THE STORY & ITS AFTERLIVES
The Classic of Regions Beyond the Seas: East catches its giants in mid-task: the people of the Land of Giants are enormous, and they sit working at their boats. Commentators quarrel over the verb, some reading it as carving hulls with adze and axe, others as poling or rowing, but either way the image ties the giants to the sea. The Classic of Regions Within the Seas: North adds a stranger note, a giants' market held out on the open water, and the Great Wilderness: East chapter locates the country by Wave Valley Mountain, with a giants' market called the Giants' Hall and a giant squatting on top of it.
Giant lore kept growing in these eastern waters. The Liezi tells of the Land of Longbo, whose giant crossed to the five floating immortal isles in a few strides and hooked six of the sea turtles that carried them, sinking two mountains for good. In the Qing novel Flowers in the Mirror, the Land of Giants has softened into a moral fable: every inhabitant walks on a personal cloud whose color shifts with the goodness of his heart.
