Preface: Er Lang carrying the mountain to catch the sun is a myth and legend that has been widely spread and influenced in mainland China, and there are several versions of it with roughly the same plot. This article is a selection of representative stories. In this legend, a sun is scared into a moon by the god Erlang.
Long, long ago, the area of Shiji Town, Sihong County, was close to the sea.
At that time, there were twelve suns shining in rotation in the sky, making the ground extremely hot. Vegetation withered, and people sweltered, living in great hardship.
In the mountainous area of Xuyi County in the southeast, there lived a powerful master with a disciple named Yang Jin, also known as Er Lang Shen.
Er Lang Shen decided to capture the suns to help people escape their suffering.
The twelve suns were no match for Er Lang Shen and fled in all directions, with Er Lang Shen hot on their trail.
Er Lang Shen was incredibly strong and ran extremely fast, with a fierce “Xiao Tian Quan (Heaven-Barking Dog)” following behind him.
He ran faster than the suns but couldn’t catch them.
So he pulled up a big tree and used it as a pole to carry two mountains as he continued his pursuit.
This way, his speed was neither too slow nor too fast, allowing him to catch the suns just right.
Er Lang Shen chased the suns all the way to the East Sea and had already killed ten of them.
The eleventh sun was so scared that it turned pale and dove into the sea.
Er Lang Shen turned back and caught the last sun, just about to throw it onto the rocks, when he heard his master’s voice from the sky: “Disciple, don’t be reckless. Your intention is to save all living beings, but if you kill all the suns, the world will be plunged into darkness.”
Upon hearing this, Er Lang Shen felt that his master was right and let the last sun go.
From then on, this sun came out to shine on the world every morning and evening.
The sun that dove into the sea never dared to come out during the day again and only dared to peek at the world at night, thus becoming the moon we see today.
The moon is still pale to this day because it was so frightened by Er Lang Shen back then.
Er Lang Shen left the two mountains he was carrying by the seaside, which became today’s Liu Mountain and Mao Mountain.
Near the Yangen Village to the southwest of Mao Mountain, there is a long earth ridge, which was the pole Er Lang Shen used to carry the mountains.
通过阅读中国神话、民间故事、历史典故、人物传记学汉语，简单易学，中英对照，适合初学者！
Learning Chinese through reading Chinese mythology, folk stories, historical allusions, and biographies is easy to learn and bilingual, suitable for beginners!