#changxi

As I've said before many times (and will not shut up about because I think it's hilarious) the Jade Emperor was created in 1005 AD to justify a controversial peace treaty (side note, I think it's really cool how we can give such a specific date to the creation of a deity when most of mythology is endless guesswork and probably never knowing the answer anyway). Anyway, since he was literally a brand new god, Cheng Sung, the emperor who made him up, was really insistent on how real and important he was. As a result, in addition to bribing public figures not to disagree with him, he might have also seen fit to give his OC legitimacy by giving him a big, important wife.

Now, as we've been over, there have been several goddess that could have filled this role. The aforementioned Tian Hou, who is very popular with sailors due to her association with the sea and saving wayward vessels, as well as Di Jun's consorts Xihe and Changxi, mothers of the 10 Suns and 12 moons respectively. It even seems that Di Jun was the popular ruler of the gods around the time of the Jade Emperor's creation, so if our green boy was moving in to supplant Di Jun why didn't he also take his wives?

Perhaps it was because he wasn't meant to as Di Jun was too recent, and suddenly saying that this new guy who was totally real was also way cooler and more important than the god you've been worshipping for generations probably wouldn't have gone over well. Dongwanggong, on the other hand, had long since fell out of regular and seems to have been less popular than his wife anyway. So it might have been easier for Cheng Sung, or whoever picked up worshipping the Jade Emperor after him, to snatch his wife instead of Di Jun's. Coupled with the fact that Xiwangmu is pretty badass, it probably did a lot for her new hubby's early street cred.

Again, this is just speculation and I'd love to hear other ideas.