THE STORY & ITS AFTERLIVES
Mount Taihua — today's Mount Hua, westernmost of the Five Sacred Peaks — is described in the 'Classic of the Western Mountains' as 'cut sheer and four-square, five thousand ren high and ten li across, where no bird or beast can dwell'. Its sole inhabitant is a snake: 'there is a serpent there named Feiyi, with six legs and four wings; when it appears, there is great drought under heaven.' Guo Pu's commentary adds that the creature was seen at the foot of Mount Yang in the reign of Tang, founder of the Shang — a reign remembered for years of catastrophic drought.
The name Feiyi is worn by more than one creature in the book. Mount Ying, also in the western range, has a Feiyi bird like a quail, yellow-bodied and red-beaked, which cures pestilence and kills intestinal worms when eaten; the 'Classic of the Northern Mountains' has yet another Feiyi serpent, one-headed and two-bodied, whose appearance dries up a single kingdom. Commentators generally treat these as distinct creatures sharing a name.
Within the omen-system of the western mountains, the Feiyi stands opposite the Shengyu, whose coming brings flood, and the Wenyao fish, whose coming brings bumper harvests: the appearance of a prodigy is heaven's notice posted in advance.
