was a mother goddess. I have to mention, at last, a recent discovery of a group of neolithic pottery nude figures at Hong shan site, Liao ning.(7) Their eyes are inlaid with green jades. Their breasts and waists are emphasized like the same sort of pottery idols, which have been dug at various Near Eastern sites. It is sure that they represent mother goddesses, and this news seems to be an archaeological support of my theory about the origin of Xi wang mu, for which I must use only literary evidences in this article.

Chapter I

To begin with, I would compare Xi wang mu with Cybele, a mother goddess, who was also named Magna Mater by the Romans. Cybele first appeared in the cuneiform documents from Kultepe, Anatolia, at the beginning of the second millenium B.C. and later from Ugarit-Ras Shamra in the fourteenth and thirteenth centures B.C. In those days, she seems to have been called Kubaba. It is clear that she was native to Anatolia, but we do not know when her cult was initiated and where the center of her cult was located.(1) It seems that during the Hittite period, she remained as one of the minor, local deities. Her name was retained in the list of the deities which the Hittite scribes compiled.(2) This situation changed completely, however, when the Hittite Empire was destroyed in ca. 1200 B.C. Phrygians, the new conquerors and rulers of Anatolia, accepted Cybele-Kubaba as ont of their national godheads and dedicated themselves to the cult of the autochthonous goddess. Cybele played an important role in this legendary world and votive monuments to her were continuously being built in all of Anatolia in the succeeding centuries. She protected fecundity and induced abundant harvests, but, by the time the Greeks had established themsleves in Ionia and other maritime districts of Anatolia, she, a supreme goddess, was considered almost almighty and now ruled over prophecy, the healing of diseases, and the taming of wild animals in the forests and mountains. Her name was known all over the Mediterranean world. Greeks and Romans identified her successively with

4 ORIENT QUEST FOR THE ARCHETYPAL IMAGE Rhea and Artemis-Diana. As M. J. Vermaseren noted, Cybele's original nature was never lost, even after she had been accepted by foreigners;(3) that is, she continued to be the mistress of beasts and androgyny. While possessing such irrelevant features for a mother goddess, she was the ruler over nature and the mother of the gods. This signifies that she was elevated to the top of all the goddesses. Being a mountain goddess,(4) she was called Meter Oreia until later periods. Her titles, like Berecynthia, Dindymene or Idaia, came from the names of the mountains where she was worshipped. The name Cybele was based upon a legend told by Diodorus (II, 3, 58, 1), that she was found as an orphan on Mount Cybele, while Pausanias (i, 4, 5), relates that another name for this goddess was Agdistis, because she was born on Mount Agdus. Actually, many Anatolian mountains were often considered as the throne of Cybele, and her sanctuary was often placed on the top or the slope of a hill. Vermaseren thinks that her headdress, corona turrita, indicates her connection with mountains. She was the protectress of a citadel or rather a hill on which a citadel was constructed.(5) Next, Cybele was known also as the mistress of beasts (potnia theron). She was portrayed as striding off into the valley, on the hill or in the forest. Her conduct was as if she were the mother or friend of animals. She communicated with them. There were as many myths and legends as monuments of her supremacy over beasts. According to Diodorus Meion, her father and the king of Phrygia, threw her away immediately after birth. She was nursed and suckled by lionesses and she-panthers. People erected her temple on Mount Pessinus, where she was pictured with a pair of lions or panthers. These animals raised her as if they were her real mothers and gave her the supernatural power which enabled her to cure diseases. The connection of Cybele with animals-above all, with lions is attested by the iconographical representation of her being flanked by them or riding on them. She never lost her feature as potnia theron.(6) As for the trait of Cybele being androgynous, Pausanias (VII, 17, 10) gives a detailed explanation. He tells us that Cybele was born from the union of Zeus and a goddess of Mount Agdus. She called herself Agdistis. She was bisexual by nature, but afterwards, gods removed her phallus. After she had become totally female, she fell in love with Attis, who was, in his turn, born from the union between this phallus (or rather a pomegranate Vol. XXVI 1990 5 created by it) and Nana, a daughter of a river god Sangarios. When this treacherous boy fell in love with another girl, Cybele became so angry with him that, at last, he was castrated. The loss of Attis's phallus, twice told in this story, is a bisexual motif and influenced the worship of Corybantes, the priests of Cybele. They hurt themselves in an orgy and were castrated at the zenith of it. This noisy and tragical show of Cybele's priests with flutes, tympani and cymbals was described by Ovid (Fasti, iv, 180-186; 207) and Lucretius (II, 610-624). They made pilgrimages from village to village and town to town. Such an androgynous feature of Cybele's worship had its own meaning and value. It was valid in unifying opposites, so that in the mystic cult it was recognized as the act which symbolized the archetypal union of the original opposites, as M. Eliade and G. Jung have expressed it in their own terminology. Androgynous phenomena are one of the archetypal principles which represent wholeness and unification.(7) We can find a clear picture of this phenomenon in the worship of Cybele. She was originally androgynous and brought to this world love and anger, fecundity, and death-all at the same time. In this respect Diodorus tells us another interesting story: Cybele was named Mother Goddess and was respected as a healing deity who introduced into this world prosperity. But at the same time, she also maliciously brought devastation, disease, and famine to all the lands of Phrygia, because she was so completely upset when Attis, her lover, was killed by her father. She was just a terrible mother. So much for Cybele's myth and her main features; in short, she was a mountain goddess, the mistress of beasts, and a hermaphrodite. We can now proceed to compare these features with those of Xi wang mu. It is not a difficult task for us to ascertain that Xi wang mu was a mountain goddess. For this point, we can rely upon literary as well as archaeological sources. In Shan hai jing we find that she lived on a mountain whose name was written in various ways: Yu shan in Xi shang jing, She wu zhi shan in Hai nei bei jing, and Yan huo zhi shan in Da huang xi jinv. Furthermort, in Huan lin's Xi wang mu zhuan (Life of Xi wang mu) we read:

Jin mu yuan jun was also called jiu ling tai miao gui shan jin mu…her other name was Xi wang mu. (Shuo fu juan 113)

6 ORIENT QUEST FOR THE ARCHETYPAL IMAGE And in Xuan yuan huang di zhuan we read: Once there lived a half-divine and half-human being called Xi wang mu who was the Moon spirit and a daughter of the heavenly emperor. Her face was like a tiger and her tail was like a panther. Her hair was not tied and on the top of it was a comb of jade. She uttered a roaring voice. Her dwelling was surrounded by a stone wall and put on a golden podium. She lived in a cave and sat on Mount Shao guang. There are other literary evidences which mention Xi wang mu's mountain, Gui or Shao guang. In later legends, Mount Kun lun became one of the most famous sacred mountains in ancient China, while it was gradually connected with the worship of Xi wang mu.(8) This connection definitely gave birth to the legend of the mountain goddess Xi wang mu. Archaeological materials confirm the same point. Some stelae found in Yi nan (Fig. I, a;b) and the wall painting in the main room of Pu qiu's grave in Luo yang show Xi wang mu sitting on the top of three hills of Kun lun or welcoming the deceased couple who rise up to Mount Kun lun. It is clear from these pictures that she was a mountain goddess.(9) Next, that Xi wang mu was a mistress of beasts is shown by such descriptions of her as having a panther's tail, tiger's teeth or a tiger's face.

Fig 1a Fig 1b

Vol. XXVI 1990 7 They indicate a close interrelationship of this half-divine and half-human being with the animal world. Since panthers and tigers were considered the most dreaded beasts in ancient China-just as lions were feared in the ancient Near East,-Xi wang mu must have been herself for ancient Chinese people the mistress of beasts whose mana she absorbed into her body. In Hai nei bei jin of Shan hai jing, she is pictured as leaning on an arm of her throne holding a scepter in her hand and being fed by three blue birds. This picture of Xi wang mu is different from that of Xi shan jing or Da huang xi jing in the same sutra. Few scholars have paid much attention to the expression, "leaning on an arm of her throne." I would compare it with the picture of Xi wang mu discovered in Si chuan sheng (Fig. 2), where her throne is flanked by a dragon and a tiger. This picture must represent Xi wang mu as a mistress of beasts, just as Cybele was often shown on her throne with flanking panthers or lions; and sometmes, she utilized these animals as the arms of her throne or as a footstool.(10) In later legends, three blue birds were interlinked with the three-legged bird which dwelt in the Sun.(11) At first, the three birds always served as helpers who fed Xi wang mu; this, too, symbolized the mistress of beasts

Fig 2

8 ORIENT QUEST FOR THE ARCHETYPAL IMAGE theme. About the cave or the cave dwelling of Xi wang mu,(12) there is further evidence in Di li zhi of Han shu which states: "Xi wang mu's stone chamber was situated northwest outside of Jin cheng lin qiang." Lie xian zhuan also states: "Chi song zi... was always retained in Xi wang mu's stone chamber." Mu tian zi zhuan further notes that Xi wang mu sang a poem that goes: "There are a multitude of tigers and panthers in the place where I live. There, crows and magpies also live together." This song supports the argument that Xi wang mu lived in the wilderness and was the mistress of beasts. Our last question is, "Was Xi wang mu an androgynous being?" There is no Chinese myth which recounts a half-female and half-male deity. The union of two opposite principles, however, can be found in Xi wang mu's myth; for example, her dragon and tiger flanked throne may signify the east and the west. Her attendants, a three-legged bird, a white hare, or a frog may represent the Sun and the Moon. Prof. Kominami says that such a kind of symbolism shows Xi wang mu's unifying power of opposing things, as though both sexes could be unified in a bisexual figure.(13) There are other minor similarities concerning the cults of Cybele and Xi wang mu. For example, Cybele was famous as a goddess of healing. In this respect, Pausanias tells us that she took care of preserving Attis's body flesh after her lover died tragically. This story suggests to us something of her powers of bestowing immortality. Xi wang mu was in her turn noted for her possession of the elixir of immortality, as is found in Huai nan zi. There is no doubt that she was considered a healing goddess in ancient China.(14) As for the orgiastic ritual of Cybele, it reminds us of the passages of Wu xing zhi in Han shu as follows: In the reign of Emperor Ai, on the New Year day in the fourth year of Jian ping, people were frightened and ran about. They grasped a straw or twig in their hands. Exchanging such objects with each other and crying out that they were inviting in good luck, many thousands of people went up and down the streets. Some loosened their hair and others walked barefoot. Some intentionally broke out of the city gates at midnight and others entered the city by scaling the city walls. Others drove chariots Vol. XXVI 1990 9 with utmost speed and left them unattended at coach stations. There were people who reached the capital city after having passed through almost twenty-six districts along the way. In the summer of that year, people who came into the capital from the districts thronged all the streets and lanes, performing rituals and songs and dances were dedicated in honor of Xi wang mu. It seems that social disturbances in early Han were accompanied by the worship of Xi wang mu. People were possessed to run about the streets, making much noise even at night and in such circumstances that the cult of Xi wang mu was performed.

About the glorious epithet, "Mother of the gods" which was given to Cybele, Xi wang mu, too, had some parallels: Ji xian lu states, "As Dong wang gong rules over male-spirits, so does Xi wang mu rule over female spirits." And according to Han wu di nei zhuan, she is at the front of all spirits which include many spirits and beauties of the palace and numerous heavenly spirits." These passages show that Xi wang mu was really the mother of gods. From the above, we can deduce that the similarities between Cybele and Xi wang mu are concrete and detailed. (It may be noteworthy, however, to state that we can find no parallel of the story of Attis, Cybele's young lover, in the mythology of Xi wang mu.)(15)

Chapter II

In this chapter, the central figure to be compared with Xi wang mu is Anat, who is quite different from Cybele in origin and in diffusion. Anat was worshipped in Ugarit (Ras Shamra), a city-state on the east Mediterranean coast during the fourteenth and thirteenth centuries B. C. The main sources of Anat are the cycle of Baal and Anat, a series of cuneiform texts in verse.(1) This mother goddess was studied by several scholars such as A. Vincent, U. Cassuto, C. H. Gordon, A. S. Kapelrud and others. All of them recognized in her a death bearing goddess and a furious and dauntless soldier. The first appearance of Anat in the cycle is a description of her behavior as follows: "Then Anat fought in the Valley; she smote down those living in cities;

10 ORIENT QUEST FOR THE ARCHETYPAL IMAGE she cut down the people of the seashore; she destroyed men of the sunrise. Under her were hands like locusts, hands of troops like heaps of barley. They reached up, the heads, to her back, the limbs were piled up to her belt. She waded to the knees in the blood of soldiers, to her seat in the gore of troops"(2) She was satisfied with such massacres. She changed valleys, towns, and seacoasts into battlefields all the way. The earth was full of dead bodies.(3) "Many did she massacre, and then rejoice saying and laughing that it all filled her heart with joy and her liver with vigor". Such violence and bloodthirstiness were repeatedly emphasized in the cycle. Anat was really a Kali or a Durga in Hinduism.(4) Another figure in the cycle is Baal, whose appearance seems to change the bloody behavior of Anat since the violent goddess became his lover. Nevertheless, as her actions should coincide with his, Anat always fought with Baal on the battlefield and scored victories for Baal's sake. Now they were proud of finding no enemies on earth(5) and Baal was successful in being enthroned on Mount Safon. The world now enjoyed peace instead of war and libations instead of bloodshed. Baal invited Anat to Safon so that he could advise her to retire as a female warrior. He prayed that war might disappear from the earth and that peace might prevail. Then, Baal asked Anat to entreat El and Ashera to the effect that "his own dwelling" should be built, because Baal did not have a palace. When Anat heard this complaint of Baal's, she flew (she was in possession of wings) to visit El and Ashera and entreated-or rather threatened-them to let Baal have a palace. Then, Katar-wa-Hasis, who were carpenter deities, were sent to do this work. The cycle ended in establishing Baal's palace as well as his kingship. The latter part of the cycle treats the death and the resurrection of Baal and describes Anat's important role in this myth-searching for the dead body of Baal, his burial, the lamentations, the memorial rites, and the revenge of Anat. In short, the cycle of Baal and Anat intends to show that Anat was originally a violent goddess of death. She changed herself, however, into a faithful partner of Baal, the ruler of the world and the founder of the kingdom. Anat became a female soldier for the benefit of her partner, that is, she became the winged messenger of Baal, his matron, and a cultural heroine. Vol. XXVI 1990 11 Now, how can these traits of Anat be observed in the image of Xi wang mu? To begin with, Xi wang mu is described as the goddess of death in Xi shan jing of Shan hai jing which reads that Xi wang mu rules over heavenly pestilences and the five kind of capital punishments. Guo pu's annotation for this passage states that she foresaw the coming of ill-omened pestilences, five punishments and great massacres. According to Hao yi xing, pestilences and punishments came from the names of stars which are ill-omened and sinister.(6) They represent the signs for inviting pestilential devils, of dest- ructing the five cosmic directions, and of punishing avaricious ministers. There is no doubt, therefore, that Xi wang mu was a sinister deity who perceived ill omens and presided over ominous stars. She brought disasters to human beings or, in a word, was a death goddess. Further, caves(7) in which this goddess lived might mean also graves and passages to the nether world, as E. Neumann writes.(8) The belief that she dwelt in a cave shows that she was a death goddess who could influence the dark realm of the dead. That Xi wang mu was a war goddess is stated in Li shi zhen xian ti dao tong jian hou ji as follows: Once Huang di tried to suppress the violent behavior of Chi you, but was unsuccessful. Chi you changed himself into a phantom, appearing again and again in every direction... The Emperor returned home and took a rest at the foot of Mount Da xi. He became weary and took a sleep. The King's mother (Xi wang mu) sent him a messenger, who wore a garment made of fox skin of a dark color. He gave the Emperor an amulet and told him that he could win the struggle with it if he engaged in battle in front of Mount Tai ji. The amulet was three inches wide and afoot long... At last, the Emperor won over Chi you at Zhong ji. Huang di xuan nu zhan fa (cited in Yu lan 15) tells a similar story: Huang di engaged in battle against Chi you nine times. Each time he could not win. The Emperor returned to Tai shan where he remained for three days and nights. Then, in the thick mist a woman appeared. She had a human head but her body was like a bird. The Emperor prostrated himself and worshipped her again and again. He was not able to rise by himself. The woman told him that she was the Old One (Xuan nu). She asked, 'What do you want?' He replied that he wanted to always win when he

12 ORIENT QUEST FOR THE ARCHETYPAL IMAGE engaged in battle. Then, at last, he was successful in learning and using tactics. These passages say that the Yellow Emperor could conquer Chi you only through the aid of the amulet or the knowledge of fighting that the messenger (the Old One, Xuan nu or Jiu tian xuan nu) of Xi wang mu conferred on him.(9) This story reminds us that Nu ba joined the battle between Huang di and Chi you so that she gave victory to the former (Da huang bei jing of Shan hai jing). Once, therefore, some Chinese goddesses acted as war goddesses; they came down to the earth to help Huang di just like Xuan nu or Nu ba and led him to victory in various ways. I think that Xi wang mu was actually the supreme war goddess and she presided over other war goddesses who were sometimes called three blue birds. There is a passage in Hai nei bei jing of Shan hai jing that Xi wang mu held a scepter in her hand. Competent scholars surmised that this scepter must have been, in fact, a later insertion. In an adjacent passage to this one, though, we find, "the person who maneuvers a thick stick stands facing east," and "Da xing buo holds a battle-axe." All these lines suggest that we are dealing with deities of warfare. Xi wang mu was really a war goddess who held as her attribute the scepter, which was as well an ancient weapon.(10) Finally, I will proceed to the problem of Xi wang mu as the protectress of the royal throne. There are two kinds of sources concerning this problem. As Da lue pian of Xun zi, Wu xing pian of Lun heng, Xiu zheng yu shang of Xin shu, Kun zhi di er of Jiao shi yi lin, Hou ji 12 of Lu shi, Han shi wai zhuan, 5 za shi of Xin xu and Kuo di to state, rulers and their messengers paid a visit to Xi wang mu. On the other hand, as Shao jian pian of Da dai li ji, Shi ben, Jue lu of Zhong lun, Rui ying to (cited in Yu lan 692), Fu rui zhi of Song shu and Ze shu ling zhun ting (cited Yi wen lei ju 11) state, it is Xi wang mu herself who visited rulers and brought them various gifts like white chalices, white bracelets and white vessels, which are all items of good luck. The most representative visitor to the realm of this goddess was Yu, while her host was almost always Emperor Shun, on the occasion of whose accession ceremony Xi wang mu travelled to give words of felicitation. According to the latter sources, it is generally accepted that she was actually the royal protectress: she blessed the reign of Shun and guaranteed his prosperous empire.(11) Vol. XXIV 1990 13 Fig 3

Fig 4

It is clear, therefore, that the main features of the Anat worship, death, warfare, and kingship can be observed also in the worship of Xi wang mu. Some other points may be seen in common for both deities. That Anat was winged is noted in the cycle of Baal and Anat.(12) and ascertained by pictures on many cylinder seals. A winged Xi wang mu is pictured in many stone reliefs which have been discoverd in Yi nan (Figs. 3, 4).(13) Messengers of both goddesses are in almost all cases bird shaped. Xi wang mu's representative messengers were three blue birds, while Yatpan, the messenger of Anat, sometimes changed himself into an eagle.(14) As Anat was born from the union of El, the head of the Ugaritic

14 ORIENT QUEST FOR THE ARCHETYPAL IMAGE pantheon, and Ashera, so, too, was Xi wang mu born into the royal family, that is, she was the daughter of the heavenly emperor. In the above mentioned Mu tian zi zhuan, she sang, "I am truly the emperor's daughter." This means that she came from the highest family in the Chinese pantheon.(15) Incidentally, it is a common trait that both goddesses were not wives but daughters in the family cycle.

Chapter III

There were many important traits which were rather irrelevant for the concept of "mother" or for representing motherhood in the worship of Cy- bele and Anat. In contrast with these two, the Sumerian mother goddess, manna, was typically feminine. She was a goddess of love and fecundity par excellence and worthy of the name "mother." A Sumerian hymn dedicated to manna praises her as the womb from which all things emerge, as the benevolent parent, as the life giver, and as the protectress of the whole world. In this hymn, manna was also the Moon goddess who poured light gently upon human beings. Her worship must have originated from a belief in maternity in primitive society.(1) During the neolithic revolution, these ideas were organized into the cult of fecundity and opulence, which was later inherited by civilized Sumerians. They called this maternal principle, manna. Among these people her cult was gradually organized as that of love and sexuality, and at the same time, her astral aspect changed from Moon worship to that of Venus.(2) The supreme expression of the newly established worship of maternity among the Sumerians was the sacred marriage rite that was performed on the occasion of the New Year's festival of the city-states. It was believed that the oldest rite of Sumerian hieros gamos began in the city of Uruk.(3) Priests, thinkers, and mythographers in that city invented the rite which was very successful in uniting the masculine and feminine elements of this ancient religion.(4) They believed that this rite would bring prosperity and peace to the land of Sumer. The masculine role was performed by the king of the city-state himself, and the feminine part was represented by manna, the guardian goddess of Uruk. Therefore, every distinguished king like Du- muzi, Enmerkar, Shulgi or Iddin-dagan was willing to visit manna's sanctu-

Vol. XXVI 1990 15 ary on New Year's day or on the occasion of his succession ceremony. This event was firmly established during the third millenium B. C. S. N. Kramer reconstructed the actual process of each stage of the sacred marriage rite, utilizing available cuneiform texts. According to him, the following five stages can be articulated: 1. Journey for courtship: This is the first stage of the hieros gamos rite. When a Sumerian king chose to perform it, he travelled to Eanna, manna's temple at Uruk.(5) 2. Presenting gifts: The king brought a huge quantity of gifts to his bride. They were a sort of dowry or tribute to attract her heart to the king.(6) The gifts to her or to her parents had to be luxurious and worthy of his status and wealth. 3. Marriage ceremony: Accepting the gifts, manna selected the king as her bridegroom and asked him to open the door of the temple. He would then find the goddess standing ready. Having bathed and dressed beautifully

herself, she then led the kind to her bed. "Dumuzi…gazed at Inanna with utmost joy, embraced and kissed her."(7) 4. Banquet: After the ceremony and consummation of the union, a great banquet was held to congratulate the couple. In the hymn of Shulgi, for example, a poet sings, "My bride, the virgin manna, the great joy of

heaven and earth, with you I attended the banquet…" In the Iddin-Dagan

texts, another poet sings, "In a very wide hall of the palace, rich and tasteful dishes were served. To perform, at first, the sacred sacrifice and

to perform the well-prepared rite at the altar…the king accompanied by

the goddess entered a consecrated room of the palace…singers sing a joyful song to celebrate this occasion."(8) 5. Supplication and blessing: At the zenith of the banquet, the king and the priests sang a hymn of supplication as follows: "Oh, manna, please give to your beloved husband, the king of the land, a great and bright reign, a firmly established throne, an everlasting, shining crown, and please confer fecundity upon the fields and the meadows." Appropriately impressed at each stage of the ceremony with the tre- mendous number and quality of royal gifts, the passionate love songs, and the splendid banquet, the goddess then gave the king her blessings that the land be prosperous and peaceful and that the king live long and in happiness. "I will give you all that y ou want and all that you need."(9)

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Hearing such soothing words of blessing, the king and the whole party who attended the banquet were equally rejoiced. The choir sang joyful hymns and the musicians played celebratory pieces. This was the real finale. manna, the bride in the hieros gamos rite, corresponds suitably with Xi wang mu who is described in Mu tian zi zhuan. It is not sure that this book is a historical document(10) or that it is only a roman -d' aventure.(11) It is a fact, though, that in this book, Xi wang mu is not considered an imaginary person but appears as a historical queen who dwelt in the westernmost realm of the world.(12) Then, what was the rendezvous of Xi wang mu and Mu according to Mu tian zi zhuang, Zhu shu ji nian and Zhao shi jia in Shi ji? I have reconstructed the story as follows: In the 17th year of the reign of Mu, the fifth king of Zhou led an expedition to the west. … at last he reached the land of Xi wang mu. The prince presented her with 100 units of gold cloth and 300 units of … as tribute to the goddess. She accepted them graciously. On the next day, both attended a banquet on the shore of Lake Yao. Xi wang mu sang and the king was pleased to hear her. "While clouds float high in the sky, you see the road going very far from here. Mountains and rivers are inbetween. I hope you be immortal and I beg you to be able to return." The prince answered, singing, "I am going back to the east, so that I can conquer and annex any neighboring countries. When all peoples become obedient, I shall see you again. Within three years, I shall be inyour realm here." Again Xi wang mu sang, "Here in this westernmost land I live in the fields where you are now. Here, tigers and panthers make groups and crows and quails live together. Here am I, the daughter of the heavenly emperor. Who are you, gentleman? Now you are leaving. I play the flute and the lyre. My heart is sad. You, gentleman, look upon the very far sky." It is said that Mu, after this banquet, climbed Mount Yan and there inscribed his name on a stone or that he hastily returned home to quell a rebellion by Yan, the king of Xu. He drove a chariot drawn by eight hand- some horses. Another tradition tells us that in the same year, Xi wang mu visited Mu in return for his visiting her, and she stayed in the inner palace, Zhao gong, as a state guest. Especially in the first half of this document, we can observe each stage of the sacred marriage rite of the Sumerian type: journey for courtship,

Vol. XXVI 1990 17 royal gifts, banquet, supplication and blessing. The only stage that we can not know is the third one, that is, the marriage ceremony. This sort of journey is also recorded in Zhou yu of Guo yu and Tian wen of Chu ci, in which Mu liked travelling and made a pilgrimage far to the west. By the end of the period of the Warring Countries, the legendary expedition of Mu was well known among peoples.(13) Another mention of Mu's tributes or gifts is found in Mu tian zi zhuan. It seems customary that Xi wang mu received tributes including hundred unit

of woven silk and three hundreds of…(14) They may be dowry and verify that a marriage rite was really perfomed between the goddess and the king.(15) Concerning the banquet, another source is Lie zi, who states that they held a banquet on the shores of Lake Yao. On the other hand, supplication and blessing is the climax of the hieros gamos rite and its main object. In Sumerian hymns, poets repeated words of supplication and blessing, appeal- ing for the prosperity of each state and the longevity of rulers. In Mu tian zi zhuan, however, this aspect of the rite is referred to only fragmentally and vaguely in the song of farewell, sung by the bride and the bridegroom. Mu prays that Zhou and his nation enjoy peace and prosperity and be successful in suppressing the rebellion. In response, Xi wang mu petitions for the longevity and good luck of the bridegroom. Finally, I would suggest the theory that there was sexual union between the goddess and Mu although it is not mentioned in Mu tian zi zhuan or in any other Chinese documents. But Zhou yu in guo yu indicates that Mu, himself, sent a hunting expedition to the west and met the goddess with whom he made merry to the extent that he forgot about returning home. The same story is told in Gian zhao lu in Shi liu guo shun qiu. From these passages, we could deduce the people's thoughts that Xi wang mu and Mu fell in love.(16) In conclusion, I would say that the goddess accepted the king as her bridegroom in the sacred marriage rite. Xi wang mu took the role of the bride as did the Sumerian Inanna. Inanna's partner was not only Dumuzi, though, but also other kings who were accepted by the goddess, for example, Emmerkar, Shulgi, and Iddin-Dagan. Likewise, Xi wang mu had other partners besides Mu. In Lan ming xun of Huai nan zi it is written, "The Old One (Xi wang mu) in the West wore her crown and

the Yellow God (the Emperor) sang hymns…" Here, Xi wang mu is paired with Huang di, In Bie guo dong ming ji, it is written, "Dong fang shuo in

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Yuan feng went to the valley Ment heng zhi zi for enjoyment. Then, Wang mu (the King's mother, Xi wang mu) made an appearance. She was picking leaves from a mulberry tree on the shore of Lake Bai hai. Suddenly, Old Yellow One (the Yellow Emperor) came up. Pointing to Wang mu, he told Shuo that she was his wife, but that, at present, she had changed herself into a Venus spirit." These passages say that Xi wang mu was married to Huang di. This may be what Bao pu zi meant when he wrote, "The Yellow Emperor met Xi wang mu in his imperial court." I suppose, therefore, that the Yellow Emperor, just like Mu or Dong wong gong, was once one of the bridegrooms who was married to Xi wang mu.(17) There are other minor similarities between Xi wang mu and manna. Foremost, both were considered as Venus as well as the Moon. In Xi wang mu zhuan, we read, "…Xi wang mu is the most sacred of the western flo- wers and the holiest in the lunar world." In Zuan yuan huang di zhuan, we read, "…Goddess Xi wang mu is the spirit of the Moon and the daughter of the heavenly emperor." In all these sources, she had an aspect of the Moon goddess. It reflects also in archaeological materials, in which she is described together with a white hare and a frog. These creatures were also noted as the spirits of the Moon in ancient China. Du er mo writes,(18) Xi wang mu is nobody but a

Moon goddess… Yu shan and Kun lun shan are both nothing but the mountains where the Moon was worshipped." On the other hand, Bie guo dong ming ji writes, "The King's Mother

(Xi wang mu) …changed herself into the Venus spirit." This source indicates that she had the aspect of Venus. The second minor similarity is that manna and Xi wang mu were both daughters of the supreme god in heaven. The name manna is construed as Nin (daughter) and Anna (An: Sumerian supreme god). Xi wang mu calls herself the emperor's daughter (Mu tian zi zhuan) or the daughter of the heavenly emperor (Xuang yuan huang di zhuan). Lastly, the idea of the sacred marriage rite changed itself through the ages in the same diriection, that is, in developing from a marriage between the goddess and a secular king to that between a god and a goddess. The latter case is the real divine marriage. In the first millenium B. C., Ishtar, who succeeded the function of manna, had a partner for the hieros gamos Vol. XXVI 1990 19 rite, but he was not a secular king nor a human being but a god like Bel- Marduk of Babylon.(19) Meanwhile, in later periods, Xi wang mu visited Dong wong gong and made merry with him (Bie guo dong ming ji and Shen yi jing): Once a year she rode on the wings of a big bird named Xi you in order that she could visit Dong wong gong. As Prof. Kominami states,(20) this story resembles the story of Vega and Sirius and their annual meeting in the Milky Way on the night of July 7th. Vega is Zhi nu, the weaver goddess and Sirius is Qian niu, the cowherd. As the union of Xi wang mu and Dong wong gong had been widely circu- lated, the original form of the union between the goddess and the secular king like Mu or Huang di was completely abandoned. It is clear that manna and Xi wang mu were similar in their roles as goddesses of love in the sacred marriage rite. At last, one major difference must be mentioned: in the ancient Near East, this rite was celebrated by the state in the New Year festival or on the occasion of the accession ceremony, but we can not find any kind of evidence for this particular rite in ancient China.

Conclusion

The legend of Xi wang mu is one of the most animated stories in ancient China. The history of its development covers a long period from anti- quity to the modern age. She was a goddess from the beginning and her historical development followed almost the same line as those of mother goddesses of the ancient Near East, in which we can trace them in a rich literary treasure-trove and archaeological findings. Xi wang mu is a mother goddess par excellence. Thus, I have initially described the line of development of the worship of Near Eastern mother goddesses. Next, I have applied the Near Eastern model of mother goddesses to clarify the history of the worship of Xi wang mu. I believe that this is the only way to recover Xi wang mu's archetypal image and its historical development. Such a phenomenlogical method of comparative mythology is especially valid for the study of mythology in China, where any coherent pantheon, if it existed at all, disappeared in ancient times.

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The reason why I first compared Anatolian Cybele with Xi wang mu is that the former belonged to the most archaic stratum of the worship of mother goddesses.(1) Cybele was the primordial androgynous being and appeared above all as the mistress of beasts and mountains. She was a terrible mother as well as a good mother.(2) Her cult was orgiastic and continued to exist through the matrimonial stone age society. Next, I compared Ugaritic Anat with Xi wang mu. It was because the former was a successor of Cybele as the terrible mother who was extremely bloodthirsty, and at the same time, she was a predecessor of manna the benevolent protectress of the secular political power. Anat's cult can be given an intermediate position between the cult of Cybele which was matrimonial and the cult of manna which was patrimonial.(3) Anat appeared in the transitional stage of the history of the worship of mother goddesses. Lastly, I compared Sumerian manna with Xi wang mu, because the former was the oldest goddess who can be verified by literary evidences as the guardian goddess of the city-state Uruk in Mesopotania. Inanna had various traits of the earlier mother goddesses like Cybele and Anat. Never- theless, she had a quite new feature, that is, she was a central figure of the national rite in one of the oldest societies where paternal authority was firmly established. manna's role was that of bride in the hieros gamos rite, which promised prosperity and peace to the king. In conclusion, I would assert again that the development of the worship of mother goddesses in the ancient Near East corresponds with that of Xi wang mu in ancient China. She was originally the mistress of mountains and beasts. She was bisexual and also a healing goddess. Her cult was sometimes accompanied by religious orgy. Next, she was a goddess who brought death and warfare. Eventually, she became the bride of the secular ruler on the occasion of the national festival. Of this last stage, Chinese literary evidences are rather sparse and sporadic.(4) I tried to recover this last stage of the Xi wang mu worship in ancient China. Various traces remain of the marriage rite between her and the half-mythological rulers like Huang di, Yao, Shun, Yu, Yin di da shu, Mu, Wu di of Han, and Zhao wang of Yan. They are not clearly stated as the participants of the national rite of the sacred marriage, but I assume that they most certainly performed it.

Vol. XXVI 1990 21 Marriage between a god and a goddess was the last stage of that rite in history. This can also be inferred from Chinese literary texts (for example, the marriage of Dong wang gong and Xi wang mu). In Apuleius' Metamorphoseon libri (Book XI), the goddess Isis, an Egyptian mother goddess depicts herself as follows:

…the Phrygians that are the first of all men call me the Mother of the

gods at Pessinus; the Athenians, which are sprung from their own soil, Cecropian Minerva; the Cyprians, which are girt about by the sea, Paphian Venus; the Cretans which bear arrows, Dictynnian Diana; the Sicilians, which speak three tongues, infernal Proserpine; the Eleusians their ancient

goddess Ceres; some Juno, other Bellona, other Hecate, other Rhamnusia,… This very universal idea of the mother goddess dates from the second century A. D., even when Cybele was still powerful in every quarter of the Roman Empire. What I want to emphasize in this respect is that the idea of goddess as cited above was almost common to that of other Near Eastern goddesses at that time. I surmise that, if Apuleius would have been acqua- inted with Xi wang mu in contemporary China, he would surely have included her in this list of goddesses' names. I would like to say that in that age the final image of the mother goddess was reached in the East as well as in the West. It was universal and it unified several-even contradictory-traits of mother goddesses, which were accumulated in every civilized area since the paleolithic age.

In writing this article in English, I was assisted by Mr. G. C. Sala, Osaka.

Notes

* written in Chinese ** written in Japanese Introduction (1) Lu si mian, "Xi wang mu kao," Shuo ming yue kan, 1-9.* (2) Cf. Mao dun, Shen hua you jir, Bai hua wen yi chu ban, 1981, especially the chapter named "Zhong quo shen hua yan jin chu tan."* (3) Cf. Wu han (Chen bo), Xi wang mu de chuan shuo, Ging hua shou kon, 37-1.* (4) Li de fang, "Shi lun xi mang mu sheng hua de yan pian," Min jian wen yi xue wen cong, 1982;* "Ling xiang zheng, Xi wang mu de bian qian ji gi qi shi", Shan dong shi fan xue yuan xue bao, 1980, no. 1.* (5) R. Shiba, "the Legend of Xi wang mu," Toyo Bunka, 1943** (6) Y. Sawamura, Gods in Chinese Popular Religion, Shozan-kaku, 1941, p. 64.** (7) Gisuke Taniguchi, A Study of the Ancient Society in China, Hoyu-shoten, 1988, pp. 314f.**

22 ORIENT QUEST FOR THE ARCHETYPAL IMAGE

I (1) E. Laroche, Koubaba, deesse anatolienne et le probleme des origines de Cybele, Elements orientaux dans la religion ancienne, Paris, 1960. (2) O. R. Gurney, The Hitties, Penguin Books, 1952, J, Lehmann, the Hittites- People of a Thousand Gods, New York, 1977. (3) M. J. Vermaseren, Cybele and Attis, London, 1977. (4) K. Kerennyi, Greek Mythology, 1977. (5) Vermaseren, op. cit., p. 14. (6) E. O. James, the Cult of Mother Goddess, an Archaeological and Documentary Study, London, 1959. (7) Art. Ryoseiguyu (Bisexuality), Shukyogaku Jiten, Tokyo Uniiv. Press, 1973.** (8) Y. Yamaguchi, "Xi wang mu and Kun lun shan-A Study on the Process of How they Were Identified," Bulletin of the Society for Chinese Studies of Kokugakuin University, 16.** (9) H. Sofugawa, Mystical Ascent to Kun lun shan, Chuokoron-sha, 1981, pp. 148ff.** (10) Vermaseren, op. cit., pls. 38, 53, 57, 74, 77. (11) M. Nakano, Chinese Blue Birds, Gakusei-sha, 1985.** (12) Takuji Ogawa, Studies of Chinese Historical Geography, Kobundo, 1928, p. 271.** (13) Kominami, op. cit., pp. 72ff. (14) Cf. Zhang heng, Ling Xian; Guo pu, Shan hai jing; Kuo di tu (cited in Yu lan qi jiu ling yin). These authors write that Xi wang mu had medicine, especially that of immortality, with her. (15) According to Laroche, op. cit., this myth of Attis was in fact an later addition (twelfth to sixth century B. C.). II (1) J. B. Pritchard ed., Ancient Near Eastern Texts Relating to the Old Testament, Princeton, 1950. (2) A. S. Kapelrud, The Violent Goddess, Anat in the Ras Shamra Texts, Oslo, 1969, p. 49. (3) Ibid., p. 50. (4) E. Neumann, The Origins and History of Cousciousness, tr. by R. F. C. Hull, I, New York (Harper Torch books), 1962, p. 74. (5) Kapelrud, op. cit., pp. 61f. (6) See above n. 4. According to Guo pu's annotation, "pestilential disasters con- tains of earthquake, flood, famine and so on, while five sentences means five kinds of punishments (tattoing, cutting the nose off, cutting legs off, castration, and cutting the body into pieces). (7) Cf. Da huang xi jing, Shan hai jing; Xuan Yuan Huang di zhuan.* (8) E. Neumann, The Great Mother, Princeton, 1955, pp. 44f. (9) T. Matsumura, A Collection of the Myths and Legens of China, Shakaishisosha, 1967, pp. 57-59.** (10) Stick was a symbol of Anat. See I. Matsuda, "Myth of Anat-A Memoire for the Study of Ugaritic Language" I, Studies of Literature of Kyushu Univ., 1968.** (11) Kominami, op. cit., pp. 86ff.: "Xi wang mu, sitting in the centre of the universe, brought a pipe of jade to Shun di so that peace will be prevailed in this world." (12) Kapelrud, op. cit., pp. 105-109. Vol. XXVI 1990 23 (13) For example, we can see winged Xi wang mu on the stone relief (hua xiang) at Hong dao yuan, Shan dong sheng ten xian and on that at Shi nan xiang of the same prefecture. (14) Kapelrud, op. cit., pp. 76-78; R. D. Barnett, The Earley Representation of Anat, H. L. Ginsberg Volume, Eretz-Israel 14, Jerusalem, 1978. (15) Further, Xi wang mu is said to be "the daughter of the heavenly emperor" in Xuan yuan huang di zhuan.* III (1) Y. Deguchi, Archetype of Mother Goddess, Musashino-shoin, 1928.** (2) D. Wolkenstein and S. N. Kramer, Inanna-Queen of Heaven and Earth, London, 1983. (3) S. N. Kramer, The Sacred Marriage Rite, London, 1969. (4) Cf. G. Frazer, The Golden Bough, especially the chaper of "The Influence of the Sexes on Vegetation," in which the sexual union as the bringer of fecundity is discussed. (5) Kramer, op. cit., p. 63. (6) K. Harada, A Study of Cuneiform Laws, Kobundo, 1949.** (7) Kramer, op. cit., p. 77. (8) Ibid., pp. 78ff. (9) Ibid., pp. 83ff. (10) Takuji Ogawa, New Studies of Chinese Historical Geography, Kobundo, 1939.** (11) Tamaki Ogawa, A Historical Study of Chinese Novels, Iwanami, 1968, especially the chapter on "Representations of the Paradise in China."** (12) M. Mori, op. cit., p. 110. (13) On the aim of this journey, scholars' opinions differ. S. Shirakawa, Chinese Mythology, Chuokoron-sha, 1975,** writes that it was "to obtain strong horses, a product of Western Countries." M. Abe (Saito) writes that it was to enjoy hunting... and to obtain birds' feathers that was largely for armours used at that time. Cf. Fifty Five Strange Books in the East, Jiyukokumin-sha, 1980.** Therefore it is not unanimously believed that it was a journey of courtship. (14) N. Maeno, Shan hai jing and Lie xian zhuan, Shueisha, 1975, p. 136;** M. Hayashi, Jades for Rituals and Luck, Toho-gakuho 40.** (15) According to K. Doi, Ancient Legend and Literature, Iwanami, 1977,** both Xi wang mu and Mu wang were godheads. (16) M. Mori, op. cit., p. 106. (17) Kominami, op. cit., p. 88. (18) Du er mo, Jun lun wen hua zi bu si guan nian, Zhong hua nun guo 66;* ibid., Shan hai jing shen hua xi tong, Zhong hua nun quo 69* (Both literatures were publi- shed by Tai wan xue sheng shu ju). (19) Cf. E. Matsushima, Sacred Marriage Rite in Mesopotamia in the First Millenium B. C., Orient 25-1. (20) Kominami, op. cit., pp. 64-68.** Conclusion (1) Neumann, Great Mother, pp. 94ff. (2) Ibid., pp. 18ff. (3) Cf. S. Shibayama, Characteristics of the Ugaritic Kingdom and its Relationship with Contemporary States, as Was Seen from Ugaritic Literature, Orient, 9-4;* ibid., Social Structure of the Ugaritic Kingdom, Orient, 10-1/2.**

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(4) Neumann, Origins and History (loc, cit.).

Glossary of Chinese Proper Names and Terms Bao pu zi 抱朴子 Bie quo dong ming ji 別国洞冥記 Bo wu zhi 博物史 Chen Meng jia 陳夢家 Chen puo 辰伯 Chu ci 楚辞 Da dai li ji 大戴礼記 Da dong xian jing 大洞仙経 Dong wang gong 東王公 Er ya 爾雅 Guo yu 国語 Han shi wai zhuan 韓詩外伝 Han shu 漢書 Han wu di nei zhuan 漢武帝内伝 Han wu gu shi 漢武故事 Huai nan zi 准南子 Hang di xuan nu zhau fa 黄帝玄女戦法 Huan lin 桓驎 Jiao shi yi lin 焦氏易林 Ji xian lu 集仙録 Kuo di tu 括地図 Le shu ling zhun ting 雛書霊準聽 Li de fang 李徳芳 Lie xian zhuan 列仙伝 Lie zi 列子 Li shi zhen xian ti dao tong jian hou ji 歴世真仙体道通鑑後集 Lun hen 論衡 Lu shi 路史 Lu si mian 呂思勉 Mao dun 茅盾 Mu tian zi zhuan 穆天子伝 Qi xi 七夕 Rui ying tu 瑞応図 Shan-hai jing 山海経 Shen yi jing 神異経 Shi ben 世本 Shi ji 史記 Shi liu quo chun giu 十六国春秋 Si ma xiang-ru zhuan 司馬相如伝 Song shu 宋書 Xin shu 新書 Xin xu 新序 Xi you ji 西遊記 Xi wang mu 西王母

Vol. XXVI 1990 25 Xi wang mu zhuan 西王母伝 Xuan yuan huang di zhuan 軒轅黄帝伝 Xun zi 荀子 Yuon zhu 玄珠 Yu wen lei ju 芸文類聚 Wu han 呉晧 Zhong lun 中論 Zhu shu ji nian 竹書紀年

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