Who Is the Queen Mother of the West (Xiwangmu)?
The goddess who hosts the Peach Banquet
The Queen Mother of the West is a goddess from ancient Chinese mythology. In Journey to the West she is called Wangmu Niangniang and hosts the Peach Banquet at the Jade Pool in Heaven, a feast where the peaches of immortality are served.
To prepare for the banquet, she sends the Seven Fairy Maidens to pick peaches in the Garden of Immortal Peaches. But Wukong, the garden's guardian, has already eaten the ripe ones, and he freezes the maidens in place with a spell. He then wrecks the banquet as well, and the Queen Mother reports it to the Jade Emperor.
The peach trees in the garden bear fruit once every 3,000 years in the front, 6,000 years in the middle, and 9,000 years at the back. Eating them is said to make one an immortal or let one live as long as Heaven and Earth. The Queen Mother has long been worshipped as a goddess of longevity.
Episodes featuring this character2
NEWEpisode 5
Not Invited? He Ate the Whole FeastThe Peach Banquet and the Elixir Pills
Made guardian of Heaven's peach orchard, Sun Wukong secretly eats the immortal peaches. When he finds out he's the only one not invited to Heaven's grand banquet, he goes on a rampage. He devours the feast, gobbles up Laozi's golden elixir pills, and flees home to Flower-Fruit Mountain. Down on Earth, 110 years have already passed, and Heaven sends a hundred thousand soldiers after him.
19 pages
NEWEpisode 6
72 Disguises. One Hunter. No Escape?Sun Wukong vs. Erlang Shen
A hundred thousand Heavenly Soldiers can't catch Sun Wukong, so Heaven calls in its greatest hunter: Erlang Shen. Sparrow? He becomes a hawk. Fish? He becomes the bird that eats fish. Whatever Wukong turns into, Erlang sees through it. Then, at the end of the shape-shifting duel, a blow nobody saw coming drops from Heaven's Gate.
19 pages