Xihe
Mythological Narrative
The Classic of the Great Wilderness: South places a Country of Xihe beyond the southeastern sea, between the waters of Gan. There a woman named Xihe is bathing a sun in the Sweet Gulf. The text states her identity plainly: she is a wife of Di Jun and gave birth to ten suns. Her children roost on the Fusang tree in the hot springs valley of the east, nine on the lower branches and one on the upper, taking the sky in turn; bathing each newborn sun is the pose in which the classic fixes her forever.
In transmitted literature she traveled two opposite roads. The 'Canon of Yao' in the Book of Documents split her into the Xi and He clans of calendar officials, four brothers dispatched to the four quarters to 'observe the sun, moon and stars and respectfully give the seasons to the people' — the mother of suns historicized into astronomers. The Songs of Chu kept the myth alive: in the Li Sao the poet begs 'Xihe, slacken your pace, do not press toward Yanzi mountain', casting her as the sun's charioteer. From the Han period onward the image settled: six dragons drawing the sun's chariot, Xihe holding the reins.
China's first solar observation satellite, launched in 2021, was named Xihe, keeping the sun-mother's name attached to the business of watching the sun.
Academic Discussion & Critique
Exchange peer-reviewed hypotheses, comparative Indo-European etymologies, and archaeological field interpretations regarding Xihe.
You Might Also Like
Changxi
A wife of Di Jun who bore twelve moons in the western wilderness and bathed them — the twelve months personified. Scholars widely take her as the prototype of the moon goddess Chang'e.
Fusang and the Ten Suns
In the sunrise valley of Tanggu grows the Fusang tree where the ten suns roost — nine on the lower branches, one on the upper — carried into the sky by crows, one returning as the next departs.
Di Jun
A high god found only in the Great Wilderness and final chapters: his wife Xihe bore the ten suns, Changxi the twelve moons, and his descendants invented boats, carts, zithers, song and craft.
Hou Yi
When ten suns rose together and scorched the crops, the archer Yi shot down nine and slew the monsters ravaging the land; the elixir he won from the Queen Mother was taken by his wife Chang'e.