Queen Mother of the West 西王母
In Journey to the West, the Queen Mother of the West presides over the garden of immortality and gathers the immortals for a feast. Chinese authors were writing about her many centuries before the novel appeared. In the earliest legends, the Lady of the West had tiger's teeth and a leopard's tail. The archer Yi set out to obtain her elixir, and the court wit Dongfang Shuo, in one tale, stole those very peaches from her.
In the Classic of Mountains and Seas, the Queen Mother of the West (西王母) dwells in the distant western mountains. She has disheveled hair, the teeth of a tiger and the tail of a leopard. Instead of speaking, she whistles. In Han-dynasty art she is already depicted alongside the inhabitants of the land of the immortals. The Queen Mother of the West sits in long robes and a headdress, and stands noticeably taller than her companions.
In the Huainanzi, the archer Yi receives the elixir of immortality from the Queen Mother of the West. Chang'e drinks it and flies off to the moon. Later the gift of immortality was also attributed to the peaches in the Queen Mother of the West's garden. In one tale, Dongfang Shuo, a witty courtier whom artists would later depict with stolen peaches, is sent to fetch the fruit. At the Lady of the West's feast, the peaches are served to those permitted to share a meal with the immortals.
In Journey to the West, Sun Wu-Kong is put in charge of watching over the trees. When the Queen Mother of the West sends seven heavenly maidens to gather the fruit, it turns out he has already eaten the best of it. In the 1986 CCTV television series, the mistress of the garden was played by Wan Fu-Xiang. In the series Filial Piety Touches the World (2020), the Queen Mother of the West is played by Liu Xiao-Qing. Here the Queen Mother of the West becomes part of a family story of the immortals.
