Update 6/4/2025: I initially wrote this back in March of 2024, I have since then done way more research and will be posting an update to this subject detailing new information I’ve uncovered. Interestingly, as of April 2025, the Wikipedia page has also updated its page, but mostly in the grammatical and structural sense. The contents of the page are still “wrong”

I stumbled upon the page for The Magic Lotus Lantern on Wikipedia the other day, which is an ancient Chinese folktale from what appears to be the Song Dynasty (I think? I’ll elaborate on this further later). I watched an animated film adaptation of it when I was in middle school and remembered quite liking it. Obviously it never grew into a massive hyperfixation the same way Journey to the West did, but these old classical Chinese folktales always fascinated me since they weren’t as prevalent in pop culture the same way Greek or Norse mythology were. The general gist of the story is that the goddess Sanshengmu fell in love with a mortal named Yanchang and had child named Chenxiang. The goddess’s brother, Erlang Shen, disapproved of this unholy union and imprisoned his sister underneath a mountain as punishment. The child eventually grows up, defeats his uncle, and splits the mountain to save his mother.

As of March 18th, 2024, the Wikipedia entry for this folktale is straight up incorrect; or at the very least, misleading. The dead give away is the fact that the storyline summary mentions the Monkey King (Sun Wukong), a mythological figure that did not exist until the Ming Dynasty. This is quite anachronistic for a supposedly Song Dynasty fairytale (ok technically, historical precedent for a Monkey King adjacent figure has existed as early as the 13th century, but that’s beside the point. Either way, there’s some other issues that I’m about to go over. If you want to know more about early precursors to the Monkey King, I heavily recommend this article written by journeytothewestresearch.com).

I believe the writer of that section may have conflated the legend with the plot of the 1999 animated cartoon adaptation. The Monkey King does indeed show up in the movie version and is featured somewhat prevalently as a mentor figure for our hero, Chenxiang. This appears to be a creative liberty taken by the film makers as a means of inserting a more culturally recognizable figure to create marketing appeal. Shaopeng Chen, a film studies PhD student in University of Southampton, hypothesizes this in his paper on Chinese animation blockbusters. However, the idea of the Monkey King being a part of The Magic Lotus Lantern legend isn’t neccesarily unfounded. The Monkey King from Journey to the West is famously known to be a rival to Erlang Shen, the same Erlang Shen who is the primary antagonist of The Magic Lotus Lantern. So it’s a clever take on the story to have Monkey be the protagonist’s mentor as a way of referencing the old grudge between Erlang and Monkey. It’s actually quite popular to reference the Monkey King in modern adaptations of The Magic Lotus Lantern such as in the 2020 live action drama. But we need to keep in mind that these are modern creative liberties. The Wikipedia page claims the protagonist, Chenxiang, got his magic axe from Monkey. However, in the original tale, the mentor role instead belongs to a character called 霹雳大仙 (Firebolt Immortal or Great Immortal of the Thunderbolts). Overall, the plot summary in the Wikipedia page was lacking in a lot of details in general. So I have done some digging to write up a more accurate one. But that means I’d have to back up it up with reliable sources.

That’s when the problems started.

Because I realized I’ve fallen for the classic blunder of trying to do academic research on a story that originated in a language I cannot fully read. Legends and mythology belonging to western civilizations such as Greek, or the more contemporary Anglo Saxons, are well documented and have been translated to English. Even though mythologies, like that of the Greek, are older than legend I am researching today, there are consolidated primary-source literatures that I would be able to reference directly. For example, Norse mythology has the Prose and Poetic Edda. The closest thing to those in Chinese mythology would be the Classic of Mountains and Seas and the Commentary on the Water Classic. And these weren’t even meant to be pieces of folktale and mythology! The Classic of Mountains and Seas served more as an atlas, detailing geographical locations and happened to lore-drop some information about the areas that were mythical in nature. Commentary on the Water Classic just talked about ancient waterways and canals. These works may have contained roots for future legends and folktales but they are far less encompassing.

When people typically think Chinese mythology, they’re mostly referring to stories transcribed during the Ming dynasty such as Journey to the West and Investiture of the Gods, both of which I would more so described as “historical fiction” or “dramatization”. They are much more in line with works such as Dante’s Inferno, a “biblical fanfiction” if you will. Much like Greek mythology, Chinese folktale and legends mainly persisted through the generations in the forms of stage plays, operas, and oral retellings. As a result, variations in the original story naturally develop over time. Pinpointing exactly when and where a story splits into a variant is hard when a.) they weren’t written down, and b.) even if they were written down I can’t fully read classical Chinese literature.

Thus began my deep dive into The Magic Lotus Lantern and the quest to re-write its page on Wikipedia.

The first two sources I went to were the ones listed at the bottom of the Wikipedia page itself which were Haiwang Yuan’s The Magic Lotus Lantern and Other Tales From the Han Chinese and Nianpei Li’s Beating of the Dragon Robe: Repertoire of Beijing Opera – Synopses of 100 Most Popular Pieces. I managed to find both of them archived online. But aside from those two, simply Googling “The Magic Lotus Lantern” doesn’t yield all that many academic sources. Many of the results are for the various movie and TV show adaptations. And all the others are referencing the original two sources I had just mentioned. The only exception being a page from David K. Jordan, an Anthropology professor at University of California San Diego. (There are also a couple Tumblr posts of note, one of which I will be going over later but I’m avoiding discussing them now since I can’t really call that an academic source). In general I will be disregarding media adaptations mostly because I do not have time to watch them all. Although I want to point out technically that goes against the spirit of things. Media adaptations are technically just as valid, since they are a way of keeping the story alive. They are no different than the many stage adaptations from the past. And since we’ve established there is no true canon, as old oral traditions are iterative in nature, we really should take them into consideration as well. For example, Sun Wukong’s staff in Journey to the West was described to be made of black iron yet in modern depictions it’s always shown as red. That’s likely because the 1961 cartoon film Uproar in Heaven was such a culturally significant piece of media that the red version of the staff has become ingrained into Sun Wukong’s iconography. This shows the power of non literary media and its impact on how stories are perceived.

Back to The Magic Lotus Lantern. I’m going to detail the key summaries of the sources I found and note the differences between the three in a bit, but I first want to point out something I noticed during the research. This legends seems to have two main interpretations, with one focusing more on The Magic Lotus Lantern itself and others that focus on the act of Chenxiang splitting the mountain. You see, the legend has more than one name. Sometimes in performance arts, it’s titled as 劈山救母 or “splitting the mountain to save mother”. Versions of this play will sometimes omit the inclusion of the lotus lantern completely, which you’d think wouldn’t happen, given it’s the titular McGuffin and all. This dance adaptation from the Shen Yun performing arts is an example of this (NOTE: Shen Yun performing arts is a CULT and anything they say should be taken with a grain of salt. I’m just illustrating an instance of the legend being adapted without the inclusion of the lotus lantern). This was initially EXTREMELY confusing to me because I realized “splitting the mountain to save mother” was also the name of a different Chinese tale… as the backstory of Erlang fucking Shen. You know, the main bad guy of The Magic Lotus Lantern story. So basically, Erlang Shen had the exact same story of having his mother trapped underneath a mountain because she slept with a mortal. Which ended with Erlang cleaving the the mountain in half to save her. This is the exact same premise as The Magic Lotus Lantern, only now, Erlang is the villain imprisoning his sister and Erlang’s nephew is the one trying to split the mountain. So you’d call Erlang a hypocrite at the very least.

I really wish I had time to go into another deep dive into the mythological origins of Erlang Shen (or Yang Jian as he was called in some versions). But from what I can gather, stories of Erlang splitting a mountain to save his mother popped up from after the Ming dynasty and into the Qing dynasty. A quick search seems to suggest this story was mentioned in Investiture of the Gods, which must have come from somewhere. Erlang Shen’s mountain splitting tale was definitely referenced in Journey to the West when Monkey was making fun of him. Erlang Baojuan, which is another Ming dynasty text that came out after JttW, is dedicated to telling the story of Erlang Shen saving his mother Yunhua from a mountain. I wasn’t able to find a readable copy of Erlang Baojuan but I did find its Baidu page. The story is rather interesting as it says the Monkey King was the one who trapped Erlang’s mom under a mountain… And then at the end Erlang traps Monkey under a mountain in revenge. A lot of very convoluted plots about trapping each other under mountains (this is all non-canon to Journey to the West anyways).

From all of this I’m inclined to believe at some point, Erlang Shen was conflated with the tale of Chengxiang splitting the mountain, as sources of Erlang having this backstory all come from way later than the original lotus lantern legend. This article from a Chinese internet conglomerate company seems to also suggest this fact. I now want to jump to going over and summarizing the three English sources I’ve found on the story.

In Yuan, Haiwang’s The Magic Lotus Lantern and Other Tales from the Han Chinese, we get some statements regarding the timeline of events. It states theatrical performances have existed since the Song dynasty and continued into the Yuan dynasty before having a resurgence in popularity in the 1950s. This is in contrast to the Wikipedia article which the page states the fairytale is from the Tang dynasty. A problem presents itself when Haiwang states there was a movie cartoon adaptation in 2002… This lowers Haiwang’s credibility slightly as I think this is a mistake. The most well known cartoon adaptation (the one I mentioned at the beginning of this article) came out in 1999 and was released for home media in 2004. So that was a bit odd.

Anyway, let’s actually talk about the story itself. Haiwang’s version begins with explaining the power of the lotus lantern, a magic artifact belonging to the Goddess San Shengmu who resides on Mt. Hua. Here, the lantern is described as having the ability to cure sickness and later implied with being able to ward off evil. A scholar named Liu Yanchang stops by her alter on the mountain to pray for good luck on his upcoming imperial exam. Due to the goddess being out curing epidemics that day, she was not there to answer his prayers. This prompted Yanchang to get upset and vandalized the alter with a mean spirited poem. Shengmu upon coming home is furious and calls in a favor from some other gods to send a storm after Yanchang, making him sick. Feeling bad for the scholar, she disguises herself as mortal and nurses him back to health. Eventually she comes clean and reveals herself as the goddess and they mutually apologize for the misunderstanding/childish actions. From there they fall in love, eventually get married, and have a child named Chengxiang. San Shengmu’s brother, the god Erlang Shen, catches wind of this improper union between deity and mortal. While the father travels away one day to take his imperial examination, Erlang Shen comes with an army to apprehend her. The first time he fails since Shengmu is able to ward him and his army off using the power of the lotus lantern. The second time, Erlang sends his dog to steal the lantern beforehand and easily captures his sister. She is imprisoned beneath a large rock (not the whole mountain) on Mt. Hua, but not before sending away baby Chengxiang with a maidservant named Lingzhi (Lingzhi here is stated to become his adopted mother). Chengxiang is sent to live with a Taoist priest named the Firebolt Immortal. For 15 years, Chengxiang lived with Firebolt Immortal, learning martial arts and magic until one day he has a dream about his mother and evil uncle. He begins his journey to rescue his mother under the guidance of the Firebolt Immortal, who informs him he will need a weapon to aid him. Returning to Mt. Hua, Chengxiang finds a flood dragon that he does battle with. The dragon turns out to be a trial made by the Firebolt Immortal to test his courage. This allows him to acquire a magic axe. Chengxiang eventually runs into Erlang’s guard dog and steals back the magic lotus lantern. With the combined might of the magic axe and the lantern, Chengxiang defeats his uncle and splits the rock to free his mother. Erlang is threatened into never interfering with their lives again and San Shengmu also gives up her divinity so that there shouldn’t be a problem with her marrying a mortal now. Chengxiang’s father shows up at the end, having been transported there by the Firebolt Immortal and Lingzhi. In this version of the story, he had never been informed of what happened to his wife all those years ago, or even the fact that he had become a father, and has spent this entire time looking for his her (he had left home to take his imperial examination prior to the birth of Chengxiang).

Haiwang’s version of the story generally captures the main plot points that is consistent throughout all version of the story: a marriage between a goddess and a mortal, the imprisonment of the goddess by her brother, and the son saving his mother in the end. But unlike the next few versions of the story I’m about to discuss, Haiwang’s version separates Chengxiang from his father for the duration of the story. This isn’t true for most other versions of the story. For example, in Nianpei, Li’s Beating of the Dragon Robe: Repertoire of Beijing Opera, Chengxiang is raised by his father for the duration of his youth. Nianpei’s story starts off with the scholar Liu Yanchang showing up at San Shengmu’s temple. After being enthralled by a beautiful statue of the goddess, he writes a poem of praise for the goddess as opposed to an insult. Touched by this gesture, the goddess falls in love with him and they get married. Once again, Erlang Shen shows up and ends up imprisoning San Shengmu. In this verison, Chengxiang is born after San Shengmu was trapped underneath the mountain and he is sent away to be with his father along with the magic lotus lantern. Interestingly this is also the first mention of the lantern so far in the story. Its significance isn’t explained at all, so its inclusion is odd. The next section of this story is completely new to the previous version. Because it tells about Chengxiang’s life growing up under his father’s care. Liu Yanchang ends up remarrying to the daughter of a high official, Wang Guiyang. With her, Yanchang had as second son named Qiu’er. The two half brothers eventually get into a fight with a school bully/neighborhood brat named Qin Guanbao. Chengxiang accidentally beats the brat to death using his demigod strength. Due to the life-for-a-life law at the time, the crime had to be paid in blood. When asked who was responsible for the murder, both Chenxiang and Qiu’er admitted fault, since the two brothers were so loyal to each other. Yanchang convinces his wife to sacrifice Qiu’er, as to show sympathy for the motherless Chenxiang (this part doesn’t make much sense and is rather cruel). Nianpei’s version of this story then continues with the rest of the plot where Chenxiang finds an immortal mentor and acquires the magic axe to eventually free his mother from Erlang’s imprisonment. Nianpei’s version is odd because it summarizes the conclusion of the story very succinctly. Whereas the side plot of Chenxiang growing up with is half brother took up 4 paragraphs and nearly half of the entire text, the latter section of the story is told in 5 sentences. So there are some details that are mentioned but not elaborated on at all. For example, Nianpei writes that Chengxiang “has his worldly body replaced”. What does this mean?? Sir can you elaborate?? Nianpei in this book is merely listing a repertoire of old operas, so it’s not meant to go into the details of the story and rather only outline main plot elements. But the near omission of the titular lotus lantern is still an interesting choice. It’s mentioned only twice in the entire story by name and given practically zero context. The second time only stating Chengxiang was able to defeat his uncle with the aid of the lantern. No context for what exactly the lantern does throughout the story just that it “aided” him.

Next, let’s take a look at David K. Jordan’s account of the story. I’m going to refer to this as Jordan’s summary rather than Jordan’s version. Because unlike the first two sources, Jordan, like me, is summarizing the story and giving context as opposed to just retelling the story. So this isn’t really his version of the story. It’s more of a cumulation of his research. We find that Jordan’s summary is mostly consistent with Nianpei’s version but also implements elements from Haiwang’s version. It follows the same story beats of Yanchang being smitten with Shengmu’s statue, although here, she reveals herself to Yanchang after he is attacked by a tiger and she uses the magic lantern to scare it away. Jordan’s summary does include the story beat of Erlang attacked twice but only succeeded the second time after his dog steals the lantern. Unlike both previous versions, Jordan’s summary states that San Shengmu isn’t trapped underneath a rock on Mt. Hua, nor the entire mountain itself, but rather in a cave called the Black Cloud Cavern. Like in Nianpei’s version, Chengxiang isn’t born until after Shengmu is trapped and she sends him to live with his father. Nianpei’s version doesn’t elaborate on how Chengxiang is sent to his father’s place but Jordan clarifies it’s either through a local land deity (like a Tudi) or a serving girl. While not being named, the serving girl sounds a lot like Lingzhi, Shengmu’s maidservant from Haiwang’s version of the story. The serving girl/land deity also is responsible for stealing back the lantern and sending it to Chengxiang to protect him and his family. The following story about Qiu’er and the school brat play out pretty much the same except it seems like Jordan suggests Wang Guiying, the step mother, chose to sacrifice Qiu’er of her own free will here instead of being pressured to do so by her husband. Almost implying Guiying was especially fond of Chengxiang in order to make such a choice. Jordan’s summary also details the call-to-action that eventually leads to Chengxiang going on the quest to free his mother, which was a “blood letter” that he receives from his mother. This is unlike Haiwang’s version, in which the call-to-action was a prophetic dream. Or Nianpei’s version where there was no call-to-action at all and it’s never explained how Chengxiang even knew he had a goddess mom in the first place. The story ends with Chengxiang defeating Erlang and freeing his mother. Not much further is said of the ending, which again I found odd. Haiwang’s version is the only one I read so far that gave the most details of the story’s resolution.

Given these three accounts of the story, we can draft a somewhat “unified continuity” for the legend, worthy of belonging on its official Wikipedia page. Before I do that, I want to revisit the Wikipedia page and compare what is written there with the research I’ve conducted thus far. The Wikipedia summary starts with additional lore stating Sanshengmu escaped heaven to be with her lover, stealing the magic lotus lantern in the process. The Wikipedia summary also states Chenxiang reached the age of 7 before Erlang showed up in the story. And finally the main point of contention, the Wikipedia summary of course says that Chenxiang’s master was Sun Wukong the Monkey King. As an avid Journey to the West fan I cannot let this slide. Upon revisit, it’s very clear the editor of the summary is talking about the 1999 animated movie adaptation, sine this is exactly what happens in that movie.

So here’s how I would rewrite the “Story” section of The Magic Lotus Lantern Wikipedia page:

There once was a goddess named Sanshengmu on Mt. Hua who wielded a magic lotus lantern capable of warding off evil. She fell in love with a mortal scholar named Liu Yanchang and had a son, Chenxiang, with him. The goddess’s brother, a god named Erlang Shen, caught wind of this and disapproved of the union between a goddess and a mortal. Erlang imprisoned Sanshengmu underneath Mt. Hua as a punishment. Chenxiang eventually grows up and uncovers the truth about what happened to his mother. Under the tutelage of an immortal sage, Chenxiang obtains a magic axe and goes off to fight Erlang in order to save his mother. He eventually defeats his uncle with the power of the magic lotus lantern and cleaves Mt. Hua apart, reuniting mother and son. There are different versions of this story in which certain story beats are changed, such as who Chenxiang’s mentor is, or what the fate of Chenxiang’s father was.

I don’t think this is perfect since I am pretty much giving the most barebones version of the story. But I think that’s necessary to avoid establishing any one obscure story beat is part of the main canon. I think the Wikipedia page should then have a follow up section dedicated to the various adaptations differences. But for now I think this is a good start.