On Chengdu Heavenly Mountain there lived a tribe of great giants, able to fight tigers barehanded and win every time so great was their strength and fighting prowess. Their strongest and largest was called Kuafu, who some say was the son of Shennong. His strength, size and speed were truly amazing to behold and he was a wise and just leader loved by his people. He was held in great esteem all across the heavens.

One year the days were unusually hot all year long, and the rain did not fall day after day. Kuafu was at a loss. He could defend his people against beasts or save them from floods with his great strength, but against a drought he was powerless. His wells produced no water and his people thirsted and the land parched under the merciless sun.

People began to die. Despite their frantic prayers to the gods, the rain still did not fall, and in fact the heat of the son continued to grow worse by the day. In a great rage, Kuafu railed at the sun, "You are a hateful thing, sun! You will not listen to our cries for mercy, so I will capture you and make you listen!"

Kuafu’s people heard his shout, and tried to persuade him that his mission was folly - it was too far and the sun's flames would consume him if he could ever manage to get there. Kuafu would not listen; he was determined to save his people and he felt he must act. He took up his great peach wood club and strode off after the sun.

For many days Kuafu raced after the sun, running tirelessly at top speed despite his scorched hair and parched lips and tongue. Finally his determination bore fruit, and he caught up with the sun where it sets in Yu Gu. He reached out his arms to grasp it, but his exhaustion was too great. He had to stop for a drink. So he bent his head and drank long and deep of the Yellow River and the Wei, but all the waters in both rivers were not enough to quench his terrible thirst.

He turned north, looking for a vast lake he knew of, thousands of kilometers wide, certain that if he could only reach it he would be able to quench his thirst. But he has used up the last reserves of his strength in his pursuit of the sun, and the giant who had once seemed indomitable fell to the earth and died.

The gods were impressed that he had managed to catch up to the sun and survive even for such a short time, and so they turned his body into great high mountains and his peach-wood club into a peach forest to commemorate his journey.

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