Small Wander. Chinese Small Wander: Legend.
Er Lang Chased The Sun,
Carrying The Mountains In His Shoulder Pole
From time immemorial, there were twelve suns in the sky.
They took turns to be on duty in the sky. When the first sun dried up a bowl of water, he could then go to play and to bed. The second sun would come out to take his place and dry up the second bowl of water and then go to play and to bed. The third sun would then come out. In this manner, the twelve suns took their regular turns to do the duty. So life on earth was fine.
One day, it was the birthday of the eldest sun. The other eleven brother-suns went to offer birthday greetings.
All the twelve brother-suns sat together in a circle with much affection. They drank to their hearts content, playing a finger-guessing game(mora). Soon, all of them were dead drunk.
All of them came out at once, quarreling and fighting. Oh, gosh! What a terrible thing it was! Twelve fiery suns shone in the sky. The rivers dried up. The soil cracked. The crops and forests were so scorched that they were nearly on fire. And it already took a heavy toll of human lives.
The deity Taibai JinXin (White Gold Star, Venus) quickly reported to the Jade Emperor about this great disaster when he saw that Man would soon become extinct. The Jade Emperor immediately sent the herculean deity Er Lang (second son) to subdue the prankish suns.
When he learned that the people were suffering, burning with impatience, Er Lang quickly picked up two huge baskets and went down to Earth. he grabbed up Taishan Moutain, Huashan Mountain, Kunlun Mountains…, and put them into the baskets. Then, carrying the baskets with a shoulder pole, he started to chase the suns with rigorous strides. When he caught up with one of the suns he used one big mountain to crush it under.
All the suns were dead drunk, unsteady and titled, and could not in the least put up any resistance. Nor could they win even if they wanted to fight. And there was no way for them to escape even if they tried. In the end, one by one, except the youngest brother-sun, was caught by Er Lang the deity and crushed to death under a great mountain.
The youngest brother-sun did not drink much, so only he was soon sober enough to see a severe punishment awaiting them. He could not but hastily hide himself under a purslane plant in the furrow, and begged the purslane to save his life. Seeing that the sun was indeed scared, the purslane had pity on him and promised to hide him in safety.
Er Lang the deity looked for the youngest sun here and there, but of no avail. So he returned to Heaven with his carrying pole and baskets. Only then the youngest sun hastily got back to the sky and resumed his daily routine, never dared to play mischief anymore. Thereafter, the sun always rose on time from the horizon. And he never shone scorchingly on the purslane to show gratitude to it for having saved his life.