History: Peng Lai/Pong Lai

[Oso]

Hopefully this is on topic enough and catches the eye of Kevin and other historians.

Last night the Discovery Channel had a show on The First Emporor of China.

http://dsc.discovery.com/convergence/firstemperor/firstemperor.html

In this show they mention the Peng Lai Islands as the home of the 8 Immortals and an elixer of immortality. But, no one could ever find them.

Things I know about the term "Pong Lai"

It's an old term for the island of Taiwan, hence Shiye Shi's choice of it for our system.

There is a town on the northen tip of the Shandong Peninsula name "Peng Lai"

Is there a connection between "Peng Lai" the mythical islands and the town of "Peng Lai" in Shandong?

How did Taiwan become known as "Pong Lai/Peng Lai" and when?

[mantis108]

Hi Oso,

I saw the program on Sunday. It's pretty interesting but I think it jumps to conclusion a bit too quick with the mercury concentration findings in the supposed burrial chamber. Like the commentator said China might not have that much of Quicksilver. Anyway... I was kind of disappointed by the show.

Penglai in ancient time or rather in the myth is often thought to be the Japan islands. This is the legend that the alchemist Tsui Fu took 500 virgin boys and 500 virgin girls with him to seek the exilir. It is a synonym of paradise in Chinese pysche.

Penglai is also an important place to Tanglang in Shandong province. GM Luo Guangyu was a native of Penglai which used to be called Deng Zhou. I believe Luo's elder Kung Fu brother Yang Weixin was also from there. General Qi Jiguang inherited his rank and payroll as the third in garrison command in this military zone of Ming dynasty. BTW, Taiwan is also known as Penglai as well as Green island or Treasure island.

The 8 immortals thing actually is a twist from a legend based on a real event happened during the Song dynasty. There was an island (Shamen island) somewhere near the coast of Shandong that was used as a prison. The Song government only gave an annual provision for 300 prisoners but the prison population kept growing easily doubling the 300 mark. So the warden came up with the idea of tying the "excess" populace and dump them alive into the sea. They would drown by the rapid current. So one time, 50 prisoners found out that it wouldl be their turn to be thrown into the sea so they attempted to escape by swimming across. Only 8 of them who had some martial arts training survived the ordeal. They hided in Penglai and later their plight became legendary; thus, inspired the 8 immortals crossed the sea myth.

Warm regards

Mantis108

[Oso]

Sweet, thanks.

I didn't think too much of the show. Discovery's productions definitely pander to the...um, ignorant, basically.

I have a minor interest in 'evolution' and they did a show about 6 months ago that was supposed to be 'all that' and wasn't. If 'I' knew more about current theories in evolution than that show told then it was pretty weak.

anyway...

so...how did Taiwan become known as 'Peng Lai'?

What is the literal translation of 'Peng Lai' and is there a difference between 'Peng' and 'Pong'?

[kejia nu ren]

I know that PengLai rice is very famous in Taiwan - 蓬萊米
It's a species of rice that was brought over and cultivated in Beitou, Taiwan from Japan during the colonial era, and to differentiate it from the Japan strain they named it PengLai.

I don't know much about how or when PengLai became synonymous with Taiwan, but there are many landmarks in Taiwan that use the PengLai name...PengLai waterfall, and in Hualien they say the Taroko Gorge was created by tectonic plates that collided - those plates are referred to as PengLai as well..something like that.

I'm not sure of translation, but I think PengLai means fairyland, or magical land...which is fitting because it's so beautiful :D
I think "pong" is just a difference in romanization..the character is the same.

[Oso]

Thanks. See you soon!!!

Kevin said to do a search here, that he's covered it already....I'll post a link to that thread if I can find it.

[K.Brazier]

Hi Matt,
I wrote up some stuff on Peng Lai in the past.
Maybe you can find it. I updated that thread abut a year ago.

Kevin

[Oso]

sorry, I had searched before I posted and I just did it again.

couldn't find anything.

[Oso]

{smacks head}

duh...like you were still Tainan Mantis then....

ok, that's a hell of a lot of posts to go through....

do you remember if you titled it with something to do with Peng/Pong Lai or was it in the middle of another topic???