HARVARD THEOLOGICALREVIEW

VOLUMEXXXV OCTOBER, 1942 NUMBER 4

AN ANCIENT CHINESE MYSTERY CULT

HOMER H. DUBS
DUKEUNIVERSITY

ANCIENT China of the first century B.C., like ancient Greece,

possessed more than one religion. There was the national state
religion, worshipping the Supreme One (Tai-yil• --, also called
Heaven [Tien W] and the Lord on High [Shang-di ~1]), the
Five Lords on High (Wu-di IE* or Wu-shang-di 3ff ), the
imperial ancestors, and other divinities, whose sacrifices were
supported by the imperial government. For the educated,
there were two philosophical religions, Confucianism and
Daoism. For the common people, there were gods, spirits, and
ghosts of various sorts, whose care was attended to by such pro-
fessionals as shamans (mostly female), fortune-tellers, phys-
iognomists, mediums, and exorcists. Such animistic cults
were despised by the more intelligent Confucians, who con-
sidered them as mere superstition. The famous Confucian,
Stin-dz (ca. 320-ca. 235 B.C.), had indeed denied the existence
of all spirits.
Into the foregoing mixture of cults, which were similar to
those found elsewhere in the same stage of civilization, there
was precipitated, in 3 B.c., a new orgiastic cult, which swept
across civilized China in much the way that the Dionysian
orgies swept across Greece. This cult seems to have been es-
sentially similar in nature to the mystery cults of the ancient
Mediterranean world and to have been unlike other Chinese
1 For the sake of a readier indication of Chinese pronunciation, I am using a modi-
fication of the current Wade-Giles romanization for Chinese words, adapted from that
of Dr. Chas. S. Gardner (cf. his Chinese Traditional Historiography, p. xi). To change
my romanization into the Wade-Giles system, for initial p-, t-, k-, ch-, substitute p'-,
t'-, k'-, ch'-, respectively. For initial b-, d-, g-, j-, read p-, t-, k-, ch-. For initial r-, read
j-. Before i and ii, for initial ts-, dz-, s-, read ch'-, ch-, hs-. Before other vowels, for ts-
and dz-, read ts'- and ts-. For final -zh, read -ih. For tz, dz, sz, read tz'u, tzu, ssu (in
each case respectively).

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 222 HARVARD THEOLOGICALREVIEW

religions of the period. Because it is mentioned in only three

passages, the true nature of this cult has not been understood
by occidental writers, although it is extremely interesting for
the history of religion.
The cult centered about an ancient Chinese mother goddess,
the Mother Queen of the West (Si-wang-mnu n 4i_ ). In the
first century B.C., she was a popular goddess. Her cult, like
that of many other ancient Chinese divinities, has practically
disappeared today. In discussing this orgiastic cult of 3 B.c.,
we must first understand the contemporary conception of this
goddess. She has frequently been misunderstood by occidental
writers,2 and her nature was radically changed in subsequent
2 Her name, Si-wang-mu, is a quite peculiar Chinese phrase, so that it has been
given various interpretations. Wang-mu is a phrase used regularly to mean "Queen-
mother," and her name has frequently been interpreted by sinologists to mean "Queen-
mother of the West." But a Queen-mother implies a living reigning son, and nowhere
in ancient literature are we told of Si-wang-mu's son. Hence this phrase must mean
"Mother and Queen [or goddess] in the West." This interpretation is confirmed by the
fact that in popular usage she was called merely "the Mother" (cf. passage 23 ad
finem). E. Chavannes, (Memoires historiques [hereafter denoted by Mh], II, 8) and
R. Huber (Bulletin de l'cole Frangaise d'Extreme Orient [hereafter denoted by
BEFEO], 4, 1904, 1128) have interpreted this name as I do.
Speculative sinologists have identified Si-wang-mu variously. A. Forke ('Mu
Wang und die K6nigen von Saba,' Mitteil. d. Seminars f. Oriental. Studien, 7, 117-
172) identified her with the Queen of Sheba, reviving an identification by Ch. de
Paravey in 1853 ('Archeologie primitive. Traditions primitives conservees dans les
hieroglyphes des anciens peuples,' etc. in Annales de philosophies chretienne. Cf. the
devastating review by E. Huber, in BEFEO, 4, 1904, 1127-1131). A. H. Giles (Adver-
saria Sinica, 1-19, 'Who Was Si wang mu?') identified her with Juno. (Cf. the even
more devastating review by P. Pelliot in BEFEO, 6, 1906, 416-421.)
J. Legge (Chinese Classics, III, proleg., 150-151) and E. Chavannes (Mh II, 7-8; V,
app. II), following Ruan Yiian and certain other Chinese scholars, identify Si-wang-mu
as a western tribe. There is, however, no positive evidence to support this interpreta-
tion of the name. It is based merely upon the circumstance that in certain very old
Chinese texts, such as the Erh-ya (cf. passage 20) and the Annals Written On Bamboo
(cf. passage 6), the term Si-wang-mu is used as if it were a place or tribal name. It is,
however, a common feature of classical Chinese style to make no distinction between
the use of personal, tribal, and place designations, so that the usage of this name in
those sources is quite consistent with the interpretation of Si-wang-mu as a goddess.
In view of the ample and uniform evidence, from the fourth century B.C. and later,
that Si-wang-mu was a goddess, I see no reason for interpreting this name in any other
manner. Pelliot, who is perhaps the most eminent living sinologist, after years of
hesitation, has finally come to the conclusion that Si-wang-mu was a very ancient
Chinese mythological figure and that from the first she was feminine (T'oung Pao 27,
1930, 392).

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 AN ANCIENT CHINESE MYSTERY CULT 293

centuries,3 so that it will be necessary first to assemble the evi-

dence dating from before 3 B.C. concerning this goddess, in
order to understand the development that took place at that
date.
This divinity may have been one of the mother goddesses
who have appeared in every ancient center of civilization. She
may even date back to the matriarchal stage of Chinese cul-
ture, which preceded the historical period, and which has left
traces in the Chinese language and elsewhere. On the bones
used for divination by the Shang people in China during the
second millennium B.C., there is mentioned a "Western Mother
(Si-mu)," who may have been this goddess.3a Juang-dz, in the
fourth century B.C., speaks of her as an eternal being, living
upon a mountain:
(1) The Mother Queen of the West attained it [the Dao], and thereby
secured her place on the Narrow [Mountain] (Shao-guang); no one knows her
beginning, no one knows her end.4

By the last century B.C., she was coupled, in artistic repre-

sentations, with a male counterpart, the Father King of the
East (Dung-wang-fu 4~P3 ).5 This Father is, however, plainly
an invention of a much later date than the Mother, for he re-
ceives no mention in the texts of the period and none in her cult.
I After the Former Han
period (206 B.C.-A.D. 23), popular Daoism made the
Mother Queen of the West one of its divinities and developed her into a Daoist
immortal, so that she has become quite unlike the goddess of Han times. She has been
given nine sons and twenty-four daughters, a marvellous palace in the Kun-lun Moun-
tains with a fountain of precious stones, where the magic Feast of Peaches is held every
six thousand years. Women aged fifty are still presented with her image to lengthen
their life, and offerings are made to her in times of drought. Cf. E. T. C. Werner,
Myths and Legends of China, 136-138; Dictionary of Chinese Mythology, 163-164.
3a Cf. H. C. Creel, The Birth of China, 180. (Reference from Mrs. C. W. Bishop.)

4 From ch. 6, 3: Ila (this and other Chinese works are quoted, except where noted,
by the paging in the Commercial Press's "Sz-ku Tsung-kan"); also translated in Yu-lan
Fung, Chuang Tzu, 118. This chapter is generally considered to be genuine.
Shao-guang 'J~ was interpreted anciently as the name of a cave, a mountain, or a
region in the west. I have understood it as referring to a tall narrow peak, suitable for
spying upon the country. (Do the Han hill-censers and hill-jars denote this mountain?)
6 Cf.
]E.Chavannes, Mission Archeologique, tome I, partie 1, 123-125, 232, 264,
figs. 1211, 1212; Pl. XLIV, XLV, fig. 75, 76, where the Father and Mother were sta-
tioned opposite each other (cf. W. Fairbank, 'The Offering Shrines of "Wu Liang
Tz'u",' Harvard Journal of Asiatic Studies, 6, 1941, 19, 20). In this representation,
dating from A.D 147, the Mother Queen is represented with wings.

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224 HARVARD THEOLOGICALREVIEW
He seems to have been a concession to first century B.C. Chi-
nese ideas of propriety - a circumstance that likewise indi-
cates the great antiquity of this goddess.
She was anciently described as having a therianthropic form.
The Shan-hai-jing 2: 14b declares:
(2) Three hundred fifty ii farther west are the Jade Mountains (Yii-shan).
Here is where the Mother Queen of the West lives. The form of the Mother
Queen of the West is like that of a human being, with a leopard's tail, tiger's
teeth, which are good for whistling, and tangled hair. She wears a tall jade
comb [or plume] in her hair. She has charge of Heaven's calamities upon the
five [types of] crimes.'

This therianthropic form confirms the extreme antiquity of the

Mother; in Han grave-sculptures, two of the most ancient
Chinese divinities, Fu-hsi and Nii-gua, are represented with
human bodies and scaly serpent's tails instead of feet.' Many
of the Shan-hai-jing's supernatural beings are therianthropic
in form.
Even more important is the function of the Mother Queen,
indicated by the last sentence of passage 2. Heaven was the
highest of all ancient Chinese gods and was believed to exercise
a moral government over mankind. The Mother Queen was
then one of Heaven's deputies. Being located on a high moun-
tain in the west, she could survey the world of China, and so
send appropriate calamities or misfortunes upon those who had
done evil.8
6 The Shan-hai-jing ijij ~• (lit., "The Classic of Mountains and Seas") is a com-
posite book; this chapter probably dates from before the second century B.C., certainly
before 6 B.c.; cf. H. Maspero, La Chine antique, 610, n. 1.
7 Cf. Chavannes, Mission Archeologique, 1F, 126-130; P1. XLIV, fig. 75.
8 Shan-hai-jing 2: 13a states that "the high Kun-lun Mountains are verily the
lower capital city of the Lord of Heaven."
Guo Po ~$ (276-324) glosses passage 2 as follows: "She has charge of the emana-
tions which produce calamities, the five types of punishments, injury, and violent
death." (His explanation implies a philosophic background of a later date than that in
passage 2, in that he believes the Mother merely to set free emanations [chi g], which
in turn produce calamities, etc., instead of sending them directly.)
It is noteworthy that the conception of punishment after death does not appear in
connection with the Mother Queen. This conception did not enter China until Bud-
dhism brought it in the first century A.D. For Han China, retribution is confined to
this life.
Passage 2 constitutes a quite adequate disproof of the assertion by H. Maspero
('The Mythology of Modern China,' in Asiatic Mythology, 382), that Si-wang-mu

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 AN ANCIENT CHINESE MYSTERY CULT 225
Another passage from the same chapter adds an item con-
cerning this goddess:
(3) Moreover, two hundred twenty ii westwards there is the Mountain
With Three Precipitous Summits (Mt. San-wei). The three green birds live
on this mountain.9

The opening of the twelfth chapter adds another detail:

(4) In the region within the [four] seas, in the northwestern corner, on
going eastwards, there are the Snake Shaman Mountains (Shk-wu-shan). On
top of them is a man holding a cup, facing eastwards, standing. They are also
called the Tortoise Mountains (Guei-shan). Here there is the Mother Queen
of the West, leaning upon a stool, wearing a high hair-comb, and carrying a
cane. South of her are the three green birds, who bring food to the Queen
Mother of the West on the north of the high Kun-lun Mountains.'o

This passage evidently refers to a stone formation. It, however,

provides ancient evidence concerning the three green birds.
Since this goddess lived on top of a barren mountain, she had
to be fed like Elijah in the desert.

was originally a Goddess of Epidemics, in command of the demons of the plague. Such
a conception narrows her function unduly. His only evidence is passages 22, 23, and
24 of this paper. He interprets them to mean that "a terrible epidemic was announced,
against which only those would be safe who placed upon their door certain charms of
the Lady-queen of the West." E. Percival Yetts (Catalogue of the George Eumor-
fopoulos Collection, II, 39) declares that Maspero's identification is questionable.
W. Eberhard ('Beitr~ige zur kosmologischen Spekulation der Chinesen der Han-Zeit,'
Baessler Archiv, Bd. XVI, Heft 1-2, p. 33) declares that Si-wang-mu was a "Diirre-
gtittin," using as his evidence our passages 23 and 24. Careful examination of those
passages shows, however, that both these assertions are misunderstandings. Accord-
ing to Liu Hsin's ~iJ preface to the Shan-hai-jing (dated 6 B.c.), this book contains
the outstanding account of popular Han mythology and its first thirteen chapters (at
least) were read widely in Han times. Its evidence has then a very high value for Han
popular beliefs.
9 From Shan-hai-jing 2: 16b.
Mt. San-wei E1~- j is mentioned in the Book of History, II, i, 12 (Legge's
trans., 'Chinese Classics,' III, p. 40); III, i, 78 (p. 125); III, ii, 6 (p. 132). Guo Po
states that it is "in the present Dun-huang Commandery." Sadao Aoyama's Shina
Rekidai Chimei Yoran R)r
~J~~ i , 241, locates these mountains 20 li
southeast of Dun-huang gf( (which is in 940 47' E, 400 8' N). This place was then
not far from the Mother Queen's mountain (cf. passage 19).
Guo Po glosses passage 3, "The three green birds have charge of bringing food to
the Mother Queen of the West. They nest apart from her on this mountain."
10 Shan-hai-jing 12: la. This chapter was taken by the compilers of the Shan-hai-
jing from another work than that now in ch. 2. Ch. 12 probably dates from the sec-
ond or first century B.C.; cf. Maspero, La Chine antique, 610, n. 1.

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226 HARVARD THEOLOGICALREVIEW
A later passage from the same book contains two more de-
scriptions of this goddess:
(5) On the south of the Western Sea, and on the shores of the Shifting
Sands, back of the Red River and in front of the Black River, there are great
mountains called the Kun-hlun Mts. They are inhabited by a deity with the
face of a human being and the body of a tiger and with stripes and a tail, both
of which are [spotted with] white. Below these [mountains] there is the abyss
of the Weak River 11which encircles them. Beyond them there is the Moun-
tain that Flames Fire.12 If things are thrown into it, they immediately burn up.
[In these Kun-lun Mts.] there is a person, wearing a high hair-comb, with
tiger's teeth, a leopard's tail, living in a cave, called the Mother Queen of the
West. In these mountains, all varieties of creatures are all found.13

Around the figure of this Mother Queen of the West, various

legends collected. The Annals Written on Bamboo assert that
King Mu of the Jou dynasty visited the Mother Queen of the
West and that, as was proper, she repaid the visit:
(6) In the seventeenth year [of his reign],14 the King made an expedition
to the west, to the high Kun-lun Mts., and had an interview with the Mother
Queen of the West. That year, the Mother Queen came to his court. She was
entertained as a guest in the Jao Palace.'5

" The Weak River •7J• probably got its name because it had not the strength to
flow into the ocean like other rivers. Guo Po, however, glosses, "Its water cannot
support goose-down."
12 This volcano is mentioned in the Book of History, III, iv, 6 (Legge, p. 168; cf.
his notes). In the Tien-shan (lit., "the Mountains of Heaven"), north of the present
Kucha, Chinese Turkestan, there was anciently a volcano. Li Dao-yiian j• C (died
597), in his Shui-jing-ju 71Ifi 2: 13a (Wang Sien-chien's ed.), quotes Shzh
Dao-an's f-6% (lived third or fourth century) Record_Tf of the Western Frontier
Regions (Si-yu-ji "Two hundred ii [ca. 50 miles in Han times] north of Chii-
tz )j [WL E),
[the present Kucha] there is a mountain on which in the night there is the light
L
of fire and in the daytime there is smoke." Kucha is north of the Taklamakan desert,
while the ancient Kun-lun Mountains were south of it, so that the phrase in the text,
"beyond them," must be interpreted liberally. Before Han times, Chinese Turkestan
was very little known.
1' Shan-hai-jing 16: 4b, 5a. This chapter was added to the book by Guo Po in the
fourth century A.D., but it undoubtedly contains quite ancient material.
In this passage, Guo Po seems to have combined two different ancient descriptions
of the Mother Queen.
14 This
year was 985 B.c., according to the classical chronology, but 946 B.C. by the
(more probably correct) chronology of the Annals Written on Bamboo.
15 Ju-shu Ji-nien j•J~ :4j B:9b, 10a. This work is a set of annals ending with the
year 299 B.C.,so that they represent ideas of the fourth century B.C. and much earlier.
This book was buried in a tomb of that date, lost, and recovered in A.D. 281. Subse-
quently it suffered alterations, chiefly excisions, in the tenth to thirteenth centuries.

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 AN ANCIENT CHINESE MYSTERY CULT 227
The Memoirs of [King] Mu, the Son of Heaven, amplify the
above tradition into a truly mythological story:
(7) The Son of Heaven made an expedition westwards, ... and on the
day guei-hai [the last day of the Chinese sexagenary cycle], he reached the
country of the Mother Queen of the West.
On the auspicious [first] day [of the cycle, the day] jia-dz, the Son of
Heaven was entertained as a guest by the Mother Queen of the West. He
thereupon bore a white jade sceptre (guei) and a black jade circular disk [as
his symbols of rank]. At his interview with the Mother Queen of the West,
he presented her with a hundred pieces of flowered silk and ribbon and a
hundred catties of gold and jade.16 The Mother Queen of the West bowed
repeatedly and received them.
On the [next day, the day] yi-chou, when the Son of Heaven was banquet-
ing the Mother Queen of the West on the Green Jasper Pool, the Mother
Queen of the West sang without accompaniment [the following song] to the
Son of Heaven:
"Like the white clouds in heaven,
Mountains and hills spontaneously arise.
Our marches and hamlets are distant from one another
And mountains and streams intervene.
Yet if you, sir, do not die,
I hope that you will be able to return here."
The Son of Heaven answered her, saying:
"I must return to my land in the east
To bring peace and order to the Chinese people.
When all the people are tranquil and in harmony
I shall think affectionately of visiting you.
At the end of the third year,
I will return to your wilderness." 17

Yet it is fundamentallysoundand containsquite ancientmaterial;cf. C. S. Gardner,

ChineseHistoriography,7, n. 1.
Passage6 is also translatedby E. Biot, in JournalAsiatique,3me serie,XIII, 1842,
391-392, and by J. Legge, in 'ChineseClassics,'III, prolegomena,150-151.
16 The presenttext reads"threehundredpiecesof wu-ribbon."Wu h is plainly a

textual error- it is an unknownword. I have followedGuo Po's quotationof this

passagein a note to Shan-hai-jing2: 15a.
17Nowhereis there any accountof the King'sreturn.
In his quotationof this passage(cf. n. 16), Guo Po has a third song at this point,
whichadds to the romanticeffect:
The MotherQueenof the Westfor a secondtime chantedsighinglyto the Son
of Heaven,saying:
"Whenyou cometo this westernland,
To dwellin this place,
Tigersand leopardswill formtroopsfor you,
Largeand smallbirdswill dwellwith you.
Your happylife will have no end
And I will be my Lord'sspouse.

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228 HARVARD THEOLOGICAL REVIEW
The Son of Heaven drove to and ascended Mt. Yen-[dz, where the sun de-
scends in the evening], and thereupon recorded his deeds upon the rocks of

"You will be [deathless, belonging to] all generations,

And I will moreover secrete you.
For you I will 'blow organ-pipes until their tongues are all moving' [a line from
Book of Odes, II, I, i, 1 (Legge's trans., 'Chinese Classics,' IV, 245)]
Until in your heart of hearts you will be 'free from all concern,' [A phrase from
ibid., I, VIII, x, 4 (Legge, 160)]
And of all the people of the world
Only Heaven's [bliss] will equal yours."
In the present text, after the next paragraph concerning King Mu's visit to Mt.
Yen-dz, there is a different version of this third song:
At the Mountain of the Mother Queen of the West, he thought of returning
home, for he remembered the people of the world. He became sad and chanted,
saying,
"When I came to this western land,
And dwelt in this waste,
Tigers and leopards formed troops for me,
Crows and small birds dwelt with me,
My happy life has had no end
And I have been a god.
"But a Son of Heaven has a high duty
Of which he cannot be worthy.
When I think of the benefits of the people of the world,
My tears flow and suddenly fall.
"When you 'blow the organ-pipes until their tongues are all moving,'
And in my heart of hearts I am 'free from all concern,'
All the people of the world
Have only Heaven upon whom to depend."
This song is merely a variant of the other one quoted by Guo Po. One or two words
have been changed, and the second stanza has been added. But the four-word regu-
larity has been spoiled: a word has been taken from the end of line 6 and an extra word
put into line 10. The result of this change has been to alter the goddess's seductive
song into the King's assertion of his duty, making him treat her as Aeneas did Dido.
Since tense, voice, and conjunctions are usually omitted in Chinese, and personal sub-
jects are not expressed unless they are emphatic, this radical alteration of the mean-
ing necessitated comparatively little change in the text. The change was probably
made by someone who thought that an attempt by a great goddess to seduce a visit-
ing King was undignified and immoral.
Both these versions of the third poem cannot date from the archaic period (fourth
century B.C. or earlier), because they both use in the nominative case the archaic
Chinese dative and objective first personal pronoun, wo R. The second poem uses the
correct nominative first personal pronoun, wu -. Between the fourth and the second
centuries B.C., the distinction between these two pronouns was dropped. This third
poem is probably a later addition, possibly by Guo Po, written after this book was
found in A.D. 281. The underlying concept, that the Mother Queen attempted to in-

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 AN ANCIENT CHINESE MYSTERY CULT 229
Mt. Yen-[dz]and planteda huai tree upon it. He calledits peak the Moun-
tain of the Mother Queenof the West.18
There seems to have been a somewhat different version of
the above account current in the first century B.C. Sz-ma
Tsien (died ca. 80 B.c.) summarizes this story as follows:
(8) King Mu madeTsao-fuhis charioteerand madea trip of inspectionto
the west, where he had an interviewwith the Mother Queenof the West.
He was so pleasedwith her that he forgot to return. But King Yen of Sti
rebelled. King Mu, whose horses could gallop a thousandii in a day, at-
tacked King Yen of Sti and routedhim severely."9
The foregoing story of King Mu's visit must be classed with
mythology or romance, rather than with religion.
duce the King to return to her, is, however, found in the two genuine poems, so that
the third poem merely elaborates the original conception.
18 Mu Tien-dz Juan ~ ch. 2, 3; 2: 8b, 3: la-2a. This book was found in
the same tomb with the Annals~--i, Written on Bamboo, and also dates from before 299
s.c. It, however, bears the character of a romance, not of a serious history. Cf. Gardner,
Chinese Historiography, 44, n. 53; A. Hummel, Autobiography of a Chinese Historian,
80, n. 4, is more sceptical of it.
Passage 7 is also translated by De-kun Jeng, in the Journal of the North China
Branch of the Royal Asiatic Society, 64, 1933, 138-140.
'9 Shzh-ji 43: 4, 5 (paging of Takigawa's ed.). It is also translated by Cha-
vannes in Mh, V, N-9-10.
The present text of the Memoirs of King Mu, the Son of Heaven, nowhere contains
anything that would imply that the King forgot his duties in enjoying the Mother
Queen's entertainment or that he was recalled by a rebellion. We then have here a
different tradition that developed when the Memoirs of King Mu had been lost.
The Lie-dz ?lJ-i , which Maspero (La Chine antique, 491, n. 1) believes to date from
the end of the third century B.C., but which I, along with many recent Chinese critics,
prefer to date in the third century A.D., amplifies the present text of the Memoirs of
King Mu as follows (Lie-dz, ch. 3, A: 17a; also trans. by R. Wilhelm in his Lia Dsi,
31):
(9) Thereupon [King Mu] was entertained as a guest by the Mother Queen of the
West and banqueted her on the Green Jasper Pool, where the Mother Queen of the
West, without accompaniment, sang songs to the King and the King accompanied her.
Their words are sad. Thereupon he looked upon the place where the sun enters [the
earth for the night]. In one day he traveled ten thousand li. The King thereupon
sighed and said, "Alas! If I were not so full of virtue, I could have yielded to her pleas-
ures. But later generations would after my death have criticized me for it, [saying
that] I had done wrong!"
In the Lie-dz, King Mu's trip is described as an illusion due to a magician. The
Tien-wen W-CJ (attributed to Chi Yiian Sjqi [ca. 340-ca. 290 B.c.]) couples King
Mu's wanderings with a magician (cf. A. Conrady, Das Alteste Dokument zur Chi-
nesische Kunstgeschichte, T'ien-wen, 135-137, v. 137-139), but does not mention
the Mother Queen of the West. The legend of this Mother evidently belonged to
north China, not to the Yangtze valley, where Chi! Ytian lived.

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 230 HARVARD THEOLOGICALREVIEW
The Annals Written on Bamboo also state that this goddess
came to pay court to the very ancient mythological ruler,
Shun, who, in the Shan-hai-jing, is the most important of all
the mythological culture heroes. These Annals state that in
his reign,
(10) In his ninth year, the Mother Queen of the West came to pay him
court.20

The Book of Rites Compiled by the Elder Dai echoes this

statement. In connection with a discussion of Shun, it says:
(11) The Mother Queen of the West came [to his court] and presented a
white stone flute.21

The foregoing statement is repeated, with a slight addition, in

the Great Commentary On the Book of History:
(12) In the time of Shun, the Queen Mother of the West came [to his
court] and presented a white jade flute.22

Shun was ranked by Confucians among the greatest of the

sages, so that they naturally thought it only appropriate for a
great goddess to come and pay court to him. This legend,
which came to be interpreted as subordinating a popular god-
dess to a philosophic cult, was most likely current chiefly in
educated circles. A consequence of this legend is found in the
chapter of miscellaneous sayings in the works of the much earlier
Stin-dz:
(13) Yao studied with Yin-shou,23Shun studied with Wu-cheng Jao,2"and
Yiu studied with the Mother Queen of the West.25
20 Ju-shu Ji-nien A: 8a; also trans. by Biot in Jour. Asiat., 3me serie, XII, 550, and

by Legge, 'Chinese Classics,' III, proleg., 115.

21 Da-Dai
Li-ji -~•i'alIt , 11: 12b, ch. 76, sect. 5; also trans. by R. Wilhelm in his
Li Gi, 97. This book was compiled in the first century B.C., out of older materials.
22 Shang-shu-Da-juan A--- 2: 6b. This book was supposed to have been
5]•[
compiled out of older materials by Master Fu fi/-t, who died some time during
179-157 B.C. It was lost in the fourteenth century, and its fragments were collected
and published in the eighteenth century. This passage is quoted by Meng Kang A
(lived during 220-240 A.D.) in a note to Han-shu 01 A: 3a (paging of Wang
Sien-chien's ed.), also elsewhere.
23 The text reads Jiin-shou A MI,but Han-shu 20: 17a and other early authors read
Yin-shou .
-f
24 Han-shu 30: 50b, 70b, 81a list his works, with Ban Gu's note to the first of these,
"Not an ancient work."
25
Siin-dz V-j- 19: 3b, fascicle 27 (Wang Sien-chien's ed.). Instead of "Mother

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 AN ANCIENT CHINESE MYSTERY CULT 231
Since the Mother Queen paid court to Shun, it would have been
only natural for Shun's successor to have studied with her. Here
she is made out to be a Confucian teacher.
The later part of the Shan-hai-jing contains a description of
the Mother Queen's country:
(14) To the west are the Mountain of the Mother Queen, the Precipitous
Mountains, and the Ocean-[bordering] Mountains, where there is the Coun-
try of Satisfaction, which satisfies its people. In this place are the Fields of
Satisfaction. Phoenix eggs are their food and sweet dew 26 is their drink;
everything that they desire is always ready for them.
Furthermore there are "sweet flowers," 27 "sweet Chaenomeles japonica" 28
white willows, the Shzh-ru,29 the thrice-piebald,3" the siian,3' red jasper, green
jasper, and deep green jade, Excoecaria japonicum, the white coral tree,32
white cinnabar, green cinnabar, with much silver and iron. Luan-birds 3
spontaneously sing there and phoenixes spontaneously dance there.
Furthermore there are all kinds of animals, which form flocks in this
place, so that it is called the Fields of Satisfaction. There are the three green
birds, with red heads and black eyes. One is named the Great Pelican, one
is named the Lesser Pelican, and one is named the Green Bird.34

Queen of the West (Si-wang-mu fJf 3E )," the present text reads Si-wang-guo M,
lit., "The Country of the King [or Queen] of the West." But this phrase does not make
sense, and no person or place, real or mythical, by the name of Si-wang-guo is known.
The characters guo and mu are similar, so that they might have easily been confounded
by a copyist. I have emended guo to mu.
26 "Sweet dew" was a Chinese mythological liquor; cf. H. H. Dubs, trans., The

History of the Former Han Dynasty (hereafter denoted by HFHD), II, ch. 8, n. 21. 5.
27 Shan-hai-jing 15: 5a declares, "To the east there are 'sweet flowers' -•Bf, whose
branches and trunk are all red, with yellow leaves."
28 Shan-hai-jing 15: 5a declares, "On it there is 'sweet Chaenomeles japonica

(gan-ja -`4)l ,' whose branches and trunk are all red, with yellow leaves, white flowers,
and black fruit."
29 Guo Po glosses the mention of this creature ;fi 10 in Shan-hai-jing 6: 3b as follows:

"It stores up flesh. Its shape is like an ox's liver. It has two eyes. When one has eaten
of it, but has not eaten it up, suddenly it revives and is renewed just as it was before."
30 Shan-hai-jing 15: 5a declares, "There there are green horses and there are red

horses, whose name is thrice-piebald (san-jui -"7f)." Guo Po glosses ibid. 14: 4a as
follows: "A horse with green and white mixed hair, making it piebald."
31 The siian ;
was a precious stone.
32 White coral yJJf was supposed to grow in the Kun-lun Mountains, on trees. It
is said to have been like pearls.
33 Shan-hai-jing 2: 7b-8a declares, "There are birds, whose shape is like that of a
tartar pheasant, with stripes of all colors. Their name is the luan 7 bird. When they
appear, the world is peaceful and tranquil." Guo Po glosses, "According to an old ex-
planation, the luan is a bird like a chicken. It is an auspicious bird. In the time of
King Cheng of the Jou dynasty, the western Rung barbarians presented one to him."
The luan was a mythological bird of the phoenix species.
34 Shan-hai-jing 16: eb-3a. This passage precedes that translated in passage 5.

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232 HARVARD THEOLOGICALREVIEW
There are a few other passages from Former Han times re-
ferring incidentally to this goddess. The famous poet of Em-
peror Wu's court, Sz-ma Siang-ru (died 117 B.c.) mentions the
Mother Queen in his Prose-poem on the Great Emperor
(Da-ren-fu):
(15) I went back and forth among the Yin Mts. and soared in great curves,
So that I have moreover today looked upon the Mother Queen of
the West.
She is brilliant with her white head and high jade comb, yet she
dwells in a cave.
She also fortunately has her three green birds 35to be her messen-
gers.
If I were certain to live as long as she and not die,
Altho I were to traverse ten thousand ages, it would not be enough
to make me glad."6

The Huai-nan-dz alludes poetically to this goddess:

(16) When a rebellious person brings his machinations to completion,...
the aged old lady of the west breaks her tall hair-comb [in despair] and the
spirit of the Yellow [Lord] sighs.87

Another passage connects her specifically with immortality:

(17) It is like when Yi begged from the Mother Queen of the West the
drug that keeps one from dying, and Heng-o stole it, used it, and took refuge
in the moon. He was disappointed, was deprived of [his wife], and had no
way of replacing [the lost drug].38
35The text reads"three-footedcrow,"whichmythologicalcreaturewas, however,
locatedin the sun and not ancientlyconnectedwith the MotherQueen. HenceI have
emendedthis phrase. The respectivecharactersare quite similarto each other.
36 Quotedin Han-shu57 B: 17b, 18a.
"'
Jang Yi (livedduring227-232) glosses,"These Yin Mts. are in the Kun-lun
Mts., 27001i to the west. The figureof the MotherQueenof the West is like that of a
human being, with a leopard's tail, a tiger's head, and tangled hair which shines on her
white head. She has a stone capital city with a golden house and a cave in which she
lives. The three green birds .. .have charge of taking food to the Mother Queen of
the West on the north of the high Kun-lun Mts."
37 Huai-nan-dz y•j-q- 6: Sa. This work was written for Liu An IIjI, King of
Huai-nan (died 122 B.c.), by eight of his learned men. The "aged old lady of the west"
is of course the Mother Queen. Here she is merely one of the great gods who care for
the well-being of the country.
38 Huai-nan-dz 7: 10a. Gao Yu j (wrote 205-212) glosses: " Heng-o F
[now
called Chang-o was the wife of Yi 5 [the divine archer], who had the
]"• begged
drug from the Mother Queen of the West. Before he had taken it, Heng-o stole and ate
it, so that she succeeded in becoming an immortal. She took refuge [from Yi] in the
moon." A more modern version of this myth is to be found in Werner, Myths and
Legends, 183-188.

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 AN ANCIENT CHINESE MYSTERY CULT 233
In Yang Hsiung's Prose-poem (fu) on the Gan-tsiian Palace,
he says:
(18) I thought of the Mother Queen of the West lovingly offering toasts.39

The location of the Mother Queen of the West's mountain is

furnished by one of Ban Gu's notes in his chapter entitled,
The Treatise on the Principles of Geographical Arrangements
(Di-li-jzh):
(19) Lin-chiang. Northwest, outside the border, there is the Stone Cham-
ber of the Mother Queen of the West, north of the Lake of the Immortals
and the Salt Pool.40

The "Lake of the Immortals" is identified as Kokonor.41 The

ancient Lin-chiang is the present Si-ning (1010 49' E, 360 37' N),
in Tsing-hai. The Mother Queen of the West was thus supposed
to live on one of the present Southern Mountains (Nan-shan),
which form the southern border to the westward extension of
Kansu. This location must have been taken by Ban Gu from
a document quite old in his day, for it is contradicted in other
parts of his History.42 Yet it was almost certainly the archaic
Chinese location for this goddess.
The legend connecting the Mother Queen of the West with the pill of immortality
appears first in the Huai-nan-dz. It is not in the Shan-hai-jing, where Yi is merely a
great hero and archer, and where his shooting down of the nine superfluous suns is not
even mentioned. This myth hence seems to date from the second century B.C., and is
later than the more ancient conceptions in the Shan-hai-jing.
39 Quoted in Han-shu 87 A: 17a. Yang Hsiung ~if lived 53 B.C.-A.D. 18. The
reference is of course to the goddess's entertainment of King Mu.
0oHan-shu 28 Bi: 10a, b.
41 By Sun Hsiao jjj (lived before the sixth century), in a note to Shui-jing-ju 2:
35b, where the above location is repeated.
42 As Chinese geographical knowledge of regions west of China increased, the loca-
tion of the Mother Queen of the West was pushed farther and farther westwards. A
quite early passage in the Erh-ya ~i (third century B.C. and earlier) B: Ila, ch. 9,
says:
(20) Gu-ju, the Bo-hu, the Mother Queen of the West, and Rzh-hsia are the four
outermost wildernesses.

Gu-ju iOf was a northern region, known already in Shang times, extending from the
present Lu-lung, Hopei to Jao-yang, Re-ho. It was then the very ancient "northern-
most " region, north from the present Shantung. The Bo-hu 4 UF are the people who
place "the doors of their houses on the north," because they live south of the sun - the
ancient southernmost location. The Mother Queen of the West's mountain was where

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934 HARVARD THEOLOGICALREVIEW
The foregoing passages include all the existing Chinese data
that I can find concerning the Mother Queen of the West,
which date from Former Han times or earlier, except for the
three which will be presented next.43 This Mother Queen is
delineated as a very ancient divinity, living in the far west on
a mountain. She was a person who sends calamities, thereby
punishing the wicked. We may speculate that she was originally
similar to the Ainu "aunt of the marshes," who sends diseases 14
- a malevolent being, responsible for calamities, called a
"mother" by euphemism. Her moral character may have only
been acquired in the last half-millennium B.C., when the Chinese
moralized their gods. By Han times, however, any malevolent
character she may originally have had was forgotten. She had
become an immortal goddess, kindly disposed to mankind, who
could make her favorites immortal and give them a life of eter-
the sun went down, so that she naturally belongs in this list of the four quarters. Rzh-
hsia 11-F was the region "below the place where the sun" comes out in the morning.
Since the Erh-ya early became one of the authoritative classics, the Queen Mother
of the West came to be conceived as living in the westernmost country. When Jang
1
Chien R and other Chinese envoys explored central Asia in the first century B.C.,
they naturally inquired for this goddess. Part of their report (Shzh-ji 123: 13 [also trans.
by Hirth in Jour. Amer. Orient. Soc'y, 37, 1917, 97 (45), and by de Groot in Chinesische
Urkunden zur Geschichte Asiens, II, Die Westlande China, 18]; this passage is repeated
in Han-shu 96 A: 28b [trans. in de Groot, op. cit., 91]) contains the statement:
(21) According to the tradition of the elders in Parthia, in Tiao-jzh [Chaldaea]
there is the Weak River and the Queen Mother of the West, but they have never been
seen [there].
In 166 A.D., there arrived at the Chinese capital a man (probably a merchant) from
the Roman empire, who called himself, "An envoy from the King of Rome, Aurelius"
(cf. F. Hirth, China and the Roman Orient, 42 [33]); the Chinese also sent an envoy to
the west, who seems to have reached the Persian Gulf, so that more accurate knowl-
edge of the west was available. The Wei-lio f1I (written between 239 and 265) accord-
ingly locates the Queen Mother of the West on a Jade Mountain west of a sea west of the
Roman orient (cf. Hirth, op. cit., 77, [77]). This location was repeated by later his-
torians (cf. ibid., 51, [21]; 43, [34]; 82, [37]; 86, [63]; 87, [71]; 95, [231]).This "scientific"
location did not, however, affect the popular religious belief in Han times; knowledge
of it was probably confined to a few learned men in the imperial court.
43 The Secret Memoir of Emperor Wu of the Han Dynasty (Han Wu Nei-juan
A'E AJ N ) is devoted to a visit by the Mother Queen of the West to Emperor Wu, in
which she gives the Emperor directions for becoming an immortal. This book is at-
tributed to Ban Gu, but really dates from the fifth century A.D.
44 Cf. John Batchelor, The Ainu and their Folklore, 41 ff.; E. W. Hopkins, History
of Religions, 48.

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 AN ANCIENT CHINESE MYSTERY CULT 235
nal happiness in her palace on top of the Kun-lun Mountains
in the far west. She had offered these gifts to King Mu when he
visited her, so that he had even forgotten his own kingdom. She
had become a being like Demeter and Persephone, conse-
quently it is not surprising to find developing about her a cult
like that of the Greek mysteries.
Three brief sections in Ban Gu's History of the Former Han
Dynasty constitute our sole sources for this new cult:
(22) In the fourth year [of the year-period, Jien-ping], in the spring, the
first month [Feb./Mar., 3 B.c.], there was a great drought. East of the
Han-gu Pass, the common people carried in procession the wands of the
Mother Queen of the West. They passed thru commanderies and kingdoms
and went west thru the Han-gu Pass to the imperial capital. The common
people there also met and collected, sacrificing to the Mother Queen of the
West. Some by night took fire up on top of buildings, beat drums, and cried
out, exciting and frightening one another.45
(23) In the year-period Jien-ping, the fourth year, the first month, the
common people were excited and ran, each holding a stalk of straw or hemp,
carrying them on and passing them to one another, saying, "I am transport-
ing the wand of the goddess's edict." Those who passed along and met on the
roads were as many as thousands. Some let down their hair and walked bare-
foot. Some at night broke door-bars and some climbed over walls, entering
houses. Some rode chariots or on horseback, galloping fast, or making them-
selves post-messengers to transmit and transport the wands. They passed
and traveled thru twenty-six commanderies and kingdoms and came to the
imperial capital.
That summer, in the imperial capital, the common people of the comman-
deries and kingdoms collected and met in the wards, lanes, and foot-paths,
making sacrifices and setting out utensils for tablets [like dice, to throw lots,
probably for divination], singing and dancing, sacrificing to the Mother
Queen of the West. They also transmitted a writing which said, "The
Mother informs her people that those who wear this writing will not die.
Let those who do not believe my words look below their door-hinges, where
there will be white hairs." In the autumn it stopped.46
(24) In the fourth year, the first month, the second month, and the third
month [Feb.-May, 3 B.c.], the common people frightened each other, cry-
ing out and running, transmitting edicts and wands, and sacrificing to the
Mother Queen of the West. They also said, "People with eyes placed ver-
tically will come." 47

45 FromThe Annalsof EmperorHsiao-ai,Han-shu11: 6b.

46
FromThe Treatiseon the Five Elements,whichdiscussesportents;Han-shu27
Ca: 2a.
47FromThe Treatiseon the Ornamentsof Heaven,whichdiscussesastronomyand
astrology,Han-shu26: 59b.

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236 HARVARD THEOLOGICALREVIEW
Ban Gu, the author of this history, was himself a quite
naturalistic Confucian, who was not interested in popular re-
ligious movements. But this Chinese cult was so different from
other contemporary religions that it excited considerable atten-
tion. It spread over all northern China, from east to west, even
reaching the imperial capital, so that it excited interest in the
court. The provincial governors very likely mentioned it in
their reports to the throne; the imperial interpreters of portents
included it in the events they discussed.4" Thus Ban Gu found
it described in the written source material for Former Han
times and included these three brief passages.
This outbreak of religious fervor was undoubtedly accentu-
ated and possibly precipitated by the great drought recorded
for this year. This religion started somewhere east of the
Han-gu Pass (the present Tung-guan), i.e., in the present
Shantung or Honan. Shantung has always been a center of
popular religion and it is still occasionally the scene of religious
excitement.
It is possible to guess at the theology behind this outburst of
popular fervor. According to the then current theory, calami-
ties were sent by Heaven because of deficiencies in the imperial
government.49 With the progressive development and indi-
vidualization of moral ideals, it came to be seen how unjust
such a divine procedure was to the individuals who suffered.
The popular religion attributed this drought to the action of the
Mother Queen of the West. But she, like other gods, had come
to be thought of as just."- She was a Mother, who would not
48 Their interpretations of its portentous meaning are quoted in the Han-shu; cf.

HFHD, III, ch. 11, n. 6. 9, ad finem.

49 No doctrine was more continuously reiterated in imperial edicts of the Former
Han period. When a flood, earthquake, famine, cold spell, epidemic, comet, or some
other calamity appeared, the emperor usually issued an edict in which he accepted the
blame for the calamity, laying it upon the inadequacies of his government; cf. HFHD,
I, 4: 9a, 16b; II, 8: 6b, 9a; 9: 2a, 3b, 4b, 5b; 10: 2b, 4a, 5b, 14a. In 7 B.c., after some
solar eclipses, earthquakes, and floods, Emperor Ai said in an edict, "Owing to Our
lack of virtue, the common people have suffered punishment in Our place." (HFHD,
III, 11: 4a.)
50 In 18 B.c., one of the imperial concubines, the Favorite Beauty nee Ban iff ?, a
great-aunt of Ban Gu, was accused of having practised black magic. She replied that
if she had done evil and had tried to get the spirits or gods to aid her, if they had any
knowledge of human activities, how could she hope not to be accused by them of dis-

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 AN ANCIENT CHINESE MYSTERY CULT 237

deliberately destroy her children. The contradiction between

the justice of the goddess and the injustice to individuals who
suffered from the drought could be solved if the goddess would
grant continued existence, in spite of the lack of food, to those
individuals whom she favored. Thus the goddess came to be
thought of as offering to her favorites escape from the calamity.
It is natural that those persons who believed they had secured
this favor should tell others about it, and should recount how
they obtained this favor, whereupon other persons naturally
went through the same procedure (rites), and a new soteriologi-
cal religion was born. Something like the foregoing must have
been the etiology of this cult.
What we know about the ceremonies of this cult is to be
found only in passages 22, 23, and 24. The wands, which were
carried in procession, were undoubtedly symbols of the god-
dess's authority. It was an ancient Chinese custom for high
officials, when attending court, to bear credentials, which were
frequently in the shape of a short stick or tablet. Sometimes
these wands were made of jade and were called guei Im-
?..51
perial commissioners carried staffs, which were sometimes
wooden writing tablets, nine to eighteen inches long, an inch
wide, sealed with appropriate seals, called dzie 8~iorfu *.52 For
the wands of the Mother Queen, the common people seem to
have used tree branches. These branches probably typified the
tree of immortality, which is pictured on Han graves.53 These
wands were passed from one initiate to another, so that each
person could be assured of having possessed the authoritative
favor of the goddess. Subsequent to this development in her
cult, the Mother Queen of the West was pictured with wor-
shippers holding up towards her their wands, just as courtiers
held their guei in court.54

loyalty to her lord; whereas if they had no knowledge, what good would it have done
her to appeal to them? (Cf. HFHD, II, 366.) This dilemma implies that the gods and
spirits are thoroughly moral beings.
51 Cf. passage 7, paragraph 2.
52 Cf. Mh, II,
129, n. 3; Chavannes, Documents Chinois, 30 f.
53 Cf. Chavannes, Sculpture sur pierre en Chine, pl. X; Mission Archbologique,
pl. XLVI, fig. 77.
54 Cf. Chavannes, Sculpture, pl. XXXVIII, third register of the gable; Mission

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238 HARVARD THEOLOGICALREVIEW
Persons bearing credentials exercised the authority of the
lord who issued these credentials. The Han emperors sometimes
sent out commissioners with credentials authorizing them to
levy and send out armies, execute high officials, or in other ways
wield the imperial absolute authority. It is not then surprising
to find that some devotees who bore the goddess's wands should
have felt that this authority permitted them to enter houses
(possibly to secure the food stored therein, in order to put into
effect the goddess's edict that the wand bearers should not die).
Others commandeered the imperial posts or other carriages,
riding about the country to bear the gospel of the goddess's
kindness to new places. Some took fire on top of houses, send-
ing the good news to distant places by means of fire beacons.
Some let down their hair and walked barefoot - a practice
still used by Chinese pilgrims. Certain other ancient Chinese
superstitions, such as that about the people with eyes placed
vertically, also entered into this cult.55 There were also other
ceremonies, which the unsympathetic Confucian historian
merely describes as making sacrifices and setting out tablets
for divination, singing and dancing. These ceremonies devel-
oped into some sort of orgiastic performances. Ban Gu states
that they "beat drums and cried out, exciting and frightening
each other." 56 The therianthropic form of the goddess may
have influenced the cult at this point.
Another feature is the charm, the wearing of which promised
freedom from death."7 Charms against disease and calamity
were then worn by practically everybody, even by the emperor,
nobles, officials, and students."8 Chinese doors do not have
Archeologique, pl. LXXXVI, fig. 161; LXXXVII, fig. 162; vol. '1,pl. DXV, fig. 1237;
p. 80, 264.
55 Cf. passage 24. In one of the Elegies of Chu, entitled, The Great Summoning
(Chu-tz , 10: 3a, "Da-jao" y]k, attributed to Chti Ytian, more probably by a
disciple, Jing Chai jc [third century B.C.]), the poet declares that among the spirits
in the shoreless deserts of the west there is one
With a pig's head and vertical eyes,
Hairy, with disordered hair,
Long claws, protruding teeth,
And wild forced laughter.
56 Cf. passage 22. '5 Cf. passage 23 ad finem.
58 Cf.
HFHD, III, ch. 99, app. III; Han-shu 99 B: 7a.

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 AN ANCIENT CHINESE MYSTERY CULT 939
metal hinges; on the top and bottom at the hinge side of the
door are wooden tenons, which fit into sockets in the door-
frame. It is natural for hairs and other dirt to accumulate in
the lower sockets. This charm was probably a device to reas-
sure people who wanted something more than the mere bear-
ing of the Mother's wands. To be all things to all people is a
fundamental principle in most religions.
The cult died down in the autumn, when the harvest was
gathered. We do not know whether this cult promised death-
lessness merely during the drought or permanently. Passage 17
suggests the latter. If it was the former, the cult would natur-
ally have ended at harvest-time. Even so, once temporary
deathlessness had been secured, the demand for permanent
deathlessness was sure to follow. We wish we knew the history
of this cult after the year 3 B.C.; unfortunately it did not again
attract attention in the court and is not mentioned again in
history. Popular Daoism, which arose chiefly in the first and
second centuries A.D., took over this demand for immortality,
satisfying it by magical and miraculous practices.
To sum up: The Mother Queen of the West was in Former
Han times an ancient Chinese goddess belonging to the popular
religion, who was believed to live on top of a high mountain
outside the western boundaries of China, whence she sent
calamities to punish sins against Heaven. She seems to have
been an extremely ancient divinity, dating perhaps from pre-
historic ages, at which time she had possibly been a malevolent
being. As a result of ancient Chinese mythology working upon
her name, she developed into a mother goddess who was kindly
disposed to mankind, and who offered immortality to her dev-
otees. In 3 B.C., on the occasion of a great drought, this belief
flowered into an orgiastic soteriological cult, which spread
across north China from east to west. By bearing the Mother's
wands in procession, by sacrifices, singing, dancing, orgies, and
charms, deathlessness was offered to initiates. The great ex-
citement of the cult's devotees attracted the attention of the
imperial court and secured a brief mention for this religion in
Chinese history. We know nothing of the subsequent history
of this cult; it was probably taken up into popular Daoism.

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240 HARVARD THEOLOGICALREVIEW
The occurrence in ancient China of an orgiastic soteriological
cult similar in some respects to the early stages of the Greek
Dionysiac cult is a highly interesting circumstance, which
shows how similar are religions in different parts of the
world.

CORRECTION
In "Philo on Free Will," n. 48 (preceding issue of this Review, p. 140), with re-
gard to the fourfold classification of the ten plagues in Philo and the Shibbale ha-
Leket, the same classification is to be found in Tanhuma, Wa-Era 14, and Shemot
Rabbah 12. 4 and 15. 27. See Ginzberg, The Legends of the Jews, V, p. 426, n. 170.
H. A. WOLFSON.

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