A Study Of The Folk Culture Of Xiwangmu In Han Art

There are many images of Xiwangmu in Han art. They reflect the view of deathand the understanding of life of Han Dynasty. Basing on the images of Xiwangmu inShandong area, this paper aims to explore the folk beliefs of Han Dynasty. Influencedby the thought of "treating the death as he was alive" of Han Dynasty, people’s worshipof Xiwangmu embodies the folk beliefs of those days, such as honor to one’s mother,praying for litre fairy, the pursuit of immortality and so on. This is also a noble desire ofthe lives of the people.Images of Xiwangmu reflects a spirit of mythology and becomes an importantmaterial creation myth. This paper studies the folk beliefs of the people at that time,taking Shandong area for example. Firstly, this paper sorts out the images of Xiwangmuof Shandong region systematically and analyzes the distribution and regionalcharacteristics of Han Dynasty. Secondly, the emergence and development ofXiwangmu, under the influence of the folk mythology, are discussed in this paper. Itbelives the early images of Xiwangmu undergo the process from simple to complex,from the absurdity of the original fierce to the great god in charge of the two, from a fairlady to mother goddess, from a lucky god who expells evil sprists to a great god incharge of the medicine of life and death. Finally, the paper studies the folk cultureconnotation, which are embodied by those images of Xiwangmu. Images of Xiwangmureflect Han’s worship to a mother goddess and a idol. People worship the queen,treating her as the Lord god to faith. People worship the queen so fervently, depictingher image in the han dynasty because they want to borrow her divine power to ward offbad luck and rose fairy immortality. This is the folk custom culture connotation,conveied by those images of Xiwangmu in Han art.