Pythons Devouring People at Xianren Stream (Ancient Text)
Pythons Devouring People at Xianren Stream (Ancient Text): In Tianmen Commandery (note: during the Three Kingdoms period, King Sun Xiu of Wu established Tianmen Commandery by splitting Wuling Commandery after Tianmen Cave opened), there were deep mountains and steep valleys. A local passing below suddenly shot up above the treetops, appearing like a flying immortal, and then vanished without a trace. This happened many times a year, so the place was named Immortal Valley (today's Xianren Stream below Tianmen Mountain). Some curious lovers of the Dao entered this valley...
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The Man-Eating Python of Xianren Stream (Ancient Text)
In Tianmen Commandery (note: during the Three Kingdoms period, Sun Xiu, King of Wu, established Tianmen Commandery by partitioning Wuling Commandery because the Tianmen Gate had opened), there were deep mountains and steep valleys, and when local people passed below, they would suddenly be drawn up beyond the treetops, appearing like flying immortals, and then vanish without a trace. This happened many times a year, so the place was named Immortal Valley (today's Xianren Stream below Tianmen Mountain). Those who delighted in the Dao and were fond of strange things would enter this valley to bathe, seeking to become flying immortals, and often they would indeed be taken away. A man of deep thought suspected it must be some monster or demon, so he tied a large white stone to himself and led a dog into the valley; the dog too flew away. The man returned and told the villagers, and they recruited several dozen men who, carrying staffs, pushed aside mountain grass and cut down trees, and reached the mountaintop to observe. From afar they saw a creature several dozen zhang long, tall enough to hide a person, with ears like winnowing baskets. They shot and stabbed it to death. The bones of the people it had swallowed were piled up on either side in heaps. The python's open mouth was over a zhang wide; all the people who had been lost before and after were sucked in by this python's breath. Thereafter, the place became peaceful and free of calamity.
[Appendix] This text was originally included in Volume Twelve, "Records of Strange Things," of the Continued Gazetteer of Yongding County. The author, Zhang Hua, was a military strategist of the Western Jin Dynasty and the author of the Bowuzhi and other works; this text was selected from the Bowuzhi and entered into the gazetteer.
The story of the man-eating python of Xianren Stream is still circulating today. Legend has it that in the cave of Xianren Stream there was a great python that often sucked passersby into its cave, but it never sucked in a single cowherd boy, because this cowherd boy was a filial son. Later, this place was called Cowherd Ridge, and the place name remains unchanged to this day.