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Transcendence and Divine Passion: The Queen Mother of the West in Medieval China by Suzanne E. Cahill was a very enjoyable book. Cahill used the hagiographic account of the Queen Mother from the Yung Ch'eng chi hsien lu (Records of the assembled trasncedents of the Fortified walled city as the basis for her book. This was a collection of lives of female saints and deities written by the Shang Ch'ing Taoist master Tu Kuang-t'ing (850-933). (Despite the original print date of 1993 Cahill still uses Wade Giles transliteration of the Chinese names which was a bit confusing at first.) The book that this record comes from sounds fascinating in itself and hopefully I'll get to read more of it later. Cahill contrasted this work with examples of beliefs in the Goddess found in Tang poetry. This was her way of giving the beliefs of the Daoist canon, combined with the beliefs of the people. This did present a fairly clear picture however there was still a distance between what was thought about her and how she was actually worshipped, or dealt with on an individual or community level. Both examples coming from the elite level of society. However, as sources from the Tang are so limited I'm sure she included as much as she could. And using the poetry as an additional source was a nice, and often insightful touch.
The first chapter of the book looked at the history of Xi Wang Mu before the Tang, what was known about her, or deities with the same name as her, and her early history. Then the successive chapters followed the format of the hagiography. Starting with her origins, her visiting the legendary Emperors, and her legendary visits to actual emperors, and the way they were not able to achieve immortality despite her visits. To the poets of the Tang Emperor Wu's failure to achieve immortality because of his human frailty was a source of much greater inspiration that that of Mao Ying who did.
To the men of the Tang she was seen as the dispenser of immortality and sacred texts. The mystical female teacher who also gave our divine marriages so that they might achieve transcendence. She was a powerful symbol to women outside the traditional family in Tang China, also serving as protector and teacher to all female Taoists. The chapter on Women in the Tang and their relationship with the Goddess was naturally my favorite. She looked at the influence the Queen mother had on nuns, Women Taoists adepts, and lay heroines.
An insightful book. My only complaint was that she used only English translations of the poems and texts and didn't include any Chinese. Though she did give references so that people who had access to the complete Tang poems could look them up. Still as someone without that access it would have been nice if I could have seen the original texts, but I'm guessing it was a publishing issue. A very small complaint really a bout an otherwise very enjoyable and informative book.
The first chapter of the book looked at the history of Xi Wang Mu before the Tang, what was known about her, or deities with the same name as her, and her early history. Then the successive chapters followed the format of the hagiography. Starting with her origins, her visiting the legendary Emperors, and her legendary visits to actual emperors, and the way they were not able to achieve immortality despite her visits. To the poets of the Tang Emperor Wu's failure to achieve immortality because of his human frailty was a source of much greater inspiration that that of Mao Ying who did.
To the men of the Tang she was seen as the dispenser of immortality and sacred texts. The mystical female teacher who also gave our divine marriages so that they might achieve transcendence. She was a powerful symbol to women outside the traditional family in Tang China, also serving as protector and teacher to all female Taoists. The chapter on Women in the Tang and their relationship with the Goddess was naturally my favorite. She looked at the influence the Queen mother had on nuns, Women Taoists adepts, and lay heroines.
An insightful book. My only complaint was that she used only English translations of the poems and texts and didn't include any Chinese. Though she did give references so that people who had access to the complete Tang poems could look them up. Still as someone without that access it would have been nice if I could have seen the original texts, but I'm guessing it was a publishing issue. A very small complaint really a bout an otherwise very enjoyable and informative book.