**1. Introduction**

The Han dynasty (206 BC–AD 220) played a significant part in the history of Chinese art because its two major art forms, the Han rhapsodies (*fu* 賦), and Han paintings that have come down largely in the form of Han tomb stones reliefs, were not only extremely sophisticated but also influenced the development of literature and fine art in the following dynasties. In the past, most academic investigations of the two forms were concerned with their role in literary and artistic development. If viewed from the perspective of religious development, the Han rhapsodies and Han paintings also made grea<sup>t</sup> contributions in that they provide mutually verifiable evidence for the cult of the Queen Mother of the West (Xiwangmu 西王母, hereafter the Queen Mother), the arguably most popular deity in the Han era.

Han rhapsodies are a form of literary art, whereas Han stone reliefs are a form of visual art. There are not many cross-disciplinary comparisons between the two, and comparisons of them with respect to religious development are even less. This paper aims to fill the gap by examining the Han rhapsodies and Han stone carvings that feature the Queen Mother. In the process of demonstrating the images of the two Queen Mothers, we cross-use textual and graphic materials from the Han era. The texts are from handed-down official classics and modern anthologies of Han literature, and the images come from archaeological excavations and reports. Based on the differences in the appearance frequency and depiction of the Queen Mother in the two forms of Han art, this paper proposes a hypothesis: there were two Queen Mothers in the Han pantheon, one worshipped by people from the upper class as a goddess of longevity and immortality, and the other worshipped by the ordinary people as a seemingly omnipotent deity with divine power over both the immortal world and the mortal world as portrayed in Han tomb art.
