Chenxiang Splits the Mountain

The Magic Lotus Lantern

A boy cleaves Mount Hua with a divine axe to free his mother, the goddess sealed beneath it.

The goddess Sanshengmu marries the mortal scholar Liu Yanchang and bears a son, Chenxiang. Her brother, Erlang Shen, seals her beneath Mount Hua for breaking the law of heaven. When the boy grows up he wins the magic lotus lantern and the axe that can split the peak; with one stroke he opens the mountain and brings his mother into the light. The story makes filial love stronger than any divine sentence.