法苑珠林 28.55

28.55

The Sunchuozi says: A man of the sea and a guest from the mountains debated the regional products of their localities. The man of the sea said, 'In the Southern Sea there is a fish whose forehead is like the summit of Mount Hua; with one inhalation it drinks ten thousand qing of waves.' The guest from the mountains said, 'In Denglin there is a tree thirty thousand xun in girth, rising straight up for a thousand li, shading several states to its sides.' Someone said, 'At the eastern extremity there is a giant who fells trees to make riding crops, but they are too short to lean upon; he catches fish for fresh food, but they are not enough to fill a strip of dried meat.' The Xuanzhong ji says: The sap of a hundred-year-old tree is red like blood. The spirit of a thousand-year-old tree becomes a blue ram. The spirit of a ten-thousand-year-old tree becomes an ox.