Flowers and Fruit Mountain (花果山, Huāguǒ shān?) is a mountain and one of the major locations in Journey to the West.
Description[]
The mountain is located in the midst of the East Sea, across 200 miles of water west from the country of Aolai. It serves as the ancestral artery of the Ten Continents and Three Islands (十洲三島, Shízhōu sāndǎo?), and came into being after the creation of the universe. Up until the birth of Sun Wukong, there has always been an Immortal Stone on top of the mountain.[1]
There are more than 72 caves in the large mountain, where many wild beasts reside in, with each cave ruled by a Demon King. Known caves include the Water Curtain Cave. Beasts living in the mountain include 47000 monkeys (including baboons, gibbons), wolves, insects, tigers, leopards, mouse deer, fallow deer, river deer, foxes, wild cats, badgers, lions, elephants, bears, antelopes, boars, muskoxen, chamois, green one-horn buffaloes, wild hares, giant mastiffs,[2] lizards, civets.[1]
Edible grass and shrubs grow on the mountain, as well as trees with fruits and mountain flowers. There are drinkable brooks and streams.[1]
Poem[]
The mountain is described in the following poem:[1]
勢鎮汪洋，威寧瑤海。
勢鎮汪洋，潮湧銀山魚入穴;
威寧瑤海，波翻雪浪蜃離淵。
水火方隅高積上，東海之處聳崇巔。
丹崖怪石，削壁奇峰。
丹崖上，彩鳳雙鳴;
削壁前，麒麟獨臥。
峰頭時聽錦雞鳴，石窟每觀龍出入。
林中有壽鹿仙狐，樹上有靈禽玄鶴。
瑤草奇花不謝，青松翠柏長春。
仙桃常結果，修竹每留雲。
一條澗壑籐蘿密，四面原堤草色新。
正是百川會處擎天柱，萬劫無移大地根。
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 snowlike 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 pheasants;
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.
Synopsis[]
One day, Sun Wukong was born from the Immortal Stone. After he bravely rushes through a large waterfall and into the Water Curtain Cave, every individual in the mountain acknowledges him as their king. He was then raised in the mountain with his monkey brethren. Since he became the king, the mountain becomes exceedingly civilized and well-trained for various future conflicts, such as war, even during periods when he left the mountain for various reasons. Due to the natural and civilized ways of this mountain set by Sun Wukong, this mountain continues to thrive even after 500 years of conflict.
Trivia[]
- A number of real-world locations have been connected with the Flowers and Fruit Mountain, although the synonymous mountain in Lianyungang, Jiangsu is most commonly identified as its source of inspiration.