Ranka (爛柯)
Alternative Names (異名):
爛柯, Ranka
Ranka or Lankeshan ji, or Rotten Battle Axe in English, is a Chinese legend similar to that of Rip Van Winkle. Ranka predates that by at least a 1000 years. The exact date of origin of the legend is unknown.
The Legend
The legend features a woodcutter, Wang Chih, and his encounter with the two immortals in the mountains.
Wang Chih was a hardy young fellow who used to venture deep into the mountains to find suitable wood for his axe. One day he went farther than usual and became lost. He wandered about for a while and eventually came upon two strange old men who were playing Go, their board resting on a rock between them. Wang Chih was fascinated. He put down his axe and began to watch. One of the players gave him something like a date to chew on, so that he felt neither hunger nor thirst. As he continued to watch he fell into a trance for what seemed like an hour or two. When he awoke, however, the two old men were no longer there. He found that his axe handle had rotted to dust and he had grown a long beard. When he returned to his native village he discovered that his family had disappeared and that no one even remembered his name.
See also
Go
History of Go
Chinese mythology
Links
Kiseido Publishing Company (Japan), The Immortals, http://www.kiseido.com/printss/immort.html
China stubs | Chinese history stubs | History of China | Chinese mythology
No comments:
Post a Comment