On the Differences between Han Rhapsodies and Han Paintings in Their Portrayal of the Queen Mother of the West and Their Religious Significance

Abstract

This paper argues that there exist two Queen Mothers of the West (Xiwangmu) in the Han era (206 BC–AD 220): one worshipped as a goddess of longevity and immortality by people from the upper class; the other worshipped by the ordinary people as a seemingly omnipotent deity with divine power over both the immortal world and the mortal world. This argument is based on a thorough comparative investigation of the surviving corpus of Han rhapsodies (fu) and Han paintings, the two major genres of art that give form to her cult in the Han period.

Keywords

• the Queen Mother of the West (Xiwangmu)
• Han rhapsody (<i>fu</i>)
• Han paintings
• Hantomb stone reliefs
• the Wuliang Shrine