Under the Six Dynasties, the Queen mother's sect was integrated into the pantheon of Shangqing (Highest Clarity) Taoism and she became one of the school's key goddesses, helping both sexes at this time. Her sect worshiped the Queen in different regions of China, especially Mount Heng in Hunan, Mount Hua in Shaanxi, and Mount Wuyi in Fujian. Xiwang mu became known as the goddess of epidemics who resided in the west on Kunlun Mountain and ruled over the demons of pestilence. She presides over the Catastrophes from the Sky and the Five destructive Forces.' ĭuring the Han dynasty (206 BCE–220 CE), people believed that the Queen Mother could protect them from disease and death, and she became the central figure worshiped by a peasant sect that arose in Shandong and swept through the country in 3 BCE.

She wears a victory crown on her tangled hair. 3rd century BCE Shanhaijing (Classic of Mountains and Seas) says, 'In appearance, Queen Mother of the West looks like a human, but she has a leopard's tail and the fangs of a tigress, and she is good at whistling.

Sources from the Warring States period (475–221 BCE) associate the Queen Mother with shamanistic traditions, such as her familiar the three-legged crow, and her peaches of immortality orchard. Xiwang mu, the Queen Mother of the West, is the most prominent female Taoist divinity, although her traditions predated organized Daoist religions. History Queen Mother of the West illustration in the Shanhaijing, Qing dynasty edition Queen Mother of the West, Han dynasty earthenware, 2nd century CE Pre-Han and Han The Quanzhen (Complete Perfection) School uses daogu (道姑, 'ladies of the Dao') in reference to both convent nuns and devout laity. In the Shangqing (Highest Clarity) School, Taoist nuns were most often solitary practitioners, and called nü daoshi (女道士, 'female Taoists' or 'female Taoist masters') or nüguan (女冠, 'female hats', describing a distinctive ritual headdress) in the Song dynasty. In the Tianshi Dao (Way of the Celestial Masters), they were called nüshi (女士 or 女師, 'female masters') when married to a Master, or nüguan (女官, 'female officers') when among chosen zhongmin (種民, 'seed people'). Since organized Taoism began in the late Han dynasty (202 BCE – 220 CE), women have been active in different schools, which gave them diverse names. Furthermore, Taoist divinities and cults have long traditions in China, for example, the Queen Mother of the West, the patron of xian immortality, He Xiangu, one of the Eight Immortals, and Mazu, the protectress of sailors and fishermen.

In the 18th and 19th centuries, women Taoists practiced and discussed nüdan (女丹, 'women's neidan inner alchemy'), involving gender-specific practices of breath meditation and visualization. The number of Taoist women decreased until the 12th century when the Complete Perfection School, which ordained Sun Bu'er as the only woman among its original disciples, put women in positions of power. The Tang dynasty (618–907) was a highpoint for the importance of Daoist women, when one-third of the Shangqing clergy were women, including many aristocratic Taoist nuns. Women first came to prominence in the Highest Clarity School, which was founded in the 4th century by a woman, Wei Huacun. Chinese women had special importance in some Taoist schools that recognized their transcendental abilities to communicate with deities, who frequently granted women with revealed texts and scriptures. The roles of women in Taoism ( / ˈ d aʊ ɪ z əm/, / ˈ t aʊ-/) (also spelled 'Daoism' / ˈ d aʊ-/) have differed from the traditional patriarchy over women in ancient and imperial China. Dehua porcelain statue of the Taoist goddess Doumu (Dipper Mother), adapted from the Buddhist deva Marici, 18th century

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