Xihe (Chinese: 羲和; pinyin: Xīhé; Wade–Giles: Hsi-ho), was a solar deity in Chinese mythology. One of the two wives of Di Jun (along with Changxi), she was the mother of ten suns in the form of three-legged crows residing in a mulberry tree, the Fusang, in the East Sea. Each day, one of the sun birds would be rostered to travel around the world on a carriage driven by Xihe.
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Folklore also held that once, all ten sun birds came out on the same day, causing the world to burn; Houyi saved the day by shooting down all but one of the sun birds.
Literature
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In the poem Suffering from the Shortness of Days (苦晝短), Li He of the Tang dynasty is hostile and even deviant towards the legendary dragons that drew the sun chariot as a vehicle for the passage of time.[1] The following is the relevant excerpt of that poem:
- "I will cut off the dragon's feet, chew the dragon's flesh,
- so that they can't turn back in the morning or lie down at night.
- Left to themselves the old won't die; the young won't cry."[1]
In the Huainanzi, the journey of the sun and the attendant of the sun chariot is described:
- "The sun rises up from the Bright Valley, bathes in the Pool of Xian, and rests in the Fusang Tree. This is called Dawn Light.
- Ascending the Fusang Tree, it thereupon commences its journey. This is called Emergent Brightness.
- [When the sun] reaches the Bent Slope, this is called Dawn Brilliance.
- [When the sun] reaches the Steaming Spring, this is called the Morning Meal.
- [When the sun] reaches the Mulberry Field, this is called the Late-Morning Meal.
- [When the sun] reaches the Balance Beam of Yang, this is called within the Angle.
- [When the sun] reaches Kun Wu, this is called the Exact Center.
- [When the sun] reaches the Bird Roost, this is called the Lesser Return.
- [When the sun] reaches the Valley of Grief, this is called the Dinner Hour.
- [When the sun] reaches Woman’s Sequence, this is called the Great Return.
- [When the sun] reaches the Angle of the Abyss, this is called the Raised Pestle.
- [When the sun] reaches Carriage Stone, this is called the Descending Pestle.
- [When the sun] reaches the Fountain of Grief, it halts; its female attendant rests her horses. This is called the Suspended Chariot.
- [When the sun] reaches the Abyss of Anxiety, this is called Yellow Dusk.
- [When the sun] reaches the Vale of Obscurity, this is called Definite Dusk.
- The sun enters the floodwaters of the Abyss of Anxiety; sunrise emerges from the drainage stream of the Vale of Obscurity.
- [The sun] travels over the nine continents, [passing through] seven resting places, [covering a distance of] 507,309 li.
- The divisions [of its journey] make dawn, daylight, dusk, and night."[2]
See also
edit- Mid-Autumn Festival
- Shujun
- Chinese H-alpha Solar Explorer, named after Xihe
- List of solar deities
References
edit- ^ a b Bien, Gloria (2012). Baudelaire in China a Study in Literary Reception. Lanham: University of Delaware. p. 20. ISBN 9781611493900.
- ^ Major, J.S.; Queen, S.A.; Meyer, A.S.; Roth, H.D. (2010). The Huainanzi: A guide to the theory and practice of government in early Han China. New York: Columbia University Press. ISBN 978-0-231-14204-5.