[10] Tennyson’s The Passing of Arthur. [↑]
[11] Like the Indian god Vishnu, who lies asleep on the Naga. This sleep, like that of magicians, is a spell-working or power-accumulating sleep. [↑]
[12] Like the Egyptian hero who slays the river serpent which guards the box containing magic spells. Sigurd, Siegfried, and other dragon-slaying heroes may be compared with this Far-Eastern hero. [↑]
[13] De Visser, The Dragon in China and Japan. [↑]
CHAPTER IX
The Islands of the Blest
Souls on Islands—Wells of Life and Trees or Plants of Life in China, Ancient Egypt, Babylonia, &c.—How Islands were Anchored—The Ocean Tortoise—A Giant’s Fishing—The Mystery of Fu-sang—Island of Women—Search for Fabled Isles—Chinese and Japanese Stories—How Navigation was Stimulated—Columbus and Eden—Water of Life in Ceylon, Polynesia, America, and Scotland—Delos, a Floating Island—Atlantis and the Fortunate Isles—Celtic Island Paradise—Apples and Nuts as Food of Life—America as Paradise—The Indian Lotus of Life—Buddhist Paradise with Gem-trees—Diamond Valley Legend in China and Greece—Luck Gems and Immortality.
The Chinese and Japanese, like the Egyptians, Indians, Fijians, and others, believed, as has been shown, in the existence of a floating and vanishing island associated with the serpent-god or dragon-god of ocean. They believed, too, that somewhere in the Eastern Sea lay a group of islands that were difficult to locate or reach; which resembled closely, in essential particulars, the “Islands of the Blest”, or “Fortunate Isles”, of ancient Greek writers. Vague beliefs regarding fabulous countries far across the ocean were likewise prevalent.
In some native accounts these Chinese Islands of the Blest are said to be five in number, and named Tai Yü, Yüan Chiao, Fang Hu, Ying Chou, and P’ēng-lai; in others the number is nine, or ten, or only three. A single island is sometimes referred to; it may be located in the ocean, or in the Yellow River, or in the river of the Milky Way, the Celestial Ho. [[107]]