A Mountain with Time-Honored Story

Sun and Moon Mountain is one of the famous mountains in China. It has a beautiful story that can be traced thousands of years ago. It is sorrounded by huge mountains and a beautiful platue where it is covered by snow during winter. Riyue Mountain was called Russet Ridge during the Tang Dynasty (618-907) because of its grassless russet mountaintop. Legend has it that in the 641 during Zhenguan Period (627-649), when Princess Wencheng left for Tubo to marry Tibetan King Songtsen Gampo, she was very sad and painful. So the Emperor of Tang Dynasty gifted her a sun-and-moon treasure mirror and said to her that if she looked in the mirror at the boundary of Tang Dynasty and Tubo (Tibet), she would see her hometown and her parents. When Princess Wencheng reached the boundary, she took out the mirror and looked in it immediately. However, what she could see nothing in the mirror but a thin face of herself and the setting sun shining on Russet Ridge. She came to realize that the Emperor of Tang Dynasty had cheated her for the friendly relationship and the long-term peace between Tang Dynasty and Tubo. Princess Wencheng was so angry and sorrowful that she threw out the mirror. The mirror was broken and the fragments were just landed on the two hills. The east half piece of the mirror faced the west reflecting the rays of the setting sun and the west half piece of the mirror faced the east reflecting the rising moon. Hence, the name, sun and moon mountain, was came out.