.jpg?w=1)
Lot Essay
Xiwangmu (Korean: So Wang Mo) is the mythical Queen Mother of the West, chief of the Daoist fairies (female Immortals). Eternally young and beautiful, she lives in a remote fairyland as queen of Mount Kunlun, the sacred mountain of immortality. The peach trees in her orchard bear fruit every three-thousand years. Anyone fortunate enough to eat a Peach of Immortality will live forever.
Xiwangmu's palace is spacious and elegant; its pavilions and nine-storey towers are built of jasper and marble. Her palace gardens are vast and splendid, with sparkling streams and trees bearing precious jewels. Her five principal handmaidens are named for the five colors associated with the five directions of the compass. Cranes and azure-winged phoenixes are Xiwangmu's mounts and messengers. Her consort is Dongwanggong, Lord of the East. One of his duties is to keep a register of all the Daoist Immortals. Xiwangmu and Dongwanggong have nine sons and twenty-four daughters.
When the peaches ripen in her garden, Xiwangmu gives a banquet for the Daoist Immortals. In panel 2 (counting from the right), an attendant brings peaches in a bowl. Fairy maidens in panel 3 prepare the banquet; juicy peaches hang ripe on tree branches throughout. Xiwangmu and her consort are enthroned at the center, in panels 4 and 5, surrounded by attendants, and entertained by musicians and dancing phoenixes. Panels 3 through 6 depict the entire, elevated banquet terrace. Beyond and below the terrace, immortals arrive for the banquet.
Daoist Immortals descending from the distant heavens at the upper left include Shoulao (Shouxing), the God of Longevity, riding a flying crane at the top of the sixth panel. The Buddha and guardians of the four quarters arrive at the top of the seventh panel. Below the Buddha are the bodhisattvas Samantabhadra and Manjushri in the guise of celestial maidens mounted on an elephant and lion respectively. Immortals walking on water in the seventh panel include Cao Guoqiu, in official court dress holding castanets, together with Han Xiangzi holding the flute that gives life. At the bottom of the panel, the wizard Zhao Zhenren rides on a tree trunk. In the eighth panel, Qingao rides a carp and the immortal Liu Haichan arrives with his three-legged toad. He Xian'gu, the only female in the core group known as the Eight Immortals, may be one of the women descending from the heavens at the top of the eighth panel.
Xiwangmu's palace is spacious and elegant; its pavilions and nine-storey towers are built of jasper and marble. Her palace gardens are vast and splendid, with sparkling streams and trees bearing precious jewels. Her five principal handmaidens are named for the five colors associated with the five directions of the compass. Cranes and azure-winged phoenixes are Xiwangmu's mounts and messengers. Her consort is Dongwanggong, Lord of the East. One of his duties is to keep a register of all the Daoist Immortals. Xiwangmu and Dongwanggong have nine sons and twenty-four daughters.
When the peaches ripen in her garden, Xiwangmu gives a banquet for the Daoist Immortals. In panel 2 (counting from the right), an attendant brings peaches in a bowl. Fairy maidens in panel 3 prepare the banquet; juicy peaches hang ripe on tree branches throughout. Xiwangmu and her consort are enthroned at the center, in panels 4 and 5, surrounded by attendants, and entertained by musicians and dancing phoenixes. Panels 3 through 6 depict the entire, elevated banquet terrace. Beyond and below the terrace, immortals arrive for the banquet.
Daoist Immortals descending from the distant heavens at the upper left include Shoulao (Shouxing), the God of Longevity, riding a flying crane at the top of the sixth panel. The Buddha and guardians of the four quarters arrive at the top of the seventh panel. Below the Buddha are the bodhisattvas Samantabhadra and Manjushri in the guise of celestial maidens mounted on an elephant and lion respectively. Immortals walking on water in the seventh panel include Cao Guoqiu, in official court dress holding castanets, together with Han Xiangzi holding the flute that gives life. At the bottom of the panel, the wizard Zhao Zhenren rides on a tree trunk. In the eighth panel, Qingao rides a carp and the immortal Liu Haichan arrives with his three-legged toad. He Xian'gu, the only female in the core group known as the Eight Immortals, may be one of the women descending from the heavens at the top of the eighth panel.