Mao Nü

The Qin Shi account of Mao Nü seems to have come from Liu Xiang's Han dynasty Liexian Zhuan, the earliest known surviving account. Her name literally means "woman of hair", while her nickname Yujiang means Jade Jiang. The Qin Shi account adds that she lived over 170 years in Huayin Shan,⁴ to which she had come after the the fall of the Qin dynasty. It adds that she ate tree bark, didn't feel hunger or the cold, and was so light she could fly.

The original biography in Qin Shi is as follows.

Mao Nü, style name Yu Jiang, was a hunter in Huayin Mountain, seen for generations; hair grew on her body. She herself claimed that she had been in the court of the emperor Qin Shi Huang. On a clifftop where she lived there was often the sound of (her) playing the qin. Liu Xiang praised her saying, "She attained the ideas of mountains and valleys and conveyed her pleasure on the qin and se zithers.

Footnotes (Shorthand references are explained on a separate page)

1 17141.9 毛女 Mao Nü quotes Liexian Zhuan but also says this was also a popular expression for a 處女 virtuous woman. Her nickname 玉姜 Yu Jiang means Jade Jiang. (Return)

2 3 lines (Return)

3 This image is from an illustrated Ming dynasty Liexian Quanzhuan, which developed out of the Han dynasty Liexian Zhuan. In Liexian Quanzhuan, Folio II, a biography of the man identified in the illustration as 古丈夫 Gu Zhangfu precedes that of Mao Nü (entries 16 and 17). That biography says that he, too, served in the Qin dynasty court, then came to live in these mountains. (Return)

4 華陰山 Huayin Shan. 31910.226 has only Huayin, identifying it as the name of counties in several places including Huashan Mountain in Shanxi province. It says Huayi also means the north side of Huashan. (Return)

5 (Return)

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