Small Wander. Chinese Small Wander: Legend.

Kua Fu Chased The Sun

Among the ancient forefathers of our Chinese nation there lived a subtribe called the Kua Fu tribe. They lived on the Chengdu Zai Tian Mountain, where it was extremely bleak and desolate, and with no sunshine all the year round.

The Kua Fu tribesmen were all giants of great stature, with two yellow snakes hooking on their ears and another two snakes in their hands. This might be a queer sight. However, they were kind-hearted, courageous and forthright people.

One day, a Kua Fu tribesman conceived a noble ambition. He pledged to catch up with the sun and ask it to shed light on Chengdu Zai Tian Mountain, changing the place into a bright and warm land.

With this aspiration, he immediately started out. He raised his long legs with huge strides, swift as the wind and quick as lightning he rushed towards the sun declining to the west. In a wink he already covered over a thousand li (about 310.7 miles).

By and by he came to a place called Yu Gu (Ape Valley) and saw the sun going to set. In front of him was a huge red ball of fire with dazzling rays. It seemed as if his body was wrapped in a gold thread dress woven from the numerous golden sunbeams. Kua Fu wanted to embrace this bright ball of fire with open arms rapturously to his hearts content.

But, the sun was really too hot. The raging flames around it were scalding. He was so thirsty that he squatted and drank the water of the Yellow River and Wei River. The two rivers were drained in no time by Kua Fu.

He was also starving, and only then did he come to realize that he had had nothing for the whole day while racing with the sun. He arranged three big rocks in the pattern of the three apices of an equilateral triangle, and stood a huge ancient tripod to cook his meal. He resumed the race soon after having his fill.

He ran northward and arrived at a place named Da Ze (Great Marsh), where the birds and sparrows made their homes. In this vast expanse of a thousand li (a li=0.3107 miles) the fishes were plenty, the water sweet, the birds sang and the flowers were fragrant. There were indeed enough food and drinking water for the light-seeking Kua Fu. But the sun was soon setting Kua Fu could not even spare a minute to take a bite or a sip. He snapped down a peach branch for a walking stick and resumed the chase.

He ran and ran up hill and down dale. However, the nearer he got to the sun, the more thirsty he became, and alas, he fell down dead from burning thirst before he could catch the sun.

When this giant Kua Fu fell to the ground, an earsplitting bang caused tremendous repercussions among the mountains and rivers. The peach walking stick he left transformed into a large orchard of peach with rich green foliage and abundant ripe fruits, which would satisfy the hunger and thirst of the successor-racers for light, to enable them to continue their pursuit.

Chinese Legend

[ Small Wander - Chinese ]

¡@