The mythical stories that shaped Chinese identity
From a goddess who floated to the moon to a two-thousand-year-old monster manual and the man who tamed China's floods — these are the stories that have inspired poets, artists, and dreamers for millennia.
Three stories that have lived in the Chinese imagination for thousands of years — a love that reached the moon, a book of monsters that wouldn't stay buried, and a hero who saved a nation from drowning.
"Chang'e must regret stealing the elixir — a sea of jade, a sky of blue, a heart alone each night." China's oldest romance — the story of an archer who shot down nine suns, a wife who swallowed an immortality pill, and a moon where a solitary goddess still watches over the Earth. Visit the places where this 4,000-year-old tale still lives.
A creature with six legs and four wings rises from a lake in Shanghai. An AI mythical beast narrates stories from a book written 2,000 years ago. The Shan Hai Jing — Classic of Mountains and Seas — is China's oldest catalogue of mythical creatures, strange lands, and impossible geography. And today, through lantern festivals and digital art, its monsters are coming back to life.
More than 4,000 years ago, a man passed his own home three times — the first time his wife was in childbirth, the second his newborn cried, the third his son called out "Papa." He kept walking each time. Thirteen years of flood control, 120 mu of sacred ground at Kuaiji Mountain, and the founding of China's first dynasty. This is the story of Yu the Great.
The Gentle Mythical Beast of Benevolence