Moushan

Moushan
In Other Languages
Chinese	谋善
General Information
Part of	Northwestern Yan
Type	Village
Appearances	A Death in Chunfen

Moushan is a village in Yan.

Background

Long ago, Moushan was founded the ancestors of the Zhou clan who decided to settle in the mountainous barrenlands. Despite the harsh environment, they decided to accomplish an impossible achievement—literally removing the mountains that surround the village. With only crude hoes and shovers, they dug the mountains, chiseled up the rocks, and tunneled through the ground. And with more helpers born through many generations, the villagers became more persevered and determined to finish the task.

However, little did they know that beneath the mountains actually existed a hibernating "god," a.k.a., a Feranmut, who was agitated by the mortals' activities. After five years of disturbance, They finally decided to migrate away from Moushan, and along the way, They crushed down the mountains without noises and rumbles. By the time the villagers woke up the next morning, the villagers were amazed to see those mountains being "vaporized" within a night. Hence, they proclaimed that the "gods" has responded their genuine calling and were touched by their perseverance, so they "removed" the mountains as a reward.

Generations have passed since Moushan's heroic origin, yet the villagers have been gone astray from their ancestors' spirits. They become more isolate and superstitious who blindly worship their ancestors in hopes of their blessings and better harvest. The land surrounding Moushan that was once arable thanks to their ancestors' hard work has now become harder to irrigate due to increasing desertification and Catastrophes. Even though there is a Chidao that connects Moushan with the outside world, natural obstacles make traveling there to be highly infrequent. In the meantime, the Zhou clan becomes more arrogant through their ancestors' legacy, and they start to despise and ostracize any non-Zhou villager.

Things started to change for the worst for Moushan when the Fang family decided to settle down, a daring decision to the Zhou. To begin with, Mr. Fang married a Zhou member who then gave birth to Fang Xiaoshi, but she had since eloped with a stranger and never returned, leaving a deep scar in the Fang's memory. This also worsened ostracization by the Zhou kinsmen. Three years ago (Terran year 1099), as drought became more frequent in Moushan, the villagers decided to expand the temple to honor their ancestors. However, the renovation was done with a silent property bypassing when the building started encroaching the Fang's land, the "Three Mu for Three (三亩三)." Out of frustration, Xiaoshi retaliated by blowing off the temple with crude explosives stolen from his father. After the disaster, a heavy drought struck Moushan for two years, resulting in harvest failure. The village chief of Moushan, Zhou Shun, had been reporting their dilemma to the local mandarins, but he never receive any response, deeming the authorities have neglected them. In reality, the local mandarins did respond to their call, but a devastating Catastrophe in a nearby region caused a huge delay in getting to Moushan.

To arouse the authorities' attention for the village's survival, The Moushan villagers conducted a rather ridiculous plot. They first blew up the local Chidao during a rainy night as a disguise of a mudslide. By doing so, the mandarins will then recompense them with a larger sum of money as subsidies along with new working opportunity in the Chidao's reconstruction. Unfortunately, the mudslide caused by the explosion accidentally killed an unnamed boy. They went far away when they plotted to forge Xiaoshi's death by reporting the incident to the authorities in exchange for insurance support for the family. This is done by forcefully bringing Mr. Fang to be involved in the plot. With Xiaoshi's miraculous return and the sudden arrival of the mandarin's envoys, Moshan's humiliating plot was finally revealed.

Two months after the scandal, Moushan has undergone changes. With the subsidies arrived, the village could now purchase newer farming equipment and irrigation system. The villagers were spared from their wrongdoings and Mr. Zhou has already left the village for official investigation.

Yishan Temple

The interior of the Yishan Temple with its ancestor statue.

The Yishan Temple (移山寺), literally the "Temple of Mountain Moving," is the ancestral shrine (citang) that venerates the founders of Moushan. Despite its crude structure, it is the heart of the Zhou clan who sees it as a very sacred place. Nevertheless, to Xiaoshi, the place is a painful humiliation of the Fang's demise by the Zhou's discrimination. So three years ago, he blew off the temple with crude dynamites as retaliation against their attempt to expand the temple which bypassed his family's land.

After Xiaoshi fled from Moushan, the Zhou clan rebuilt the temple back to its original form, even though the village's financial problem leaves the building half-complete. As compensation for his son's action, Mr. Fang even used up the remaining money earned by his deceased wife for the rebuilding.

Notable people

• 
  Fang Xiaoshi's father: The head of the Fang family and a wandering hunter-gatherer who settled down in Moushan to earn a living. He raised Xiaoshi since his wife's departure and eventually her ultimate death, and he has been expecting Xiaoshi to be an obedient boy to avoid her mother's tragedy. Nevertheless, his submissive nature over the villagers' discrimination brough severe consequences, and Xiaoshi's rebellious nature only worsens his emotion.

Etymology

Moushan simply means "to earn kindness" in Chinese.

Trivia

• The name of the village actually sounds identical to "a certain mountain village (Hanzi: 某山村; Pinyin: mǒu shāncūn)."
• The founding history of Moushan is basically a direct copy from the famous Chinese fable, “The Foolish Old Man Who Removes the Mountains (Hanzi: 愚公移山; Pinyin: Yúgōng Yíshān)," which is about a stubborn old man who tried to remove a literal mountain with only hoes and his own perseverance.
  • Interestingly, the ancestor statue of the Yishan Temple resembles Yu the Great, the mythical founder of the Xia Dynasty known by his fable, "Great Yu Controls the Waters (Hanzi: 大禹治水; Pinyin: Dà Yǔ Zhì Shuǐ)."
  • Both of the stories have been used as perfect examples of the Chinese's traditional ideology of human's determined triumph over gods and nature, being known as the Chinese proverb 人定胜天 (Pinyin: réndìngshèngtiān).