Note 62 — Chapter XIII · The Symbolism of Jade

There are traces in China of a tigress shape of the goddess of the West. Laufer refers to an ancient legend of the country of Chu, which tells of a prince who in the eighth century B.C. married a princess of Yün. A son was born to them and named Tou Po-pi. The father died and the widow returned to Yün, where Tou Po-pi, in his youth, had an intrigue with a princess who bore him a son. “The grandmother ordered the infant to be carried away and deserted on a marsh, but a tigress came to suckle the child. One day when the prince of Yün was out hunting, he discovered this circumstance, and when he returned home terror-stricken, his wife unveiled to him the affair. Touched by this marvellous incident, they sent messengers after the child, and had it cared for. The people of Chʼu, who spoke a language differing from Chinese, called suckling nou, and a tiger they called yü-tʼu; hence the boy was named Nou Yü-tʼu (‘Suckled by a Tigress’). He subsequently became minister of Chʼu.”62