Xihe is a solar figure in early Chinese mythology whose identity changes across texts. She is associated with the ten suns, their daily movement, and the eastern Fusang tree, but calling her the single Chinese sun goddess simplifies a varied tradition.
Mother of the suns
The Classic of Mountains and Seas describes Xihe as the mother of ten suns. She bathes them at a place linked with Fusang, the great tree in the east. In later retellings, the suns take turns crossing the sky until they appear together and threaten the world.
The archer Hou Yi is connected with the crisis of the ten suns in later narrative traditions, where he shoots down nine and leaves one to light the earth. The surviving versions differ in wording, sequence, and divine relationships.
Charioteer and cosmic office
Later poetry also presents Xihe as a driver or attendant of the sun’s chariot. In some texts the name can function almost like a title for a solar official. This does not erase the earlier maternal figure, but it shows that the tradition developed.
Chinese religion contains several solar myths, deities, court rituals, and local practices. Xihe should be placed within that larger history rather than treated as an exact counterpart of a Greek, Roman, or Japanese sun deity.