Peach tree

Chinese Taoist mythology; the goddess Xiwangmu (Queen Mother of the West) · China, from antiquity (Xiwangmu attested as early as the Shanhaijing) to its late elaborations (tales of the Six Dynasties; Ming novel, 16th century)

In Chinese mythology, Xiwangmu, the Queen Mother of the West, is an ancient goddess, attested as early as the Shanhaijing (the Classic of Mountains and Seas), where she appears linked to immortality: it is that link which is ancient and documented. The motif of the peaches of immortality (pantao), a peach tree that bears fruit only at the end of long cycles, and the great heavenly banquet (pantaohui), belongs, on the other hand, to late literary elaborations, such as the Han Wudi neizhuan of the Six Dynasties, then the Xiyouji (Journey to the West, 1590s). In that novel, the ripening is moreover graded into three ranks (three thousand, six thousand, and nine thousand years), 'every three thousand years' designating only the front peach trees. The peach as an emblem of longevity is therefore a real and ancient symbol, but its pictorial version is a late fiction that cannot be dated to antiquity.

Xiwangmu dans le Shanhaijing (Classique des monts et des mers) ; élaboration du pantao dans le Han Wudi neizhuan (Six Dynasties), puis dans le Xiyouji, roman paru anonymement dans les années 1590 et attribué traditionnellement à Wu Cheng'en ; Encyclopædia Britannica, entrées « pantao » et « Xiwangmu ».

The attested fact, Xiwangmu, an ancient goddess linked to immortality, is distinct from the late legend of the peaches ripening every three thousand years and the heavenly banquet, which belongs to literary fiction and cannot be dated to antiquity. The attribution of the Xiyouji to Wu Cheng'en is traditional, not certain. 'The' Chinese belief, which transformed over centuries, is not essentialised here; the longevity symbol remains a cultural motif and not a health claim.