King Mu of Zhou & Queen Mother of the West

The ''Tale of King Mu, Son of Heaven'' ()Literally "Mu(,) Heaven('s) Son('s) Tale". "Son of Heaven" is a designation for a

sovereign of China The Chinese sovereign was the ruler of a particular monarchical regime in the historical periods of ancient China and imperial China. Sovereigns ruling the same regime, and descended from the same paternal line, constituted a dynasty. Several t ...

, and the word used for tale is often a biography or history. is a fantasy version of the travels of King Mu of Zhou, historical fifth sovereign of the

Zhou dynasty The Zhou dynasty ( ; Old Chinese ( B&S): *''tiw'') was a royal dynasty of China that followed the Shang dynasty. Having lasted 789 years, the Zhou dynasty was the longest dynastic regime in Chinese history. The military control of China by ...

of China, r. 976–922 BCE or 956–918 BCE. The written originals of the fantasy biography of King Mu and a biography of his mother were found along with the '' Bamboo Annals'' in the tomb of Wei Xiang-zi (d. 296 BCE), king of Wei, rediscovered in 281 CE during the

Jin dynasty (266–420) The Jin dynasty (; ) or the Jin Empire, sometimes distinguished as the (司馬晉) or the (兩晉), was an imperial dynasty of China that existed from 266 to 420. It was founded by Sima Yan (Emperor Wu), eldest son of Sima Zhao, who had pr ...

, after which they were merged into a single tale during transmission. Transmitted are four textual lineages which became independent from the original. Later versions were sometimes called ''Zhou Wang Youxing'', literally "(The) Zhou King('s) Travels" or "Travels of the Zhou King".

King Mu dreamed of being an

immortal Immortality is the ability to live forever, or eternal life. Immortal or Immortality may also refer to: Film * ''The Immortals'' (1995 film), an American crime film * ''Immortality'', an alternate title for the 1998 British film ''The Wisdom of ...

. He determined to visit the Western heavenly paradise of the

Queen Mother of the West The Queen Mother of the West, known by various local names, is a mother goddess in Chinese religion and mythology, also worshipped in neighbouring Asian countries, and attested from ancient times. From her name alone some of her most importan ...

on the

Kunlun The Kunlun Mountains ( zh, s=昆仑山, t=崑崙山, p=Kūnlún Shān, ; ug, كۇئېنلۇن تاغ تىزمىسى / قۇرۇم تاغ تىزمىسى ) constitute one of the longest mountain chains in Asia, extending for more than . In the bro ...

and taste her

Peaches of Immortality In Chinese mythology, Peaches of Immortality ( or ) are consumed by the immortals due to their mystic virtue of conferring longevity on all who eat them. Peaches symbolizing immortality (or the wish for a long and healthy life) are a common symbo ...

. A brave charioteer named Zao Fu carried the king and seven worthy companions by chariot to the Queen Mother, whom he feasts at blue gem pool in Chapter 3 with a banquet, wine, gifts, and decorous exchange of poems with some sense of his being subsequently rejuvenated or at least blessed with posterity. The implications of the poems seem to cast the Queen Mother of the West as a

vassal A vassal or liege subject is a person regarded as having a mutual obligation to a lord or monarch, in the context of the feudal system in medieval Europe. While the subordinate party is called a vassal, the dominant party is called a suzerain ...

whom King Mu confirms in ruling her own land. Chapter 6 mainly recounts the death of King Mu's favorite consort, Cheng Ji, with details of her funeral with a huge entourage which takes eight days to arrive at her burial site. Heartbroken, King Mu tarries there, fishing, hunting, until a soldier chides him into returning his attention to government and slowly traveling back to his capital. The ''Tale of King Mu, Son of Heaven'' is an early textually extant narrative case of Chinese literature stressing a particular

hero A hero (feminine: heroine) is a real person or a main fictional character who, in the face of danger, combats adversity through feats of ingenuity, courage, or strength. Like other formerly gender-specific terms (like ''actor''), ''her ...

ic human, though the biography, apparently fantastic or considered credible, is a chief format of Chinese literature from its outset with focus on sovereigns and their exploits, particularly with governmental preoccupation with geography through the peripheries of the emergent Chinese state.

Commentaries

The earliest commentary to the text was written by the scholar

Guo Pu Guo Pu (; AD 276–324), courtesy name Jingchun () was a Chinese historian, poet, and writer during the Eastern Jin period, and is best known as one of China's foremost commentators on ancient texts. Guo was a Taoist mystic, geomancer, collector ...

(276–324) during the Eastern Jin. During the

Qing dynasty The Qing dynasty ( ), officially the Great Qing,, was a Manchu-led imperial dynasty of China and the last orthodox dynasty in Chinese history. It emerged from the Later Jin dynasty founded by the Jianzhou Jurchens, a Tungusic-spea ...

(1644-1912), the text was revisited by Tan Cui 檀萃, Hong Yixuan 洪頤煊 and Zhai Yunsheng 翟雲升.

Modern scholarship

*Porter, Deborah Lynn. ''From Deluge to Discourse: Myth, History, and the Generation of Chinese Fiction''. State University of New York, 1996.

Notes

References

{{reflist

External links

穆天子传
by Pu Guo, The Project Gutenberg EBook of Mu Tian Zi Chuan, by Pu Guo in Chinese History of ancient China Horse in Chinese mythology

Contents

Commentaries

Modern scholarship

Notes

References

External links