The love story between the stars of Altair and Vega located on the two sides of the Milky Way is one of the oldest Chinese fairy tales. A Forbidden Love between Two Stars As the legend goes, in the beginning, there was no Milky Way in the sky and the stars could easily meet each other whenever they pleased. Vega […]
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Dream of Nanke (南柯梦) is one of the four Kunqu Opera dramas about dreams, written by Tang Xianzu (1550-1616) of the Ming Dynasty. While Peony Pavilion is the best known among the four, Dream of Nanke is the most mind-blowing, exploring time, space, multi-worlds and the meaning of life. A Chance Meeting in a Buddhist Temple One day military officer […]
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A firewood collector watching two immortals paying chess in Mt. Lanke in Zhejiang Province – a coloured ink painting by Ming Dynasty scholar, politician and artist Zhang Yining (张以宁 1301-1370) The legend of Mt. Lanke During Jin Dynasty in the 4th century, a guy went to Mt. Lanke collecting firewoods and saw two men playing chess Weiqi (Go) on a stone. Like […]
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The mythical tale about encountering immortals in Mt. Tiantai was first recorded on Search for Immortals (搜神記) by a scholar official in East Jin in the 4th century. It’s a clear evidence that Chinese have entertained the concept of relativity in time at least 2,000 years go. The illustrations were produced by Zhao Cangyun (赵苍云), an ancient Chinese scholar artist living […]
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