本文意在探讨西王母这一神祇形象自产生到当代的变化过程及其特点。在梳理出西王母形象从先秦至魏晋的变化大线条之后，笔者对古代志怪神魔小说与当代奇幻悬疑小说（尤以盗墓题材小说为代表）中西王母形象进行对比，指出在人物援引方面，古代志怪神魔小说与当代奇幻悬疑小说分别遵从“终点式援引”与“全程式援引”的法则。

From its born in pre-Qin period to modern times, the image of the Queen Mother of the West has changed a lot. This article focuses on its transition process and different characters of different transition stage. After drawing the transition line of her image from the pre-Qin period to Wei and Jin dynasty, the author compared her image in ancient mythical and god-evil novels and that in modern magic and mystery novels (particularly those about tomb robbery), thus pointing out that on inviting the Queen Mother of the West to the stories, ancient mythical and god-evil novels followed the rule of “End Only Inviting”, while modern magic and mystery novels, however, followed the rule of “Whole Process Inviting”.