Xihe (deity)
![](../I/m/Wu_liang_shrine_relief_depicting_xihe%2C_yi%2C_and_fusang_tree.jpg)
Xihe hitches her dragon-horse to the sun chariot (lower part) as depicted in a rubbing from the Wu Liang shrines reliefs, mid-2nd century
Xihe (Chinese: 羲和), formerly romanized as Hsi-ho, was a sun goddess in Chinese mythology. One of the two wives of Emperor Jun (along with Changxi), she was the 'mother' of ten suns, in the form of three-legged birds, residing in a mulberry tree in the eastern sea named Fusang. Each day one of the sun birds would be rostered to travel around the world on a carriage driven by Xihe.
Folklore also held that (around 2170 BC) all ten sun birds came out on the same day, causing the world to burn; Houyi the archer saved the day by shooting down all but one of the sun birds.