Chinese Myth Figures 中国神话人物 20 Goddess of Wu Mountain 巫山神女

Wu Mountain, the east gate of Chongqing Municipality of China, is the only route to visit the Three Gorges of the Yangtze River. There is a beautiful tale on this mountain.

One daughter of Emperor Yan, named Yaoji, is a beautiful and passionate girl who died before getting married. To show pity for her, the Great Emperor of Heaven conferred on her soul the Goddess of the Cloud and Rain. In the early morning, she would be a piece of beautiful cloud, drifting among the hills and canyons; while at dusk, she would be a spell of drizzle, pouring out her grief and complaint towards the high mountain and flowing water.

During the Warring States Period, King Huai of Chu once visited here, dreaming of Yao Ji confiding her affection to him. After he woke up, he ordered to build a temple here, calling it Morning Cloud Temple. Many years later, a poet named Song Yu also tour around this mountain and dreamt a same dream with King Huai of Chu. He composed two rhapsodies after he woke up, namely, Rhapsodies of Gaotang Peak and Rhapsody on the Goddess.

It is said that the successful controlling of the flood by Yu the Great also owes to the help of Yaoji.

Later, Yaoji gradually became a mountain peak, namely, the famous Goddess Peak of Wu Mountain. Her maids accompanying her then became the peaks of various heights, thus forming the present-day twelve peaks of the Wu Mountain. Waves leaping and tide rising or ebbing, the Goddess of Wu Mountain always stands there, telling her stories to the boats coming and going.