(Minghui.org) Chinese myths and legends hold that gods and deities live in another dimension, parallel to ours. People may only enter when the heavenly gates open. Sometimes, the gates open inadvertently. It is quite beautiful in this other dimension, and the time-space there is different than here.
Legend has it that at the beginning of Jin Dynasty, a man by the name of Peng Qiu went to Mount Yunu to cut timber. He noticed an unusual fragrance and followed the scent to the northern side of the mountain.
There, he found a palace, with no end in sight. The palace wound back and forth, and was quite wide. The building appeared quite spacious and luminous.
Peng Qiu snuck through the entrance and saw five crassula trees. He kept walking and saw four fairies playing an ancient Chinese chess game in a large room. Their beauty was of a degree not found on Earth.
Surprised by Peng Qiu's presence, they all stood up and one asked “How did you get here Mr. Peng?”
Peng Qiu replied, “I followed the scent and found this place.” The four fairies returned to their chess game.
Moments later, one of the younger fairies went upstairs to play a stringed instrument. The fairies downstairs continued to play chess and one called to her, “Yuan Hui, why are you upstairs by yourself?”
Peng Qiu stood under a tree. He was hungry, so he licked the dew that dripped from the leaves. A fairy riding on the back of a crane flew down to him. The fairy angrily said to the others, “Yu Hua! Why are you keeping this mortal here? Queen Mother ordered Wang Fangping to search all the rooms.”
Peng Qiu was scared and left the palace. He looked back, only to see that the palace and the fairies had disappeared.
Upon his return home, he found that decades had passed even though he had spent only a short time in the palace. His house and neighborhood were in ruins.
Perhaps Peng Qiu was an immortal who had originally come from the fairyland. Otherwise, how could the fairies have known his name? The story made me ponder if the wonderful worlds we have dreamed of are perhaps our real homes.
Source: “Miscellaneous Morsels from Youyang” by Duan Chengshi in Tang Dynasty
Category: Traditional Culture
