西王母最早出现在《山海经》里，那时她的样子还很吓人：「其状如人，豹尾虎齿而善啸」。后来的《穆天子传》写周穆王驾车西行，在瑶池与西王母饮酒唱和，她的形象才渐渐变成一位雍容的女神。《穆天子传》是西晋时从一座战国古墓里出土的竹简书。

The Queen Mother of the West first appears in the Classic of Mountains and Seas, where she looks rather frightening: shaped like a person, with a leopard tail and tiger teeth, and fond of howling. Later, the Tale of King Mu, Son of Heaven, describes King Mu of Zhou travelling west and feasting with her at the Jade Pool, and her image gradually became that of a gracious goddess. That book was written on bamboo slips found in a Warring States tomb during the Western Jin dynasty.

「蟠桃三千年一熟」的说法，见于汉代的志怪故事：西王母把仙桃送给汉武帝，说这种桃「三千年一生实」。到了明代小说《西游记》第五回，蟠桃会变得家喻户晓，孙悟空偷吃蟠桃、大闹天宫，正是从这场盛会开始的。

The idea that the immortal peaches ripen only once every three thousand years comes from Han dynasty tales, in which the Queen Mother gives peaches to Emperor Wu of Han and says they bear fruit only once in three thousand years. In chapter five of the Ming novel Journey to the West, the Peach Banquet became famous to everyone, for it is where the Monkey King steals the peaches and begins his havoc in heaven.

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