Weak River (mythology)

The Weak River flowed with "water" so lacking in specific gravity that even a feather would not float, thus being a protective barrier against the unworthy, who otherwise would profane the paradise on Kunlun, and perhaps even climb up to Heaven and disturb the deities and other inhabitants residing there.

In the novel Journey to the West, the Weak Water River forms one of the obstacles the fictional version of the monk Xuanzang, the magic monkey Sun Wukong, and companions must cross over on their mission to fetch the Buddhist scriptures from India and return them to Tang China.

In the novel Journey to the West the Weak Water river forms one of the barriers on the way, one of the many difficult areas which the Xuanzang the Monk, Sun Wukong the Monkey, and their companions must cross over.

Pulled through the sky by a team of dragons, Qu Yuan soars above all obstacle rivers and hostile terrain at will during his spirit journey as described in his poem "Li Sao".

Often this Paradise was presided over by Xiwangmu, the Queen Mother of Meng Hao in the West, in later accounts was relocated to a palace protected by golden ramparts, within which immortals (xian) feasted on bear paws, monkey lips, and the livers of dragons, served at the edge of the Lake of Gems.

Another difference is that the geographical river rises as the Heishui (黑水, black water) on the north slopes of the Qilian Mountains, a major river system of northern China, then flowing approximately 630 kilometres (390 mi) from its headwaters on the northern Gansu side of the Qilian Mountains, on a spur of the Kunlun range, north-northeast into the endorheic Ejin Basin in the Gobi Desert, forming one of the largest inland deltas or alluvial fans in the world, its drainage basin covering about 78,600 square kilometres (30,300 sq mi) in Gansu and Inner Mongolia: on the other hand, the mythological Ruoshui River circles Kunlun and is the scene for all sorts of activities by deities, immortal, would-be immortals, and so on, and generally exists in an alternate reality of culture.