Oil lamp depicting the Queen of the West in her Heavenly Paradise together with relevant mythological geography and beings. Eastern Han ceramic unearthed at
Chengdu
, China.
The
Moving Sands
, also known as the
Flowing Sands
(
Liush?
(流沙), "flowing-sand", or "
quicksand
"), is an important feature in the mythological geography of Chinese literature, including novels and poetry over a course of over two millennia from the
Warring States
to early
Han dynasty
era poetry of the
Chuci
onward to the present. In his poem "
Li Sao
", author
Qu Yuan
describes an aerial crossing of the Moving (or Flowing) Sands on a shamanic spiritual Journey to
Kunlun
. "Moving Sands forms one of the obstacles the fictional version of the monk
Xuanzang
and companions must cross over on their mission to fetch the Buddhist scriptures from India and return them to Tang China. In this story, Xuanzang recruits the former sand demon and eater-of-humans
Sha Wujing
who is living in Moving Sands as his third disciple. Sometimes the Moving (or Flowing) Sands seem to depict drifting dunes or desert, sometimes a
sand
or
quicksand
-like river, in which case, in Chinese, it would be (
Liush?-he
(流沙河, "flowing-
sand
river
", or "
quicksand
-river").
Mythological geographic context
[
edit
]
Chinese mythology and imagination developed an extensive collection of ideas, about mythological places and terrains, Moving Sands included. David Hawkes Says "Chu poets give this name to an unlocatable area in the mythical geography of the west, but no doubt it derives ultimately from travelers' tales of the Takla Makan desert" (Hawkes 1985, 332).
Nearby features
[
edit
]
Various mythological geography is associated with the Moving Sands, including the
Weak River
, the
Red River
, and one or more of the
eight mountain pillars
, especially the (mythological)
Kunlun Mountain
and
Jade Mountain
(Yang 2005, 160-162).
Literature and poetry
[
edit
]
The Moving Sands feature in literature, both in poetry and novels.
Literature
[
edit
]
The heroic monk
Sha Wujing
, as pictured in the
Journey to the West
In the novel
Journey to the West
the Moving Sand river forms one of the barriers on the way, one of the many difficult areas which the Xuanzang the Monk, Sun Wukong the Monkey, and their companion must cross over. By the mercy and help of the Buddhist goddess
Guanyin
, who by forethought and prior preparation made it happen,
Xuanzang
met his third disciple at the Moving (or Flowing) Sands, who joins them after a brief misunderstanding.
Poetry
[
edit
]
The Moving Sands are referred to allusionly in various Chinese Classical poems, including the
Chuci
anthology included. In lines 349-350 of his poem "
Li Sao
", Qu Yuan describes crossing over through the sky by means of a team of dragons: he soars above all obstacle rivers and hostile terrain at will during his spirit journey. The Li Sao helped set the tone for other poems of the
Chuci
, which also allude to this type of mythological geography.
Real moving sands
[
edit
]
Singing sand dunes
near
Dunhuang
, China, an example of shifting sands due to wind and gravity.
Real moving sands occur in and around China, in the form of desert dunes, moved by wind and gravity. The
Taklamakan Desert
is one example.
Quicksand
is another phenomenon encountered in and around China
See also
[
edit
]
References cited
[
edit
]
- Hawkes, David
, translation, introduction, and notes (2011 [1985]). Qu Yuan
et al.
,
The Songs of the South: An Ancient Chinese Anthology of Poems by Qu Yuan and Other Poets
. London: Penguin Books.
ISBN
978-0-14-044375-2
- Yang, Lihui,
et al.
(2005).
Handbook of Chinese Mythology
. New York: Oxford University Press.
ISBN
978-0-19-533263-6
References consulted
[
edit
]
|
---|
Overview topics
| |
---|
Major personages
| |
---|
Mythological creatures
| |
---|
Places
| |
---|
Items
| |
---|
Literary works
| |
---|
Other folk tales
| |
---|