Peach Festival of the Queen Mother of the West.

A Chinese Ming or Qing dynasty handscroll painting from the 17th-18th century, by an anonymous artist (formerly attributed to Fang Chunnian (ca. 1225-1264)). Ink and color on silk, blue-and-green style.

The Queen Mother of the West was one of the most important goddesses of the traditional Chinese pantheon. She dwelt in the Kunlun Mountains, located south of the Takla Makan desert in western China, where according to legend she was visited over the centuries by a number of emperors and Daoist masters seeking the esoteric doctrines that confer immortality. Her most famous encounter reportedly occurred in 110 B.C.E., when she journeyed to the court of Emperor Wu of the Han dynasty (reigned 141-87 B.C.E.) and presented him with several magical peaches, which ripen only once every three thousand years. Said to confer immortality when eaten, these special peaches became the most common attribute of the Queen Mother. According to early sources, the peaches of immortality grow not only in the mountain home of the goddess, but also on certain mythological islands in the ocean east of China, where other gods and immortals reside. It is unclear which of these locations is depicted in the current scroll.

From the Freer Gallery of Art and Arthur M. Sackler Gallery, the Smithsonian’s National Museum of Asian Art of Washington D.C.

• Author: en:User:PericlesofAthens
• Date: August 3, 2007