Wenwen
Mythological Narrative
From Mount Fanggao the Ming River flows south into the Yi, carrying grey jade in its waters. The mountain's beast is the Wenwen: shaped like a bee, its tail forked like a branching twig, its tongue set backwards in its mouth, and given to loud cries.
A 'beast' in the shape of a bee goes unexplained; the text gives no size, and commentators could only guess from the wording. Its two marks sit at either end of a noisy body — the branched tail behind, the reversed tongue in front. No omen is attached to it: among the portent-laden beasts of the central mountains, the Wenwen merely makes noise. Its habit of shouting pairs it with the Shangao of Mount Ku in the same seventh central sequence, the fire-red pig fond of cursing. One calls, one swears — two loud-mouthed neighbors in the same run of hills.
Academic Discussion & Critique
Exchange peer-reviewed hypotheses, comparative Indo-European etymologies, and archaeological field interpretations regarding Wenwen.
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