5.1.2. Materials That Comment on the Queen Mother

Sima Xiangru's "Rhapsody on the Great Man" and Yang Xiong's "Rhapsody on the Sweet Springs" have comments on the Queen Mother, which are as follows:

Having wandered and soared in the Yinshan Mountains, I only go<sup>t</sup> to see the Queen Mother with my own eyes today. ... Gray-haired with a *sheng* 勝 headdress, the Queen Mother lived in a cave. Fortunately, there was a three-legged bird as her messenger. If to become immortal, one had to live forever like her, it is not joyful at all. (Fei et al. 1993, p. 92)

[When Emperor Cheng 成 帝 (r. 33 BC–7 BC) of Han] thought of the Queen Mother, he happily went to celebrate her birthday and avoided the fairy maidens, Jade Lady and Concubine Mi. They thus had no chance to look at him with their bright eyes, or show him their slender eyebrows. Emperor Cheng mastered the essence of the subtle and strong Way and received the counsel of the gods. (Fei et al. 1993, p. 172)

5.1.3. Discussion of the Function of the Queen Mother in Han Grand Rhapsodies

In the descriptions of the living environment of the Queen Mother, the *fu* writers are consistent with each other. All are full of praises, wistfulness, and yearning when they talk of the Queen Mother's dwelling place where many ancient sages reside, surrounded by exotic flowers and rare herbs. When commenting on the Queen Mother, the writers fall into two categories. Sima Xiangru raises doubts, while Yang Xiong continues to admire the Queen Mother's living environment. This is how Sima Xiangru expresses these doubts: living in a cave far away from the world, with gray hair and wearing rough clothes—what is the point of being immortal after all?

However, the *fu* writers recognized the identity of the Queen Mother, that is, she was treated as a god who mastered (the function of) longevity and immortality. The *fu* writers described a paradise of immortality and an illusory path to it, which was symbolized by the Queen Mother. In Han *dafu*, the Queen Mother was a god of longevity and immortality.
