k place, but,
if so, that merely proves the persistent power of the originating
stimulus. That in China these narratives always or often reach the
highest flights of constructive imagination is not maintained--the
maintenance of that argument would indeed be contradictory; but even
in those countries where the mythological garden has produced some of
the finest flowers millions of seeds must have been sown which either
did not spring up at all or at least failed to bring forth fruit. And
in the realm of mythology it is not only those gods who sit in the
highest seats--creators of the world or heads of great religions--who
dominate mankind; the humbler, though often no less powerful gods
or spirits--those even who run on all fours and live in holes in the
ground, or buzz through the air and have their thrones in the shadow
of a leaf--have often made a deeper impress on the minds and in the
hearts of the people, and through that impress, for good or evil, have,
in greater or less degree, modified the life of the visible universe.

Sources of Chinese Myth

"So, if we ask whence comes the heroic and the romantic, which supplies
the story-teller's stock-in-trade, the answer is easy. The legends and
history of early China furnish abundance of material for them. To the
Chinese mind their ancient world was crowded with heroes, fairies, and
devils, who played their part in the mixed-up drama, and left a name
and fame both remarkable and piquant. Every one who is familiar with
the ways and the language of the people knows that the country is full
of common objects to which poetic names have been given, and with many
of them there is associated a legend or a myth. A deep river's gorge is
called 'the Blind Man's Pass,' because a peculiar bit of rock, looked
at from a certain angle, assumes the outline of the human form, and
there comes to be connected therewith a pleasing story which reaches
its climax in the petrifaction of the hero. A mountain's crest shaped
like a swooping eagle will from some one have received the name of
'Eagle Mountain,' whilst by its side another shaped like a couchant
lion will have a name to match. There is no lack of poetry among the
people, and most striking objects claim a poetic name, and not a few
of them are associated with curious legends. It is, however, to their
national history that the story-teller goes for his most interesting
subjects, and as the so-called history of China imperceptibly pas