13) Kua Fu chases the sun

A long long time ago, there were a tribe of titans. These titans were big and tall, and very hardworking. However, it was not a good time then. There were vicious animals everywhere and the land was not very good and thus caused many crop failures. The sun is often so harsh that it killed most of the crops and food that the titans planted.

Kua Fu was the leader of his tribe, and he was tired of seeing his tribe people suffer due to the sun, he decided that he was going to do something about it. Many people told Kua fu that he will fail, that he will never reach the sun or that he will burn to death. These words only made Kua Fu more determined, and so he made up his mind to go on the journey to capture the sun.

Kua Fu marched thousands and thousands of miles, using rocks as his pillows and dirt as his bed; he kept going and going, and the he was getting closer and closer, feeling more and more confident. However, the closer he gets to the sun, the thirstier he got. It got to the point where the one drink from the river can’t even hold his thirst anymore.

After nine days and nine nights, Kua Fu finally reached the sun; he stood right under the sun. But his thirst was so bad that he drank two whole river dry, and that still did not help. He needed to run north; there lies a plain named Da Ze that holds enough water that can solve his thirst. However, Da Ze was simply too far away, and half way there, he just couldn’t do it anymore; Kua Fu fell down and died.

Right before he died, still thinking about the people of his tribe, he threw his cane to the side and it turned into a forest of peach trees. Since then, it has provided people with food and helped with their thirst.

My mother told me this story once again, and this one I also learnt as a kid but couldn’t quite remember the details. When I was little I never really comprehended the meaning of it, but thinking back now it really seems more proverbial, telling people that the more you acquire, the more you want, and the harder it is to get it. Unfortunately, when my mother performed this story to me through videochat it was glitching quite awhile due to the terrible wifi, thus reducing the effect of this story. I never realized that Kua fu is actually a relatively kind character.