臺灣文學虛擬博物館

A Taiwanese "Just So" Story｜Doomsday Flood｜Disastrous Wind｜Shadows Under the Water｜The Mountain's Lost Souls

The early settlers of Taiwan faced a myriad of life-threatening challenges that ran the gamut from torrential rains and winds to earthquakes, landslides, and floods. Nature was a petulant and unforgiving fact of everyday life that weighed heavily on the minds of those who came to make a new life here. Thus, it is only natural that these threats and dangers would occasionally be personified and woven into stories that caught on and were shared from generation to generation.

The best-known local legend about earthquakes is that of the Di Niu (subterranean bull). Also, Taiwan's Austronesians have legends of earthquake-causing giants and wild boars. All of the indigenous tribes have legends related to floods. The traditional Chinese tale of the Deng Hou (Lamp Monkey) also touches on popular fears of floods great enough to cover the land and submerge islands. Popular stories have regularly and imaginatively credited natural disasters to gods, demigods, and other supernatural beings. Rivers, providers of life, can also take life and wreak devastating havoc. Thus, the ghosts and ghouls that reside in these waters require rituals to keep them from causing mischief. Many a trek through mountain forests ended in travelers becoming disoriented and losing their way. Thus, stories arose of forest goblins that lay in wait in the deep woods, ready to send passersby to certain doom.

Settlers on this strange and unfamiliar island put their imaginative stamp on the dangers around them. Personifying these dangers made them things that could be dealt with, appeased, resisted, and even possibly eradicated.

    A Taiwanese "Just So" Story

Taiwan, within the Pacific Ring of Fire, is regularly rocked by seismic activity. Each of the island's different Austronesian groups have somewhat different stories about the origin of earthquakes. One story that certainly predates the arrival of Chinese settlers says that the land is held up by animals, which set off earthquakes when they need to scratch an itch.

Inō Kanori's article "Jishin ni kansuru Taiwan Doban no Kōhi" (Earthquakes in the Traditions of Formosan Aborigines) relates that Atayal tradition holds that earthquakes occur when a giant hornet stings the carp that lives beneath the earth and that the Beinan tribe on Taiwan's East Coast believe that earthquakes happen when the one-armed, one-legged being who is holding up the earth gets sore and shifts position. Further, the Basay of the Taipei Basin attribute earthquakes to a boar beneath the earth turning from one side to the other. Interestingly, Inō Kanori found the theme of the Di Niu (subterranean bull) to be woven through both Austronesian and Chinese earthquake mythologies. In facing the awesome, destructive power of earthquakes, the people on Taiwan hoped not only to identify the cause of this phenomenon but also to construct rituals that might mollify or even control the entities responsible.

    Doomsday Flood

Flood myths are not uncommon among the various indigenous tribes of Taiwan, which perhaps reflected the actual memories of the land's ancestors. Among these myths, some tell of an animal - perhaps a gigantic eel or snake - blocked the river, causing the water to rise; some relate that the water-gulping monster shut its mouth, causing the river to overflow; some say it was the god's punishment for breaking a taboo; some say the sea god was displeased with the maid offered; and still others say that it was an attack by the sea god on the other gods. In these myths, the people were devastated by the flood. In their struggle to survive, many stories related to the origin of fire also came about.

The Chinese people in Taiwan also wove their worries about flooding into their New Years' legend of "The Lamp Monkey's Complaint to the God of Heaven." In these ancient myths, it is not hard to find hidden traces of mythical creatures and spiritual beasts from prehistoric times.

    Disastrous Wind

Wind is the natural flow of air, and due to the differences in terrain and environment, wind appears in ever-changing forms, giving rise to all kinds of personified legends. In Taiwan's indigenous myths, wind sometimes symbolizes vitality, and stories about women becoming impregnated by the wind are not uncommon. Although bringing good, there is also a cruel side to wind, as related in the Pazeh legend of "Apu-bare" (the Wind Lady).

In the Pazeh legend, wind is described as originating from below ground in a cave where Apu-bare lives. When Apu-bare opens the cave entirely, a violent storm is released, causing catastrophe. The end of this legend is also a metaphor for the conflict between humans and Mother Nature. Another example is Taiwan's foehn winds, which scorches plants as if by fire or some evil force. A poem by a Qing Dynasty writer describes the foehn winds as a "qilin storm" with destructive power. According to the book, TAIWAN FŪZOKUSHI (TAIWAN MANNERS AND CUSTOMS), a bird called the "Stone Swallow" lives in remote mountains and faraway islands. When it soars and swirls skyward, it stirs up the air between sky and earth, creating the winds.

    Shadows Under the Water

The story of humanity is closely intertwined with water. While water is essential to life, it is also a font of calamity and sorrow. The torrential rains and frequent typhoons of summer send rivers roiling across their banks and onto fields and villages. The frequency of extreme weather here has injected dire warnings on the dangers of open water and rivers into Taiwan cultural traditions and stories and fueled the proliferation of tales about water-dwelling ghosts, ghouls, and other related phenomena.

Water-related folk traditions and practices permeate every corner of Taiwan. The dragon-boat races held during the late-spring Duanwu Festival represent perhaps the most widely observed of these. Although now claim a story of tragic romance as the origin of these races, they may indeed be rooted in a much older tradition of river worship and rites held to stop waterborne illnesses.

Observances are also regularly held around Taiwan in remembrance of particularly devastating floods. In Kouhu, Yunlin County, the 'Spirit Drawing out of Water' ritual memorializes the thousands who died in an 1845 flood. Yilan County's Pài-Poh Ritual seeks to placate the anger of drowned souls and secure the levees with prayers of peace to Laodagong and the Water God. These and other similar religious rites around the island reflect the general public's fear of water.

    The Mountain's Lost Souls

While humans rely on the rich resources in the mountains and woods, they also fear the dangers hidden within. Mountains effuse a mysterious power that has never failed to amaze people since ancient times. The most widely spread stories are none other than people losing their way in the mountains in all sorts of strange ways. In the Atayal story cited in the MYTHOLOGIES OF UNDOMESTICATED SAVAGES, a young girl went collecting firewood one night, and was lured into the deep of the forest by a black hand. She was later found in a tree by tribal members and remained mute ever since.

Stories about "people being pulled by evil beings to places that are hard to reach," may be seen by Chinese as the works of "Môo-sîn-á" - a monstrous being surprisingly similar to indigenous versions of devils such as "Saraw" and "Lalimenah". The commonness of these mountain legends and commonality across different ethnic groups reflect the shared awe and respect of the mountains.