The Chinese goddess of immortality and the personification of the feminine element yin. The Taoist Xi Wang-mu is referred to as the ‘Royal Mother of the West’, and rules over the western paradise of the immortals. She is the daughter of the god Yu-huang and her husband is Mu Gong. Originally she was a terrifying tiger-woman who brought the plague, but under the influence of Taoism she became a benign goddess.

Her nine-stories palace of jade lies in the mythical Kun-lun mountains, near the Lake of Jewels. It is surrounded by a wall of over a thousand miles long and of pure gold. The male immortals reside in the right wing and the female immortals reside in the left wing of this palace. In her garden she cultivates the peach of immortality. This peach tree forms only one peach every three thousand years, which then takes another three thousand years to ripen. When it is ripe, Hsi Wang-mu invites the immortals to a feast to celebrate their birthday and to partake ot the miraculous peach which bestows another lease of immortality.

She is portrayed as a young beautiful woman wearing a royal gown, sometimes riding a peacock. He favorite animal is Feng-huang, the symbol of immortality.

The Chinese patroness of merchants of face creams and perfumes. She was a daughter of a butcher and became a royal concubine. When she was presented to the emperor, she smelled so sweet that the odor could be noticed for ten li.

The five legendary emperors, successors of the San-huang. They are said to have ruled China between 2697 and 2205 BCE or — according to an alternative calendrical calculation — 2674 and 2184 BCE. They are Huang-di (the Yellow Emperor), Juan Xu, Gu, Yao, and Shun.

The belief in their existence is based on historical speculations dating back to the 2nd and 1st century BCE. Confucius, who lived earlier than that, only mention Yao and Shun. The number five reflects the Chinese system of cosmological correspondences, and since the number five is also related to the five elements, one element is allocated to each of the five emperors.

The five sacred mountains of the north, east, south, west, and center of China. The most famous of these is the Tai Shan mountain in Shantung. The mythical emperor Yao is said to have paid homage to them in 2346 BCE.