Ere Chaos divide with Heaven and Earth a mess,
No human appeared in this murkiness.
When Pan Gu broke the nebula apart,
The dense and pure defined, did clearing start.
Enfold all life supreme humaneness would
And teach all things how become good they should.
To know cyclic times work, if thats your quest, Read Tale of Woes Dispelled on Journey West.
We heard that in the order of Heaven and Earth, a single period consisted of 1129,600 years. Dividing this period into twelve epochs were the twelve stems of Zi, Chou, Yin, Mao, Chen, Si, Wu, Wei, Shen, Yu, Xu, and Hai with each epoch having 10,800 years.
Considered as the horary circle the sequence would be thus: the first sign of dawn appears in the hour of Zi, while at Chou the cock crows; daybreak occurs at Yi and the sun rises at Mao; Chen comes after breakfast, and by Si everything is planned; at Wu the sun arrives at its meridian and it declines westward by Wei; the evening meal comes during the hour of Shen, and the sun sinks completely at Yu; twilight sets in at Xu, and people rest by the hour of Hai.
This sequence may also be understood macrocosmically. At the end of the epoch of Xu, Heaven and Earth were obscure and all things were indistinct. With the passing of 5,400 years, the beginning of Hai was the epoch of darkness. This moment was named Chaos, because there were neither human beings nor the two spheres.
After another 5,400 years Hai ended and as the creative force began to work after great perseverance, the epoch of Zi drew near and again brought gradual development. Shao Kangjie said:
When to the middle of Zi winter moved,
No change by Heaven's mind had been approved.
The male principle had but barely stirred,
But the birth of all things was still deferred.
At this point, the firmament first acquired its foundation. With another 5,400 years came the Zi epoch; the ethereal and the light rose up to form the four phenomena of the sun, the moon, the stars, and the Heavenly bodies. Hence it is said, the Heaven was created at Zi .
This epoch came to its end in another 5,400 years and the sky began to harden as the Chou epoch approached. The Classic of Change said:
Great was the male principle;
Supreme, the female!
They made all things,
In obedience to Heaven.
At this point the Earth became solidified. In another 5,400 years after the arrival of the Chou epoch the heavy and the turbid condensed below and formed the five elements of water, fire, mountain, stone and earth. Hence it is said, the Earth was created at Chou.
With the passing of another 5,400 years, the Chou epoch came to its end and all things began to grow at the beginning of the Yin epoch. The Book of Calendar said:
The Heavenly aura descended;
The earthly aura rose up.
Heaven and Earth copulated,
And all things were born.
At this point, Heaven and Earth were bright and fair; the yin had intercourse 3 with the yang. In another 5,400 years, during the Yin epoch, humans, beasts, and fowls came into being and thus the so-called three forces of Heaven, Earth, and Man were established.
Hence it is said man was born at Yin Following Pan Gu's construction of the universe, the rule of the Three August Ones and the ordering of the relations by the Five Thearchs, the world was divided into four great continents.
They were: the East Pūrvavideha Continent, the West Aparagodānīya Continent, the South Jambūdvīpa Continent, and the North Uttarakuru Continent. This book is solely concerned with the East Pūrvavideha Continent.
Beyond the ocean there was a country named Aolai. It was near a great ocean, in the midst of which was located the famous Flower-Fruit Mountain. This mountain which constituted the chief range of the Ten Islets and formed the origin of the Three Islands came into being after the creation of the world. As a testimonial to its magnificence, there is the following poetic rhapsody:
Its majesty commands the wide ocean;
Its splendor rules the jasper sea;
Its majesty commands the wide ocean
When, like silver mountains, the tide sweeps fishes into caves;
Its splendor rules the jasper sea
When snow-like billows send forth serpents from the deep.
On the southwest side pile up tall plateaus;
From the Eastern Sea arise soaring peaks.
There are crimson ridges and portentous rocks,
Precipitous cliffs and prodigious peaks.
Atop the crimson ridges
Phoenixes sing in pairs:
Before precipitous cliffs
The unicorn singly rests.
At the summit is heard the cry of golden peasants;
In and out of stony caves are seen the strides of dragons:
In the forest are long-lived deer and immortal foxes.
On the trees are divine fowls and black cranes.
Strange grass and flowers never wither:
Green pines and cypresses always keep their spring.
Immortal peaches are ever fruit-bearing;
Lofty bamboos often detain the clouds.
Within a single gorge the creeping vines are dense;
The grass color of meadows all around is fresh.
This is indeed the pillar of Heaven where a hundred rivers meet— The Earth's great axis in ten thousand kalpas unchanged.
There was on top of that very mountain an immortal stone which measured thirty-six feet and five inches in height and twenty-four feet in circumference. The height of thirty-six feet and five inches corresponded to the three hundred and sixty-five cyclical degrees while the circumference of twenty-four feet corresponded to the twenty-four solar terms of the calendar.
On the stone were also nine perforations and eight holes which corresponded to the Palaces of the Nine Constellations and the Eight Trigrams. Though it lacked the shade of trees on all sides it was set off by epidendrums on the left and right. Since the creation of the world it had been nourished for a long period by the seeds of Heaven and Earth and by the essences of the sun and the moon until, quickened by divine inspiration, it became pregnant with a divine embryo.
One day, it split open giving birth to a stone egg about the size of a playing ball. Exposed to the wind, it was transformed into a stone monkey endowed with fully developed features and limbs. Having learned at once to climb and run this monkey also bowed to the four quarters while two beams of golden light flashed from his eyes to reach even the Palace of the Polestar.
The light disturbed the Great Benevolent Sage of Heaven, the Celestial Jade Emperor of the Most Venerable Deva attended by his divine ministers, was sitting in the Cloud Palace of the Golden Arches, in the Treasure Hall of the Divine Mists.
Upon seeing the glimmer of the golden beams, he ordered Thousand-Mile Eye and Fair-Wind Ear to open the South Heaven Gate and to look out. At this command the two captains went out to the gate, having looked intently and listened clearly they returned presently to report,
"Your subjects, obeying your command to locate the beams, discovered that they came from the Flower-Fruit Mountain at the border of the small Aolai Country, which lies to the east of the East Pūrvavideha Continent. On this mountain is an immortal stone that has given birth to an egg. Exposed to the wind, it has been transformed into a monkey when bowing to the four quarters, has flashed from his eyes those golden beams that reached the Palace of the Polestar. Now that he is taking some food and drink, the light is about to grow dim."
With compassionate mercy the Jade Emperor declared, "These creatures from the world below are born of the essences of Heaven and Earth and they need not surprise us."
That monkey in the mountain was able to walk, run, and leap about; he fed on grass and shrubs, drank from the brooks and streams, gathered mountain flowers and searched out fruits from trees. He made his companions the tiger and the lizard, the wolf and the leopard; he befriended the civet and the deer, and he called the gibbon and the baboon his kin.
At night he slept beneath stony ridges and in the morning he sauntered about the caves and the peaks.
Truly, In the mountain there is no passing of time;
The cold recedes, but one knows not the year.
One very hot morning he was playing with a group of monkeys under the shade of some pine trees to escape the heat. Look at them, each amusing himself in his own way by
Swinging from branches to branches,
Searching for flowers and fruits;
They played two games or three With pebbles and with pellets;
They circled sandy pits;
They built rare pagodas;
They chased the dragonflies;
They ran down small lizards;
Bowing low to the sky,
They worshiped Bodhisattvas;
They pulled the creeping vines;
They plaited mats with grass;
They searched to catch the louse
That they bit or sqeezed to death;
They dressed their furry coats;
They scraped their fingernails;
Those leaning leaned;
Those rubbing rubbed;
Those pushing pushed;
Those pressing pressed;
Those pulling pulled;
Those tugging tugged.
Beneath the pine forest and free to play,
They washed themselves in the green-water stream.
So after the monkeys had frolicked for a while, they went to bath in the mountain stream and saw that its currents bounced and splashed like tumbling melons. As the old saying goes, Fowls have their fowl speech,And beasts have their beast language.
The monkeys said to each other, "We don't know where this water comes from. Since we have nothing to do today, let us follow the stream up to its source to have some fun." With a shriek of joy, they dragged along males and females, calling out to brothers and sisters and scrambled up the mountain alongside the stream. Reaching its source, they found a great waterfall. What they saw was
A column of white rainbows rising,
A thousand yards of snow-caps flying.
The sea wind blows but cannot sever
What a river moon lights up forever.
Its cold breath divides the green glades;
Its branches wet the verdant shades.
This torrent named a waterfall
Seems like a curtain hanging tall.
All the monkeys clapped their hands in acclaim: "Marvelous water! Marvelous water! So this waterfall is distantly connected with the stream at the base of the mountain, and flows directly out, even to the great ocean."
They said also, "If any of us had the ability to penetrate the curtain and find out where the water comes from without hurting himself, we would honor him as king."
They gave the call three times when suddenly the stone monkey leaped out from the crowd. He answered the challenge with a loud voice, "I'll go in! I'll go in!" What a monkey! For Today his fame will spread wide. His fortune the time does provide.
He's fated to live in this place,
Sent by a king to god's palace.
Look at him! He closed his eyes, crouched low, and with one leap he jumped straight through the waterfall. Opening his eyes at once and raising his head to look around, he saw that there was neither water nor waves inside only a gleaming shining bridge.
He paused to collect himself and looked more carefully again, it was a bridge made of sheet iron. The water beneath it surged through a hole in the rock to reach the outside, filling in all the space under the arch. With bent body he climbed on the bridge looking about as he walked and discovered a beautiful place that seemed to be some kind of residence.
Then he saw
Fresh mosses piling up indigo,
White clouds like jade afloat,
And luminous sheens of mist and smoke;
Empty windows, quiet rooms,
And carved flowers growing smoothly on benches;
Stalactites suspended in milky caves;
Rare blossoms voluminous over the ground.
Pans and stoves near the wall show traces of fire;
Bottles and cups on the table contain left overs.
The stone seats and beds were truly lovable;
The stone pots and bowls were more praiseworthy.
There were, furthermore, a stalk or two of tall bamboos,
And three or five sprigs of plum flowers.
With a few green pines always draped in rain,
This whole place indeed resembled a home.
After staring at the place for a long time, he jumped across the middle of the bridge and looked left and right. There in the middle was a stone tablet on which was inscribed in regular, large letters:
The Blessed Land of Flower- Fruit Mountain,
The Cave Heaven of Water-Curtain Cave.
Beside himself with delight, the stone monkey quickly turned around to go back out and closing his eyes and crouching again leaped out of the water. "A great stroke of luck," he exclaimed with two loud guffaws, "a great stroke of luck!.
The other monkeys surrounded him and asked, "How is it inside? How deep is the water?".
The stone monkey replied, "There isn't any water at all. There's a sheet iron bridge and beyond it is a piece of Heaven-sent property."
"What do you mean that there's property in there?" asked the monkeys. Laughing the stone monkey said, "This water splashes through a hole in the
rock and fills the space under the bridge.
Beside the bridge there is a stone mansion with trees and flowers. Inside are stone ovens and stoves, stone pots and pans, stone beds and benches. A stone tablet in the middle has the inscription,
The Blessed Land of the Flower- Fruit Mountain, The Cave Heaven of the Water-Curtain Cave.
This is truly the place for us to settle in. It is moreover, very spacious inside and can hold thousands of the young and old. Let's all go live in there and spare ourselves from being subject to the whims of Heaven.
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Add this book to your collections and drop your power stones because i am hungry for them.