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The small book Mu Tianzi zhuan 穆天子傳 "Biography of King Mu, Son of Heaven", the phantastic biography of King Mu 周穆王 (r. 976-922 BCE), one of the first rulers of the Western Zhou dynasty 西周 (11th cent.-770 BCE), has an amazing history of transmission. The text was discovered during the third century AD in a tomb from the Warring States period 戰國 (5th cent.-221 BCE) state of Wei 魏, as part of the library buried during the funeral. Among the texts, written on bamboo slips, was the biography of King Mu, as well that of his mother.
Both texts were merged together in the course of the transmission. The biography describes the travel of King Mu to the west, together with seven worthies, until they reach the land of the Queen Mother of the West (Xiwangmu 西王母) who feasts them with food and wine.
Modern scholars like Ding Qian 丁謙 and Gu Shi 顧實, attempted reconstructing the path of his phantasy travel and identify the capital Zongzhou 宗周 with Luoyang 洛陽 and the land of the Queen Mother with the Pamir range, and thus try to establish a picture of early China's relationships with Inner Asia which must have existed long before the famous journey of Zhang Qian 張騫 in search for allies against the Xiongnu 匈奴 during the Former Han period 前漢 (206 BCE-8 CE).
The oldest commentary was written by the Jin period 晉 (265-420) scholar Guo Pu 郭璞. During the Qing period 清 (1644-1911) Tan Cui 檀萃, Hong Yixuan 洪頤煊 and Zhai Yunsheng 翟雲升 commented the Mu Tianzi zhuan.
Source: Miao Wenyuan 繆文遠 (1992). "Mu Tianzi zhuan 穆天子傳", in: Zhongguo da baike quanshu 中國大百科全書, Zhongguo lishi 中國歷史, vol. 2, p. 708. Beijing/Shanghai: Zhongguo da baike quanshu chubanshe.
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