Hou Yi and the Ten Suns

I took this picture from Dragons, Gods & Spirits from Chinese Mythology. This is Hou Yi, one of the few legendary Chinese heroes I know and one of the few I liked. This illustrates the story of his mission to free the earth from the ten suns that were turning it into a oven. He had to shoot down nine of them with his arrows, then to fight the monsters which were roaming the earth due to the heatwave. You can read one version of the story here. In a way, Yi is like the Chinese version of Herakles.  Don't know why I blog about him today, maybe because I don't like heat and long days, so Hou Yi is my kind of hero. Maybe because this image is beautiful and elegant yet has a subdued violence. Yi is killing the suns there. And maybe because I am about to finish reading the book and wanted to share one of its lush images that bring the stories to life.

About tea and dragons

Because of the recent Chinese New Year, I have started re-reading Dragons, Gods & Spirits from Chinese Mythology, one of the treasures I found and bought last year, out of an impromptu visit in a local bookshop. This is a not very good picture of one of its gorgeous illustrations. The old man on the picture and his wife are actually dragons in disguise. They had stolen the all the water of Peking through magic, and then had poured the waters in a jar. The young soldier on his horse was named Gaoliang and managed to pierce one jar, thus returning half the water to Peking, but drowning himself in the process. It is said that the water which returned to the city was hard water, and the water in the unbroken jar contained the city's sweet spring water. It remained in a place that was later called the Hill of Jade Springs. Since then, when the people of Peking wanted sweet water to make tea, they went to the Hill of Jade Springs. I remember reading the story as a child, but did not remember much of it. Now that I am a tea drinker, I appreciate it far more. I love the dramatic, even tragic legend, invented to explain something as anecdotal as the reason why you go to some place instead of another to get your water for tea. It also shows how much love the Chinese people have for the drink. it finally shows that dragons can do evil in different ways, not always manifest in brute force but also through cunning and deceit. Next time you drink Chinese tea, have a thought for this story.

The Chinese gods of the elements

 You might remember that I blogged earlier in the year about this book, from which I took this image. I am reading it at the moment, so I might blog about it in the future. It is overcast today and it reminded me of this image. This represents the gods of the elements: the lady in the center is the Lightning God (goddess), projecting beams of lights from the mirror she is holding. On the left you see the Thunder God, ugly and rather scary looking with his beak, clawed feet and bat wings and on the right you have the Wind God, barely less nasty looking. For some reason, completing the picture are two beautiful Chinese dragons. Apparently, the Thunder God was the most featured in legends and he looked far more threatening than he was, in fact he was known to help humans from time to time. So here it is. I thought the image looked quite nice and deserved to be shared on Vraie Fiction.

Dragons, Gods & Spirits from Chinese Mythology

I have learned that today is the Lunar/Chinese New Year. Strangely enough, I bought two days ago, completely randomly, the book Dragons, Gods & Spirits from Chinese Mythology. I walked in a second-hand bookshop, it was there, I bought it. I spent five minutes in the shop, if that. I promised myself to go easy on books purchases, as my bookshelves are full, but I simply could not resist. And to rationalize it (by insights), it was far cheaper than what I would have paid on Amazon). The worst thing is, I have this book, in its translation in French, since my childhood. It is from the same publisher and the same collection as my book on Viking mythology. I just wanted the original.

So I will revisit, again, a childhood memory. You can see on the cover Sun Wukong fighting a dragon. I blogged about him before, here and here. This was I think my favorite story in the whole book. But I will happily re-read all of them. I am kind of tempted to get my hands on all the books of this collection, which were real treasures. Until then, I will read this one eagerly.