Chinese myth · 声匠改编 · 3:49
Kuafu Chases the Sun
The giant Kuafu doesn't want night to fall, so he races the sun. He catches it, but his thirst is so great that even the Yellow River can't quench it.
Narrator
Kuafu
The Sun
Ani
The Yellow RiverOther languages · 2 languages
About this story
Kuafu Chases the Sun comes from the Classic of Mountains and Seas (Shanhaijing), an ancient Chinese book of myth and geography, where the whole tale takes just a few dozen characters: Kuafu races the sun until he reaches it, grows thirsty, drinks the Yellow River and the Wei, finds them not enough, sets off north for a great marsh and dies of thirst on the way, and the staff he leaves behind becomes the Deng Forest. Another chapter of the same book says he lived on Chengdu Zaitian Mountain, with two yellow snakes hanging from his ears and two more in his hands. The old texts never say why he chased the sun, so this version gives him a reason, to keep the children of his tribe from fearing the dark, and follows the Qing scholar Bi Yuan, who explained the Deng Forest as a forest of peach trees.
What it teaches
Kuafu dares to race the sun, and even as he falls he leaves his staff behind for others, a picture of courage and of chasing the light no matter what. The old books also say he did not measure his own strength, so it is worth asking children: big dreams are wonderful, but how should you prepare for them?
Suits
Ages 5–10
Tips for telling it
- Speed up through the chase, and have your child stomp along every time Kuafu crosses a mountain in a single step.
- Afterwards, ask: why did Kuafu chase the sun? If you were him, what would you take along before setting off?
- Pair it with Hou Yi Shoots Down the Suns: one hero chases the sun, the other shoots suns out of the sky.
Questions people ask
- What is the story of Kuafu chasing the sun?
- Kuafu, a giant of ancient Chinese myth, races the sun across the sky and catches up with it as it sets. Burning with thirst, he drinks the Yellow River and the Wei River, finds them not enough and heads north for a great marsh, but dies on the way, and his staff turns into a vast forest.
- Where does the myth of Kuafu come from?
- It comes from the Classic of Mountains and Seas (Shanhaijing), which tells it in two chapters, one on the lands beyond the northern seas and one on the great northern wilderness. A similar version appears in the Daoist book Liezi, which adds that the forest grown from his staff stretched for thousands of li, Chinese miles.
- What is the moral of Kuafu chasing the sun?
- It is usually read as praise for courage and for never giving up in the pursuit of light. But one chapter of the Classic of Mountains and Seas also says Kuafu did not measure his own strength, so the story is sometimes used to warn against overreaching, and both readings are worth discussing with children.
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