THE STORY & ITS AFTERLIVES
The Mound of Kunlun is 'the lower capital of the High God', warded on the ground by nine-tailed Luwu; its air belongs to a single venomous bird. 'There is a bird there,' says the 'Classic of the Western Mountains', 'shaped like a wasp and as large as a mandarin duck, named Qinyuan; birds and beasts that it stings die, and trees that it stings wither.'
On the same mountain the classic lists the man-eating four-horned ram Tulou, the shatang fruit that keeps its eater from drowning, and the pin herb that banishes weariness — Kunlun's produce splits neatly into gifts and killers. Venomous creatures are rare in the Shanhaijing, and none is credited with venom more absolute than the Qinyuan's, which kills outright and withers living wood. Ming and Qing illustrated editions draw it as a giant wasp trailing its sting above the terraces of Kunlun.
