Long ago a beautiful snow-white Jade Dragon lived on the east bank of the Celestial River and a beautiful Golden Phoenix lived in the forest along the west bank. They met each day as they left their homes, one flying through the sky and the other swimming in the river.

One day, the dragon and the phoenix happened to come upon a fairy island. They found a radiantly shinning pebble there and the intensity of its beauty fascinated them. The Jade Dragon suggested they carve it into a pearl and the phoenix agreed.

The dragon used his claws to carve and the phoenix used her beak. The pebble was very strong and difficult to carve, even for these two magnificent beasts. Day after day, month after month, they carved he pebble. Then one day it was complete, a small, perfectly round pearl. Exultant, the dragon brought cool clear water from the river and the phoenix gathered and brought dewdrops from her forest, and together they washed and polished the pearl until it shone with a dazzling light.

In all the time they worked together carving their magnificent pearl, the dragon and the phoenix had grown attached to each other and to the pearl. They didn’t want to return to their separate homes, so they stayed together on the fairy island, enjoying each other’s company and guarding their precious treasure.

They discovered after a time that their pearl had magical properties. Wherever its light shone, things grew better. Trees didn’t lose their leaves and stayed green all year round, flowers from all seasons bloomed extravagantly together and the land yielded rich harvest after rich harvest.

Such unusual bounty could not go unnoticed forever. One day as the Queen Mother of Heaven was leaving her palace she looked down on the Earth and noticed the unusual bounty and the brilliant light of the pearl. Captivated and overwhelmed by the sight, she immediately decided that she must have this pearl for her own.

The Queen sent one of her guards to sneak onto the fairy island in the dead of night and steal the pearl while the Jade Dragon and Golden Phoenix were fast asleep. When the guard brought the small, perfect pearl back to the Queen, she laughed with delight. She took the pearl in her hands and gazed on it in wonder. Then, she carried it to the innermost rooms of her palace and hid it behind nine locked doors, so that it’s light would not betray its presence.  

When the Jade Dragon and Golden Phoenix woke in the morning, they immediately noticed the missing pearl, for the island seemed diminished without its luminous light. Frantically they searched for it, the Phoenix climbing over every inch of the sacred mountain while the dragon looked into every nook and cranny of the river bed. Day and night for what seemed an age they continued their search, going over the same ground again and again, all in vain.

On the Queen’s birthday all the gods and goddesses in Heaven came to visit her palace. She gave a grand feast, with nectar and celestial peaches, the fruit of immortality. Her guests poured praise on her and wished her great blessings for her birthday. "May your fortune be as boundless as the East Sea and your life last long like the South Mountain!" they said.

Caught up in their flattery, the Queen made a grave mistake. “My immortal friends, I want to show you a precious pearl. It’s like does not exist on Earth or in Heaven and its light will dazzle your eyes as nothing else can.”

She took nine great keys from her girdle and went through nine great doors to the innermost rooms of her palace. She took the magnificent pearl from its silk lined box, placed it on a golden tray and carried to carefully to the center of the banquet hall. The pearl’s radiance lit the whole hall, and the Queen’s guests oohed and aahed and envied her that she owned such a thing.

The pearl's glow was so strong that the Golden Phoenix felt it, far away from palace where she and the Jade Dragon were still about their searching. Excited, she called down to her friend in his river, “Look, it’s the light from our pearl!”

The Jade Dragon lifted his head from the river. Astonished he cried, “Yes, there it is! Come, we must go and find it.”

The Jade Dragon and the Golden Phoenix flew directly towards the brilliant light of their lost pearl, and straight to the Queen Mother’s palace. When they landed there together, they found the immortal gods and goddesses gathered around their precious pearl, entranced by its light. Astonished to find their pearl so far from home, the Dragon and Phoenix cried out, “That is our pearl!”

The Queen Mother flew into a rage. “Nonsense!” she cried, “I am the mother of the Heavenly Emperor and all treasures by rights belong to me!”

The Jade Dragon and the Golden Phoenix were infuriated in their turn. “Heaven had no part in the making of this pearl, nor was it grown on the earth. It was made by our craft and it is ours!”

The Queen Mother was angry and ashamed that she had been caught. She clutched the tray with the pearl to her chest possessively and ordered her palace guards to eject the Dragon and the Phoenix.  The two friends would not be deterred so easily now that they had finally found their prized possession. They fought their way through the guards and Queen, Dragon and Phoenix struggled mightily over the tray. In the chaos of their struggle, the tray tilted. The pearl rolled off the tray, down the palace stairs, and dropped into the air.

Horrified, the Dragon and the Phoenix dove after the pearl, desperate to save it from being dashed to pieces when it landed. The flew beside the pearl, supporting it and buffeting it with their wings, slowing it’s descent. When the pearl finally touched gently down onto the soil, it turned immediately into a beautiful clear, green lake.

Though their pearl was a pearl no longer, the Jade Dragon and the Golden Phoenix would still not be parted from it.  They changed themselves into two great mountains on the shores of the lake. There they have stood ever since, standing silent vigil on the shores of the West Lake.

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