Xihe Goddess of the Sun

The Classic of Mountains and Seas: The Great Wilderness South recounts that beyond the southeastern seas, between the waters of the Gan River, lies the land of Xihe. There dwelt a woman named Xihe, who bathed the sun each day in the Gan Abyss. Xihe was the consort of Emperor Jun and mother of the Ten Suns. When all ten rose together, their combined heat scorched crops and withered vegetation; the archer Houyi subsequently shot down nine, leaving only one sun to traverse the sky. In Qu Yuan’s Li Sao, it is written: 'I bid Xihe slacken her pace—do not hasten toward the sunset mountains of Yanzi!' Here Xihe appears as the celestial charioteer, driving a six-dragon chariot bearing the sun upon its daily circuit around heaven and regulating the orderly progression of time. Embodying both the generative power of the sun and its disciplined motion, Xihe stands at the heart of ancient Chinese calendrical astronomy and solar veneration.