Tang Dynasty, Yanling County, called state-run sec Read the rest of this entry »

When King Zhao of Qin conquered Shu⁽¹⁾, he appointed Li Bing governor of the area. At that time there in the river was a river deity, who each year demanded two virgins as his wives. One day, the official responsible for the matter came to report to Li, “This time a million copper coins must be collected to buy two women for the deity.” “Don’t worry,” Li Bing comforted him, “I have got girls for him already.” When the day came, Li had his two daughters properly dressed, ready to be thrown into the river. He Read the rest of this entry »

The legend says, thousands of years ago in Yao dynasty, there were ten Suns shining in the sky at the same time. The burning heat singed the crops and trees. The people were suffering a lot because of starvation and many people died of hunger. In the meantime, a lot of monsters and atrocious birds began to riot introducing illness and threat to human beings. Yayu was a very atrocious monster, that ran very fast. One of the beasts was called Chisel Teeth. Its buckteeth looked like chisels sticking out of its jaw about three feet in length. Nine Babies was one of the monsters with nine heads. It could send jets of water or fire from its mouth. And the Gale was a ferocious bird with large wings. When it flew over, houses were terribly damaged because of the great shock wave from its wings. Fengshi was the monster of pigs. The Cultivated Snake was of course a snake but it could gulp an elephant at a time and it took it three years to let out the bones. So these ferocious monsters troubled people badly.

In order to help the people get out from under, Emperor Yao ordered Yi to conquer the monsters and those suns. So Yi set out with his bow, arrows, sword and spear. The hero won each fight. He killed the Chisel Teeth in the field in the south of China, the Nine Babies in the ominous water in the north of China, and he killed the Gale bird in the east of China with an arrow fastened with string. The huge snake was cut into pieces at the Dongting lake, and the monster of pigs was also caught in the forest of mulberry in the center of China. In time he shot down nine of the ten suns. One of them was left serving for people ever since.

The whole country praised Yi for his heroic deeds and admired him very much.

Nezha was origi nally a Buddhist fire god named Nalakuvara. Thanks to Xu Zhonglin and Wu Cheng’en, two fa mous Chi nese fan tasy nov el ists of the Ming dy nasty (1368–1644), Nezha has be -come a pop u lar young Chi nese god. He is pop u lar for his brav ery, intel li gence, sense of jus tice and self-sac ri fice. The tale of Nezha ap pears in text books, car toons, and movie se ries. Read the rest of this entry »

Because he loved his wife very much, the Grand Archer Yi reluctantly set out on a journey to the Kunlun Mountains where the peaches of long life were grown by Hsi Wang Mu, the Queen Mother of the Western Paradise. The Archer was unsure of the road, and even less sure of how much strength he had left. When he lived in heaven, Yi had always ridden in the empress’s chariot or straddled the tails of sky dragons to reach the Western Paradise, but now that he lived on earth, he had to walk. He crossed burning deserts, forded cold streams, and trekked over high mountains for thousands of miles. Read the rest of this entry »