The Spirit of the Wu-Lian Mountain

West of the gulf of Kiautschou rises the Wu-Lian Mountain, a place full of spirits. A scholar who lived there was once sitting up late into the night over his books. When he stepped outside the house, a storm blew up out of nowhere. A monster reached down with its claws, caught him by the hair, hoisted him into the air and flew off with him.

They swept past the Tower That Looks Out to Sea, a Buddhist temple up in the hills. Far off among the clouds the scholar saw a god in golden armor, the very image of the statue of Weto that stood in the tower. In his right hand the god gripped an iron mace, and with his left he pointed at the monster, glaring at it in anger. At that the monster let go of the scholar, who dropped right onto the top of the tower, and then the monster vanished. The tale explains the rescue as protection for a family devoted to Buddha.

At sunrise the temple priest came out and found the scholar stranded on the tower. He heaped up hay and straw on the ground so that the scholar could jump down without getting hurt, and then he took him home. But the hair the monster had grabbed stayed stiff and bristly, and it did not soften again until half a year had passed.

About this story

“The Spirit of the Wu-Lian Mountain” is chapter XL of Richard Wilhelm’s The Chinese Fairy Book, translated by Frederick H. Martens (New York: Frederick A. Stokes, 1921), one of his nature tales. The whole tale in Wilhelm’s book is just two short paragraphs.

Wilhelm’s note says the legend comes from Dschungschong, west of the gulf of Kiautschou, and that the Tower That Looks Out to Sea was a famous lookout over the ocean; in his day local people gave that name to the Tsingtau Signal Station. Weto, he explains, is a legendary Bodhisattva who leads the armies of the four kings of heaven. The note describes his image at temple entrances and discusses a sword or a mace as attributes. That old note should not be treated as a description of every Buddhist temple.

Read the original: The Chinese Fairy Book (Project Gutenberg)

Reading guidance: a short supernatural rescue with frightening peril. A monster carries a man by his hair and drops him onto a tower; younger listeners may want company.

Two parts of the rescue

The golden guardian ends the flight, but leaves the scholar stranded on a roof. The priest’s hay and straw finish the rescue through ordinary practical help. The stiff hair then carries the event into everyday life for another six months: safety does not erase the experience at once.

Retell the ending from the priest’s viewpoint. What can he actually see at sunrise, what must the scholar tell him, and what can he do without knowing how the monster appeared?

Talk about it

• Who rescues the scholar, and how does the story explain why he was rescued?
• How does the priest help the scholar get down from the tower?
• What sign of his adventure does the scholar carry for half a year?

Related stories

• The King of the Ants — the next of Wilhelm’s nature tales, with a scholar who meets a strange visitor
• The Flower-Elves — the nature tale just before this one
• The Halos of the Saints — more holy figures whose power frightens away evil