Celestial Mountain on the Sea from Time Immemorial——Huaguo Mountain

There are many mountains called Huaguo Mountain. But there is one and only one which is located on the sea. That is the Huaguo Mountain in Lianyungang.

The fact that the Money King’s hometown, Huaguo Mountain, is situated on the sea is not only stressed in The Journey to the West with 40 chapters, but also reemphasized by Wu Cheng’en’s The Journey to the West with 100 chapters.

Yang Zhihe writes in his novel The Journey to the West that there is a well-known mountain in the sea of the Eastern Continent of Superior Body called Huaguo Mountain. Wu Cheng’en writes in his 100-chapter The Journey to the West that this book deals only with the Eastern Continent of Superior Body. Beyond the seas there is a country called Aolai. This country is next to an ocean, and in the middle of the ocean is a famous island called Husguo Mountain.

It’s no doubt that the stories in The Journey to the West are mainly set on the islands. In order to better depict a mysterious and famous mountain and satisfy his homeland complex at the same time, Wu Cheng’en changes the place of Huaguo Mountain which, according to the Tang Sanzang’s Journy to the West, is originally located in the Western Regions to the sea in the east. The earliest known record of the sea surroundings of Yuntai Mountain appears in The Classic of Regions Within the Seas: East of the Shan Hai Jing. It says that Yuzhou is located in the sea. The note of Shan Hai Jing says: It’s said that the mountain, located to the east of Qu County in the east sea, is coverd by the plants which can only be seen in the southern part of the country since the migration of the people from Cangwu.

In the past, it’s said that the Yuntai Mountain in Yuzhou is in the city established by Shaohao. Facing the Yuntai Mountain, Su Dongpo says in his poem: ”Lush sycamore trees stand on the hills above the sea. Dimly discernible are the Penglai and the abbot mountain, flickering like the wonderland in dreams.“

Under the harassment of Japanese pirates in late Ming, people living in costal areas pound wooden stakes to block the way of the pirates’ ships. However, due to the Yellow River occupying Huai River’s access to the sea, more sediment deposit here and gradually silt up. Later, The Sea recedes for 14 kilometers as a result of the big earthquake in 1688. It’s recorded in the New Book of Yuntai that the ferry between Yuntai Mountain and the mainland is silted up in the Qing Emperor Kangxi’s 40th year (1701) and it becomes a land fifty years later.