The legendary goddess. Originally a great god in charge of disasters and punishments, she gradually became soft and gentle in the process of spreading and became a kind goddess. According to legend, the Queen Mother lives in Xiandao, Kunlun, and the flat peach garden of the Queen Mother is in Yaochi. There are flat peaches in the garden, which can be eaten forever. Also known as Jinniang, Jinniang in Yaochi, Notre Dame in Yaochi and Queen Mother of the West. According to the description of the ancient book "Shan Hai Jing", the historical records of "Shan Hai Jing" say: "The Queen Mother of the West is like a human being, with a leopard's tail and tiger's teeth, and Dai Sheng is good at whistling. She is the strength of the company and five scholars." The Queen Mother of the West is "human-like" in appearance, but she has a leopard-like tail, tiger-like teeth, is good at shouting and making short noises, has fluffy hair and wears armor. She is a god who is fierce for heaven and brings five disasters. She lives on the top of Kunlun Mountain, and three giant raptors named "Jade Bird" bring her food and supplies every day. Mu Zhuan But in Mu Zhuan, the Queen Mother of the West behaves like a gentle ruler. When Zhou Muwang traveled around the world with eight horses driven by Zhao Fu, he traveled to Kunlun Mountain in the west. He took out jade articles such as Bai Gui and Xu Anbi to visit the Queen Mother of the West. The next day, King Mu hosted a banquet in Yaochi for the Queen Mother, and both of them made some poems to bless each other. The Legend of Emperor Wu of the Han Dynasty called her a goddess with peerless appearance and gave her a flat peach that bears fruit once every three thousand years. Taoism celebrates the birthday of the Queen Mother on March 3rd every year. The grand event held on this day is commonly known as the Flat Peach Festival. In the first stage of myth evolution, the myth of the Western Queen Mother experienced two evolutions. The Han Dynasty is the first stage of the evolution of the myths and legends of the Western Queen Mother. During this period, the Queen Mother of the West lived in a cave in Yushan Mountain (opposite Kunlun Mountain) in the west. She was a monster with hides and tusks. In addition, there is a monster with horns and leopard prints that sounds like a dog on the mountain-cunning, and there are three blue robins with red feathers who like to eat fish. The second stage, Wei, Jin, Southern and Northern Dynasties, is the second stage of the evolution of the myths and legends of the Western Queen Mother. At this time, people associate the myths and legends of the Queen Mother of the West with the historical facts of Zhou Muwang's Western Expedition and Emperor Wu's voyage to the West. The image of the Queen Mother of the West is anthropomorphic and the legend is mythical. Among them, the story of Zhou Muwang and the Queen Mother of the West meeting in Yaochi is widely circulated and has great influence. The image of the Western Queen Mother in myths and legends has gradually improved, which is closely related to history. In Shan Hai Jing, she is a god who lives in a cave and is good at whistling, like a human being, inhuman and like a beast. In Mu's biography, she became an elegant, peaceful, good at singing and dancing and knowledgeable woman. In "The Story of Emperor Wu of the Han Dynasty", she became a goddess in her thirties with peerless appearance. In later literary works, there are many descriptions of the Queen Mother of the West, saying that she is a "golden girl in Yaochi" who grows flat peaches for three thousand years. Whenever the flat peach matures, the Queen Mother of the West holds a grand birthday party, and all the immortals come to celebrate her birthday. There is a wonderful description in Journey to the West, Wu Cheng'en. All saints live in Yaochi, so they are also called the Queen of Yaochi. She held a flat peach festival in Yaochi to entertain immortals from all walks of life, only to be disturbed by the Monkey King, the Great Sage of Qitian. The flat peach she planted is the most magical. Small peach trees have been cooked for 3 thousand years, and those who eat them are light in fitness and immortal. Ordinary peach trees are only cooked once in 6000 years. When people eat them, they soar in the daytime and live forever. The best food is cooked in 9000. People eat it with heaven and earth, with the sun and the moon. She is the most respected goddess in the Heavenly Palace. She is responsible for banquets for immortals in heaven and for marriage and childbirth on earth. Among the orthodox Taoist gods, the Jade Emperor and the Western Queen Mother are not husband and wife, but the Western Queen Mother is the first of all female immortals and is in charge of Kunlun Fairy Island. The head of all male immortals is Dong, who is in charge of Penglai Fairy Island. The Jade Emperor is the head of the immortals and the Lord of the gods. The Queen Mother of the West appeared before the Jade Emperor, so they were not husband and wife. Only China folk stories and novels think that the Jade Emperor and the Empress Dowager are husband and wife. Archaeological inference: The record of the Queen Mother of the West in Shan Hai Jing first appeared in Shan Hai Jing. Shan Hai Jing is an encyclopedia with a long history, which records ancient mountains and rivers, nationalities, products, sacrifices, myths and many other contents with legendary brushstrokes. Shan Hai Jing once described the Queen Mother of the West as follows: "Leopard tail, tiger teeth, good at whistling, Dai Sheng." At first glance, the Queen Mother of the West is a half-man, half-beast, neither fish nor fowl monster. In Li Xiaowei's view, the Queen Mother of the West is a graceful beauty. Li Xiaowei said: "Contemporary people often ignore the factors of context transfer and loss when investigating ancient books, which can easily cause unnecessary confusion." Li Xiaowei restored the image of the Queen Mother of the West for us. He thinks that the Queen Mother of the West is a tribal sheikh with long hair shawls, tiger ornaments, Yu Pei, leopard skin and good songs. If Li Xiaowei's hypothesis holds, it is not difficult to infer that tigers and leopards may be the totems of the tribe where the Queen Mother of the West lives. In order to show her dignity, the Queen Mother of the West decorated her face with tigers and hung the leopard's tail on her legs. To prove his claim, Li Xiaowei showed the reporter the photos of painted pottery pots unearthed in Sunjiazhai Village, Datong Hui and Tu Autonomous County, Qinghai Province in the last century. This pottery basin has a history of 5000 years. In Li Xiaowei's view, the ribbon hanging around the waist of the five dancers in the colorful basin is the leopard tail. "Totem worship is a universal social and cultural symbol in primitive society. When we look back at this cultural phenomenon from the perspective of contemporary people, we will inevitably feel confused. This may be one of the main reasons why it is difficult for people to understand the image of the western queen mother in Shan Hai Jing. " Li Xiaowei even thinks that Yu Tu, which is popular in Huangnan Tibetan Autonomous Prefecture in Qinghai, is a continuation of the worship of tigers and leopards in the era of the Western Queen Mother. In recent years, academic circles have been debating whether the Queen Mother of the West is a mythical figure or a real person. Mr. Zhao Zongfu, a famous scholar in Qinghai Province, wrote in the book Kunlun Myth: "The Queen Mother of the West in the Classic of Mountains and Seas is a fierce god who only cries but doesn't say anything." Dr. Chen Hu, editor of Zhonghua Book Company, and Dr. Ren Changyi of Beijing Normal University think: "The Queen Mother of the West may be the matriarch of a tribe or tribal alliance with tiger and leopard as its totem." Li Xiaowei's view is obviously inclined to the latter. In any case, the study of the Queen Mother of the West cannot bypass Mu Zhuan. During the two years of Jin Taikang, a grave robber named Wu Zhun gathered several villains to dig the tombs of the Warring States period, and found a book written with bamboo pieces among the funerary objects, namely Mu Zhuan. Mu Zhuan records the life of the monarchs in the Western Jin Dynasty and the Five Dynasties in the form of novels. Experts infer that Mu Zhuan was written at least before the Warring States Period. Mu Zhuan clearly recorded the story of singing and offering gifts to the Queen Mother of the West during the Western Expedition. According to the textual research of Mr. Zhao Zongfu, Zhou Muwang is the great-grandson of Zhou Wuwang and the son of King Zhao of Zhou, whose real name is Ji Man. This means that the relevant plots recorded in Mu Zhuan may be true. Sima Qian's words in Historical Records convinced Li Xiaowei that the Queen Mother of the West did exist in history. It is recorded in Historical Records and Zhou Benji: "In the seventeenth year of King Mu, he went hunting in the west and saw the Queen Mother of the West." Guo Pu, a scholar in the Eastern Jin Dynasty, once asserted: "The so-called Queen Mother of the West is just the Queen Mother of the West." Therefore, Li Xiaowei concluded that the Queen Mother of the West was not only a historical figure, but also a female leader of a clan or tribe alliance. Ever since the Queen Mother of the West first appeared in China's cultural field of vision in Shan Hai Jing, there are countless records about her. The Queen Mother of the West not only met the ancient emperors such as Huangdi, Yao, Shun and Dayu, but also met the Emperor Wu of the Han Dynasty (see The Biography of Emperor Wu of the Han Dynasty), during which at least two thousand years passed. Is the Queen Mother of the West really as immortal as in the legend? This is obviously a misunderstanding. Li Xiaowei believes that the reason for this misunderstanding is the misunderstanding of history by contemporary people. He said: at all times and in all countries, the phenomenon that history and myth are mixed often occurs. In the process of historical evolution, human beings often attach historical achievements to someone and deify him. In ancient times, people advocated witchcraft, and those who mastered witchcraft were often the supreme rulers of the clan. There is a great possibility that the Queen Mother of the West will be deified. In addition, the choice of the Queen Mother of the West is constantly changing, but the existence and title of the Queen Mother of the West have not changed, thus creating the legend that the Queen Mother of the West is immortal, that is to say, the Queen Mother of the West is probably synonymous with clan or clan alliance. Li Xiaowei wrote in the book "The Hometown of the Queen Mother of the West": "Worship is an ancient way of support, and when it reaches its extreme, it will be deified." This may be regarded as the inner gene of the evolution of the queen mother from man to god. Wu Qianhao, a researcher at the Chinese Academy of Art, believes that although the hypothesis that the Queen Mother of the West changed from a human being to a god has not been confirmed, there is indeed room for enrichment. In the last century, archaeologists found two well-preserved tiles in an 8-acre Han Dynasty site in front of Xiwang Mushi in Tianjun County, Haixi Mongolian and Tibetan Autonomous Prefecture, Qinghai Province. The tiles are engraved with the inscriptions "Changle Wanyuan" and "Changle Weiyang" respectively. As we know, Weiyang Palace is the place where the emperors of the Han Dynasty worked, and the tiles on the palace have the inscription "Changle Weiyang", which is a symbol of imperial power. This kind of tile appears in Tianjun, thousands of miles away from the capital Haojing, and it is really worth studying. According to textual research, this site is an ancestral temple dedicated to the Queen Mother of the West. It can be seen that as early as the Han Dynasty, the activities of offering sacrifices to the Queen Mother of the West had already begun, and the activities were officially recognized and supported. The main activity area of the Queen Mother is Tianjun County, Qinghai Province, Qinghai Province. The stone chamber is located in a rugged small manhole in Jirigou, Guanjiao. The stone chamber consists of an outer chamber, an inner chamber and a side chamber. There is a natural stone kang in the inner room, which is very suitable for living. Over time, people attached various legends to the stone room, and the identity of the owner of the stone room became confusing. In 1980s, Li Xiaowei was engaged in news propaganda work in a certain PLA unit, and was ordered to interview PLA soldiers who built Guanjiao Tunnel in the first phase of Qinghai-Tibet Railway. During the interview, he made a detailed investigation on the geographical environment of the Queen Mother of the West and its surroundings, and boldly put forward his own views on the function and source of stone chambers in combination with the records in historical books. According to "Lun Heng Guo Hui Pian", during the Wangmang period of Emperor Gaozu, "Qiang offered his land of fish and salt, Hai Xian, the stone room of the Queen Mother of the West". Li Xiaowei believes that the "land of fish and salt" mentioned in the history books refers to today's Chaka Salt Lake, the fairy sea is Qinghai Lake, and the stone chamber of the Queen Mother of the West is between Qinghai Lake and Chaka Salt Lake, and the geographical location is very consistent with the historical records. This view was later confirmed by archaeology. When we examine the stone chamber of the Queen Mother of the West in a larger geographical background, we will secretly marvel at the discovery of the Queen Mother of the West in geography and archaeology. Shan Hai Jing describes the main activity area of the Queen Mother of the West as "the south of the West Sea, the shore of quicksand, after Chishui and before Heishui." This description also conforms to the geographical environment of Qinghai. Li Xiaowei thinks that the West Sea refers to Qinghai Lake, and quicksand can be seen everywhere in Qaidam Basin. Chishui refers to today's Chabucha River in Hainan Tibetan Autonomous Prefecture and county, and Heishui is the Heihe River that originates from the southern vein of Qilian Mountain and flows into Hexi Corridor. In other words, the core area of Queen Mother Xi's life is the transition area from the Loess Plateau in Qinghai Province to the Qinghai-Tibet Plateau.