Lapita, Taotie and other Face/Head Motifs

The possibility of a relationship between the Taotie face motif that dates back to the Shang Dynasty in China, and the previously discussed Kirtimukha images of India and the Kala images of Southeast Asia, has been explored in previous literature. Joseph Campbell in The Mythic Image (pp. 118-130) believes these motifs along with the Mesoamerican jaguar mask and the Greek Medusa all owe their similarities to diffusion.

Stella Kramrisch and Raymond Burnier also apparently see a direct relationship between the Kirtimukha/Kala images and the Taotie, and also the "Green Man" motif from medieval Europe (foilage spewers-column swallowers). 

The earliest of these images is the Taotie, however, it has a possible contemporary match in the Lapita face motif, which to my knowledge has not been explored.  The Taotie and Lapita images date from about the same period -- from the middle of the second millennium BCE to the beginning of the first millenium BCE -- the dates for the Erligang Culture in Henan and the Lapita Culture in eastern Melanesia and Western Polynesia.   The face motifs appear to date to the earliest phases of both Lapita and Erligang cultures.


Examples of Lapita faces taken from Chiu 2007 and Spriggs 1993




Examples of Taotie face motif from Erligang Culture in Henan, China from Allan 1991.




While there are significant stylistic differences between these contemporary motifs, there are also some important similarities:

• In both cases, the face normally consists of defined eyes and nose, whether realistic or stylized, but the mouth, or at least the lower jaw, is missing or not clearly defined.
• Opposing spirals are an important element in both types of face motifs. With the Lapita face, the spirals often define or border the eyes, but in some cases they appear as "horns" to the side of a set of eyes.
• Leaf-like eyes with pointed edges or tips are found in both regions.
• A "face within a face" motif is found often involving the "horns" of the image in some Lapita images, and this also appears to be clearly defined in some Taotie motifs from the Shang-Zhou period.
• The presence of flanking decorative elements that occasionally take on a clearly independent identity, and which may be related to later images in Oceania, Asia and Europe.
• The presence of scrolling patterns, spirals, and leaf-like or flower-like designs can be seen as suggestive of foliage in both cases.

Three sets of Lapita face motifs showing two pairs of eyes sharing the same "nose."  The outermost pair of eyes is found in the "horns" of the smaller eye set. From Spriggs 1993.


Below are leaf and other foliage-like eye motifs from Lapita artifacts.






Origin of the motifs


Both Spriggs and Chiu refer to the large number of "simplified" face motifs on Lapita artifacts suggesting that these motifs are latter developments of the earlier more realistic face designs.

However, at least one these simplified versions may have a very ancient origin.  The dentate or linked triangular pattern with circles at the top of the triangle is very similar to designs found on red-slipped wares in the Philippines that may date back to before 5000 BCE. Such patterns are found widely in Southeast Asia by the Late Neolithic period.

Here is an example of the motif found in Lapita culture:

The triangular design in latter times is known at tumpal and is often said to represent hills or mountains.  However, this would not preclude its use in face designs.  The use of vegetative motifs in other Lapita forms as well as in the Taotie face motifs could suggest these faces or mask have a pantheistic or fractal identity, which is something we shall examine in future posts.

Click here for continuation.

• Lapita, Taotie and other Face/Head Motifs (1 of 3)
• Lapita, Taotie and other Face/Head Motifs (2 of 3)
• Lapita, Taotie and other Face/Head Motifs (3 of 3)

 

Regards,
Paul Kekai Manansala
Sacramento

References

Allan, Sarah. The Shape of the Turtle: Myth, Art, and Cosmos in Early China. SUNY series in Chinese philosophy and culture. Albany, NY: State University of New York Press, 1991.

Campbell, Joseph, and M. J. Abadie. The Mythic Image. Princeton/Bollingen paperbacks. Princeton, N.J.: Princeton University Press, 1981, 118-128.

Chiu, Scarlett, Detailed analysis of Lapita Face Motifs: Case Studies from Reef/Santa Cruz Lapita Sites
and New Caledonia Lapita Site 13A, http://epress.anu.edu.au/terra_australis/ta26/pdf/ch15.pdf, 2007.

Kramrisch, Stella. The Hindu Temple 2. Delhi: Motilal Banarsidass Publ, 1996, 322-25.

Miksic, John N. Earthenware in Southeast Asia: Proceedings of the Singapore Symposium on Premodern Southeast Asian Earthenwares. Singapore: Singapore University Press, 2003.

Spriggs, M. "How Much of the Lapita Design System Represents the Human Face?" In P. Dark and R. Rose (eds), Artistic Heritage in a Changing Pacific,   Bathurst: Crawford House Press, 1993, 7-14.

Lungshanoid (Glossary)

One major assertion in this work is that a volcanic eruption on Luzon during the 4th millennium BCE caused upheavels resulting in expanded Nusantao migration and trading clan wars.

The dispersion of Lungshanoid culture, where ever it originates, is one signature of the resulting activity in the region.

Hoabinhian background

Understanding the Neolithic situation in Southeast Asia starts with the Mesolithic Hoabinhian culture and also takes into account Wilhelm Solheim's latest theories on the Nusantao.

Solheim now proposes that "Pre-Austronesian" culture begins in the Bismarck Islands off northwestern Papua New Guinea beginning around 13,000 to 10,000 BP. He cites specifically the appearance of arboriculture and shell artifacts at this time.

He proposes that by at least 10,000 BP interaction networks had been established from the Bismarcks to Indochina and South China. Here they came into contact with Hoabinhian culture. Previously, Solheim has suggested that tool edge-grinding in northern Australia radiocarbon dated to about 20,000 BCE was of Hoabinhian provenance.

Carl Sauer and Solheim have suggested that simple agriculture may have begun as early as 15,000 BCE or even 20,000 BCE in mainland Southeast Asia based on Hoabinhian finds. Although the oldest radiocarbon dates for plant remains go back only to 9700 BCE, other evidence is found in successively deeper layers with no radiometric dating. Solheim has suggested a time scenario based on the depth of these layers.

Hoabinhian culture utilized chipped pebble tools, a "pebble" referring to a gravel stone of certain diameter. They appear to have used a simple hoe, one of the oldest known farming artifacts, consisting of a transversly-hafted adze, and to have made cord-marked pottery.

The cords used by the Hoabinhian and the roughly contemporary Jomon to the north provide some of the earliest evidence of hand-spinning in the world. We also find evidence of mat-making from mat impressions in the pottery.

Some early long-range dispersions of the Pre- or Proto-Austronesians appear to have been caused by sea flooding in Southeast Asia, and these could account, for example, in cultural changes seen at places like Spirit Cave in 6600 BCE.

Shell culture

In the region of the Philippines and eastern Indonesia, a culture based on shell tools and shellfish gathering emerged sometime around 7000 BCE.

Wilfredo Ronquillo has documented some early phases of this shell mound culture including stone-flaking and shell-working at Balobok Rockshelter in the southern Philippines starting in the period 6810-6050 BCE. By 5340 BCE, we see shell and stone tools, together with some polished tools and earthenware pottery (still not classified).


A Tridacna shell adze from Palau. Source: http://www.pacificworlds.com/palau/sea/reef.cfm

The Southeast Asian and coastal East Asian tradition of polished tools is different from that of areas of inner and northern eastern Asia. In the southern areas, they continued to chip pebbles, only grinding and polishing to finish the product. This practice often continued well into the Neolithic unlike other areas where grinding and pecking displaced the chipping process.

The Insular Southeast Asian and coastal East Asian polished tools also differed from those of mainland Southeast Asia and non-coastal East Asia in that stepped adzes of quadrangular cross-section were mostly used by the former, while the latter mostly used shouldered adzes.

Balobok culture fashioned tools from the giant clam Tridacna giga, and we find this and similiar shell artifacts moving northward during the sixth millennium BCE. Shell tools pop up in Dapenkeng culture in Taiwan and in the Neolithic cultures around Hong Kong around 5000 BCE. It appears that the early shell-working in the Bismarcks was significantly enhanced in the region of the Philippines and eastern Indonesia and then taken northward by the Nusantao.

The stone and shell tool tradition in this area may be related to the earlier edge-grinding tradition in northern Australia. Most of the tools during this early period were still only edge-ground although some others like the rectangular stepped adze, found also at Dapenkeng and in the Hong Kong Neolithic sites, were more fully-polished.

At about his time we also see the appearance of the semilunar stone or shell reaping knife. It is difficult to say where this came from, but it eventually gets strongly associated with rice agriculture and becomes an important marker of Lungshanoid culture.

North-South interaction

After 5000 BCE, trade networks extending as far north as Shandong appear established. A two-way diffusion of culture begins to take place.

The Nusantao cultural kit by this time included items like the stepped adze/axe of rectangular cross-section, the semilunar reaping knife, the spindle whorl probably borrowed from the north, clay/stone net sinkers, perforated discs that may have been indigenous spindle whorls and/or net sinkers, shell tools and beads.


The image shows the process of reducing stone into the semilunar knive of the Korean Neolithic. Source: Pusan National University Museum, http://pnu-museum.org

Lungshanoid culture develops with the appearance of rice agriculture and is marked by the mainland tripod and ringfoot pottery tradition, the semilunar knives and the stepped adze. Otherwise the Lungshanoid is typically Nusantao especially in the southern locations of Fujian and Taiwan.

R. Ferrell believes the Yuanshan culture of Taiwan was "Proto-Lungshanoid" while KC Chang thought the culture may have originated in China. Whatever the case, there was a lot of exchange going on.

We also know that the Taiwanese Neolithic cultures were closely related with those in the Philippines. The red-slipped Philippine wares were very closely associated along with other artifacts to the Yuanshan wares and culture. Even the Dapenkeng sees it closest correspondence with Philippine sites. A comparison of the pottery at Balobok with that of Dapenkeng could be very revealing.

In both cases the pottery traditions are probably related to the Hoabinhian methods that filtered into the islands during the early Pre-Austronesian interactions with the Hoabinhian culture, the latter seems to be categorized by Solheim as consisting largely of Proto-Austro-Tai speakers.

Interactions between Taiwan and the Philippines continued through the Lungshanoid as rice agriculture appears to enter the islands at this time by at least 3000 BCE. Lungshanoid tripod and ringfoot pottery may also radiate into Insular Southeast Asia through the Philippines. Examples of such pottery are found at Novaliches in the Philippines and Leang Buidane in Sulawesi.

Tripod and ringfoot pottery together with the practice of jar burial also eventually moves westward into South India during the megalithic period, and apparently creeps northward into eastern India, where we hear of the practice of jar burial in Buddhist literature.

Regards,
Paul Kekai Manansala
Sacramento

References

Ronquillo, Wilfredo. "The 1992 Archaeological Reexcavation of the Balobok Rockshelter, Sanga Sanga, Tawi Tawi Province, Philippines: A Preliminary Report. With Mr. Rey A. Santiago, Mr. Shijun Asato and Mr. Kazuhiko Tanaka," Journal of Historiographical Institute, Okinawa Prefectural Library. No. 18, March, 1993. Okinawa, Japan pp. 1-40. 1993.

Solheim, Wilhelm, Archaeology and Culture in Southeast Asia: Unraveling the Nusantao, with contribution from David Bulbeck and Ambika Flavel, University of the Philippines Press, ND.

__, "Origins of the Filipinos and their languages," Paper presented at 9th Philippine Linguistics Congress (25-27 January 2006), University of the Philippines.

Xihe (Glossary)

According to the Mulberry Tree Tradition written during the Zhou Dynasty, Xihe is the wife of Jun, and the mother of the Ten Suns of the Fusang Tree.

The Yaodian section of the Shangshu also recorded during the Zhou Dynasty splits Xihe into four persons, the younger brothers of Emperor Yao all known as Xi and He (Xi Zhong, Xi Shu, He Zhong and He Shu).

The brothers are asked to venture to the four quadrants of the earth to 'calculate and delineate' the movement of the Sun and other astronomical bodies, and the times of the seasons. In latter tradition, Xihe is sometimes said to be the mother of the four brothers. Xi Zhong is sent to Yanggu "Valley of the Sun," which is the same place known as Tanggu "Hot Water Valley" where the Fusang Tree is found.

Xihe here is then associated with the delineation of the seasons starting in the region of the Fusang Tree. This legend probably explains the origin of the latter concept of the four seasonal palaces of the Chinese zodiac: the Blue Dragon of the East (beginning with Spica), the Vermillion Bird of the South, the White Tiger of the West and the Black Turtle of the North.

Yu the Great was also said to have marked the seasons starting with the Sun's journey from the Fusang Tree in the East to the Ruo Tree in the West and back again through an underground passage, in the Huainanzi, written during the Han Dynasty.

Spica

The role of Spica, or the "Horn," as marking the start of spring is explained in the "Heavenly Questions" from the Huainanzi:

Dark as it closes, bright when it opens [what is it?]
Before the Horn rises, the Great Light hides [where?]

The verses indicate that the Full Moon when the Sun was opposite Spica, which was thus conjunct with the Moon, indicated the start of spring. Mid-spring according to the Yaodian was when the vernal equinox occurred and this was signified by the star Alphard (alpha Hydrae) known as Niao meaning "Bird." The Oracle Bone Inscriptions mention both the star Niao and Huo (Antares), the determining star for the Vermilion Bird Palace.

The Shang Dynasty, as we have seen in previous blog entries, was closely connected with birds, as were the Dongyi or "Eastern Yi." The Zhou Dynasty knew the Shang as Dongyi people. It has been suggested that some of the earliest examples of pictographic writing in China are found in combined solar and bird motifs on Liangzhu jades that could read Yang Niao "Sun Bird," the name of a Dongyi tribe that settled in the Lower Yangtze region according to early texts.


Bird and sun-moon motif on jade ring from Liangzhu Culture (3500 BCE-2250 BCE), left, bird on cartouche and sun-moon on bi disc, Liangzhu. The sun-moon motif, in one case combined with what could be a 'fire mountain' motif appear also on Ling-yang-ho vases (4300 BCE-1900 BCE) from Shangdong, source: Wu Hung, "Bird Motifs in Eastern Yi Art."

Given Xihe's connection with the birth of the Suns, bathing and hanging of the Suns in the Fusang Tree, and the four quadrants, it would be reasonable to think that Xihe has some celestial form herself. Some verses appear to portray here as rising over the horizon like a star.

The Ruo Tree shines before Xihe has risen [how?]

--- Huananzi

As such it would be reasonable to think of her as represented by the star that stands in the zenith of the Fusang Tree. Spica, the Horn, would certainly be one prime candidate as it delineates the start of spring and the Sun's yearly journey.

This leads us again to the location of the Fusang Tree. According to the Shanhaijing, attributed to Yu (3rd millennium BCE) and definitely not later than the Han Dynasty, the Fusang Tree was located near and north of the "Black Teeth Country." The History of the Eastern Barbarians, dating to the Eastern Han Dynasty, locates this country southeast of Japan, the journey taking one year by ship.

Sung Dynasty ethnographer Ma Tuan-lin mentions in connection with these countries an archipelago of 2,000 kingdoms called Tong ti-jin (Eastern Fish People) located beyond the Sea of Kwei-ki, which is another name for the Southeastern Sea extending from the mouth of the Yangtze to the Strait of Formosa. He relates that this was the same area where explorers searched for the fabled Penglai.

Although he gives conflicting accounts, in one instance he suggests the Black Teeth Kingdom and Naked People Kingdom are located 4,000 leagues (li) to the south of Japan. The Pygmy Kingdom, where people stand only three of four Chinese feet tall, is located south of the Black Teeth Kingdom and is said to be one year's ship journey to the southwest of Japan. In another instance, the author states the Black Teeth Country was another year's journey by ship to the southeast of the Naked People Kingdom.

The Shanhaijing places the Wugao Mountain more than 1600 li (3 li is about 1 mile) south of Shaanxi, and to the east of Wugao is the Fusang Tree. It describes the people of Black Teeth Country as black, or having black teeth or hands. The practice of blackening the teeth was, at one time, quite common in Southeast Asia. Other peoples nearby are also described as black or having black hips, thighs or lower bodies. Some are said to go around naked, so there is a general sense that the climate was warm. Pygmies called "Yao" are also mentioned as living in the country. The people in the region eat rice, and those of the valley where the Sun rises are said to be inclined toward piracy.

The countries around the Fusang Tree are described many times in early works to be approached by sailing in a southerly direction from Japan. Furthermore, the land is repeatedly said to be located in or beyond the "Southeastern Sea" i.e. off the southeast coast of China.

Connecting the mountain of the Fusang Tree, the home and resting-place of the Suns, with the volcanoes of Pinatubo and Arayat, the Sun would set nearly directly to the West, with the Full Moon nearly directly to the East when the Moon conjoined Spica. This would apply to the traditional dates of Yao and Yu, when Spica stood nearly directly over Pinatubo and Arayat when passing near the zenith.

Babylonian echoes

The clay astronomical tablet known as the Mulapin dating to about 700 BCE appears to use Spica (Nebiru station) to delineate the heavens into bands of declination from the celestial equator.

It's difficult to date this practice of using Spica to map the heavens. The Akkadian goddess Sala, wife of the weather god Adad, began taking on some aspects of the constellation Virgo, which is determined by Spica, around the second half of the second millennium. She is portrayed as nude with a ear of barley over her shoulder. By the second half of the first millennium, she becomes the fully-dressed constellation with Spica shown as a "spike" of corn in her hand.

I have suggested earlier that Spica can be identified with the station of Nebiru that was used to determine the bands of declination in Mesopotamian star charts. This star was linked with a celestial "crossing," a divine boatman and a ferry. These can be interpreted as indicating that this star was used as a zenith and bearing star. It was suggested earlier that it provided the latitude and bearing for Dilmun and Mt. Mashu of Sumerian lore.

In India, the constellation Virgo was portrayed by the astronomer Varahamihira as a woman or girl with a grain of corn in one hand and a lamp in the other standing in a boat. The lamp or a pearl of light is also suggested by the Indian name of Virgo's determining star Chitra (Spica).

As in legendary China, the new year in India was also determined by the Full Moon closest to the Sun's opposition to Chitra.

The image of a woman with a lamp standing in a boat is one of a seafarer's goddess. The "spike" of grain also matches well with the "Horn" of the Chinese Spica.

The constellation Virgo became associated with Isis Pelagia, a goddess of seafarers and the sea in Greco-Egyptian religion who later gets absorbed into the Virgin Mary cult as Stella Maria or Stella Maris.

Isis is the mother of Horus, who is a patron god of the Sun, and fused with the Sun god Ra becomes the patron deity of Egyptian royalty. He also had many other forms associated with the winged Sun disk, the morning Sun, the noon Sun, etc.

Whether it is coincidence or not is impossible to say, but Isis Pelagia and by association Maria Stella become mothers of a bird, Horus is a falcon god, that is associated with the Sun, which resembles the myths of Xihe as the mother of the Ten Suns or Sun Crows.

Southern Interaction Sphere

The eastern coastal peoples of northern China known as Dongyi were one of the Yi peoples often described as "maritime" and as having large ships ('tower boats').

Coastal Yi people inhabited the area southward to the mouth of the Yangtze and had trade relations extending further south. K.C. Chang used the term "interaction sphere" to describe these relations which often involved direct or indirect trade.

Dongyi culture is associated archaeologically most often with the Lungshanoid horizon and also to some extent with the earlier Dawenkou culture of Shandong. A relationship has been shown to exist between these traditions and the Liangzhu to the south, and even further south to the Neolithic coastal traditions near Hong Kong, which Solheim links directly with the Nusantao.

Shang civilization brought trade contacts with the South to a new high. So famed where the Shang as traders that in latter times the word "shang" came to mean "trader, merchant." The term "yi shang" combining the words "Yi" (as in Dong-Yi) and "Shang" came to mean "Barbarian Trader."

Copper, tin and lead used to fuel the Shang bronze industry came from the South, from Yunnan and probably from countries further south like Thailand and Malaysia. Tortoise shell, including that from sea turtles, used for divination and other purposes often came from tropical species.

Cowries used as money came at least from the South China Sea, and some cowries and other shells may have originated in the Indian Ocean. Elephant ivory and rhinoceros were imported from the Southeast Asian rainforests.

Cinnabar dye came mostly from Szechwan and other southern locations, and jade may have come from as far as Burma. Whalebone, on the other hand, likely originated in the northern seas. Nephrite could have come from Vietnam, Taiwan or Lanyu Island, or even from the Tarim Basin.

Generally though, the Shang and Dongyi operated in the eastern coastal and southern interaction spheres. It was the Lungshanoid-Dongyi who first begin exploring rice agriculture to a full extent for example.

These southern impulses verified by archaeology may explain the legends of Xihe of the Southeastern Ocean and the Hot Water Valley associated closely with the founding of the Shang clan and dynasty.

Regards,
Paul Kekai Manansala
Sacramento

References

Chang, K.C. "Chinese prehistory in the Pacific perspective: Some hypotheses and problems," Harvard Journal of Asiatic Studies, No. 22, 1959, 100-149

Major, John S. Heaven and Earth in Early Han Thought: : Chapters Three, Four, and Five of the Huainanzi, SUNY Press, 1993.

Senner, Wayne M. The Origins of Writing, U of Nebraska Press, 1991, pgs. 192, 198.

Vining, E. P. An Inglorious Columbus, D. Appleton and Co., 1885, pp. 681-683.

Wu Hung. "Bird Motifs in Eastern Yi Art," Orientations, 16.10 (Oct. 1985), 34-36.

Fusang (Glossary)

In the earliest Chinese literature, "Fu Sang" describes a legendary solar tree on which Xihe hangs the Ten Suns to dry after their diurnal journeys. In latter literatures, it is a place where Buddhism is brought in the fifth century.

This latter location has been variously identified by different researchers as North America, Mexico, Peru, Hokkaido, Siberia, southeastern Japan and Taiwan to name a few suggestions. It may be that this place is related to the solar Fusang Tree of earlier legendary history.

"Sang" 桑 refers to the mulberry tree, and "fu" 扶 means "supporting," referring apparently to the large size and interwining and thus self-supporting branches of the Fusang Tree.

Located in the "Southeastern Sea" at the top of a mountain, I believe it should be placed either in Taiwan or Luzon, probably the latter as it appears to be associated with the cosmic mountain where the Suns are born (in other mythologies).

The reference to the mulberry tree has generally been taken as meaning that the Fusang resembled the mulberry or was related to that tree. The word "sang" though may simply refer to any tree that provided fiber used in making cloth or paper, the manufacture of which is mentioned in latter descriptions of the place called Fusang.

The Paper Mulberry appears indigenous to Taiwan and this species was carried out into the Pacific where it was extensively used to make tapa or bark cloth.

However, the descriptions of the Fusang indicate a huge tree, and in the latter works it is described as having purplish-red fruits and oval leaves. In the Philippines, the Balete Tree, a name for various types of Ficus, was most commonly used to make bark cloth.

The Balete is a massive tree with intertwining roots, branches and trunks, which may related to the "supporting" and "hanging" descriptions of the Fusang. Balete species tend to have ovate leaves and some like the Ficus benjamina have purple fruits when ripe.





Balete trees


The Balete was considered sacred in the Philippines when the Spanish came, a dwelling of spirits and anitos (ancestors), indicating it was associated with the Cosmic Tree. The crow and raven were also considered sacred and were called Meilupa, a title indicating "Lord of the Earth (Soil)".

Of course, giant figs like the Balete and the Banyan are famed as bases for crows and ravens, appearing as such repeatedly in folklore throughout South and Southeast Asia. The Fusang Tree, again, was the place where the Ten Suns, in the form of ravens, rested after their journeys.

Some explicit myths of human descent from birds also survive in the region. The Mandaya believe the first man and woman came from two eggs of the Limokon or dove. Among the Paiwan, there is a myth of the first couple coming from two eggs of the Sun hatched by a serpent. There are also legends in the Philippines of the first couple found in one or two bamboos rather than eggs, pecked open by a bird, usually a hawk or kite.

Myths of two birds created by a Supreme Deity and then going on to create the world are also found among many peoples in Insular Southeast Asia. In the Philippines, for example, we find such beliefs connected with the gods Lumawig and Batala. These two birds may represent the dual creative forces of the Sun and Moon.

The Sun is linked with the raven and crow also in Philippines folktales that explain the darkness of the raven/crow as occuring after the latter raced another bird, usually a kite, and flew too close to the Sun, scorching its wings. In ancient Chinese legends, sunspots were viewed as created by a three-legged sun crow.

Worth mentioning with reference to bird descent also is the widespread Insular Southeast Asian concept of the bird-soul, or more importantly the bird-double. The latter is the person's second self that escapes from the body usually at night when sleeping. The bird double flies about on its own adventures returning before the person awakes. In some cases, spiritual adepts claim to be able to send their bird doubles on journeys while awake and active. A giant crow or raven called Wak-wak appears in folktales of the Bisayas and is especially said to be a form taken by witches when they fly around at night. The bird cries "wak-wak" as it nears human habitations.




Ficus trees with intertwining trunks/branches clearly visible


Image of Fusang Tree with intertwining trunk and branches from Wu Liang Shrine, Shangdong, 2nd century CE. The archer Yi can be seen shooting the Sun-Crows.

The shooting of the Suns theme is very diverse among the indigenous peoples in Taiwan. In Borneo, a blowpipe takes the place of the archer's bow. These myths refer more to the diurnal movement of the Sun during daylight rather than to the tropical year. Themes of the snaring of the Sun, of the descent of the Sun down toward the horizon on a ladder, and of the Sun moving into different tiers of a multi-tiered house or building are clearly related and involve the cooling of the day as the Sun moves to lower positions in the sky.

The idea of the Sun rising from the Fusang Tree would logically imply its location in the tropical latitudes.

As the Sun is said to rise from the Fusang Tree specifically at the beginning of the year, this latitude could be that of the equator or also possibly that latitude marked by the star Spica. Spica represented the horn of the "Dragon of Spring" in Chinese astronomy, and was seen as marking the beginning of spring and the seasons.

The emperor Yu was said to have used the Fusang Tree to mark off the beginning of the solar year.

Regards,
Paul Kekai Manansala
Sacramento