Adversaria Sinica #268808

Si is usually written Hsi in Pekingese, a comparatively modern dialect. The term was rendered by Mayers (manual, No. 572) as the Western Royal Mother, with the extraordinary alternative of King Mu (mother) of the West, and was explained as a fabulous being of the female sex. Mayers went on to say that the more sober research of modern writers leads to a suggestion that Wang Mn was the name either of a region or of a sovereign in the ancient West. This last paragraph brought Mayers into line with Dr. Legge, who in his translation of those very doubtful documents, The Bamboo Books, had already said, In his seventeenth year b? 35 King Mu went on a punitive expedition to mount Keun-lun, and saw the western Wang-moo. That year the chief of Wang-moo came to court.